Charging customers for diagnosis

[JMarsil]

For the computer repair side of business we currently provide free diagnosis. The customer then decides whether we should go ahead and repair their PC or not. However, the diagnosis takes time and not all customers approve the repair. Wanted to know what you guys think about charging for diagnosis?

[paulNZ]

Re: Charging customers for diagnosis

We charge a minimal diagnosis fee that is paid at the time of the system being dropped in the workshop (or if we attend onsite it is a larger fee paid upfront) and advise the customer that should they accept the repair solution presented (and our price for same) then the diagnosis fee is rebated back.

In effect, they get free diagnosis if they proceed with the job.

We have had little resistance to this and have been doing this for a number of years now.

[cforger]

Re: Charging customers for diagnosis

We charge a 1/2 hour minimum for a diagnosis. We usually roll it into the cost of the repair if it was easy to find , and if it's hard to find the problem, it's added on to the total labour if we're okayed to fix it.

If the customer doesn't want it repaired, that's fine too - but the min charge sticks, because we can't talk to someone on the phone, receive them in shop, enter a ticket, have a tech look at it, and then call them back, and return the system without making something for it. There are too many cheap people in the world, and since we're only charging $32.50 for a 1/2 hour of labour, if you don't have that $$, go someplace else.

Oh, and we have a 5 minute limit for talking to prospective customers on the phone. In 5 min we have to get them into the shop, or it's time to let them go - far too many people think they can call a tech shop and have us walk them through a windows install for free over the phone.

[natrat]

Re: Charging customers for diagnosis

I couldnt sustain free diagnosis, if you are doing a thorough job. Imagine somebody brings in a system saying its running slow and occasionally freezing. You would need to do memory diags, HDD diags, virus and spyware checks before you could (probably) say what the issue was. Thats hours of time. Granted each of those tasks is fire and forget but you are taking up bench space for the hours it takes for potentially no return. Customers I see generally understand that diagnostics are a payable job.

If it comes up for discussion i always use the example of the car service industry. You would never get away with the stuff people ask for with computers in that industry. I have people buying a PC, declining a 3 year onsite warranty, then ringing and asking for someone to come and look at it at their place for free. But those are stories for another (probably quite humourous) thread.

[natrat]

Re: Charging customers for diagnosis

Actually there is one exception to our no free diagnosis policy, and thats where a PC is so stuffed they need a new one. If they buy one from us within 30 days of the diags there is no charge for looking at the stuffed one (we refund the amount paid if they waited on their new PC invoice).

[JMarsil]

Re: Charging customers for diagnosis

Thanks for the tips guys. Not charging for diagnosis was a good way to attract customers when we first started, but it certainly does not make sense anymore.

@natrat: looking forward to that humorous thread…

[cforger]

Re: Charging customers for diagnosis

JMarsil: Ha, you'll just attract the cheap customers, and then need to chase them away later. Go for quality..