Originally posted by Revenant:
Luvncustomers: Modem install is a modem install, eh?
Just for a project, call an automotive repair shop. Ask them the expected billing time to do an alignment on your honda civic. Call em back an hour later and ask about an alignment on your jaguar. It's still an alignment, right?
Ok, so I am getting flamed. You are comparing apples to oranges. A PC modem is a PC modem and a Mac modem is a Mac modem. They would be billed accordingly. Using cars as an example is as silly as using lawyers and doctors and why they charge the way they do.
So you should only be billed for a normal alignment, right?
wrong. Flat rate billing can and will bite you in th a$$. No situation is ever the same. To plan on every situation being the same is folly, and the reason why so many computer companies/techs go belly up.
As, a former ASE certified mechanic, we used flat rate books all the time. If a book says a starter exchange is an hour job and it takes me two, i still get paid for one hour and the customer gets billed for one hour. If I do not know how to do the job and I have to watch another mechanic to learn, I still get paid for one hour and the customer still gets billed for one hour. I will be the first to agree that flat rate billing will bite you in the a$$. That is how the good mechanics/or techs if you like, get weeded out of the average or not so good ones. Everyone will get burned sooner or later no matter how good they are, that is part of the service game.
It is good to be a nice guy. I am nice whenever I can be, but I still bill. 99% of my customers are completely happy with my billing an hourly rate. I tell them up front a PROJECTED time frame and billing amount, and tell them I will inform them if its more. They then have the option of stopping repair if it's going to be too much. I have not had one unhappy customer from this billing method. B/C the ones that bitch know up front it will be at least $XX, and if they don't like it, they can take it somewhere else.
I agree 100% That is the way it should be. That is the way we do it when we have a lot to do on a machine. You kind of have to throw the rate book out the window. Example: We charge $25 for a modem install and the same for a sound card. There is a small charge for memory installs, too. If we are already in the case we are not going to charge to plug in memory.
Besides, while a repair may only take 15min, add in checking in that customer, filling out a work order, hooking up a machine, doing a basic checklist to ensure functionality (if you don't, you're open to "hey, it was working b4 I brought it in!" complaints), and disconnecting and ringing out the customer. So now you're 15min repair has involved at least a 1/2 hours worth of time.
Point well taken. That is why this is taken into consideration when these rates were made up. Total start to finish time and tech labor rates. Our flat rates were not pulled from thin air. It took us quite a while of figuring out an average time and making the rate from there. It also helps that we know our products and how they work in different machines with different O/S's. That knowlege will never be 100% because you never know what you are going to encounter but if you figure your rates with a little padding and realise that everyjob is not squeeky clean, it usually works out. There is a lot to learn and things are always changing but if you can learn from a stubborn machine then you are prepped for the next one like it.
Maybe not your time, but someone in your company's time. If you work onsite by yourself (independent), then add travel time/gas. So flat rates are nice, but only to the customer. And they'll be really steamed when you go under. Then they'll come to me. (I've picked up tons of customers this way) And get billed for professional work, pay more, but get better service. Customers like a healthy company, if you give service away, they either know something's not right, or they'll bleed you dry. I've worked for people that do it from both extremes, ripping off, to giving the store away- neither one works.
Again, I agree. We have never given service away for free. We are also not getting bled from our repeat customers. I know most of our customers and I make notes if I see them back again and again. The thing is if I fix a machine and the customer keeps screwing it up I know what they are doing. I know what to do to fix it. They get charged the same everytime. You problably have seen this, but you get the same person doing the same thing to their machine. It might take you an hour to fix it the first time, but the next it might be 5 minutes because you know hopw to fix the problem.
As far as the repair taking two weeks, sometimes answers are not easily forthcoming. I've had projects sit that long-IF the customer wants a fix bad enough and IF they don't mind the wait. From what he said, He kept the customer informed and she was perfectly happy with the service. Thus it was a job done well. If he had kept it for two weeks, never called her, then handed her a bill after two weeks for that amount, then it would be a different situation. But as techs, we can't donate our time just b/c we don't know the answer to some obscure software related bug.
Actually, he did the biggest service of all by calling her. I commend him on that. I for one do not like to donate my time, but sometimes you have too. I don't know everything, I am not going to charge someone because of it. I have spent alot of my own time researching problem machines. Actually, I find most answers here. Most of these folks have had similar issues. I don't regret it either. My boss likes the fact that I can turn around machines as fast as i do. So, it takes an hour of my time here and there. If I learned something and can apply it again, I come out ahead. I make a pretty good money doing what I do and my boss has never had a problem giving me a raise when I ask for one.
I would bill for the time, at least half of it, for doing the research.
Are you saying you agree that $400 was a bit much? That was the point that I did not get across to clearly. (my bad) I think there is some justification in getting paid for research but not for every second of it. Especially, if you are dealing with oddball stuff like proprietary Point Of Sales equiptment and/or proprietary software. Not scanners. I just don't see it.
If it had been two weeks of research to figure out how to install a HDD as slave- (Something that should be common knowledge) then please, flame him. But Please don't tell that any of you knew off hand that the problem was an incompatibility btwn Scnr/Prnt/etc, and all it needed was a semicolon that some programmer forgot to put in the driver installation disk. If you did, maybe you can sell me some beachfront property in Phoenix...
Sorry for the length of the post, but I had to rant. https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2000/09/1.gif
