Is my local computer shop trying to overcharge me?Please Help!

platinums

€75 is a standard Charge for a Service or for any work undertaken be it non service ie Hardware Diagnostics, as for the Hardware for that Price it had better be a decent make and not a Sweetex P.O.S.

Bear in mind some people will actually check the hardware for that price, others will find an easier route for themselves, and avoid the problem by adding new hardware which is what has happened you. That's a con.

Always Check the Labour charge before you agree with someone to undertake work for you, if it seems to much there are cheaper outlets.

Those card typically become loose and just need reseating, but I bet your shop didnt even open the case.

Overheal

give them an honest online review on yelp/google, make them think twice (though what most dodgy companies do is try to bury the review with 50 fakes)

BloodBath

platinums wrote: »

€75 is a standard Charge for a Service or for any work undertaken be it non service ie Hardware Diagnostics, as for the Hardware for that Price it had better be a decent make and not a Sweetex P.O.S.

Charging €75 for 5 minutes low skilled labor is not a standard charge at all. Any pc repair shops or companies charging that much for that work should not be in business. I've had cars serviced for not much more than that and that involves a lot more work.

If it's a difficult virus it may take a bit longer. 1 hour tops. That still shouldn't be more than €20-30.

Regardless he didn't ask for it to be done and wasn't asked or informed about it before hand. That's a double blow for that business. I don't see them being around in the near future if that's how they operate.

platinums

BloodBath wrote: »

Charging €75 for 5 minutes low skilled labor is not a standard charge at all. Any pc repair shops or companies charging that much for that work should not be in business. I've had cars serviced for not much more than that and that involves a lot more work.

If it's a difficult virus it may take a bit longer. 1 hour tops. That still shouldn't be more than €20-30.

Regardless he didn't ask for it to be done and wasn't asked or informed about it before hand. That's a double blow for that business. I don't see them being around in the near future if that's how they operate.

and i actually stated in my post , let me re-iterate that for you, that some shops WILL do some work and EARN that much, others will not.

If I was fixing this laptop and I just slapped in a Wireless card and said goodbye, I'd honestly let the service charge slide and just take for the hardware, Happier Customer that way and I'll sleep better at night, but then I have a conscience. Id also explain to the customer ", it took me 5 minutes to fix, However I can charge you €75 to find the root of the problem if you want, also a service is free with that charge" Its not hard.

IF you are good at what you do people will pay for you to do it, this shop doesnt sound like it communicates well with its customers and probably wont be in business for too long.

yoyo

BloodBath wrote: »

Charging €75 for 5 minutes low skilled labor is not a standard charge at all. Any pc repair shops or companies charging that much for that work should not be in business. I've had cars serviced for not much more than that and that involves a lot more work.

If it's a difficult virus it may take a bit longer. 1 hour tops. That still shouldn't be more than €20-30.

Regardless he didn't ask for it to be done and wasn't asked or informed about it before hand. That's a double blow for that business. I don't see them being around in the near future if that's how they operate.

Virus removal, Windows updates, software/plugin updates etc. take a long time in some cases. Simply removing a virus without taking preventative measures to avoid re-infection isn't a proper service.
I would estimate a Vista machine I was asked to "speed up" just a few days ago took close to 6/7 hours of my time, thanks to having to do 2 service pack installs, 100s of Windows updates, plugin updates and junk removal. Very few computer repair jobs are quick and easy, and if they are being rushed well then I wouldn't be regarding the service being much.
In this instance though it is quite clear the op did not have a virus, and the repair shop should have installed a new wifi mini PCI card. This wasn't a professional service, but I wouldn't regard €50-€70 for virus removal in some cases to be excessive, particularly if a shop has to employ staff, light & heat etc.

If I was fixing this laptop and I just slapped in a Wireless card and said goodbye, I'd honestly let the service charge slide and just take for the hardware, Happier Customer that way and I'll sleep better at night, but then I have a conscience. Id also explain to the customer ", it took me 5 minutes to fix, However I can charge you €75 to find the root of the problem if you want, also a service is free with that charge" Its not hard.

