(Topic ID: 226263)

Going rate for pinball technician

By Langless28

5 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 28 posts
  • 21 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 5 years ago by Wolfmarsh
  • Topic is favorited by 1 Pinsider

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    #1 5 years ago

    Kinda fell into an opportunity to possibly help some people out and get an EM and juke box up and running. I feel ok about figuring out any issues but wouldn't be 100% sure until I looked at the things or even had some time to prod around and troubleshoot.

    Question is should I visit and get a look/estimate for free or charge? What would be an ok going rate (by all means I'm not a professional) if I were to fix these up?

    I'm honest and if it got too deep to fix or was over my heads I would not keep them waiting/ charge them. But perhaps it's something I can fix and everyone is happy. Might be a way to get a little thing going since I enjoy technical troubleshoot very much.

    Thoughts?

    #2 5 years ago

    Free unless you are successful, then pick a flat number regardless of hours. I’d say half of a good pro.

    #3 5 years ago
    Quoted from Phat_Jay:

    Free unless you are successful, then pick a flat number regardless of hours. I’d say half of a good pro.

    What's a good pro go for?

    That's a good point.

    #4 5 years ago

    Varies by location obviously. Around here it’s 50-80/hr for a decent competent tech. 80-100/hr for a “master”.

    #5 5 years ago

    Are you already married?

    #6 5 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    Are you already married?

    Yes!

    #7 5 years ago

    I would walk away. They expect a fix...which might not happen.

    #8 5 years ago

    Have them bring pin to you to assess repairs.

    #9 5 years ago

    Just be upfront. Tell them you are not an expert buy you may be able to help. I would do a quick troubleshoot and see if you can tackle the issue. If you see X and Y need fixed, give them a price. Let them know that these parts need fixed and give them an estimate on the odds that this will get them fully working or not.

    #10 5 years ago

    Walk away. If you're able to fix them this time you'll be on the hook to
    fix them forever. Been there, done that.
    Steve

    #11 5 years ago
    Quoted from Tomass:

    Just be upfront. Tell them you are not an expert buy you may be able to help. I would do a quick troubleshoot and see if you can tackle the issue. If you see X and Y need fixed, give them a price. Let them know that these parts need fixed and give them an estimate on the odds that this will get them fully working or not.

    Yes let me preface this and say I recently moved to a new town and made a post to the towns fecebook group informing them I have a hobby of restoring and playing pinball. If anyone knows of someone who has one in their basement/ somewhere collecting dust, to let me know because I would be interested in buying it.

    Well not many leads on buying pins from that but several people expressed interest if I could fix stuff they had that hasn't worked in years.

    #12 5 years ago
    Quoted from Phat_Jay:

    Varies by location obviously. Around here it’s 50-80/hr for a decent competent tech. 80-100/hr for a “master”.

    That’s why I learned to fix them myself. Hell no would I pay that much.

    #13 5 years ago
    Quoted from Langless28:

    Yes let me preface this and say I recently moved to a new town and made a post to the towns fecebook group informing them I have a hobby of restoring and playing pinball. If anyone knows of someone who has one in their basement/ somewhere collecting dust, to let me know because I would be interested in buying it.
    Well not many leads on buying pins from that but several people expressed interest if I could fix stuff they had that hasn't worked in years.

    That's when you offer to buy said pins!!

    #14 5 years ago

    Most professional techs will not work on EM pins. EMs can be time consuming to get working 100% with the cost to repair exceeding the value of the pin. Some techs will not work on early SS machines because of future reliability problems after the machine is fixed. They want to avoid "call backs" that the customer wants fixes for free.

    Unless your familiar with working on juke boxes I would avoid it.

    #15 5 years ago
    Quoted from minnesota13:

    Most professional techs will not work on EM pins. EMs can be time consuming to get working 100% with the cost to repair exceeding the value of the pin. Some techs will not work on early SS machines because of future reliability problems after the machine is fixed. They want to avoid "call backs" that the customer wants fixes for free.
    Unless your familiar with working on juke boxes I would avoid it.

    Some EM/SS repairs are actually really easy fixes. I wouldn't refuse a repair based off of that BUT I would let the customer know that depending on repair that the possibility of failure could be high

    #16 5 years ago

    I have seldom found an EM that has been sitting around not working for a number of years to be anything but an easy fix. All of the mechanisms have been stuck like glue was used for lubrication. A four player set of score reels can keep
    a person busy for a long time.

    If the EM has been working then there is a sudden problem with resetting then perhaps an easy fix, but generally if the machine has been setting non-working for a time it's not going to be easy and quick cleaning all of the mechs before proceeding to the debug stage. You might get lucky and find that the problem is a simple and easy fix, but I wouldn't think that going in.

