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Am I wrong for charging a diagnostic fee when the fix takes 5 minutes?
Had a lady bring in a desktop last Tuesday that would not boot past the logo screen, and I spent about 20 minutes poking at it before I found a bad RAM stick. Swapped it with a spare I had on the shelf, machine booted fine, whole thing took under half an hour from the time she walked in. I charged her my standard $75 diagnostic plus the cost of the stick, and she got pretty upset, saying I barely did anything and it should be cheaper. My side is that the fee pays for the years of knowing where to look, plus the bench time and the parts I keep on hand, and without that fee I would be running a charity. Her side is that the actual repair was basically free labor once I already knew the answer, so why should she pay for my thinking. I get why it feels bad from her seat, but I also think people pay plumbers and electricians the same way and nobody blinks. Curious how the rest of you handle this, do you drop the diagnostic when the fix turns out easy, or do you hold the line and explain the why?
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