How Much do you charge to do a custom build or repair?

[rspassey]

For those of you who build and sell costum computers and do repairs on computers, how much do you charge to do a custom build or repair?

I have a friend who asked if i would build him a pc (havent said yes yet), and he offered to pay me for it, and I galdly refused to accept any money for doing it.. but what would the general rule of thumb be for building and charging to build a costum pc? is it a fixed price or precentage of the cost of the parts, or does it have to do with time spent on building it?

thanks,
ryan124712

[bailey]

basicly it would be whatever you feel you can get.
a build is usally about 15 percent of cost of parts plus whatever you want foe your time.

normal adverage for repaire is about $50 per hr, with one hr min.
but that also can vary depending on what area your in and how much it can support, some places will repaie as low as $20 and some have $75 min, so it a variable, personaly myself I stay in the $50 area

[Freakitchen]

I ususally work on the basis of 10% of parts cost or £30 (whichever is greater). This is really just to cover extra postage costs should any of the items you order have to be RMA-d.

Then charge whatever you like on top, obviously be generous if it's a friend :)

Saying that, however, you have to take into account that, from the moment your friend takes delivery of his new system.....you'll be expected to provide potentially LOTS of technical support (depending on how computer-literate this guy is).

This is just my experience of things, and the system you enjoyed building at the time can quickly become a pain in the you-know-where!

Then again, if - like me - you're already called upon 24 hours a day for free technical support, you'll be quite used to it :)

Freakitchen

[kstatefan40]

I do $50 for builds for friends.

For customers, I do $50-100 and 10-20% cost of parts depending on how much time and trouble it is. I use the same rate for repair, except $25/hr. I could get more considering my qualifications, but my age limits that possibility considerably.

[rspassey]

Jezz, I should start doing repairs and building more PCs, that is a lot of dough you guys are pulling in, I think after I get my A+ certificate I will try to get a job in the summer. If I go through with the build, and like Freakitchen said, one of the only reasons I dont want to do it is I dont want to be his computer slave since he isnt very computer literate (I mean not even knowing what mimimum requirments are for games), then I will probably not charge and just consider it more experience building comps.

thanks again,
ryan124712

[kstatefan40]

Jezz, I should start doing repairs and building more PCs, that is a lot of dough you guys are pulling in, I think after I get my A+ certificate I will try to get a job in the summer. If I go through with the build, and like Freakitchen said, one of the only reasons I dont want to do it is I dont want to be his computer slave since he isnt very computer literate (I mean not even knowing what mimimum requirments are for games), then I will probably not charge and just consider it more experience building comps.

thanks again,
ryan124712

The money is definately there if you can find the market. The problem is, people like to take their computers to big companies and get ripped off. If you can pull in the market, you'll have more business than you can handle.

But, building for free for someone who isn't very computer literate is probably one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. You'll have calls out the wazoo and he'll blame you for virus/spyware problems... I don't recommend it.

[rspassey]

Yeah, right now I am like, well if you make a parts list, ill check it for compatability, then you buy the parts, and assemble it, so les can be blamed on me even if I do nothing wrong. Thanks for the advice.

[kosova]

we watched the weirdest umm show in computer tech A+ class..its called greed and the most important thing they mentioned was this

"the money is where there is complaint"...so find ppl that are complaining about their computers..fix it offer great service and wallah...u guys sound greedy..just charge 10% of parts (if u have to buy new ones)..if its simple as doing a re-install of xp to repair his/her comp then just charge very little..i could never charge my friends $25-$50 an hr like the other dudes said...i mean u could spend literally hours just to find out one of the jumpers was missing and charge the cosumters hundreds..how dissapointing is that?

[kstatefan40]

You don't charge if you screw up, that's time on you. You can't afford to screw up - if you do, you have to do omit it from the charges. If you tinker/tweak, you don't charge them.

However, there are occasions where the computer does take forever to repair, and you have to charge accordingly. Running diagnostics on a hard drive, doing data recovery, installing the OS all take time. If you don't charge, you can't make any money. It isn't greed - you're doing them a service, they should pay you for it. That's how our economy works. Also, I'm a firm believer in "Time is money" because there are often things I'd rather do than fix some random person or friend's computer - and if they are going to keep me from that, they are going to pay me for it. I've done alot of business in the last 5 years (not just computers) and learned the lesson the hard way. You've got to charge people. I've started doing it with all but about 3 friends. Take a look at this Kudos and Calamities I wrote a few weeks back:
http://www.pcmech.com/show//808/

[kosova]

i never said quit uer day job and or school and start on computer repair..i said something that applied to ryan since he is going to do some computer repair on his free time for a friend (key word here is friend) he shouldnt charge, unless its an all out business like Ryan's Fix and Tweak shop. I'm going to start reparing ppl's pc's when i feel confident in myself to do that, and im certainly not going to charge my closest friends

[kstatefan40]

I know what you meant. I'm just saying you're going to have a bunch more friends when you start repairing friends on the side for free. I don't do my stuff as a job, I do it as a hobby. You've got to charge to keep your sanity. Try doing friends free for a year or so, you'll see what I mean.

