Reading another thread on this topic got me thinking about all the things wrong with charging by the hour.
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Maybe every job should start with an up-front firm quote to the customer, and should include a no fix / no fee commitment. If that is too restrictive, then give the customer an estimate and say that you will contact them to ask their agreement to proceed if you find you need to charge more for the repair. But again, NO FIX, NO FEE!
What say you?
I would say you're delusional.
I get it, that from a customer POV, you want a quick, fixed-price transaction.
But the fact is, everything you pay for (including goods you buy) are ultimately paying for someone's time. (OK, with the big exception of corporate profit and other forms of rent-seeking.) That's all labor is -- someone's time. And even raw materials are just the cost of people's time to collect the material, or to manufacture the tools needed to collect the material.
Having worked as a computer technician, think of it from the technician's point of view: you don't know what's wrong with the thing. It might be simple, or it might be something completely unexpected that takes hours just to diagnose. If you don't charge for diagnostics, then with every repair, you're gambling. You have no idea what the issue is and whether you'll be able to fix it. And the nature of the fault is something you have zero control over!
Would you gamble with YOUR income, based on a factor that's outside of your control? How is that fair to the technician?
Sometimes repairs are complex, and success can only be determined after doing a lot of work. Is it fair for the technician to invest lots of time and parts (which could be expensive) only to discover that it cannot be repaired, meaning that all the parts and labor are donated for free?
Some technicians/companies choose to offer free estimates/diagnostics and/or "no fix, no fee". But what that means is that the cost of those services is baked into a higher price for all the services that do get performed: paying customers are then subsidizing those free services. Is that fair to them?
I work as an in-house electronics technician at a university, and one of my duties is repairing lab equipment. We have literally hundreds of magnetic stirrers, including probably hundreds of just one model. Because of that fact, it made sense for me to invest hours into reverse-engineering the control circuit and figuring out the various failure modes, because a fault I encounter once, I am likely to encounter again and again. I have had multiple units where the failed component is a resistor. Literally a 1 cent part. But given the hours it took to figure out how the circuit works, just to make it possible to diagnose a bad component, is only worthwhile because the labor cost is spread across many units. If it were a device that we only had one of, my boss would have told me to spend an hour on it at most, and then declare it BER (beyond economical repair). Only because we have literally hundreds was it worth investing more time.
Imagine if a customer came into a repair shop with one of those things, which they'd never seen before, with the same broken resistor. Is it fair to the technician to spend 6 hours on diagnostics, and then only be able to bill the customer the 10 minutes it takes to open the housing, replace the resistor, clean the board, and close it back up? Plus the one cent for parts? Certainly not. Would a typical customer be willing to pay you to spend 6h to fix it, when that is more than the unit cost new? Likely not. So in practice, you'd take only a quick look at it and declare it unrepairable.
Fixed-price repairs are sometimes offered. But because of the unpredictability, they tend to cost more than the average for that type of repair might cost on a per-hour basis. Or they are moderately priced but come with VERY strict prerequisites. (Ever wonder why Apple won't perform a battery replacement, which they offer as a fixed-price repair, on a phone that has any visible damage whatsoever? It's because you don't know what unexpected problems that damage might cause. For example, and I have had this happen when attempting to do a repair on a device, if the screen bezel is deformed even a tiny bit, then once you get the screen out, you won't be able to get it back in, at the risk of causing the screen to shatter.)
Anyhow, this is just scratching the surface of the topic. There are many ways to price technical services. But one thing I can tell you: consumer tech support and repairs are the worst business. Consumers need support that is ultimately often just as difficult and time-consuming as business stuff, but they aren't willing and/or able to pay for it. This is why e.g. computer tech support services come in exactly two price categories: high-schoolers charging $15-40/h doing it as a hobby, and professionals charging $100-500/h. What doesn't exist is a middle ground. I tried it. What happens is that consumers penny-pinch every minute. Business customers are happy to pay your $200/h.
When I went back to school in 2003 after already being an established computer consultant, and did some support on the side, for business clients I used this billing model : $75/h (with one hour minimum) plus a $75 flat charge to cover travel (within a reasonable distance). In other words, you had to pay $150 for me to show up, up to an hour. Then beyond that billed in 15 minute increments. The business clients didn't bat an eye at this (even if the outcome after 30 minutes is "it's broke, you need to buy a new one"). (My former employer used a different model: no base charge, but $90/h. Cheaper for short visits, but more expensive for long ones.)
At the same time, I tried (and quickly abandoned) doing a lower rate for consumers, $35/h + $35 base charge w/1h minimum. But it just wasn't worth it. Taking a half hour to drive over, another half hour back, and then even two hours there, for $105 just ain't worth the time, mileage, and tools you need to have. But moreover, consumers would try and haggle you down, trying to get you to round down 90 minutes to an hour, or to only charge 30 minutes for a 30 minute visit (even though it was still an hour travel in total). And they'd always come up with another "quick question"
after writing you the check...
I felt somewhat bad at having to leave those people without support, but it simply wasn't worthwhile, and dealing with the penny-pinching is just plain unpleasant. It makes you feel like they don't value your time and expertise.
I kept the business customers only.