A question of price

As you might know, I started User Friendly Computer Services late last year, so I'm definitely still ironing out the kinks.  One thing I'm still working on, I'm not ashamed to say, is pricing.  Maybe you, the possible future user of our services, can give some input.

Doing some online research, I see that Geek Squad charges 170-300 just to perform a cleanup/diagnostic.  That's really high to me.  I usually like to charge 50-60 per hour, one hour minimum, and go from there.  If we're nearing the one hour mark, I'll give you an estimate of how long it should take and how long it'll cost.

Are customers put off by this kind of vagueness?  That's the feedback I'd like if you don't mind.  One one hand, I don't want to scare my customers off with a big up-front estimate or huge fixed price.  I mean, $300 is well on the road to "just buy a new computer" land.  But I'm thinking maybe people don't like to hear "50 bucks to look it over, do some light cleanup, diagnose issues, and we can go from there."

So what do you think?

I'm considering publishing a price list on my site advertising some basic computer and networking services with fixed prices.  Would you find that helpful?  Would that be more desirable than calling for an estimate?

Most importantly, would you be more inclined to give me business if you knew the exact price up front?  :)


I really do value feedback from customers and potential customers, so please let me know what you think.  You can add a comment at the bottom of this blog post, or email me directly to let me know what you think, if you don't mind.

Thanks again.