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Billing
Policy
Billing: A necessary evil in our
profession. The fact is, we enjoy our work and interaction with our clients,
and, if we could, might be quite content doing our work for free. We can’t, so
we send you bills for the work we perform.
We bill for the time we devote to serving your needs. We offer service
agreements that, in some cases, are not directly related to the exact number of
hours we spend on your behalf, but even those are based on our expectation of
the time we will spend. Like your doctor, we don’t bill for the results of our
work; we bill for our work. Sometimes we have to expend time finding out what is
wrong, what might work, what won’t work, or trying things that don’t work in
order to find out what will work. We necessarily bill for that kind of time.
Sometimes we have to consult with our associates internally, or with support
staff in companies that have supplied products you are using. Sometimes we have
to spend time researching details that relate to your system. We expect, and you
should expect, our staff to be able to effect resolution of problems
efficiently. For some problems, that means they should be able to resolve the
problem in a few minutes. For most problems, that means they should know how to
find the resolution to the problem in a reasonable period of time. We don’t, and
you should not, expect our staff to answer every question or resolve every
problem immediately or without any research. If the best method of finding a
resolution is for one of our technicians to review the problem with another of
our technicians, or to review it with the maker of the product, we make no
apologies (in fact, we’re proud to have the depth of staff expertise that allows
that) and we necessarily bill for the time required. The old story about the
washing machine repairman comes to mind. The customer questioned the repairman’s
$300 bill. After all, the customer complained, all he did was tighten one screw.
The repairman then rewrote the bill: Tightening screw to resolve problem -
$1.00; knowing which screw to tighten - $299.00. If you would like us to arrange
a special billing rate structure that charges higher rates when we implement the
results of research or preparatory work we necessarily do in order to
effectively complete your task, please let us know before we begin our work.
Sometimes the best method of resolving a problem is to implement what, based on
our experience and research, we think will resolve the problem, let you test the
result in your real-life work for several hours or days, and then return if
needed to refine the solution. Returning to refine a solution does not
constitute failure or reduce the value of previous work we have done. This is
especially true in projects involving complex, intermittent, or unusual
problems, including repairing damage done by viruses. Testing is a necessary and
natural part of problem resolution. We always perform the initial testing, and
usually rely on your staff to perform secondary testing. We can, if you prefer
and if you notify us, engage in extensive and intricate secondary testing of
solutions we implement, but the hourly costs of such testing almost always
exceeds the benefit to your business. Involving your staff in the secondary
testing of these solutions is an efficient method of reducing amounts we have to
bill you, but can also require follow-up work.
Computer virus resolution is particularly complex. By design, viruses hide,
replicate, transport, and recur. Virus resolution almost always requires at
least two, and usually more, sessions for success, and even then can easily
recur in the near or distant future. The complexity of these processes is a
result of the malicious nature of the creators of this form of vandalism, not
us. As with all of our service, we work as efficiently as possible when
resolving virus problems, but we cannot guarantee success in one visit or in a
set amount of time.
Our hourly rates are set to reflect our costs in providing service to you, and
in the hope, of course, of earning a reasonable profit. The rates we charge vary
depending on the type of service we perform for you, since that most directly
affects our cost. Service that requires the attention, either directly or in a
support role, of more experienced or more highly trained technicians, or that
requires more expensive tools, is charged at a higher rate; service that can be
performed by more junior staff members with less oversight by senior staff
members and with lower cost tools, is charged at lower rates. For example,
“depot” service, where you bring your equipment to our location and allow us to
work on it amidst other projects, allows us to most efficiently utilize our
time, and is, therefore, charged at lower rates. Some services, like software
implementation, support, and training, can’t be provided in a “depot” structure,
and therefore require higher billing rates. Time required to travel to your
location is included in the time we bill.
Travel costs are a necessary part of many projects in today’s world. We have a
diverse staff with many skills and a wide variety of experience. This staff is
diverse geographically, too. So utilizing the best resources on your project
often incurs travel costs. Travel costs are billed to you directly. Airfare,
lodging, rental cars and similar costs are billed to you as they are incurred.
Meals and incidental expenses are usually billed to you using a standard
estimate of actual costs. If you would prefer to arrange and pay directly for
travel yourself, please let us know.
We can sometimes provide special discounts to our rates. Prepaid blocks of
service, or commitments to regular service each month can reduce our costs, and
we can provide requisite discounts. For example, if you prepay for $6,000 in
services, we can usually apply a 10% discount to that block. We’ll be happy to
arrange a discount plan for you if you request it.
