Damn right I do. This country (scratch that, this county) is full of them. Still, work is work, and in this economic climate I take all I can get, but repairs bore me to tears tbh. Occasionally something interesting and challenging comes along (this was one such example from the past few weeks, although it turned into more of a headache in the end) but most of the time I dislike doing the simple repairs. I have the same attitude as Gunny on the subject. I'm way overqualified to be removing viruses from people's home PCs after they load it with limewire content or visit a few porn sites, but I'll still happily take £30 off them to sort it out or do a general maintenance service. That being said, if I don't get a higher volume of work that's actually at my pay-grade this year, I'm going to have to seriously consider applying for a regular 9-5.
Whilst i trained as an Elctronics technician, not only pc repair, but pretty much anything, although SMT is a pain in the bum. I have found that people i know and want pc repairs done, which is generally pretty simple for me, always end up with software problems mainly. They do seem to be a little shocked when i say, i dont do software, thats something different altogether, although i can reinstall and OS and basic stuff like that. Loving those t-shirts also , must see about getting one to wear at work, next time someone wants their pc looked at.
This is what I hate, I am asked to fix a computer because it is running slow. I boot it up and I see "Your 30 day Norton trial has expired click here to...", "Finestra virtual desktop...", "Your computer may be at risk...", "Skype..." and several other pop-up things. A few minutes in I'm dealing with that Real Player pop up ****, and the pop ups keep coming, Java update, Adobe Update etc. The desktop is littered with crap, bloatware all over the place, I mean shocking stuff like "wallpaper changer demo" or some nasty stuff like that. No AV or firewall. They're using IE without ad-block or pop-up blocking, and there are useless toolbars everywhere. But this is the best bit, I'm done and I've sanitized their machine and installed some really useful bits of software like Ccleaner and MSE. They look and they say, "what is this here, Microsoft Security Essentials, is that a virus. Ccleaner, I've never heard of that, get those things off my computer, they're really annoying". I just think ffs, there was so much junk on this machine and you didn't mind, but all of a sudden a good AV is too much for you? It's a curse only we will ever know
I can relate to you, mine are normally to do with software based issues. They have no bloody clue how "x" program works and when you try to teach them, they don't bother saying thank-you. It really drives me up the wall because you spend so long helping them.
Try working for the company that invented the PC, I get asked how to fix anything that is remotely close to a PC! And the bad thing is, if it is something I'm intrigued about I google how to fix it and follow instructions like any competent person would, but then this just cements the image of me. I just don't do repairs now, even my sister has to pay someone to do it so she can learn the value of listening to people telling you not to download crap off the internet. I did however used to charge girls at University dinner and a bottle of wine while I came over to fix their laptops/setup their WiFi...
i'm for both sides of the argument here A friend of mine has been really good to me as he did my first upgrade for free about 7-9 years ago and from then on he has said he doesn't mind helping me out with thingsd so long as i am involved and learning in what is going on and how to do it e.t.c., even when i was building my HAF X rig hge came over to lend a hand and even took me to CCL (which is round the corner about 5-6 miles) in his car to get a new mobo, he said he didnt want owt for it but i did buy a chinese that night for us both. when my dad bought his new CCl system, a few months back, I installed windows and all of his printer,scanner and other hardware onto his pc for him, at the end of the day its my dad and you cant really charge him (especially since my parents have done alot for my family) it just annoys me when i tell him stuff a few hundred times and he still says he doesn't what he is doing or even when i go to his house and look on face book or even look at the scan site or even check my emails he says i have done something to his pc
I charge everyone except my parents, as I still think i'm paying back for my childhood. And with them it normally works both ways, you get what you put in! everyone else - £25 minimum charge.
in general i don't really want to waste time fixing some ones old broken computer so i usually set a rate so high they either really want the service (in which case i am more than happy to oblige) or i'm to expensive and i don't have to waste my time. I generally charge anywhere from $90-125 CAD/hr
This is why I usually don't bother helping people with computers anymore. Fixing cars, painting, tiling and general handyman-type work will usually be much more appreciated. I suspect that those stars represent the F-word we all know. If that's the case you should really reconsider your friends...
