Whats a fair price?

[Mounty]

Had to send someone out to a farm today to try and help with a technical issue they were having?
Longstanding customer, new manager on farm with little knowledge of the task in hand.
Wasn't a problem created by us, just that end user had not been able to carry out required pc task, tractor dealer wouldn't/couldn't help so said we would try.
Only made aware of this late yesterday afternoon. Employee arrived on farm at 9am. Trawled through issues that had been created/exacerbated. Corrected issues using laptop and re loaded data to tractor. Also re loaded some dealer software into tractor screen that had been deleted. Separate issue to what the help was needed with.

Employee was there around 2 to 2.5 hours, 70 mile round trip.
What's it worth?

 

[alomy75]

Is this your line of work? I’m assuming if you reloaded dealer software then the answer is yes? If so they seem to be £60-80/hr plus travel. Around £250?

 

[Still Farming]

£500 most likely these day??
Am I close??

 

[Mounty]

Is this your line of work? I’m assuming if you reloaded dealer software then the answer is yes? If so they seem to be £60-80/hr plus travel. Around £250?

It's not our main line of work but something we'll assist with, usually just to get someone out of a muddle. We just can't do it for nothing anymore but at the same time not going to rip someone off. For me it's to replenish what that person could have been earning me if they were somewhere else.
I've mislead you saying dealer software. It was files related to the farm that the dealer had uploaded for the farm. These had all been deleted but we were asked if we could reload them. Thats not something we do, but we did it today.

 

[livestock 1]

I wouldn’t say less than £300 if you we’re charging to do it maybe near £500

 

[Goweresque]

£450+VAT. £100/hr for employee on farm (2.5 hrs), £50/hr travelling time (4 hrs). If you do it cheap 'as a favour' then the new manager will think you'll do that every time.

 

[puppet]

£450+VAT. £100/hr for employee on farm (2.5 hrs), £50/hr travelling time (4 hrs). If you do it cheap 'as a favour' then the new manager will think you'll do that every time.

Not far away though it was 70 miles in total so 4 hours a bit excessive unless it was a bank holiday on the M25

 

[flywheel]

What's a taxi fare for 70 miles .. plus travelling time then add on what you would normally charge out for employee for the time .

 

[alomy75]

It's not our main line of work but something we'll assist with, usually just to get someone out of a muddle. We just can't do it for nothing anymore but at the same time not going to rip someone off. For me it's to replenish what that person could have been earning me if they were somewhere else.
I've mislead you saying dealer software. It was files related to the farm that the dealer had uploaded for the farm. These had all been deleted but we were asked if we could reload them. Thats not something we do, but we did it today.

I see. I’d stick with my original 250 then for the half day, especially if you just want to cover the time you’ve lost with your man not being there. Depends what he would have been doing in that time I guess. If the main dealer got called he might charge slightly more; but you can’t really charge that level if you were trying to show willing imo. Depends what impression you want to give. Charge 500 if you don’t want to do it again!

 

[Goweresque]

Not far away though it was 70 miles in total so 4 hours a bit excessive unless it was a bank holiday on the M25

My bad, I thought it was 70 miles each way so 2x2hr trips. If only 70 miles in total, 2 hrs travelling, £350+vat then

 

[Welderloon]

£100/hr & £1/mile travelling + VAT
Short notice, drop everything,technical operation, fixing someone else's cluster & baling someone out of the proverbial while going beyond original scope of work deserves fair reward without being greedy.

 

[kiwi pom]

Depends on how much your "longstanding customer" spends with you I'd have thought.
No point falling out over a big bill if they are the source of a lot of your work, but if they're just another customer, charge whatever you think reasonable.
Turn the question round, what would you expect or be happy to pay?

 

[wanton dwarf]

Fail to see why these situations even exist ?

£500+ a day plus travel to install software ? If it was 20+ years ago I can understand as the internet didn't really exist & USB cards didn't exist.