This is where you have to be careful. If you sell the adaptor and install it/drivers etc. as a "goodwill" gesture, you need to remember you will be the one the customer will be blaming when the decide to uninstall the drivers accidentally, cannot connect to their wireless network or whatever. A small setup charge in these cases is usually necessary unfortunately, or else you may have a lot more work on your plate than you bargained for.

Nick

Torqay

Wouldn't be the first time, a WLAN adapter was turned off accidentally.

EDIT: You have installed Windows the day before? Did you install the hotkey drivers?

Duggy747

Depending on the model of laptop some are incredibly finnicky by having a hotkey / switch to enable the wireless card which resorts to getting a specific driver, like a keyboard driver, not just the WLAN driver.

Some brands like HP have very few motherboards locked to a specific model and brand of WLAN card too so if it is busted, you have to track down that exact model.

Either way, you did the right thing in not paying for a job you didn't ask for. Plenty of customers assume "that's just how it is, I guess", begrudgingly pay up and spread a bad opinion on repair shops (rightfully so)

BloodBath

and i actually stated in my post , let me re-iterate that for you, that some shops WILL do some work and EARN that much, others will not.

Virus removal, Windows updates, software/plugin updates etc. take a long time in some cases. Simply removing a virus without taking preventative measures to avoid re-infection isn't a proper service.
I would estimate a Vista machine I was asked to "speed up" just a few days ago took close to 6/7 hours of my time, thanks to having to do 2 service pack installs, 100s of Windows updates, plugin updates and junk removal. Very few computer repair jobs are quick and easy, and if they are being rushed well then I wouldn't be regarding the service being much.
In this instance though it is quite clear the op did not have a virus, and the repair shop should have installed a new wifi mini PCI card. This wasn't a professional service, but I wouldn't regard €50-€70 for virus removal in some cases to be excessive, particularly if a shop has to employ staff, light & heat etc.

No it didn't take 6-7 hours of your time. You clicked update or scan and left it to run. If I was doing the work i'd have the necessary software on a usb stick. Install it, update it and run it. The total of your actual time should not exceed 1 hour for that type of work. I could do a fresh install of windows with updates and driver + software installation in under an hour.

How is €70 for virus removal justifiable? It literally takes 10 minutes max of actual human time to do. The time the scan is running does not count as you are free to do whatever you want. Even if you were to charge for 1 hour of labor where does €70 come from? More than €30 for virus removal is a rip off. Shop or no shop.

Tell_Ya_Later

30 euro for the wifi stick is grand.
I would not pay for the virus removal, I would tell him I like viruses so put whatever was on the laptop back, put it in its case and just buy the wifi stick and install it myself.
But I am sure you will do that or you wouldn't have asked the question.
Good luck

Duggy747

BloodBath wrote: »

It literally takes 10 minutes max of actual human time to do. The time the scan is running does not count as you are free to do whatever you want. Even if you were to charge for 1 hour of labor where does €70 come from? More than €30 for virus removal is a rip off. Shop or no shop.

If it takes someone 10 minutes human time max then the person hasn't done a thorough enough job and runs a very high risk of the customer coming back.

I don't charge as high as €70 but it certainly isn't as hands free job as some people assume. You have to take into account that many, many viruses have to be traced manually and isn't something as simply running anti-malware / rootkit / virus software in safe mode and assume the best.

BloodBath

Of course it could take longer if it's badly infected but would it take more than an hour of your actual time on the laptop? I don't think it would. Assuming a fairly high hourly work rate of €30 I'd say my pricing is spot on.

yoyo

BloodBath wrote: »

No it didn't take 6-7 hours of your time. You clicked update or scan and left it to run. If I was doing the work i'd have the necessary software on a usb stick. Install it, update it and run it. The total of your actual time should not exceed 1 hour for that type of work. I could do a fresh install of windows with updates and driver + software installation in under an hour.

How is €70 for virus removal justifiable? It literally takes 10 minutes max of actual human time to do. The time the scan is running does not count as you are free to do whatever you want. Even if you were to charge for 1 hour of labor where does €70 come from? More than €30 for virus removal is a rip off. Shop or no shop.

