"Can I afford to have my old radio restored?", must be a common question phrased by the owner of a battered example of an AR88 "boatanchor" or a near pristine Roberts from 1968.
The "Low Cost Repair Centre" rarely turns down a restoration job but in order for this record to stand I have to balance the cost of doing the job with making a living.
Usually I'm asked for a quote and sometimes a price guide for doing the work. I usually rely on my experience but will sometimes carry out investigative work.
How much will you charge for fixing my computer?
How long is a piece of string? Mostly a computer will have developed lots of faults before the owner looks for help. Sometimes it may just be a virus that has managed to get past an out-of-date anti-virus program. Whatever the problem, I can usually make a measured response based on experience.
The following should help as a guide....
To repair or restore most, but not all, Roberts sets is a very labour intensive exercise. The most common failing is the old Mullard transistor type AF116 or AF117 used, for example, in the IF amplifier. The IF amplifier module in a lot of Roberts sets is intimately connected into the wiring, demanding the identification and cutting of literally dozens and dozens of wires (some with coloured sleeving and some just bare tinned copper). It can take an hour just to identify the wires so that they can be replaced later. To get at the transistors requires the removal of the IF module and extraction of its printed circuit board. Then the numerous AF transistors have to be removed and tested. Any that are faulty will be replaced but the majority prove to be usable once their ground wire has been cut. For reasons of stability I prefer not to replace an AF transistor, but sometimes this is inevitable. It can take a lot of time to complete all the work. Finally, once it is reassembled, I align the set so that sensitivity is restored. This task also is labour intensive as my test equipment mostly dates from 20 years ago. All things considered, it is not feasible to charge a commercial rate for labour, unless the value of the finished item is very high or it has a special sentimental value.
As a rule of thumb I charge £5 per hour for this type of work. What does this figure represent? A business can only exist if it charges a labour rate which covers its overheads as well as wages. Another useful rule of thumb is a labour rate will comprise about 50% overhead, that is a share of the costs for heating, lighting, materials, National Insurance stamps, clerical work, sourcing parts and a host of allowable expenses etc etc. Only 50% is left over for wages. £2.50 per hour therefore for a 35-hour working week represents £87.50. Take it from me this is not a living wage.
How can I charge £5 per hour for a repair such as an old Roberts radio?
My standard rate is £15 per hour. This is the rate I charge for normal domestic items that take up most of my time. If I have a slack period, or find myself having to wait for parts, I can fit in repairs such as Roberts radios. Usually I can find an hour or two now and again. To complete a specific job such as this can take 5-hours but these hours may be spread over many months. If I spend more than an hour or two a fortnight, say, doing this sort of job, I can't afford to charge at this special rate.
Most computers, TV repairs, VCRs, modern Hi-fi equipment, all with straightforward problems, fall into this category and attract £15 per hour. Turn-around time is generally a day or so up to a couple of weeks if I have to order a special part.
I also include any non-urgent complex repairs in this category, especially when there is a lot of administrative activity or when a job can take a very long time to complete but not too many actual hours on the work bench.
I carry out work for businesses. Usually I repair printed circuit boards or electronic units for large machines, escalators or industrial plant of one kind or another.
Labour rate will vary from £15 to £45 per hour and reflects the urgency, the difficulty of identifying replacement parts and whether a site visit is necessary.
In this category I also have to allow for rework or time spent discussing the problem, and isolating the fault, not just time taken to remove and replace a twopenny resistor.
Mostly, computer repairs take an inordinately long time. This is because installing software can be a slow business and demand Internet activity to deal with updates and drivers. Fortunately I can leave a computer to it own devices while I get on with another repair. For example, to recover data from a damaged hard drive can take 36-hours. Clearly it would not be right to charge £15 per hour for this as I'm not generally sitting in front of the computer for 36-hours.
Over many years I've established realistic times for doing most of the jobs on a computer, and it's on this basis I'll estimate the charge for the work.
Occasionally, as with industrial repairs, I have to make a site or home visit. For this I have to charge £15 per hour. A call-out is relatively unusual and will include of necessity, some preparation, some travelling, and some paperwork or the organisation of software prior to the visit and not just time expended on site.
It's always best to arrange for a problem computer to be delivered to the workshop as my costs will be less and I don't have to just sit staring at the computer in your office or lounge, for example waiting for a download via a 56K modem.
I find that a problem computer will usually be misbehaving because of a software problem or a hardware fault. Is there anything else you may ask? Finger trouble, not reading the instructions, or attempting to load Windows 3.1 software into a Windows XP system to mention a few.
A hardware fault is usually a single fault in a specific module. This may range from the power supply, through the motherboard to a plug-in card. Also, one must not overlook other things such as a cooling fan.
Identifying the faulty hardware is sometimes quite tricky, and demand lots of experimentation.
Software faults are the most common and can range from a fault induced by a virus, for example, to a programming error. Programming errors are usually difficult to fix and will require the use of the Internet to discover if anyone has published a report describing the problem, and offered a means of sorting it out.
Computer repairs generally attract a labour rate of £15 per hour. The hours, in this case, representing true hours rather than elapsed time, unless it's on-site.
Replacement hardware is priced at whatever it costs me plus a small mark-up to reflect identification, sourcing, handling, and carriage or collection.
Because most domestic elecronic equipment reflects the state of the art at the time it was manufactured it will embody components that were common at the time or, perish the thought, were manufactured specially for the equipment.
Increasingly, parts are becoming unavailable. Sometimes parts are still available but at totally uneconomic prices. I can think of various items, such as some types of video heads, or kits of parts for Philips VCRs that fall into this category. I turn away more and more VCRs nowadays because, for the price of a repair, one can purchase a new machine with a far superior specification. Parts suppliers don't seem to get to grips with this fact and still advertise silly prices for spares.
Audio and hi-fi equipment are also sometimes impossible to fix. Availability of proper spares is often nil, and a pattern or general purpose part is often not an option because physical sizes are rarely quoted, say for idler tyres. Just to extract an idler tyre from an early cassette player can take a couple of hours and experimentation is not an option because it would take far too long to be an economic proposition.
If I apply a rate of £5 per hour to a job and the end result will be a price that is way above the value of the finished item, then I generally have no option but to declare it BER (beyond economic repair).
Restoration work is usually different. Older equipments are generally not particularly complex in their electronic design. A rule of thumb here is that if an equipment pre-dates the computer chip, there will be some way to get it back into service. The more valuable will be the finished item, the more scope there will be for finding a solution to the replacement of a part. If an item must be put back into working order then it can be restored or repaired is a good general purpose rule, as often money is no object. Think about the cost of replacing a lift, made by a manufacturer that went out of business ten years ago, in an old building for instance. An expensive circuit board repair is bound to be cheaper than the cost of a new lift.
back to the original question... "How much will it cost?"
The first step is to ask my advice.
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