okay, I'll just check this thread when you are ready. I need to leave town again (but this time just for a day) so if you don't get a same day response, I'll be back the following day.
Mal: Take your people and go. Captain: You would have done the same. Mal: We can already see I haven't.
'Out Of Gas'
Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?
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le nubian - Apr 17, 2006 1:06:15 am PDT #7892 of 10003
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
le nubian - Apr 17, 2006 1:10:40 am PDT #7893 of 10003
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
btw, good luck on your taxes!
Spidra Webster - Apr 17, 2006 2:47:50 am PDT #7894 of 10003
I wish I could just go somewhere to get flensed but none of the whaling ships near me take Medicare.
Thanks, le nubian. The good news is that I don't owe anything. The bad news is that the TurboTax fees ate about half my total state/fed refund. Plus I'm pretty sure I'm getting boned as a result of not keeping good enough records of my deductible expenses. I don't know when I'm ever going to learn...
tommyrot - Apr 17, 2006 6:19:50 pm PDT #7895 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Not sure if this should go here or in Natter....
I know a guy - a sibling of a friend - who wants me to set up his network in his new home office (I think a basic WiFi router). He'd pay me.
First of all, how much should I charge? A flat fee? (if so, how much?) By the hour - at how much I get paid per hour? Less? Should I offer a cash discount?
Second issue - I'm afraid that after I do the work, he'll expect me to come over and fix future problems for free. I see him possibly being a difficult or demanding client. How do I negotiate the limits of my responsibility before beginning the work?
Has anyone had experiences with doing IT work for acquaintances? I don't even like this guy that much, but I don't want to so far as to refuse to work for him - I just want to get my ducks in a row beforehand to avoid messy situations down the road. I figure some sort of contract is essential - I just don't know what should go in a contract.
Cass - Apr 17, 2006 6:42:14 pm PDT #7896 of 10003
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.
Has anyone had experiences with doing IT work for acquaintances?They've been very messy and frustrating mostly.
If you are going to do it, set a price before you do anything and make sure that he doesn't expect free maintenance. That will help take care of a lot of the problems I have seen and had.
I will allow others with more and better experience give advice on the price, contracts and how to bill.
Liese S. - Apr 17, 2006 11:07:06 pm PDT #7897 of 10003
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."
Has anyone had experiences with doing IT work for acquaintances?
I do it all the time, and it's freaking miserable. I do it for free, too. I wish I hadn't started, but now all family visits are essentially tech calls. Hate. Do up a contract. Either he'll be offended and won't make you do it, or you'll have some reasonably established (and legally backupable) expectations.
About the rate, I can't really tell you there. The problem with setting up a home network is that depending on his gear and setup, it could be very very simple or totally not, and there's not really any way to know before you get in there. You could maybe set a base flat rate with an hourly overage beyond a set number of hours. Definitely establish any follow-up work parameters from the beginning, though.
esse - Apr 18, 2006 3:18:06 am PDT #7898 of 10003
S to the A -- using they/them pronouns!
Ooh, good question tr. My mother's been trying to pimp me to her friends as "the girl that knows computers," which, while not untrue, tends to put a damper on my visits home.
Good advice all.
Jessica - Apr 18, 2006 3:34:07 am PDT #7899 of 10003
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
The Geek Squad charges $159 for setting up a wireless network, FWIW.
TomW - Apr 18, 2006 3:45:42 am PDT #7900 of 10003
"The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be."
ThinkGeek charges $15 for a T-Shirt that says "No, I will not fix your computer." FWIW.
amych - Apr 18, 2006 3:50:13 am PDT #7901 of 10003
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
ThinkGeek charges $15 for a T-Shirt that says "No, I will not fix your computer." FWIW
I love that shirt. But somehow, people seem to think I'm joking.