Reasonable data transfer cost?

naughty_10382

Anyone able to advise on a reasonable cost for data transfer from an old laptop to a new one?

I'd better start at the beginning...

My laptop developed a fault back in May of this year - it would shut down without warning every so often. After trying to fix the problem myself, I called someone in June who had been recommended to me, and he came to collect it. It was returned to me, having had the hard drive replaced, and I paid £150.

I used it for a few hours that day with no problems, then didn't use it until 2 days later, when it shut down again. I tried it every day once or twice, and it would shut down, usually after 10-20 minutes although I did use it for 90 minutes one day. However the problem was obviously more than just the hard drive.

It was collected again and this time, sent to a company in London. A couple of weeks later (23rd July) the guy brought it back having had it testing all weekend for this problem. It had worked fine for him. He also said he would not be charging me any more for this. However the moment he brought it back to me, he switched it on and it shut down. He tried 2 or 3 more times, with the same result, and to say he was mortified would be an understatement. He took it away again to send back to them.

A couple of weeks later I had still not heard anything so I sent a text, he replied saying he was on holiday but would chase them up. Another 2 weeks go by and still I have heard nothing, so I sent another text, and get a reply apologising but the company have declared my laptop unrepairable and returned it to him. We spoke on the phone and he said I could have my money and the laptop back (although he would remove any new components and replace with the old which is understandable) or he could probably sort me out a laptop for an extra £100/£150, so max £300, it would have all my data transferred.

I was contacted a few days later saying he had a second hand dell that I could have for another £150, or a brand new Dell for another £480. I thought about it for a couple of days and said the second hand one would be fine. We agreed he would get started on it and he would bring it round on Thursday.

I got a phone call on Wednesday to say the laptop he was going to give me had been found to be running very slowly, and in his words he did not want to put his name to something like that. He asked me to reconsider the brand new one, however I do not have the money for that and will not anytime soon.

My mum has now bought me a brand new laptop and so I messaged the guy to see how much he would charge to put my data onto the new laptop (which should be arriving Mon or Tues :j) hoping it would not be too much.

I heard back tonight, he will put all my data and anti virus onto the new laptop (including making sure my iTunes is ready to go etc) and get it back to me within 24 hours, but it will be £100 - he will refund me £50 of the money I paid back in June.

To me this seems very steep, considering I have been without a laptop (which I use every day for a few hours each time) since June, with only a little iPod for internet access. I do appreciate, however, it is not his fault the laptop has had so many problems. I have probably 95-98% of my data on my external hard drive (transferred everything at the time when it first started having problems, only maybe a couple of word documents saved since then) so could transfer it onto the laptop myself, transferring everything from my iPod to the laptop shouldn't be too much of a challenge (she says ) surely?

To be honest, I would rather get my £150 and laptop back and do it myself, and risk losing the odd thing than pay £100. I'd probably be happy to pay £50 as I know he has spend time working on this and has been a headache for him as it has for me. But am I being tight?

If not, how can I word it politely? (I want to text him back tomorrow) I would really appreciate people's thoughts. Thank you.

vyle

It depends really, you're paying for someone's time and knowledge. Some people will charge £80 for a housecall to transfer a maximum of 5gb data. Some will charge less. If he only has a small outfit and can only do one machine at a time, and had to transfer 200gb data over USB 2, that'd be a long time, and I can see why the costs may be high.

I charge £15 an hour to do computer tutorials and whatnot, and if I was transferring a couple of hundred gigs over ubs, it'd take a few hours, especially if I was doing everything manually.

If he's got to open up your dead laptop, put a hard drive in a caddy or another machine and do stuff, then you're paying for his physical effort and knowledge of that aspect too. It really depends what he has to do and if you think you can do the same thing yourself.

Notmyrealname

£100 seems fair enough if, like me, his normal labour rate is £30/hr or so and bearing in mind the time already spent. Most people store crap all over the place and it can take an age to find it all. Even more so when they then want all their emails, contact list, bookmarks etc transferred over too.

Even if you clone the hard drive from the old machine to the new one, there's usually an hour or more sorting out Windows to an acceptable level once its rebooted.

tonyh66

To be honest, I would rather get my £150 and laptop back and do it myself, and risk losing the odd thing than pay £100.
Do this, buy a HD caddy for £10-£15 do the transfer yourself, and install whatever software you need yourself its not rocket science.
The guy tried to sell you a new Dell for £480:eek:. He out to make money, not to do you any favours.

googler

tonyh66 wrote: »

Do this, buy a HD caddy for £10-£15 do the transfer yourself, and install whatever software you need yourself its not rocket science.

My view too.

fishybusiness

There are different degrees of transferring data to a new PC. Also, you have to take in to account his costs, and any time spent visiting you.

At its simplest you have a simple copy of your documents and pictures etc from the old drive to your new drive. Large amounts of data may take a while to copy, but essentially it is a single operation that can be left alone without too much intervention. It is worth £45 to £50 from a business point of view.

At its most complicated it can mean copying email folders, settings, bookmarks, maybe some programs need reinstalling to support some of the data, music, personalised data settings. This is very time consuming, it may mean setting up email programs, checking the imported data and settings work. That could be worth £100 depending where you are in the country.

If you know someone handy with a computer, the already mentioned caddy solution will be your cheapest option, and if it is just a simple data transfer job it is very simple.