would you charge or not...?

[matt.leung]

Hi,

I have just bought a timer for a client, and have already programmed it for him, so when i give it to him it is plug and play...

would you charge him to program the timer, even though it took like 15-20min sitting down at home whilst watching telly?

the timer only cost me 19.99 + VAT and mark up... making it 27.00

thanks

:C

 

[Bwy]

Hi, I have just bought a timer for a client, and have already programmed it for him, so when i give it to him it is plug and play...

would you charge him to program the timer, even though it took like 15-20min sitting down at home whilst watching telly?

the timer only cost me 19.99 + VAT and mark up... making it 27.00

thanks

:C

Have you thought that this is the season of "good will" ??

Sitting watching TV whilst doing it can hardly be classified as Work but telling the customer that you set up with good will would go a long way to making a happy customer and happy customers tend to return :Y

 

[kme]

Are you running a business, or a charity?

If the latter, fair enough; but if you are running a business, you have to charge for the work you do.

If you hadn`t programmed the timer before going to the customers` house, you`d have spent that time on site, programming it. What is the difference?

Do you charge / cover the time spent in the office doing your paperwork?

KME

 

[matt.leung]

the client is also a business friend of mine...

---------- AUTO MERGE Post added at 17:23 ---------- Previous post was at 17:19 ----------

it took me roughly 15 - 20min to program it... how much would u charge???

my normal rate is

 

[Tooold]

I think you have to charge something, if he had bought it and you set it up you would have charged and as said if you had done it there. Maybe round it up a bit more.

 

[matt.leung]

[No message]

 

[Bwy]

and dont forget to charge for drinking his tea and eating his biscuits !!!! :red card

 

[PaulSC]

+1 KME

I was told many years ago by a wise old accountant, don't be a busy fool. There are a surprising number of people (not suggesting you Matt) in business running around at a thousand miles an hour not actually making any profit once everything (and I mean everything) is factored in.

You may have programmed it watching telly, but you presumably had to drive to the wholesaler/shed to pick it up, drive back home again to program it, then drive to the client to fit it (then drive home again).

Having said that, if it was a mate of mine, I probably wouldn't charge but get him to buy me a Guinness .

 

[M107]

[No message]

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

 

[andy_spark]

 

[Evans Electric]

You say he,s a business mate , so a favour such as you describe could repay you many times in the future , make sure you tell him that you have done it then stick a tenner on the next job .

On the other hand ,if you think, well he does me no favours then charge him a tenner for setting it up .

Some time ago , driving home in the rain ,came upon a builder's van broken down, we had worked on a job with them a few months before.

We pulled over to see if we could help, "Just a puncture guys, but thanks anyway"

Their boss phoned next day to say thank you and he,d like to give us the electrics on a job he was starting .

What goes around , comes around .

 

[NozSpark]

The probem is with doing jobs like these "at cost" is that when they go wrong in the future, you are going to be the one called out to sort it so you are going to be even more out of pocket..

I'd be looking along the same lines as M107 (seems a fair amount), or adding it to the next bill if you can

 

[Evans Electric]

Thats a good point .... I've fell for that myself !!

 

[sellers]

If this is someone who throws

 

[NozSpark]

You will also be setting a precident with this job "at cost" for all future small jobs.

I think that it would be in your best interest to charge a reasonable amount for this job then you will not be called out for any and every little faffing thing he wants doing and expects to get it done for nothing!