Best of the ISP-Lists

When a Customer's a Suctomer

Members of the ISP-Tech list discuss the profit and potential headaches of helping solve customers' problems with their hardware.

[March 3, 2004]

On the ISP-Tech list in February, EB raised a common concern:

Do any of you guys out there service your customers' machines? Over here, we allow our customers to bring in their computers and set them up for them. In the past, we have done this for no charge but that's no longer feasible. I was wondering what would be a fair price to charge.

Many suggested charging full market rates for computer assistance.

[PH said] "That depends on what "set them up" ultimately means. Beware that they could have really screwy machines and things won't work the first time, so I think it is best to charge by the hour. I charge:

• $80/hour for Microsoft Windows or Apple Macintosh
• $60/hour for Sun Solaris, Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE
• $40/hour for Slackware, Debian, BSD

Since they are paying for your other services, maybe you can provide the first 20 minutes free and charge beyond that."

[JM enthused] "Check out local computer service companies and see what they charge. I've got a buddy that does nothing but service home and small business computers and networks. Just raised his rates from $90/hour to $115/hour and is very busy."

[SW advised] "We have a full service shop. We service all makes and models and OS types. Flat fee $50/hr in house. If we go onsite +$15. We also have a networking division that the service bench doesn't touch. We give initial service setup for free to get the customer going. So setting up your dialup account for the first time is free if you bring it to us. Wireless, DSL, and T1's all have setup charges as they are usually time consuming, well more so than setting up a dialup acct."

[CS added] "We do the exact same thing except we also include DSL setup for free (as long as the customer has a NIC and most do, now). Takes about 10 to 15 minutes to set up a Windows or Macintosh computer on the internet, dialup or DSL and the customers love it. Probably one out of 10 signups we do actually bring their computer in for the free setup. For other service and repair, it's $60/hour. Onsite is $75 for the first hour or any part thereof and $60/hour after that.

Having a full-service shop is certainly worth it. The technicians are also the internet supports guys and gals. They understand and handle incoming internet calls and setting up and repairing computers, getting rid of viruses, spyware, building new systems, etc.

I wouldn't have it any other way. There is no way I'd send a customer to someone else. Our customers know that when they buy a computer from us, have one repaired by us or get internet service from us they have only one place to go. It's our problem, it's our responsibility and it's our privilege. They really like that."

Others suggested finding a partner:

[VJ cautioned] "Do you really want to get involved in that? I found the best solution for this situation. I contacted the computer shops in town and offered to pay the commissions on signups and give them free hosting in exchange for processing our signups and offering customers a slightly discounted rate. When customers call in we can tell them "because you are our customer take your system to Joe's computers, our customers receive a discounted rate on the service. Shall I call them and let them know when you will drop off your computer?" Works great and keeps suctomers off our back."

[PJ agreed] "That is what we do. Have someone who works on them and we refer. Then the ball is in their court. Makes my life much simpler."

Some resorted to humor to describe the problems that can crop up.

TC provided a customer repair checklist:

"___ Customer wants unit fixed, no rush: $25

___ Customer began with "I'm computer illiterate but..." +$10

___ Bought computer from Best Buy or OfficeMax +$20

___ Bought computer from Dell or Gateway +$30

___ Last time had it fixed by second-cousin twice removed who is in junior high and "knows everything about computers" and hope we can do a good job even though we don't know as much as him +$75

___ Said "While its in the shop, would you go ahead and just delete any programs I don't want any more?" +$30

___ Doesn't have Windows CD, the place they bought the computer said "Its all on the hard drive" which just died. Customer wants you to just "use one of yours on it for me" +$150

___ Calls the monitor "the computer", calls tower "the CD player" +$35

___ Wants it fixed while they wait: +PRICELESS for the humor factor"

[SH added] "It's never been right since you touched last week +$75"

[VJ suggested] "I don't know what happened to it, I didn't change anything, it just stopped working +$85"

— End