Hacking Is this price fair?

[Lynk]

@aldrinballado if you want any help with doing it, let me know as I'm located in Adelaide too and willing to donate some of my time to help out. I've downgraded and installed A9LH on a few consoles so I've got some experience.

 

[upfromtheskies]

A9LH installation takes about 2 hours, and $50 an hour is a pretty standard price for technical service and repair. Geek Squad in the US, for example, charges about $60 an hour for home visits.

 

[Quantumcat]

A9LH installation takes about 2 hours, and $50 an hour is a pretty standard price for technical service and repair. Geek Squad in the US, for example, charges about $60 an hour for home visits.

It would be reasonable if it required some specialised knowledge/training or tools or equipment not available to the everyday person. Like plumbers or tutors (or hardmodders). But here all you need is a computer so not so reasonable anymore.

 

[upfromtheskies]

It would be reasonable if it required some specialised knowledge/training or tools or equipment not available to the everyday person. Like plumbers or tutors (or hardmodders). But here all you need is a computer so not so reasonable anymore.

Knowledge and training is available for just about anything for free online if you have the time to learn and then do it yourself. You also have to consider this person probably does a lot more than work on 3DS, things that they probably charge even more for, so if they are taking 2 hours of their time that could have been spent on something else, they are going to charge for it. Time is money.

 

[Quantumcat]

Knowledge and training is available for just about anything for free online if you have the time to learn and then do it yourself. You also have to consider this person probably does a lot more than work on 3DS, things that they probably charge even more for, so if they are taking 2 hours of their time that could have been spent on something else, they are going to charge for it. Time is money.

Plumbing requires doing a TAFE certificate and an apprenticeship, being a tutor requires higher education in maths and teaching, being a hardmodder requires much practice (on equipment that costs money) and special tools. These things you can't just learn on the net. So if you employ the services of someone who has this extra stuff it needs to be paid for.
If it took two hours it might cost $20/hour for unskilled labour so $40 (anyone with a PC can do it) but definitely not $80 and not to mention it wouldn't take over an hour anyway.

 

[aldrinballado]

Knowledge and training is available for just about anything for free online if you have the time to learn and then do it yourself. You also have to consider this person probably does a lot more than work on 3DS, things that they probably charge even more for, so if they are taking 2 hours of their time that could have been spent on something else, they are going to charge for it. Time is money.

The guy I was in contact was not a professional so I have no fucking clue why you're bring this up in my thread. He is a 3DS hacking enthusiast much like the rest of us as it is suggestive of it in our exchange of private messages.

Honestly, he was trying to bullshit his way through to my mind so that he could make quick buck. Keep in mind that he is charging me AU$80 and an additional AU$50 for insurance. That is fucking beyond absurd as he is only moving files to and from an SD card.

I'm just going to leave these private messages here and let you be the judge.

 

[Pokem]

Loooool, if you have a 2DS that's exploitable, why would you even contemplate on paying for this ridiculously expensive service?
$80 for an A9LH installation alone is not worth it when you have the tools.

 

[QuantumWings]

Seriously? A n3ds is less than $200AU on ebay. At that price you are better off buying a 3ds on an old firmware and selling the one you already have.

 

[gnmmarechal]

What the hell, that is so goddamn expensive. I offer downgrade services for free, besides shipping and the price of Fieldrunners if necessary x.x.

Even a hardmod downgrade is cheaper....

Sent from my cave of despair where I collect souls

 

[Zidapi]

@aldrinballado

Only you can determine whether it's worthwhile giving someone money for something that can be done for nothing.

Look at it this way, you're looking at $50USD/$65AUD for the hardmod itself. Beyond that you're paying for the time spent setting up arm9loaderhax, so $15 divided by X hours.

When you break it down like that and look at it objectively, $80AUD isn't unreasonable.

You aussies are damn rich, why bother over what's pennies you can make back in a day's work?

*two and a half hours.

 

[aldrinballado]

Loooool, if you have a 2DS that's exploitable, why would you even contemplate on paying for this ridiculously expensive service?
$80 for an A9LH installation alone is not worth it when you have the tools.

