Get APLawrence.com by RSSA.P. Lawrence Unix/Linux Technical Support and Service Rates
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I offer a number of rate plans to meet your needs. General Unix and Linux support is available, with the most expertise in Linux, Solaris and SCO.
Linux and Unix support (email or phone) is usually available Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM EST. There's no harm in trying outside of those hours; I may be available. I can also help with many Windows issues, especially if it's networking related.
See Services offered if you landed here without understanding what I do.
If you are a consultant or MIS manager and primarily support Windows but need Unix or Linux help now and then, one of the phone or email support options may be just what you need.
By the way, there is a lot of free information on this site; you may want to read a bit before spending your money.
Low Cost Paypal support (email/phone)
This is available through PayPal only. You need to have or setup a Paypal account to use this. Here's how it works:
Email: Just send me your question(s). Note in the email that you will pay by Paypal. I will answer your questions if I am able and will send a Paypal request for payment. It's your choice to accept that charge if you feel it is reasonable; it will usually be $10 - $30.00, sometimes less for really trivial problems. Yes, it's entirely up to you whether or not you pay me: of course, if you don't, I'm not likely to help you again.
Phone: for phone support you have to first make sure I'm available. When you call (781 249-8010), tell me you are going to pay by PayPal immediately. We'll briefly discuss what you need, and I'll suggest an approximate charge if I feel I can help you. This will be at least $50.00 and you'll need to send that much before we continue talking. If there are additional charges after that, I will let you know and again it's up to you to pay it if you feel it's reasonable.
If you have to leave a message and aren't an existing customer, make sure you mention PayPal or some indication that you expect to pay - if not, I probably won't call you back.
I'll also do minor scripting (Perl, shell) with payment by Paypal on similar terms to phone: minimum $50.00 up front, additional charges as required.
Monthly ticket: $250.00 by Paypal in advance covers you for one month for email and phone support. Phone support is limited by my availability and may need to be scheduled at some times. Although unlikely, there may be additonal charges if there is a high volume of phone support. If you don't agree to those charges, I will either refund your $250.00 and cancel your support, or finish the month and not allow you to renew again. I have never had to do this, but it could happen. Try to reserve phone for situations where you really need it; otherwise use email.
If you want this for more than one month, it's $125.00 for subsequent months (assuming I agree to renew you, of course). However, if you think you are going to need the whole year, you are better off to just pay the $1,260.00 yearly fee shown below ($560.00 if it is just email).
Hourly
Hourly billing, on-site, New England area: 150.00/hour plus .95/mile round trip. Minimum 2 hours. This is usually your best choice if you don't anticipate on-going work. For example, if you just need someone for an emergency, this will be the least expensive choice.
If that sounds like a lot of money to you, please keep in mind that I have a LOT of experience. Very often I take literally minutes to fix problems that other people might spend hours on. Look over this web site to get an idea of the breadth and depth of my knowledge. See also:
| Address, Phone numbers, etc. |
| Services Offered |
| Certifications |
| Background and Experience |
PrePaid Blocks of Hours
10 hour Prepaid blocks. Requires yearly retainer of $560.00. Mileage charges of .95/mile and any phone charges incurred will be invoiced monthly. This is the best choice if you anticipate needing more than a few hours. With prepaid blocks, the second and third block purchased are less expensive. Prepaid hours do not expire as long as yearly retainer is paid.
Minimum on-site is 15 minutes.
10 hours prepaid is $850.00. This REQUIRES the yearly retainer. Prepaid hours expire after one year if the yearly retainer is not renewed.
Sometimes people find this confusing, so an example might help:
Your first purchase is $850.00 plus $560.00 or $1,410.00. Each additional block of ten hours after that is $850.00.
The $560.00 fee :
- Covers all email support
- Covers the minor "nickel and dime" phone calls
- Renews unused hours that would otherwise expire
- Allows you to purchase additional 10 hour blocks at $850.00
- Reduces the minimum on-site time from two hours to 15 minutes.
I send statements every month showing time used, time remaining, and incurred mileage charges. If you have email, statements can be emailed to you whenever any time is used.
Mileage/misc. expense invoices are sent monthly.
Mileage
We do not charge for time spent traveling to or from your site, but do charge round trip mileage.. Billing (or deduction of pre-paid hours) starts when I arrive at your site and ends when I leave. The mileage charge is applied to the entire trip, going and coming.
Phone/email and dial-in/telnet/ssh Support for Unix and Linux
Basic email Technical Support for $560.00 yearly. Phone and email support is $1,260.00.
Dial-in (telnet/ssh) is covered for up to 2 half-hour sessions with the $560.00 plan, up to 4 with the $1,260.00.
Per incident phone support: up to 6 incidents asked and answered by phone in a one year period: $400.00. Half-hour dial-in consumes 1 incident.
Modem charges are extra if not a toll-free number.
Phone/email support with prepaid blocks is covered by the $560.00 yearly retainer.
