Prices

Pricing is simple; I charge for my time, the materials used, and travel cost
There is no call-out fee, no VAT, no extra charges for weekend or evening work
Free estimates, and a no-fix-no-fee policy (which has happened a few times)

My time

Labour is charged at between £10 and £20 per hour, depending on complexity, risk, etc. I’ll always charge what I think is fair. I have fixed prices for some work

Materials

Materials are charged at cost price, plus a delivery charge if there is one. Where appropriate I can use second hand materials and parts to reduce costs. Parts can sometimes be sourced cheaper from overseas if you can afford to wait a while.  (typically items ordered within the UK are here within a day or two, parts from China etc can take a month to get here)

Travel

  • If I drive my car, travel charge is 50p per mile. I’m in the centre of Battle town.
  • I will always try to use public transport if it’s practical to do so.
  • If it’s possible for me to walk (approx 1.5 miles from Battle town centre) then there is no travel charge.
  • Sometimes I’m able to talk through a problem over the phone, or do a computer-to-computer connection to fix something, in which case neither of us has to travel anywhere !

Fixed prices for computer work (excluding travel and cost of parts unless otherwise shown)

  • Laptop screen replacement £10-15 depending on model
  • Laptop keyboard replacement £10
  • Laptop battery replacement £5-£10 depending on model
  • Laptop charging port replacement £10-£15 depending on model. Parts are usually a few pounds.
  • Phone and Tablet screens replaced £15-£20 depending on model, some can be a lot more difficult that others, and there are some jobs which I can’t do if they require tools and skills that I don’t have (but feel free to ask!)
  • Phone/tablet battery replacements range from simple (£15) to difficult (£20+), and there are some makes/models which I won’t even attempt if specialist tools are required. For example some iPad Pro and the more recent iPhone models have very expensive screens and there’s a high chance of me breaking them while changing a battery. Feel free to ask though!
  • iPhone 6/7 charging port replacement £20 (including parts)
  • Setting up your new laptop/desktop/tablet usually takes an hour, so £15  (connecting to WiFi, setting up printers, configuring backups and/or cloud storage, email setup, getting data from old computers, etc). Sometimes can take longer if passwords aren’t available, etc
  • Password problems are usually resolved within an hour, so £10
  • Tune-up and virus removal if the computer is bought to me £15. The reason I mention this is that the process often takes several hours to complete, but I don’t need to sit in front of it for that time!  If your computer has a ‘mechanical’ hard drive then swapping to an SSD drive is a very worthwhile upgrade; these are £20+ and can be fitted for £10-£15
    When it’s not possible to bring the computer in to me then it’s still possible, as I have been at client’s houses for hours at a time, and if you feed me tea and biscuits I’m very reasonable 🙂
    In some rare occasions a slow computer is caused by a faulty hard drive (a clicking or ticking noise is an indicator of this) in which case a new disk (£20 upwards) will also be needed

As far as the cost of parts is concerned, I’ve found that typically prices are as follows:

  • Laptop screens £40 upwards
  • Laptop batteries £20 upwards
  • Hard drives from £20
  • Phone screens £10 upwards
  • Tablet screens £15 upwards
  • Tablet batteries £10 upwards
  • I usually keep a few USB memory sticks for £5 each (good for backups)

I have a small handful of suppliers that I trust and have a good relationship with. Where there is a price/performance tradeoff for some items (e.g. batteries) I will ask for your preference.