Does anyone make a living servicing machines?

whocares

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I have had people ask me if I can fix games for them...And I have fixed a few.

How do you charge the customers?

What services do you offer?

And how long have you been doing it?

Just curious...
 
I have had people ask me if I can fix games for them...And I have fixed a few.

How do you charge the customers?

What services do you offer?

And how long have you been doing it?

Just curious...

I dont fix them to make a living, I might fix a couple here and there and just accept a broke game on trade for fixing.
 
I work for a retail guy. $150 service call for one hour, $100 hour labor. Big jobs are bid out instead of on time. 90-day warranty on the parts/work we did. We've been in business for 17 years, but I've only been with them for about 7.

But we are pretty expensive as far as fix-it places go.

If you have the knowledge, parts, and time to do it, then start at $50-75/hour + parts. Or set-up a $35 show-up fee, look at the game to determine what is wrong, then bid it out ($75 to recap/rebuild a monitor - including parts if it a normal 4900 or something). if you're confident in your repair skills, offer a limited warranty on the work you do.

I say to charge a show-up fee or minimum service call, because otherwise you'll be driving all over, just to have people tell you they'll "talk to the wife" about it.

Just make sure you only accept work you have time for. Some things will be easier to fix at your place rather than theirs - as you may not always have the part on hand or don't want to be recapping a monitor on their gameroom floor or kitchen table - so you have to take into account multiple trips and deadlines, plus space and time at home to do it.

I had a friend who tried to do it as a part-time "extra money" thing outside his real job. He had to stop when he had 4 separate games at the same time with issues he was having problems fixing, and a wife who was complaining about all the time he was spending with them...
 
I fix stuff for local guys but strictly to fund my arcade habit. I usually end up doing it for the cost of parts though. I do a lot of trades that way. Something like, I'll rebuild/repair your 4 broken monitors for that nice Space Duel. I tell them up front that it could take a while and I usually take stuff home with me. It could take me as long as three weeks to a month to bring something back but I haven't had any complaints yet. I do fix and sell games to a friend of mine who has them in a laundry mat though. I charge him a flat rate of $50 per hour but if things take longer I usually round it down quite a bit.
 
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