I love this thread, but the stories of such moronic people make me want to rage and cut myself. Kidding!
I help a lot of people at work with their machines. I enjoy it, gives me something to do. Thus far i've not asked for anything in return, but i've ALWAY's received a gift of some sorts, From Gift Vouchers, to being invited for Dinner, and i even had some Driving Lessons. I think it's well known throughout my work place that i'm the 'go to' guy when it comes to anything Technology. Sam
You just described my flat mate pretty much. Agreed to build him a PC ( vs him wanting to buy a ~£100 turd from ebay which I dissuaded him from doing ), spend a day installing the OS, tweaking settings, updating it, installing MSE, CCleaner & MalwareBytes ( I pinned the last 3 programs to the task bar and tell him to run them after each session to keep his PC clean ). A couple weeks later he moans that he has a virus & I find some nasty malware that full screens once the pc reaches the desktop and you can't close it or do anything else, can't even open task manager using Crtl+Alt+Dlt. Fixed & cleaned that crap in safemode thankfully, then when I go to run CCleaner & MB I find he has removed them from the taskbar & hasn't ran them since I built the PC, blames me for somehow allowing the malware on his PC in the first place. My older sister's partner is even worse- they have an ancient Asus laptop running XP and it is just full of every piece of crapware you can imagine; animated cursors, 3 or 4 toolbars, random pointless chat & picture programs. The damn thing freezes up constantly ( and I do mean like every few seconds ), takes ages to load the next page & pictures etc, the fan is constantly spooling up & down, I'm amazed it works at all. Saying that, he also has 2 dead laptops that he refuses to get rid of because they cost ~£400 ( 5 years ago or more maybe? ), yet won't try to fix them and won't throw them out because they have 'sensitive info' on them; how do you explain to someone that useless that he can just take out the HDD and transfer or format the data, then ditch the broken laptop? IT & computing skills in general should be compulsory in primary & secondary schools, especially in this day & age....
Take ot from someone in high school right now: We're taught to be office drones, nothing else, people are ignorant to the uses of a computer and the things they say! God, I want to cry!
Or since you're dealing with family and friends barter for your service. I enjoy working with friends' computers since it lets me handle more hardware than I would otherwise but have never charged cash. Money always makes people shy, and maybe that really is what you want (at least with some more obnoxious people) but for those you'd like to help consider finding a way to be compensated without money. You're likely to get more value than asking for money as well, my favorite is trading for old parts. Their old system likely has no value to them and would be hard to sell, but to you it might be quite useful. Or maybe they're handy in some other field and you could use their services. Maybe even just buying dinner could be enough to cover a quick fix without creating the precedent of free labor. Getting compensated for your work doesn't have to have an icy tone.
But if this happened then the world would be full of people as clever as us and we would not be able to get free hobnobs or charge people for things that we consider to be easy. That said everyone considers their job to be easy and "preys" on those more naive than them, builders, plumbers, mechanics etc. When I say prey I don't mean prey in a bad way, but more charging people for a skill that they are deficient in. PC repair is the same thing. Just because we are a bunch of nerdy OCing types that love to tinker doesn't mean that everyone is.
^This. I've read some pretty funny threads in home improvement forums that sounds just like this one. "Oh man, there was this one guy who put brass fittings on iron pipe! Noob." "Can you believe this one person tried to install X number of outlets on a 20 amp line!" There was a show on one of the DIY channels that featured everyday folks attempting large home improvement projects because, after all, they've seen it done on TV and really how hard can it be? Every last one of them went over budget and over schedule because they ended up getting in way over their heads. Some of them ended up hiring contractors who finished the job in a weekend.
I used to help my friends with their PC problems; it caused nothing but trouble between us... Their lack of understanding of how PCs worked and how time consuming doing full system scans to clean out infections/malware/etc was always led to arguments. So I resorted to just telling them to call a tech service and PAY for them to fix their computers. I've only continued to fix computers for ONE of my friends; this guy happens to work for Baccardi so every time he has a problem with his laptop and brings it to my house for repairs I get a free couple of bottles of good alcohol for the bar.
My mate charges me to fit a clutch.. charge to fix computers. Are they going to replace a hour of my life? i only have a certain amount
