Costs and How I Work

There is no charge for an initial discussion about a problem or idea, and no obligation to proceed.

I will normally spend enough time understanding the requirement to suggest a practical way forward. Where appropriate, I will then provide a short proposal explaining what I think should be done, how I would approach it, and the likely costs.

Sometimes a problem needs some investigation before a sensible proposal can be made. If that is likely to involve charegeable time, I will agree that with you first.

More extensive work is undertaken in small stages. A first stage may simply establish whether an idea is practical. If it works, we can then decide whether it is worth taking further.

My normal labour rate is NZ$75 per hour. I am no longer GST registered, so no GST is added.

I charge for productive time spent solving your problem. If I need to learn something that I might reasonably have been expected to know already, I will normally regard that as my learning rather than your cost. Likewise, time spent correcting my own mistakes is not something I expect a customer to pay for. There will inevitably be judgement involved, but the principle is simple: I want the charge to feel fair.

Parts, materials, travel and other genuine out-of-pocket expenses are charged at cost. Significant expenditure will be agreed before it is incurred.

For selected electronic repairs, I normally charge labour only where a useful repair is achieved, unless we agree otherwise beforehand. Occasionally a repair uncovers further damage that makes completion uneconomic; in that situation parts already authorised and used remain chargeable, but unsuccessful additional labour normally is not.

This is now as much a labour of love as a business. I deliberately avoid deadline-driven work, but once I take on a problem I am very persistent about creating a workable solution. That persistence is often what turns apparently difficult or uneconomic problems into something practical.