Mobile Services

Service calls are often desired or needed and I can accommodate most schedule requests, here’s a few things to bear in mind…

  1. Time and Distance = $$
  2. Not all jobs can be performed onsite… see #1 for reason.
  3. Multiple devices = additional charges
  4. I am available from very early in the AM until the wee hours of the PM if need be, but emergency calls and odd hours may affect price.
  5. I charge less at the shop for the same services, but not much less.
  6. When onsite, I am prone to either talk tech excessively, or remain eerily silent as I ponder and focus on what needs to be done, consider yourself warned.

Obviously a driving consideration of whether a service call makes sense in a given situation is the type of work being done. Some jobs can be very time consuming and you should think of my time in your house as similar to a taxi cab in that while there, the meter is running. I could be sitting there with my arms folded staring at your computer while it is doing updates that may take several hours. Fear not though, in those cases I can pretty quickly tell when it would be simpler and less costly for you to NOT have me sitting there seemingly doing nothing while that meter runs. I can pickup and drop-off your computer when it makes more sense.

How far you live from the shop matters as well. A service call within a 10 or 15 mile radius of my shop is never a problem, but if you live 30 or 40 miles away and require service, there will be an additional fee for the time and expense involved.

If you have multiple devices that require service, there may be additional charges for the additional work. I’ve been onsite to fix a simple problem with one computer to then be confronted with additional computers, tablets, phones, routers, modems, printers and the like. I don’t mind doing them, and if I can get it done simultaneously with the original reason for the call, no problem. Once the start taking additional time, there will be additional expense.

Everyone has a schedule they live by, and mine is a bit unusual. Need me there at 4 or 5AM? That I can do. Late at night is typically not an issue. Some additional charge may be incurred but if you need an odd hours request, I can do it.

Most work done at the shop costs ME less as it allows me to work on several of my customer computers at the same time, however my experience over the years indicates that most service call jobs end up costing about the same as shop based work. Service calls generally range from a low of $20-$25 for pickup and drop-off service to about $75-$100 for several hours of onsite work. Shop based repairs range from about the same low, $20 to about $100 for operating system replacements(something I don’t do onsite due to time considerations… think taxi meter) so the net costs are often very close.

As most of you already know, get me started talking tech and I can go on and on and on and on and… well, you get the idea. On the flip side of the coin, what I do often requires focus and attention to detail, something I find hard to do when being peppered with questions about non relevant topics so while I’m working, I do little else but focus. Could go either way.