But, I personally think that posted price lists aren’t such a good thing.

When you start getting into the minutia of upgrade, you could be looking at a long list. Considering the different types of memory, sizes, and speeds, those with heat spreaders, those without, etc… you could be looking at a broad range of prices, even if you charge a flat rate for labor.

Another reason why we don’t charge a flat rate for anything, is because you never know how long it’s going to take. For example, say I am called to do an onsite “housecall” and the issue was described as an e-mail problem. When I get there, the problem isn’t just e-mail, but also the entire Internet is down. There is obviously a virus infection. On top of that, the computer needs memory and a really thorough tune-up. What should I do here? Should a charge a flat rate for each of these fixes? Or should I just give a rough estimate and then (upon client’s approval) get down to work?

We do “cap” labor at 3 hours for single computer residential jobs… IF we are allowed them to take them back into the shop. That helps keep the costs down for the customer. But, if we are working on multiple computers, or the customer has to have the work done onsite, or it’s a business (more complex network) we charge for whatever time we are onsite.

A price list also turns what a technician does into a commodity, by stripping everything down to price. It encourages the client to shop on price alone, and disregard all other qualities of a computer repair facility.

Recently they did a study on what those shopping for computer repair looked for in a repair shop. The top on the list were honesty, quality, someone who didn’t talk down to them, quick response, and someone who actually picked up the phone when they called. Notice that price isn’t even in the top 5.