On 12/13/2013 3:38 PM, philo wrote:
On 12/13/2013 03:30 PM, Irreverent Maximus wrote:

mentioned it to him but I took it.

The only thing I feel guilty about is not charging him for the
data recovery jobs. A lab would have charged at least $600 per
job.

Context is everything. If the customer asked you to get the best
price, that is one thing. A bait and switch is another. Charging
more than you paid for something is to be expected, yet does not
have to happen if you are not putting yourself in a financial hole
to accomplish this.

People will treat regulars differently than an out of thin air
customer. A repeat customer will get better deals. A new customer,
unless work is grim, will get the standard quote with expected mark
up. I worked for a man that high-balled all new installations. He
did not care. He did not want the work. He made his money off of
fixing other people's mistakes. He would tell his customers to put
the job out to bid and that he would come in later and make the
system work.

In the end, the customer paid around the same price, but my
previous employer did not have to mess with the hassle of a new
installation, change-orders, time- lines, and the usual cost
overruns associated with getting a facility up and running, either
as a gen or sub-contractor. I care not to explain the entire
process, but he had a niche market for himself, and that was
beneficial to me at the time.


Well, most of the people I repair computers for have very little
money so if I charge at all, it's typically just $25.

Only once did I get a job for a very wealthy business man but since
it went over 5 hours, I gave them a 20% discount.

Me and my late friend GB often repaired HVAC systems for people with
little money and didn't charge them a lot and when we did it for an old
fellow who lived a few blocks from GB, the old man's family called us to
repair their equipment and paid us full price because they appreciated
the way we helped their family member who had a limited income. ^_^

TDD