View Full Version : OT: PC maintanence question
A friend of mine has had trouble with their PC, lots of problems, Slowdown, extra.
They are not the most computer literate in the world so seeked help.
I offered as much help as i could by giving some programs to get most of the shit out. But there was still problems so i suggested getting someone who is trained properly to give it a good look at.
So she asked around work and this bloke said he would have a look at it.
He has and came to the conclusion that it was a problem with Win XP Home edition that Tiny had installed which they also added a lot of other crap that slowed it down. He also said that he found 13 viruses and that he had spent 11 hours doing all this. These 11 hours will include loading new software back on.
He has got back to her with a price and has said £35 for first hour and then £15 for each hour after.
Thats £185 in total.
Now i don't know how much people would charge for this but that seems rather expensive.
Can anyone tell me if this is over charged and if this would have really taken him 11 hours.
Because i would have thought that could have easily been done in a few hours.
If anyone works in PC repair / Maintanence your thoughts would be appreciated.
The charge rate is not out of proportion for a commercial service but kinda steep for a colleague.
11 Hours is far too long for that unless he had to backup, rebuilt, restore. Check if he did - if so it's not necessarily bad (time wise, I still think that's a lot for a "favour").
/edit - bear in mind a commercial service (eg shop) would offer warranties, VAT invoices, documentation, etc. for that money. They may even throw in useful apps/training/advice to help prevent future problems - all the things you already provided gratis.
pfft
Couple of hours tops. Install a virus scanner, let it do the work. Done and sorted.
Chances are its the virii slowing the system down too, Yes Tiny install shite, but its easily removed in minutes using the add/remove programs unit. If its that bad, take the system restore cd Tiny usually supply, whack it in and take it back to factory defaults.
11 hours is foolish. I could probably do it in 3 tops. (Fuck, It doesnt even take 11 hours to build a damn PC and get it running, dependant on memory size, HD Speed etc it'll only take maybe an hour and a half tops to format and reinstall windows)
[TgR]KILLER
09-12-03, 13:16
Originally posted by Elric
pfft
Couple of hours tops. Install a virus scanner, let it do the work. Done and sorted.
Chances are its the virii slowing the system down too, Yes Tiny install shite, but its easily removed in minutes using the add/remove programs unit. If its that bad, take the system restore cd Tiny usually supply, whack it in and take it back to factory defaults.
11 hours is foolish. I could probably do it in 3 tops. (Fuck, It doesnt even take 11 hours to build a damn PC and get it running, dependant on memory size, HD Speed etc it'll only take maybe an hour and a half tops to format and reinstall windows)
Ghost rulez :p backup my whole system within 15 min
Originally posted by [TgR]KILLER
Ghost rulez :p backup my whole system within 15 min
Yep, thats what Tiny and Time computers use for the system restore disc's. Its shite really, Id much rather have a standard winXP disc... oh wait... i do... :p (ok, ok, Its pirated software, but Technically its a backup cos me product key is completely legal, and yes I did actually phone microsoft about it and they said it ok too)
11 hours - my arse..... o_O
I can build 5 machines and install a standard OS on each one in 1 working day - that's about 8 hours. Hell, even if you took it into a shop and they had to re-install the OS, they would only charge about £45.
Wot a con !!!!
EDIT------
And £35 for the 1st hour is also a rip... As an IT consultant, I charge £39 per hour as a business analyst. We are talking about a role that you would get no more than £12 per hour for if you contracted. This guy should get a boot up the f*ckin' bracket...
I'll go back to her with this info, she feels a bit stuck because he has the PC and has done whatever he says he has done.
He isn't even in PC repair. He is a support Analyst for the company we work for.
I'll go back to her with this info, she feels a bit stuck because he has the PC and has done whatever he says he has done.
He isn't even in PC repair. He is a support Analyst for the company we work for.
Unless she agreed to a cost from him, he has no right to be hanging on to the PC. He should have given her a quote, she then would have to have agreed to this before any work was started.
Legally, he has NO RIGHT at all to charge her what he has, unless she agreed to it, which I don't think she would have. The order of these things...
1) Take item and diagnose
2) Quote on repair costs
3) If going to cost more, advise the customer and then continue if they agree
4) Final bill should be no more than quoted
Yes, it helps to have owned and run a computer shop for 4 years :D
Originally posted by GT_Rince
Unless she agreed to a cost from him, he has no right to be hanging on to the PC. He should have given her a quote, she then would have to have agreed to this before any work was started.
Legally, he has NO RIGHT at all to charge her what he has, unless she agreed to it, which I don't think she would have. The order of these things...
1) Take item and diagnose
2) Quote on repair costs
3) If going to cost more, advise the customer and then continue if they agree
4) Final bill should be no more than quoted
Yes, it helps to have owned and run a computer shop for 4 years :D
Indeed.
I'm kinda surprised that he's charged her at all. If people at work ask me to do things like this I usually just ask for a bottle of wine, a pub-lunch or something in payment. If they insist on paying I leave it up to them how much.
Charming bloke......
/edit - one reason I don't charge is implied liability. People that bork their PC once will do it again. For some reason they will think that ("fixed once"=="fixed forever") and I really don't want to get into wasting days of my life fixing every little wibble on their system just to avoid aggro in the office.
Originally posted by jernau
Indeed.
I'm kinda surprised that he's charged her at all. If people at work ask me to do things like this I usually just ask for a bottle of wine, a pub-lunch or something in payment. If they insist on paying I leave it up to them how much.
Charming bloke......