We charge minimum amounts of time for certain services. These minimums reflect
the reality of engaging in your work. Even a thirty second phone call requires
us to stop what we are doing, change our train of thought, deal with your short
question or problem, and then re-engage ourselves into the original work. A
five-minute visit to your office requires an even greater interruption.
Therefore, we charge at least 0.5 hour for a phone call or remote service, at
least 1 hour for an on-site visit or any depot service, and at least 8 hours for
any day during which we are out-of-town on your behalf. We encourage you to make
use of the full amount of the minimum time by asking our technician to provide
additional services.
Our hourly rates are subject to change without notice.
Our billing rates range between $90/hour for depot
service on desktop computers to $260/hour for services related to e-commerce,
legacy software (RealWorld, for example), and special services. We bill
$160/hour for depot service on laptops and other specialty equipment. Our most
common rate for normal software, network, and other services is currently
$195/hour to $260/hour. If we expect you to pay more than that rate, we will
discuss it with you before providing service. If you think a rate lower than
that should apply, you should discuss it with us before incurring services.
Occasionally our technicians will receive a phone call from another client or
technician while they are engaged in your project. We have concluded that
allowing our technicians to accept and efficiently deal with these calls
provides the best service to all of our clients, since a short conversation can
often resolve what could otherwise be a debilitating problem. Our technician
will deduct the time spent on such phone calls from the time billed to you, and
will bill the other client accordingly. If you object to our technicians
accepting such calls while engaged in your work, let us know, and we will
refrain from taking them. If you have such an objection, you will, of course,
need to avoid making such calls yourself. You can call our office, leave a
message, and await a call back should you encounter a problem.
We bill you for “Out-of-Pocket” costs. These are costs that we incur on your
behalf. In many cases, these costs are for software or hardware that we provide.
Because there are additional costs associated with providing these items, we
often apply a small markup. We work hard to find suppliers that can provide us
with the highest quality hardware and software, not necessarily the lowest cost,
so you may be able to find comparable items (or at least what appear to be
comparable items) at a lower cost elsewhere. We do not object to working with
items you purchase elsewhere, but we, of course, can accept no warranty
obligation for such items, so if there are problems with them, we will bill you
for all of the time we spend dealing with such problems. We have found that the
items we can provide will usually give you the lowest cost, even if not the
lowest direct price. Most of the items that we provide include a manufacturer’s
warranty. These warranties cover repair or replacement of a failed item, but do
not cover our time in diagnosing, shipping, replacing or otherwise affecting the
warranty. Like warranties of other products, these warranties cover the item’s
failure, not associated costs or inconvenience. We will be happy, if you request
it, to assist you in contacting the manufacturer yourself in order to reduce our
charges in working on warranty issues.
Our bills are generated as projects progress. We expect you to pay out of
pocket costs (including travel costs) and costs for proposed projects in
advance. If we don’t collect out-of-pocket costs or proposed project costs in
advance, they are due immediately upon billing and become past due 5 days after
the billing date. Unless specific credit terms have been requested and approved
in writing, charges for routine services are due when billed, and become past
due 15 days after the billing date. A finance charge of 3%/month (36% APR)
accrues daily on past due balances. We will usually perform routine and
occasional service for established clients and bill for the service after it is
complete. New clients, those for whom we do little or irregular service, or
clients with whom we have experienced past credit problems will be required to
make a deposit payment before work begins. We will estimate the cost for work to
be performed and will base the deposit payment on that estimate. We may need to
revise our estimate and receive additional deposit payments during the course of
a project. Deposit payments will be applied as a payment to your account, and
will be reconciled in our regular billing process. We will process a refund of
excess deposit payments if needed.
Like any business, past due accounts are a concern for us, and we apply strict
procedures in dealing with them. We would prefer to never apply finance charges,
and we think you will find our finance charge procedures quite liberal. But if
we do apply a finance charge, we are not easily persuaded to reverse it. If we
do choose to reverse charges that have been applied to an account that was past
due and has since been brought to “current” status, we will only do so in the
form of a credit on the account that can be applied to future services.
We welcome the opportunity of discussing billing and any other questions with
you. Communicating with clients is always a pleasure for us, and we encourage
it. Client communication sometimes reminds us of little Jimmy who, at three
years of age had not spoken a word. His concerned parents sought diagnoses from
the best doctors, who could find no problem. At age five, Jimmy still had not
spoken, and extensive medical tests sought out by his anxious parents could
still not identify a reason. At age nine, during the family dinner one evening,
Jimmy suddenly said, “These peas are cold!” His shocked parents sprang to their
feet and excitedly asked, “Jimmy, you’re nine years old; you have never spoken
until now. Why!?” “Well,” Jimmy replied, “everything’s been OK up to now.” We
are always anxious to hear from you. Please feel free to call us anytime.
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