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Just wanted to take a second and thank Linc for his story about billing someone for cleaning up spy ware. Someone at work asked the typical "So, how much would you charge to come out to someone's house and cleanup their computer like you do here?" He had a typical all important mentality, nothing I wasn't used to. There was a problem. This was on a weekend that I planned to spend with my daughter. I had already promised her my entire Saturday.

I promptly responded "Lets see, for $50 dollars an hour, I can come out for 8 hours and clean..."

"50 DOLLARS AN HOUR! That's four hundred dollars."

"Best Buy will charge you twice that..."

"Forget it! I might as well buy a new computer"

"Okay, let me know if you need anything."
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My daughter and I had a really fun weekend together.

Thanks Linc!

Don't forget to ask where they threw out their "old" machine?

metrolinux wrote:Just wanted to take a second and thank Linc for his story about billing someone for cleaning up spy ware. Someone at work asked the typical "So, how much would you charge to come out to someone's house and cleanup their computer like you do here?" He had a typical all important mentality, nothing I wasn't used to. There was a problem. This was on a weekend that I planned to spend with my daughter. I had already promised her my entire Saturday.

I promptly responded "Lets see, for $50 dollars an hour, I can come out for 8 hours and clean..."

"50 DOLLARS AN HOUR! That's four hundred dollars."

"Best Buy will charge you twice that..."

"Forget it! I might as well buy a new computer"

"Okay, let me know if you need anything."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My daughter and I had a really fun weekend together.

Thanks Linc!

Yes indeed! People often forget that computer geeks have a life too, not to mention everyone thinks that you oughta do that kind of professional work for 25 cents an hour because "my highschool aged cousin does computers on the side for cheap" or some such nonsense. Getting a true professional to work for you costs money in the computer field too, just as it does with your doctor or plumber or car mechanic.

I usually tell people I will give them a price break if they drop their equipment off, but yes, house calls are expensive no matter what the profession.

We charge $60 an hour at the place I work at for house-calls, and only do it on the weekdays. Surprisingly a lot of people will not give a second thought about spending it. Someone spent $60 because she needed a printer setup last week alone. I don't know if I should laugh at these people or feel sorry for them.

A lot of the time there is a problem with a system DLL and it gives lots of errors in which case there is no sane solution but to reinstall. I look for to the day everyone runs Linux so things can be fixed without having to backup everything and reinstall.

CptnObvious999 wrote:I look for to the day everyone runs Linux so things can be fixed without having to backup everything and reinstall.

And you'd be out of a job

I currently have a gig as an ASP.NET developer (hey, it pays). Do I mind that I could do the job 27 times faster with ruby on rails? hell no, I get paid by the hour.

TankCatNinjaFish wrote:

CptnObvious999 wrote:I look for to the day everyone runs Linux so things can be fixed without having to backup everything and reinstall.

And you'd be out of a job

I currently have a gig as an ASP.NET developer (hey, it pays). Do I mind that I could do the job 27 times faster with ruby on rails? hell no, I get paid by the hour.

Beleive me when I say I wouldn't mind being without a job, I am currently working 2 and I go to my internship every weekday and will be getting a job with them.

I really doubt that everyone running Linux would put me out of a job, everything breaks once in a while.