[zelira]

Try doing friends free for a year or so, you'll see what I mean.

Dude, I know what you mean. You get a call for every little problem and the only info you get is "Computer stopped working". They don't know why it stopped working, only it stopped working. :(

[Panama Red]

Seems like there's plenty of opinions on this subject. Here's mine. Computer repair is a hobby for me but I treat it like a real business. I printed business cards and have set fees for services. If this was my only source of income I'd probably charge more than I do. I've been doing this now for a little over two years and it just keeps growing.

For a cleanup/restoration - $50. This includes removal of viruses/trojans/adware/spyware and installation of Adaware, Spybot, AVG, and MS AntiSpyware along with instructions on how to run them. I also clean all the dust and dirt from the case and make sure all the hardware is fuctioning properly. Often I pick the machine up from the customer and reinstall it for them.

If conventional cleanup tools don't make significant progress in a couple of hours, I recommend a reformat and reinstall. That's a $75 fee. May also include pickup and deliver/installation. Any parts needed for either of these, inlcuding software, I charge at cost divided by .85 to make 15% profit. I keep over $1000 worth of parts in stock in order to provide faster service. My goal is to get a customer's computer back in 24 - 48 hours.

New builds I estimate in advance. I charge $100 labor and cost plus 5% for parts. The 5% ranges from $20 - $50 and pays for the phone support and any freight charges I may incur for returning parts under warranty. I use nothing but Antec cases/power supplies, Asus or Intel mobo's, and all the names we are all used to hearing here at the Mech. This allows me to promote a 3 year warranty on all key components. All my builds are for home or small office use so nearly all utilize mobo's with onboard video, audio, and lan.

I prefer to NOT do any onsite troubleshooting unless it involves network issues. My Comcast high speed allows for faster downloads/updates and I don't have customer help (make that interference!). I charge $25/hour for onsite service. Network setups usually run $50 plus parts and I make custom length Cat5e/ethernet cables. Parts again are 15% profit and I charge Cat5e at 15 cents a foot. (I get it for free from a friend in the cable biz).

I charge the same for friends and relatives as I do for folks I've never met before. My rates are so low, I defy any of my friends to find someone else to do the quality of work I do for less than I charge. Not only do they not question my charges, they trust my judgement and recommend me to all of their friends. My only advertising is a happy customer. I give everyone 4 or 5 of my business cards when I return their computer so they can recommend me to someone else. I also put a custom label on every machine I build or service with my business name, address and phone number just in case they loose my card.

I hope this helps some of you develop your own price guide for your business/hobby. Above all else, enjoy the work, invest the money and make new friends.

[Cricket]

I don't charge anything for either custom builds or repairs...I'm not in this for the money.

:) Cricket

[BeigeBoxUser]

I built several computers for friends and relatives over the summer. I don't exactly charge anything, but so far I've received the following donations: one $100 check, one chocolate babka (delicious), one belkin anti-static wrist strap (which I needed to assemble the computer), one loaf of honey-wheat bread (more delicious) and a new container of Arctic Silver 5. Honestly, the only thing I ask for is to have a good deal of control in the part selection. I'm completely flexible budget-wise, and in terms of the computer's use (gaming, video editing, office apps, whatever). However, I will not build a computer that sounds like a jet engine (2-3 1000-1500 rpm fans is what I generally shoot for), and I'm reluctant to assemble a computer in a case that looks like a painted whore. Reasonable demands?

Ryan, as far as your situation goes, there's not necessarily any problem with accepting money. Just make sure your friend knows the facts and risks about custom built computers. Although many of the parts will be individually warrantied, you can't always offer the same security that more established system builders can, so computers you build shouldn't end up overpriced. Good luck with the build, BTW (if you decide to go for it, that is). :)

[edfair]

I'm split abot 50/50 between onsite hardware and dial-in sysadmin and in both cases $40/hr. My on-site charges include portal to portal travel and mileage. Parts go at cost.
I screw up, I eat the screwup cost.

There are lots of things that don't get charged. I may spend hours figuring out how best to diagnose something. That is education and the time spent makes me more valuable.

For friends , neighbors, and members of my church , no labor charges. That is a ministry. But for the no cost labor they pay in harassment for stupid mistakes.

Been doing it this way for 32 years now. Labor charges have crept up from the original $9 and should be more than the $40, but I've procrastinated.

[mystvearn]

$50 (installation hardware, software, driver)- $300 modding, setting up new pc. But high end prices differes with what the customer wants. Some 15-20% of sales.

[rspassey]

Thanks so much guys, I will certainly take all this into consideration.

[Tin]

For me, a new build is $150 or 15% of the cost of parts, whichever is greater. I normally dont build econo-boxes, usually just higher end gaming systems and workstations. Most of my money is made in the repair segment, which I charge $50 an hour for and $80 for a nuke and pave along with a full system restoration.

[David M]

You guys work for cheap! Perhaps it's the area I am in? No offense intended. Have you considered raising your rates? Seems some of you might be providing your services at below market rates.

[Haasman]

I think it boils down to whether you are trying to make a living off of your work or just add to it AND what your experience is.