Or, for specific questions, you can
talk to me by the minute or request an answer by email. There are also short pre-recorded listings available.
Resellers and other service organizations: Customized plans to provide representative support for your customers or field personnel can be developed.
Phone support is limited to no more than 15 minutes per week, on a very sloppy average system. In other words, if you need 1 hour or even two hours one week, that's no problem as long as you don't need that every week. Don't worry: we're fair and reasonable.
Yearly Email support is unlimited. You get email support for an entire year no matter how many issues you have.
There are limits to what can be done with phone or email support, and there just may be things we can't fix by talking you through it, either because it's too complex or because you just can't wait that long. Also, there are areas I just can't help you with: I don't have access to SCO's source code for example, and there are some products I have little or no experience with. Let's discuss your needs ahead of time if you think this could be a problem. With per-incident plans, if I cannot help you, you of course do not "lose" an incident.
This plan does not cover dial-in or internet access.
Anything NOT covered by this (such as dial-in or internet access) can be billed at $95.00/hour if you don't have any prepaid hours to apply.
Modem Support
Modem Support is not phone support. If I am dialed into your computer, or working off-line on some problem, regular rates apply. Minimum charge or deduction for modem work is 15 minutes, and actual telephone costs will be invoiced.
What is Support?
Support is assistance with identifying the source of a problem. We have many years of experience in this field, and maintain technical expertise to the best of our ability, but I cannot guarantee a resolution to any particular problem, nor can I promise that any solution I provide may not cause other problems.
We can't promise that I will resolve a problem in any particular time frame, or even that I am always able to turn our attention toward your problem at any given moment. All of our work is offered on a best effort basis only.
Phone support is provided through telephone, or sometimes by e-mail. The intent is to provide incidental support for small problems that can be resolved by a simple conversation. Typically, phone support issues fall into the "how do I ..?" classification rather than the "Something isn't working" category. However, the "Something isn't working" might be handled by a phone conversation; it really depends on the complexity of the issue. Generally speaking, issues that cannot be resolved in 15 minutes or less are not suitable for phone support. This is not absolute, but is a guideline.
Modem support includes anything that can be done remotely from our offices. Since the advent of the Internet, this doesn't always mean what it used to mean, because I might be able to telnet to your site, or deliver work by E-mail or ftp. The important concept here is that the work is actually done at our site without having to physically travel to you.
There is a difference between modem support and phone support. Phone support is us talking to you, giving you advice or solutions for a problem. If the problem is too complex to talk you through (or if you just don't have the time to do it yourself), then modem or on site support is required. As phone support is not billed by the minute, and modem and on site support is, there is sometimes a gray line that differentiates when one or the other is required.
Programming is creating programs (instructions) for a computer to perform some task. This might be mailing lists, web pages, or simply small scripts that solve some other problem. All of our programming is offered on an hourly (or pre-paid) basis only. We do not offer fixed price or turn key work.
Programming can be difficult work, and the programmer doesn't always have complete control of the complex interactions of his program with the machine and all of the other programs that may exist on it. We therefore cannot offer any absolute guarantees that any programming I provide will work correctly under all conditions of use.
Telephone: (781) 249-8010
Fax: (781) 658-2012
Mailing Address
A.P. Lawrence
1101 Lantern Lane
Middleboro MA 02346-7312
If you can't read that, take away the "an" from "anthony", remove the "h" and send email to that name at aplawrence.com. Sorry not to be plain, but too many 'bots read these sites looking for email addresses to spam.
IF YOU DON'T GET A RESPONSE - Either your email went into spam on my server or my email got rejected by yours. CALL ME IF THAT HAPPENS.
Have you tried Searching this site?
Unix/Linux/Mac OS X support by phone, email or on-site: Support Rates
This is a Unix/Linux resource website. It contains technical articles about Unix, Linux and general computing related subjects, opinion, news, help files, how-to's, tutorials and more. We appreciate comments and article submissions.
/rates.html copyright December 1997 Tony Lawrence All Rights Reserved
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Tue Apr 5 09:41:37 2005 anonymous
http://linuxreviews.org/howtos/xvnc/
Thu May 31 13:59:27 2007 At last the right words in the right context! massimiliano
I'm an italian consultant who was exploited for more than 10 years performing
never-ending huge development work paid "turn-key" on a fixed basis, where
a "simple" project which had to be finished in two months lasted for seven
or eight months while keeping the original agreed compensation, and no money
was anticipated, in order to keep me tied up to the project until its end,
afraid to lose that months of work I had already anticipated. I lost so
many thousands of hours of my life and so much money only to see some other
laughing commercial becoming rich and buying houses while carrying on its
life in lust, pretending its job to be the most important of all in earth.
They also prevented me from putting my name on my works and in at least
two cases legally stole my intellectual property with contract tricks. I'm
glad that you finally wrote black on white the respect our job should reserve.
Thank you for publishing your sudo help pages.
Kind regards
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