I've seen several posts here about people who use techs and either have a great or poor experience with them.
I also know several people who own pins, but don't know how to maintain them. I repair them - mostly EM pins, but have worked on solid state games too. Most of my work experience is in EM technology, so that's my comfort zone. People in the area get directed to me when they have an EM that "no one else can fix."
If the repair is done my way (new or "trusted" rebuilt parts), I warranty the job - up to 1 year in most cases - on EM pins. Solid State game warranties vary depending on what work was done (especially for electronics because I typically don't do that work myself, so it depends on who did the electronics work and what their warranty is). I do not warranty "jury rig" repairs if requested by the customer, and will not make any repairs that will render a game unsafe. I always give an estimate, and remind the customer that the estimate is not a guarantee of the final cost - as chasing problems in EM games can occasionally take a lot of time. I've been getting a lot of referrals from my customers, and rarely get called back for warranty work. When I do get a warranty call, I try to get to it as quickly as my schedule allows.
I know of one person in my area who charges $75/hour and in my opinion, doesn't do the work properly (sorry, I won't name any names). I know of other people in my area who charge similar rates and do very good work, but mostly focus on solid state machines. The good people, I do reciprocal work with - I help them with EM issues, and they help me with SS issues.
For paying jobs, I have two types of rates - on-site and in-shop. My in-shop rate is discounted, mostly because I can squeeze in pinball work around my "day job", family events, etc. I charge for travel depending on the job (I usually waive travel time on big jobs with less than an hour of driving).
I'm curious as to what many of you feel is a "fair" hourly rate to pay for EM pinball repairs *if* you had to have them made? I'm not looking to "get rich", but like everyone else, I've got a family to take care of and I'd prefer to get paid what I'm worth.
Thanks in advance for your thoughtful and honest comments.