I always look at automotive labor rates as a guide. Today's professional mechanics have to have a large investment in tools and training. Shops labor rates are both the tech and overhead.

Often, straight forward repairs can be charged per unit of labor. Other problems, such as trouble-shooting can be very tough on computer techs and customers.

I carefully pick my customers. I turn down easily three out of four inquiries. I always give ONE hour phone support with ANY repair and I do keep VERY careful records of this. Once the one hour is passed I tell the cutomers and they always have paid.

I carefully tell must customers that I do not work for free. I always encourage them to find someone else.

The days of taking your computer some place to "get it fixed" are over. There is simply way too much dependence, key strokes and customizations to simply "have someone fix it".

I never work on a computer without backing up whatever is there. NEVER. I will remove drives and image them before I start. If a customer claims I didn't repair it correctly, I simply copy the image back and give it back to them.

Haasman

[thefultonhow]

I charge $30 per hour. That's a real bargain because I worked with an outfit for a little while that charged $85 per hour. One of the advantages of charging less is that you can charge for the actual time you took to fix the problem. If you're charging $85/hr and you took five hours to do an offsite job, you can't charge $85*5 or people will have a heart attack. On the other hand, $30*5 is a little bit more reasonable, and if you lowball it and only charge for four hours, that's $120, which most people will pay in a second to have a working computer again.

Although I'm not doing it right now, from January to July I ran a tidy little freelance business. Most of the time I only charged $20 per hour, but even so, with only word-of-mouth advertising, I made over $5000. Many customers kept on calling me back to do more stuff; some customers paid me almost $400 over several visits, and I had one small-business client that paid me $1200.

Computer rebuilds I did off-site, and I usually charged for three to four hours. Onsite work I charged for actual time spent, and when the perosn was far enough away, I added a ~half-hour transportation fee.

Near the end of my freelancing period, I had business cards printed up. I will use them when I go back to Baltimore; business cards are a good tool for word-of-mouth advertising, because you can give them to clients and the clients can then hand them out to friends who are having problems.

There is a tremendous market for computer-repair services, especially when the technician is competent. People relize that in this day and age having a computer does not just entail an upfront purchase, but rather investment and maintenence. People are used to paying upwards of a thousand dollars for a computer; if they have to pay a couple hundred to have it working properly after a year, they don't sweat it that much.

[Al Pollock]

:) I can tell you this ,time is money and if you don't charge people will think its free and you will be burnt in the long run. If I can't resolve the issue ...no charge , if its minor no charge ....goes to PR and all that other wise charge be reasonable ,but charge....................................

[als814]

I don't really know as much as some of the people on this board, but I do know a fair amount especially compared to my friends. I had a friend that got a nasty aim virus on his comp the other week, and I got rid of that as well as a lot of other spyware and viruses. I did it for free, but I'm thinking any future work that is simple stuff like that will be charged; however, since I don't have any real skills, I'll probably go with all they have to do is buy me a pizza and drinks. I love pizza, and it seems pretty fair since I would only be working for my friends or relatives anyway.

[HAL9000]

I used to charge the greater of $200 or 15% of the parts total.... if you want fancy stuff like lighting, clear cases (only did one of those and that was one too many), then on TOP of that, I add in the hourly rate of $75/h.

[rspassey]

I really want to get into the business - I cant work here due to not having a working visa; but I am continueing to study daily for the A+ exams; I have done practice ones online and gotten 70% or so - but I want to ACE the Core part then study and take the OS part. For someone of my age w/ the amount of experience I have (more than pretty much most at my age - obviously less than professionals) I am certainly inspired by the money that is out there.

[glc]

I'm in the business - where we have set rates and stuff, but I do side jobs for selected people and personal friends. The way I handle a custom build for them is they order the parts from Newegg or wherever, all subject to MY approval, and I charge a flat $200 for consulting, assembly, testing, and installing the OS and required software. I won't custom build with any parts I consider substandard and I don't do cases with lights or windows or Darth Vader staring at me. I also don't do AMD due to past issues (and yes, I do have a few gamers for customers, they have P4's).

If someone in my side category wants a cheap box, I'll sell them a prebuilt from my business's 3rd party builder's configurator and give them a 5% discount off our usual markup (which is not much to begin with, by the way). It costs about the same as if they bought just the parts and they are decent quality cheapies. They presently have Foxconn and Intel micro ATX motherboards with onboard everything in Casedge cases with FSP power supplies and the builder carries the warranty.

[rspassey]

That was exactly how I was going to tackle custom glc.... we work on a parts list together - I would always get it double checked for compatiblity here or w/ someone else - then they order and I assemble for a set fee and service the build for x amount of weeks for free - after than charge x$/hour. But like I said - I want to be certifiied and what not first so that I can have an advantage when I am legally allowed to work by walking in w/ experience and w/ certs rather than a guy w/ nothing or w/ just experience.

[Kuch]

I do basic repairs for free (especially for good friends/relatives). I haven't done a build for anyone other than myself, but if I did I would probably only charge them for parts plus 10-15%.