OK, I do appreciate where you are coming from, and believe me I do not charge anywhere near €70 even for even the more problematic/slower machines (that vista machine I mentioned above I did actually charge €30 for, that was because the person gave me both it and a netbook to speed up which I charged €60 for both).
I do however, understand for a repair shop to be able to pay employees, light & heat, rent, broadband etc. they would usually need to charge more than the likes of me, who does computer repairs as a hobby and not a main business. I have worked for people in repair shops (the last job unpaid/experience) and it is only when you see doing repairs as a business how few machines do come in/how little work you get out of it (and for the record, this repair shop did not charge near €70 for advanced virus removal either, and were very "cheap"). This shop has gone out of business.. It is also incredible how many people are replacing their laptops/desktops with smartphones/tablets so there just arn't that many machines out there people are getting fixed.
Also you can not install Windows Vista SP1/SP2 and all the hundreds of other updates in an hour, especially not when your dealing with a crappy Celeron D with just 1GB RAM. It takes hours to upgrade Vista, and it's not all one process either. Its check for updates, wait 5 minutes, come back, kick start the updates, repeat this several times. I use the likes of Ninite and PC Decrapifier to assist with removing junk/updating software/plugins but even still it takes ages to do, and certainly if I spend a lot of time working on someones machine, I would not hesitate to charge up to €50 per job (although I would rarely charge that much). Keeping a CD/USB with the latest updates/software is all well and good, but you would want to be updating this every few days, which is not feasible for most.
You also need to run multiple virus/malware scans (not at the same time as conflicts can occur!) which can take a while (running something like ATF before hand will significantly reduce scan times in many cases). Then use your knowledge to check processes/folders for any dodgy stuff. Autoruns is and excellent free tool for checking processes, and tools like DDS are also great for sniffing out anything dodgy. Certainly doing a "proper" job on a machine is not for everybody, and i'm sure there are many repair shops out there who simply do a system restore and hey that will be €40 please (or even €75 ).
Sorry for the long post, but to sum up, computer repairs are not a 10 minute job, and I do think for proper virus removal by a repair shop, depending on location €70 may not be to bad. It is clear the OP was dealing with cowboys but do not expect shops to work at a loss at the same time.
Also, shops should not do additional extras without ringing you first, they can suggest to do virus scans, system cleanups, etc. but if you go in with a specific problem they should be professional enough to sort the issue (this crowd weren't, as they should have removed the wifi card and looked to purchasing a replacement) but the majority out there are not out to rip you off.
Also not to mention when you do a repair for people, they are likely to get back to you with "how do I connect the wifi", iTunes, or whatever, and you can't really charge them for this support either.

Nick

Duggy747

BloodBath wrote: »

Of course it could take longer if it's badly infected but would it take more than an hour of your actual time on the laptop? I don't think it would.

Yes it would, especially with badly infected machines and especially in the case where people want to avoid wiping the machine (as do I).

I could do a job like that quickly but I'd put that down as being irresponsible and cutting corners which is not what a customer or client wants to know or pay for, as much as they want it done fast.

Allyall

smjpl wrote: »

Very very few tools are needed. Screwdriver is about it (can even use a knife if you don't have a screwdriver handy) . Don't be afraid to take stuff apart. Just remember to ground yourself first (touch metal radiator pipe etc) and you will be fine. Just be sensible and hold things by the edges. Hardware is the easy part. :cool:

yoyo wrote: »

A PH 00 screwdriver is all you need to work with most laptops. Internal wireless mini PCI cards are cheap enough on ebay and the likes, and usually replacing them is straightforward enough. Just take the one out of your current model and find a replacement part by product code

Nick

Pffffffftt...

Find the Wireless cover on the base of the laptop.


and then, using the tools as pictured open the cover.



and Finally, Extract the wireless card.



Alternatively, Call us.

Hammer IT - The Best Fix.
082-2832-448
2315 Ballyhauvin Road,
Kinnisarossi,
Ballyhaunis,
Co. Dublin.

"We'll give anything a go"

**************************************

€30 wasn't too bad OP. But did you end up with an external Wireless Dongle or an Internal?

yoyo

Allyall wrote: »

Hammer IT - The Best Fix.
082-2832-448
2315 Ballyhauvin Road,
Kinnisarossi,
Ballyhaunis,
Co. Dublin.

Banned for Shilling :pac: :pac:

bcp

^^lol