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It's worse with your cellphone. I was in the middle of a lesson, and the customer persists! Not with intention, I wasted 30 minutes!!!
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I tell my customers I have no cellphone. There is a reason my company has a 24x7 helpdesk-- to screen my calls.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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You just have the wrong customers. Most of my customers have my home number (yes, I work from home, but I have a business line AND a home line -- I only give out my home number when it makes sense for the situation, under the injunction that they eat the number after the situation is over. The business line only rings in my office.). So far I've only had one abuse that opportunity, and I figured out that he was doing it because he'd mixed up which number was which. He thought he was calling my business line. Once that was straighened out, he stopped.
But then...if they call me during off hours, the rates are ridiculous ($1K for the first hour). So they have incentive to be real choosy.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I don't think the $1k is about being the greatest tech, I think its about being the tech who most hates being bothered at home.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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I'm just trying to imagine negotiating an on-call contract with my boss and saying, "Oh, and if I have to take a call or come in after hours, it's a thousand bucks per hour."
I honestly can't imagine keeping a straight face for more than the first two or three sentences.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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That's the thing, though, Tom, afaict she's not an employee of these people, but a person they contract with.
That puts her in a superior position if her skills are in demand, unlike in your case, even if your skills are in demand.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Who are your clients that agree to this? I'm not a shabby trouble-shooter myself, I'd charge them half your rates. . .
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Yeah, but, this implies to me that she is charging 100/hour or something during regular business, which , again, in this day and age, is incredible for IT unless you are in the top of your profession?
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It's not my rate...it's my employer's rate. And no, I'm not any great shakes especially now that our legacy software has been retired. I support a business critical software package though, so when it has a problem, if the problem is significant enough, $1K isn't any big deal. That's just for placing the call. It's $250/hr after the first hour, but usually they're up and running before then. It doesn't happen very often...I've only gotten to charge it half a dozen times in as many years. Though there was one legendary weekend emergency call that took 22 hours and two techs to fix (the hourly rate is per tech). I wasn't on that one, but it ended up being a pretty astronomical amount, well over $10K.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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For a generic tech, yes, $100/hr is on the high end. For techs in various specialized fields, not at all.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Sony? I think their tech support is something around that number... And what I was doing was warranty work for a customer at the shop I (now) work for (again, since I decided I would rather just work for someone else than go through the pains of starting my own business). So the store doesn't make anything on the job, and I get paid about 15-20 bucks an hour for work...Maybe I'll just bill my boss Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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See, Scott, you're in the same range. Actually, you're more. We're $160 for consulting and development. $240 for database recovery (annoyance factor).
Stormy, I'd be happy to email it to you if you like.
Fugu's right on all counts. It's not about being particularly good. It's about specialization. I've worked in the same industry sect since I was 19. I specialize in a particular type of software on a particular (now obsolete) platform for a specific type of wholesale distributor. All of which means that if I wanted to find another job, I'd have to go back to school because I'm worthless anywhere else.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Don't forget to pop in on the $500 mac thread, boris, you've got a chance to make $100 waiting for you .
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Just to be clear, I misunderstood that the company was charging the fee. I thought she was saying that that was was she was making/hour.
I know many IT people who were making 100K plus a year five years a go that are now making and working under ten bucks an hour.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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OMG, Stormy, no. I'm salaried, nowhere near $100K. No commissions either. And no raise since Jan 2000 with considerable lack of job security as our company has gone through 8 or 9 rounds of layoffs since then.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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It actually feels kind of weird being an IT generalist nowadays. I can't help feeling like it limits my marketability, but I'm willing to trade that for a little flexibility.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I don't ever want to work in IT...I've done it once. I enjoyed it, but the competition is too intense, the butt-kissing to severe, and actual knowledge and capability is almost always ignored rather than rewarded (I got laid off because the guy I worked with had an MCSE certification. Oddly, I was the one who knew how to write scripts and use DOS, and he would spend a day on something that would take me an hour). I enjoy doing shop work, but doing it for other people doesn't pay well, and doing it for myself is too time consuming right now. So, guess I'll just play it by ear Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Yeah, the industry definitely often operates on the 'it's not who you know, it's who you *censored*' principle.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Most of my customers have my home number (yes, I work from home, but I have a business line AND a home line -- I only give out my home number when it makes sense for the situation, under the injunction that they eat the number after the situation is over. The business line only rings in my office.). So far I've only had one abuse that opportunity, and I figured out that he was doing it because he'd mixed up which number was which. He thought he was calling my business line. Once that was straighened out, he stopped.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