But these days I find the whole needs computer to be connected very false. These situations have been created by manufacturers to make money.

I agree you need to get paid etc for reality - but this is not productive.

 

[alomy75]

£100/hr & £1/mile travelling + VAT
Short notice, drop everything,technical operation, fixing someone else's cluster & baling someone out of the proverbial while going beyond original scope of work deserves fair reward without being greedy.

You could get a man and a £70,000 digger for less than half that rate. We are talking (I’m assuming) a lad with a corsa van doing some non-specialist copy and pasting in windows.

 

[Mounty]

Fail to see why these situations even exist ?

£500+ a day plus travel to install software ? If it was 20+ years ago I can understand as the internet didn't really exist & USB cards didn't exist.

But these days I find the whole needs computer to be connected very false. These situations have been created by manufacturers to make money.

I agree you need to get paid etc for reality - but this is not productive.

I tend to agree but just to clarify......
Usual practice is that we write the files and email them to customer. Customer puts them on a USB stick and then into tractor, job done and no charge from us for this.
New manager is a obviously a bit of a technophobe. We've explained the process and then had 2 or 3 incoming phone calls doing FOC phone support when he couldn't make it work. The last call I said we would go out to him. Assumed it would be a 10 minute job but as he'd deleted everything else he needed off the tractor/USB stick, our data wouldn't work.
There was no alternative IMO. I'm asking about the fee because, said employee could have earnt me £500-£1000 on another job but that couldn't happen as a result of this call out.

 

[Mounty]

You could get a man and a £70,000 digger for less than half that rate. We are talking (I’m assuming) a lad with a corsa van doing some non-specialist copy and pasting in windows.

You know what happens when you assume. The lady in question has a Ranger not a Corsa van. Definitely not copying and pasting but re writing of files in different formats. (Software for this is £1100/month). Then realising that the problem lied with the manager having deleted data from the tractor and USB stick (not our fault). Finding where all this data was and re installing it to make our relatively simple bit work. Just trying to help him get sorted. I'm thinking £250 is fair, not profitable.

 

[kiwi pom]

I tend to agree but just to clarify......
Usual practice is that we write the files and email them to customer. Customer puts them on a USB stick and then into tractor, job done and no charge from us for this.
New manager is a obviously a bit of a technophobe. We've explained the process and then had 2 or 3 incoming phone calls doing FOC phone support when he couldn't make it work. The last call I said we would go out to him. Assumed it would be a 10 minute job but as he'd deleted everything else he needed off the tractor/USB stick, our data wouldn't work.
There was no alternative IMO. I'm asking about the fee because, said employee could have earnt me £500-£1000 on another job but that couldn't happen as a result of this call out.

Think you've answered your own question.
500 quid minimum.
Client needs to send their manager on a computer course.

 

[alomy75]

You know what happens when you assume. The lady in question has a Ranger not a Corsa van. Definitely not copying and pasting but re writing of files in different formats. (Software for this is £1100/month). Then realising that the problem lied with the manager having deleted data from the tractor and USB stick (not our fault). Finding where all this data was and re installing it to make our relatively simple bit work. Just trying to help him get sorted. I'm thinking £250 is fair, not profitable.

One has to assume in the absence of more specific detail now we know that this computery stuff is ‘your thing’ rather than a farmer helping out another farmer. I’d agree; 250 should be an absolute minimum though

 

[Goweresque]

employee could have earnt me £500-£1000 on another job but that couldn't happen as a result of this call out.

Well thats your answer then. Make them pay what you lost by sending your employee to them instead of on another job, ie the going rate for that employee's time. If I asked my solicitor to come out to my farm and fill in some forms for me, he'd charge me his usual rate, regardless of whether the work was below his skill level.

Your mistake was not spelling out the cost at the start - 'Look, if I send someone to do this, you do realise its going to cost you £X per hour plus travelling time?'

 

[Kiwi Pete]

As above, it's the opportunity cost that really "is" the cost of that job