    #17 5 years ago

    When I take on outside repair projects for people I usually just decide on a flat rate. I never "make money" when factoring time but I learn a ton and do it for the fun and the education. I just repaired an old EM game that had a myriad of issues and it took me 3 months, probably 50 hours of my time and I charged the guy $200 plus the parts. But I am not doing these repairs for income or a career, its fun late evening garage time learning something new and messing with machines that I don't have to buy myself or worry about selling when I am bored with it.

    #18 5 years ago
    Quoted from Langless28:

    Yes let me preface this and say I recently moved to a new town and made a post to the towns fecebook group informing them I have a hobby of restoring and playing pinball.

    Based on this, I wouldn't do the repairs. I think it'll turn into more trouble than it's worth, especially if you're not a skilled tech. Most people, when having their games repaired, expect them to be done well and in a timely manner.

    If you were doing this as a favor to a friend, or someone you knew well enough to let them know your skill level up front, I might do it. In fact, I have done just that for people I know. I've shopped games and done small/easy repairs but I've also told them up front that repair is not my strength so if it fails in the future, I'm not the guy that's going to fix it. On the occasion that a game I've helped with fails, I send them to the professional tech.

    Dave

    #19 5 years ago

    Gosh, I wish we had techs for hire at all in my area so I could give the OP my opinion on this. There needs to be more pinball techs around, the world would be a happier place!

    #20 5 years ago

    That is why I help people from time to time. I live in Alaska so there is no one to call if you need anything done to a pin.

    #21 5 years ago

    I’d go take a look if it’s local, if you can fix it great, if not, well, you tried. Just be upfront on your skill level. I wouldn’t charge them unless it requires parts and it wasn’t more than an hour or so. The experience you get fixing in this instance is enough.

    #22 5 years ago

    I'd go look. I've went to go look at many pins to help fix them. Most of the time they decide to sell them to me when the find out how much is wrong with it or how much work it will need.
    BRING cash vehical and dolly whenever you go. Cash in hand for a broken machine most people take it.

    #23 5 years ago

    I've worked with a couple techs one charges around $30-40 an hour and the other charges $75 an hour and $40 for the call (I'm 45 minutes away) the $75 tech ends up being cheaper because he is so good hes fixed issues in 5 minutes that the other tech spent an hour on and couldn't fix.he usually comes out for about 2 hours costing me around $200 but he will usually fix 4-5 machines in that time.

    #24 5 years ago
    Quoted from Puffdanny:

    I've worked with a couple techs one charges around $30-40 an hour and the other charges $75 an hour and $40 for the call (I'm 45 minutes away) the $75 tech ends up being cheaper because he is so good hes fixed issues in 5 minutes that the other tech spent an hour on and couldn't fix.he usually comes out for about 2 hours costing me around $200 but he will usually fix 4-5 machines in that time.

    Perfect example of you get what you pay for.
    -Mike

    #25 5 years ago

    It's amazing to me how cheap people expect pinball techs to work for when you consider what it costs for someone to come to your house to look at your dishwasher or washing machine.

    #26 5 years ago

    We have one tech that does house calls in our area. Just to get him to show up is $100 but that will get you quite a bit of work. There have beeen times when he has fixed everything in an hour. But that $100 I could get 2 hours or so. Then he will increase the amount for time spent after that. If he spends all afternoon at your house expect to pay for it.

    Recently I have used him on EMs pretty much exclusively but now I am getting better on EMs because he has taught me a lot.

    I would not recommend you volunteer to do house calls for strangers unless you are very skilled on ALL ERAS of games! If you fumble around a lot and waste both your and their time it won’t end well. Friends are another story.

    Eric

    #27 5 years ago
    Quoted from Dkjimbo:

    When I take on outside repair projects for people I usually just decide on a flat rate. I never "make money" when factoring time but I learn a ton and do it for the fun and the education. I just repaired an old EM game that had a myriad of issues and it took me 3 months, probably 50 hours of my time and I charged the guy $200 plus the parts. But I am not doing these repairs for income or a career, its fun late evening garage time learning something new and messing with machines that I don't have to buy myself or worry about selling when I am bored with it.

    Flat rate is great idea. Because if I’m paying by the hour, you better know what you’re doing and work quickly.

    #28 5 years ago

    I agree with the estimate of a flat rate, then discussions if it looks like that has to change (more parts needed, or extended time required).

    I would imagine a pinball tech comes in around $50-$75/hr and price your fixed price engagements at 125% - 150% of what you think you need. If they can't afford you, they don't need you.

    The only person who will feel pain if you try to cut your margins close will be you.

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