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• January 9, 2003 at 4:22 am #2308767
  

  THE PRICE IS RIGHT?

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  by rezuma · about 21 years, 3 months ago

  I am working for a company in the estimate department. We had a problem, we migrated the exchange server from one server to another, for diferents reason we couldn’t recover the old mailbox ourselves, so we decided to call microsoft for help (cost $200), but the director of a company has a friend who work with exchange server, so he told us to call him, after 5 hours on the telephone he could not fix the problem and we had to call microsoft (he advise us to do that -smile- ), so now he want to charge us $500, (100/hours) and we also have to pay microsoft, i have been in USA only for 2 months but, is that normal? do you have to pay even if you dont get the problem solve?
  Another thing is, we have to install OWA (webmail) on a server’s client, it is normal to charge by hour or a flat fee? Meaning, if i dont have skills enough to do it quickly the client do have to pay for that?

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• • January 9, 2003 at 4:54 am #3479116
    

    Freelance or Professional?

    by jkaras · about 21 years, 3 months ago

    In reply to THE PRICE IS RIGHT?

    I’m not sure if he has a leg to stand on. Did he work for a company or was he freelancing? Unfortunately support is not always guaranteed like a handyman. If it was a company, they are supposed to give the disclaimer of might not resolve issue and must pay for support at the begining of the call. When I worked for a phone center it was required before support. I take it he didnt state his rates? If freelancing, he’s probably playing that you wont stiff him for an ez payday. A good reputation iskey in business and what comes around goes around, and he wont get much work if you smear his name round town. I agree time is money but if you cant deliver the goods then no check for you. This is the director’s fault for refering him and I would show him the bill to handle “the friend”, the embarrasment alone should put pressure on the tech to give up his claim. As for hourly vs flat rate always bite the bullit and stick with the flat because hourly can get jacked up due to milking it to makeworth while. Usually flat rate people bust hump to complete job as soon as possible to get to next job, but that’s just my opinion.

  • January 9, 2003 at 6:19 am #3479063
    

    Contract Terms

    by thechas · about 21 years, 3 months ago

    In reply to THE PRICE IS RIGHT?

    What you need to do, is check the contract terms for each situation.

    $100 per hour sounds high for phone support, but may be appropriate in a large city.

    One thing in the US, is that everything is negotiable. BUT, get it in writing.

    You should be able to get a fixed cost for the OWA setup. However, make SURE that EVERY detail of what needs to be done is covered in the contract.

    Chas

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