Pricing, Packages and Terms of Service

Troubleshooting and Repair / Coaching

We charge an hourly rate for our services, generally rounded to the nearest 20 minutes. We offer discounts for pre-paid hours of remote support.  Please contact us for more detail.

Yes, in addition to offering remote support, we do make house calls.  If we come to you, we will not charge you for travel time, but destinations that are more than a 10 minute drive from our home base in Newton may be subject to a separate travel fee, specified in advance. We will usually set a minimum appointment cost for longer trips. 

We can sometimes purchase items for a client as an accommodation; if so, we do not mark up the item, but will usually charge a service fee.

Web Development, Design and Maintenance

While we will happily perform web-related work at hourly rates, our experience has been that most web-related projects that involve significant amounts of development or design work are better handled through a more formal estimate process. Please contact us for more detail.

Service Packages and Agreements

We all like to know what something's going to cost before we commit to it. So, in addition to offering help on a standard hourly basis, we offer a number of fixed-price solutions for ongoing support as well as packages for specific solutions.

Website Hosting, Maintenance and Updating. We host websites for a fixed annual fee, with discounts for additional sites on the same account and free domain parking. We also offer maintenance and updating agreements crafted to meet the needs of your site cost effectively and predictably.

Peace of Mind PC Checkup. We'll check over your computer to make sure your security software is keeping you protected, important updates are installed, and backups are happening as expected. We'll also fix any minor problems we discover and report on any steps needed to stay in top working condition.

Disaster Recovery. No matter how prepared you are, disaster can still strike: hard drives fail, viruses attack, and power lines surge . If it happens to you, we'll help get you up and running fast and efficiently.

Upgrade/Purchasing Advice. Tell us what you're looking for, and we'll do the research for you, winnowing down your choices to a short list of options covering the best price, best value, and our recommendation for the best combination of the two.

New PC Setup. Unpacking the box and connecting the cables and wires is the easy part: the hard part of setting up a new PC is transferring your data and settings from your old machine to your new one. We'll help you move the files, reinstall programs and configure your email account(s), networks, printers and more.

Backup Advice & Configuration. If you're baffled by backup options but know you can't afford to ignore the chore, we'll discuss your specific needs and preferences, guide you through the options, and help you set up you chosen solution.

Terms of Service for Troubleshooting and Repair Services

Privacy

Tech-Tamer will make all reasonable efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the information on your computer, including, for example, any financial information that may be displayed during work regarding money management programs such as Quicken. We will not disclose any such information to other parties unless required by law. Tech-Tamer will not go rifling through your hard drive except to perform the services you have requested. If there is information on your computer that you prefer to keep private from us, please take measures to protect it — for instance, by requesting that certain folders or types of files be left untouched or moving files to another location.

Tech-Tamer will not generally retain copies of information from your computer. At your request, we will retain information about the configuration of the computer, including email accounts and passwords, in order to provide future services more efficiently. Our confidentiality policy above applies equally to any information that we retain.

Liability

Tech-Tamer will perform its services in a professional manner, but cannot accept responsibility for any damage to your computer or any data that is stored on your computer. You should be aware that certain procedures, such as removing viruses and re-installing the operating system, carry an inherent risk that your computer will become unstable or unusable.

Data Loss: You should always maintain backup copies of the data on your computer. If you have not done so already, Tech-Tamer will assist you in creating a backup of critical data before trying to make repairs. Tech-Tamer will rely on you to identify the data that should be backed up and cannot be responsible if the backup is incomplete.

Illegal Software

Tech-Tamer will not perform work involving illegal or unlicensed software or improperly acquired files (e.g. unlicensed programs or illegally downloaded music or movies).