I don't give estimates. As I am working I sense how things are going. If the problem looks severe, I just abort and reinstall everything from scratch after making a couple of backups. I use Acronis for a drive image and then a straight Windows backup. Be careful with the Windows backup. When you start, go into the Advanced menu and shut off security or you will not be able to read restored data on the new system.
Most of the time I just stop the clock after a couple of hours and don't charge any more. My wife yells at me for doing that. The problem about charging is that I work on three or four PCs at a time so it is difficult to allocate time. Also most of the time the PCs are doing their thing and I can go do something else but I have to check back periodically to see if they are waiting for input. Writing down every block of time gets to be a bore. Too many times viruses write over Windows files and then you are stuck. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Madigan" <[email protected]> To: "ProFox Email List" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 5:31 PM Subject: Re: [NF] Question for Nick Do you estimate it or is the estimate open-ended? do you back up the computer to disk, reformat the drive, reinstall the OS or do you try to repair the reason why it isn't booting in the first place? --- On Mon, 7/19/10, Nicholas Geti <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Nicholas Geti <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [NF] Question for Nick > To: "ProFox Email List" <[email protected]> > Date: Monday, July 19, 2010, 11:53 PM > I don't charge enough usually. The > Geek Squad charges $100/hr and really > mean it. I have seen prices of $800 or more for their > services. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Michael Madigan" <[email protected]> > To: "ProFox Email List" <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 1:15 AM > Subject: RE: [NF] Question for Nick > > > I may have not explained clearly. > > I was wondering how he would tell a client ahead of time > how he would > charge. This situation turned into a big headache > because of successive > dead ends. Would an IT tech charge a flat rate, or an > hourly rate? Would > he even bother fixing the issue? I heard Best Buy > will back everything up > onto another disk and reinstall windows from scratch, and > that's it. Well > that has a finite, expected cost. But if > you want to restore the computer > back to where it was yesterday, that has an unpredictable > cost. > > > > > --- On Tue, 7/13/10, Jarvis, Matthew <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > From: Jarvis, Matthew <[email protected]> > > Subject: RE: [NF] Question for Nick > > To: [email protected] > > Date: Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 7:46 PM > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: [email protected] > > [mailto:[email protected]] > > > On Behalf Of Michael Madigan > > > Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 4:10 PM > > > To: [email protected] > > > Subject: [NF] Question for Nick > > > > > > Hey nick, how would you handle this? > > > > > > > > > 1. Customer's computer won't boot, says it has a > > missing mup.dll > > > > > > > If you might be looking for some other things to try, > here > > are a couple > > things I found while googling: > > > > http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1042025071 > > > > http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-support/925064.htm > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Matthew Jarvis || Business Systems Analyst > > IT Department > > McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center > > 1460 G Street, Springfield, OR 97477 || Ph: > > 541-744-6092 || Fax: > > 541-744-6145 > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Disclaimer: This electronic message may contain > information > > that is > > Proprietary, Confidential, or legally privileged or > > protected. It > > is intended only for the use of the individual(s) and > > entity named > > in the message. If you are not an intended recipient > of > > this > > message, please notify the sender immediately and > delete > > the > > material from your computer. Do not deliver, > distribute or > > copy > > this message and do not disclose its contents or take > any > > action in > > reliance on the information it contains. [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/a8436f72eb924dd784757164556e0...@dual ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