Yeah - there is no way I would ever charge a friend or collegue. If they do say "how much" I never ask for money, unless there are parts involved. Normally I get £20 chucked my way as a thank you and that's fine by me :)
ReefSmoker
09-12-03, 14:08
I had to replace the hard drives on 800 workstations when it was discovered that there was a problem with the drives and they all had to be sent back - man it was sweet when the HUGE boxes of hard drives appeared before the work was carried out, I'd never seen such a shipment and was in awe !
Anyhow, it took roughly one and a half hours per workstation to install the operating system and all software, as well as doing the final touches to configure the network etc. Took about 3 hours to prepare the customised installation of Windows NT and Microsoft Office 95 (all patches were added to the customised installations - got to thank Microsoft for the ability to create customised installations because it saved a shedload of time on things like network configuration, patching, etc). I didn't have Ghost at my disposal though it did exist at the time - besides, I despise that software with a vengeance because it doesn't allow for differences of hardware between systems. Also I was working on roughly 60 workstations per site and as soon as the installation of either OS or any other package was started on one system, I was able to move onto the next system within minutes and start it going too. Each site took a day to complete (8 hour days, I wasn't paid to work longer than 8 hours a day...) and in total it took 3 work weeks to complete (5 day weeks, again, I wasn't paid to work weekends lol).
Apart from the OS and Office, there were roughly half a dozen packages installed in addition to the two main packages, and maybe 3 or 4 systems per site had additional packages installed on top of the regular ones.
Ok so that's the story told, the point I'm trying to demonstrate is that a complete rework of a PC's data doesn't take too long. Naturally home PCs have data to be salvaged, one thing I didn't have to worry about on that network since data was held centrally. For my own systems it takes 45 minutes to syphon off the personal data before a fresh install.
Having said that, the system I'm on just now hasn't had a reinstall of Windows XP since the day I bought the operating system and upgraded (pretty much as soon as Win XP Pro was released to the public). I recently (two weeks ago in fact) noticed a slow-down on this system. I uninstalled all device drivers, and reinstalled them after a reboot, and rebooted the computer after each new device driver went on. All in all it took me 20 minutes to get this box running full speed again.
Final thought ? A system that either doesn't come complete with anti-virus software, or hasn't had AV software installed after purchase is a risky business indeed. There's not really any excuse either considering that there are a number of free AV packages that are extremely efficient, doing their job as well as the commercial packages. Personally I use Sophos AV, but I get complimentary updates due to being a reseller of the product to my clients. I've tried and tested AVG, and imo it is just as good as the Sophos AV, except for heuristics scanning. Sophos heuristics picks up on new viruses every time in my experience, long before AV definitions are out for them. AVG Heuristics are good, don't get me wrong, I'm just willing to hedge my bets with Sophos rather than a free package due to personal experience.
Take care,
Reefie
EDIT : I'm not critisicing your friend for the lack of an AV package, I'm having a go at whoever supplied the PC in the first instance ! Most computer users don't even know what AV is, despite quite a few viruses making headlines in newspapers and on TV in recent years, therefore it cannot be expected that end-users should know that they require an AV package.
She just sent him and e-mail saying that she thought this was a bit steep and she will talk it over with her husband tonight.
He got a bit arsey back and tried to justify what he has done.
Then 7 minutes later he sends an e-mail saying £75 and it will be all up and running o_O
ReefSmoker
09-12-03, 14:16
Originally posted by garyu69
She just sent him and e-mail saying that she thought this was a bit steep and she will talk it over with her husband tonight.
He got a bit arsey back and tried to justify what he has done.
Then 7 minutes later he sends an e-mail saying £75 and it will be all up and running o_O
LOL ! Sounds like he's a bit of a cowboy who's short for cash :D
Well the reduction in price is good, but as has already been said, when doing work for friends the only costs that should come up are those for parts. I don't see why I should charge my friends cash if I help them with a problem, regardless of time involved - they are friends afterall :)
Take care,
Reefie
EDIT : friend, work mate, while not identical I tend not to differentiate between the two - afterall I'd rather be friends with the people I work with !
Originally posted by garyu69
She just sent him and e-mail saying that she thought this was a bit steep and she will talk it over with her husband tonight.
He got a bit arsey back and tried to justify what he has done.
Then 7 minutes later he sends an e-mail saying £75 and it will be all up and running o_O
So in other words I have your PC and you must pay 75 quid to get it back...tbh you sent it to me and back for that sorta money and I would fix it for free.
Like others have said he's ripping your friend off, outta interest how did he try and justify the price?
Sounds like also it aint working yet so ask him just to give it back for 30 and you will do the rest :)
jesus christ, I went over my mates house once, built his new PC, installed his OS and a shit load of progs, tweaked it etc, setup his net, all for 60 B&H lol, I coulda made a mint if i was a tight bastid like garyu's colleague :|
Originally posted by -Demon-
outta interest how did he try and justify the price? Well, originally after she gave him the PC she had sent him an e-mail asking how much.
He said, he wasn't sure yet.
Then she e-mailed him again a day later he said again he wasn't sure.
Then it was today after he told her what was wrong with it that he came back with "I usually charge £35 for the first hour and then £15 after"
Now how can he go from not knowing what to charge to what he usually charges.
To justify it he was saying thats his standard charge etc.
Guys a wank, go kick im in the nuts for bein a tit.
Originally posted by garyu69
Well, originally after she gave him the PC she had sent him an e-mail asking how much.
He said, he wasn't sure yet.
Then she e-mailed him again a day later he said again he wasn't sure.
Then it was today after he told her what was wrong with it that he came back with "I usually charge £35 for the first hour and then £15 after"
Now how can he go from not knowing what to charge to what he usually charges.
To justify it he was saying thats his standard charge etc.
Standard charge for what?
"support Analyst for the company [you] work for"?
PC support?
"Special favours"?
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