Copier Tech Rate Per Hr.

**hekotez** · 07-28-2011

I am a repairman... also known as technician... i primarily REPAIR... i dont replace unless it is utterly impossible.
If you read my last post you'd see on that example... i did not replace a simple part aside 2 printheads that where burnt due to overheat. Everything else was properly repaired... SAVING to the client $650 JUST in the parts i repaired.
Now if you think i have to save the clients wallet by beeing nice and saving him money on parts i know/can repair and on top of that i have to do charity and work for free... well everyone is entitled to an opinion i guess.
The client that owns that hp 4000 must be a dumbass then... since after that he already called personally requesting me to go do a cleanup on the A0+ documental scanner they have...
Oh and where parts go... there's something called recomended sales price... wich is prices setted by the manufacturers themselves, on wich the reseller's/agents have a setted discount.
To wrap up the parts part... can i laugh a bit now? ok im done...
Bear a bit with me here... if i replaced the parts on that HP wich would cost $650 plus give or take the company i work for would get a profit margin of around 10% not more... wich if my math doesnt fail me much...means 65 bucks?
By repairing those exact same parts... i charged a total of $300 wich taking my own labor is ALL PROFIT... still the client thinks highly of me, because he only cared about 2 things... Having the machine up and running ASAP (every minute the machine was down was money he was losing) and how much he was charged for it... wich was alot less than half of the other quotes he got.
Your arguements make no sense to me.
If you still think its too much... throw your machine out the nearest window, you wont have to pay people like me a dime anymore.

**fixthecopier** · 07-28-2011

hekotez, you are correct and I am way under priced. I usually make up my rates for the plotters and shredders depending on how the customer acts. I have a pair of HP 4500's i am doing right now. The customer did not ask what I was going to charge an hour, I guess I had to be cheaper than HP, who quoted $800 to just show up. The last large shredder I unjammed, I did it in 10 minutes and charged them $100. They has a post-it on the machine with choice #2, which was $300 to show up and 40 cents a mile for 180 miles. The last plotter I did not fix, I removed the labor charge and reduced what I could not return to a little above cost. I am way too nice to these guys. I have added a "temper charge" to a bill one time because the person in charge insulted me. Cost him an extra $150.

**Hemlock** · 07-28-2011

Originally Posted by JR2ALTA

Look $90 dollars and hour is a lot for someone to pay. $150 and hour is almost 60% higher than that!

I understand travel costs and overhead. But you will still mark up parts 75-100%, won't you?

Once you take the tech's base pay, figure in payroll taxes, cost of benefits, support costs (overhead such as the office, parts supply on shelf, payroll for dispatchers and other needed staff), insurance, direct vehicle costs and others, the $150 starts to look very reasonable.

Also, the price point isn't set just to cover costs (not that's it's excessive); it's also an attempt to convince you to go with a monthly service plan. Much easier to budget for a business when you have the surety of monthly revenue versus sporadic cash calls.

**hekotez** · 07-28-2011

Yep totally agree with you Fix... i usually dance according to the music the client plays... I try to be fair to the client and if he's a good client... i will look at his side more than the company i work for, because usually if we lookout for the clients interests, we are also looking out for our own...
Last "weird" or out of the ordinary thing i did, was to a really good client of ours, he deals exotic timbers and makes parquet floors, doors, windows etc... They built a new production line that at the end where the wood planks are going out for packaging theres a device... a sort of standalone printer that prints on the back of the plank, putting a logo and some serial numbers... Anyways the thing ran out of ink, they ordered it... putted it in but the thing would print nothing more than a few dots... then nothing at all.
The manufacturer is in Italy... meaning the would have to spend thousands to have a tech come all the way from Italy over here to get it fixed.
He asked if i would mind to give it a look... i told him sure i'll give a look at it with no compromises, i'll withdraw it to the shop to study it and i'll see what i can do, if i cant get it to work you'll have to call the techs over to fix it.
The ink feed tube and ink filters clogged up bad...
The next day, after a ruined pair of pants and shirt with ink and mild skin burns from excessive scrubbing LOL the client had it running again... charged him 100 bucks for it... could've easilly charge 100's more, and he would still gladly pay it. Tho i didnt. All printers, copiers, MFP's he has were sold by us and everything is under contract, i tweeked all his IT system, allowing him to start building up a digital archive, he can now consult any document within seconds without having to go thru an entire room or paper archive... He pays for it... tho his office empoyees work never flowed so well either. Efficiency costs money... but also means time saving that he uses to improve his sales.
There are clients and clients... some will recognize and apretiate our work, those wont argue price, because they feel safe working with us, they know we represent a solution... i dont know everything, i cant fix everything... but if he needs something i dont know, i'll pick up the phone... use the internet... come here... doesnt matter as long as i can get the knowledge i need to be able to show at the clients doorstep with the solution he needs.
Others couldnt care less... if the neighbour is a cent cheaper off they go... usually they end up regretting it alot... but by then they will be the ones dancing by our music.

**Woxner** · 07-28-2011

150.0 is what i charge for the first hr and then broken up after that. I charge 165.00 hr for IT. It cost me 20k for my certs. I am a manager and the cost to train a tech at factory is not cheap. There are so many other things that are involved in this 150.00. Mileage, ins.,admin people etc. when you pay 20 bucks for a shirt at the store they buy it for 50 cents. So you it sounds like you know nothing about a business even it your running your own. Maybe your self employed and have no overhead.

**prntrfxr** · 07-28-2011

Gas prices alone warrant it. I was charging $80/hr back in the year 2000 when I was a field tech and that was to fix printers not copiers. For the end user: Copiers have a bit more parts and you usually don't finish in less than 30 min like you do with printers. To me you should be charging at least $90-100/hr on monochrome and $110-125/hr for color for printers. Some companies mark up prices on parts a good bit, but we never did. Some companies charge per trip charges too. Make sure you ask in advance if there is a trip charge so you're not surprised later.

New England is higher cost of living than the south, so $150/hr up there doesn't sound too bad to me for copier repair as that is probably close to what it would cost down here.

**DallasTech** · 09-06-2011

$150 is not that high. We charge $95 for mono printers, $129 for Mono copiers and $169 for Color machines or IT services. We don't have much problem getting the customer to pay that, we guarantee our work, and we don't charge any trip charges or mileage on top.