I recently acquired it from my girlfriend and this was after I started messaging him. Why else would I message the guy if I had no way to hack it myself?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

@aldrinballado
When you break it down like that and look at it objectively, $80AUD isn't unreasonable.

You don't understand. I was essentially forced to pay the extra fee as the guy could have easily lied about bricking and walked away with not only my 3DS but with $80 in his pocket.

 

[Zidapi]

You don't understand. I was essentially forced to pay the extra fee as the guy could have easily lied about bricking and walked away with not only my 3DS but with $80 in his pocket.

lolsorry. I only read the first two paragraphs of your post. $80 is reasonable, $130 is criminal.

Contact @Shadowtrance he's based in Queensland and may be able to do it for you at a reasonable price. I say "may" because modding an old3DS (likely 2DS too) is troublesome and some people prefer to avoid working with them altogether.

I hope I've been a little more helpful this time around.

Edit: If Shadowtrance can't help you out, your best options are @hundshamer or @vb_encryption_vb who are based in the US, and @gamesquest1 who is based in the UK.

 

[astrangeone]

I do the full installation of A9LH for $40. Sure, it's a bit expensive in comparison, but I make damn sure that I have everything running.

 

[SakifX9]

I would do it for free

 

[Deleted User]

That's quite expensive for a9lh services.You could probably get a old 3ds xl or a new 3ds with a stock sdcard preinstalled with a9lh for that same price.

 

[gamesquest1]

as much as people do the whole "i would do it for $2" or "i would do it for free", lets be realistic, for someone to be bothered doing this stuff they have to be making enough for it to be worth their time, as a one off favor for a friend, sure free, maybe a couple of friends....ok i can do it free but it gets a bit annoying spending your time doing something for someone and they don't value your time at all, if someone offered to help me do something i couldn't and i knew they spend an hour or 2 doing it i would certainly consider giving them a $40 tip for their help, especially when they are doing something that could save me a lot of money in the long run

so sure i will say the persons prices in the OP were on the excessive side, but its certainly not something people should just be expecting people to do for them for free, if you want it done free do it yourself or find a close friend who can do it for you

 

[InsaneNutter]

Honestly, he was trying to bullshit his way through to my mind so that he could make quick buck. Keep in mind that he is charging me AU$80 and an additional AU$50 for insurance. That is fucking beyond absurd as he is only moving files to and from an SD card.

I'm just going to leave these private messages here and let you be the judge.

He's charging you $80, the insurance is optional.

Also you stated earlier:

I do, however, own a 2DS on FW 10.6.0-31E which I may hack myself and install A9LH as the price he had quoted shocked me.

So as "its only moving files about on your SD card" why don't you do it yourself?

You have a 2DS you can hack, which can then be used to hack your N3DS...

At the end of the day your paying someone for something you can't be bothered to do. You could do it yourself for the cost of Fieldrunners or pay $80.

This guy is obviously not that bothered about hacking consoles either way, so if anyone wants to pay him then that's the price for his time, if not then no great loss.

I wouldnt be bothered about making £10 here and there for hacking a random persons console, if i was going to do that i'd want it to be worth my while. That said i wouldn't want to hack a random persons console, however I would do family or friends for free.

 

[Deleted User]

as much as people do the whole "i would do it for $2" or "i would do it for free", lets be realistic, for someone to be bothered doing this stuff they have to be making enough for it to be worth their time, as a one off favor for a friend, sure free, maybe a couple of friends....ok i can do it free but it gets a bit annoying spending your time doing something for someone and they don't value your time at all, if someone offered to help me do something i couldn't and i knew they spend an hour or 2 doing it i would certainly consider giving them a $40 tip for their help, especially when they are doing something that could save me a lot of money in the long run

so sure i will say the persons prices in the OP were on the excessive side, but its certainly not something people should just be expecting people to do for them for free, if you want it done free do it yourself or find a close friend who can do it for you

I wouldn't go higher then 40$ for the whole service though.Paying extra to someone for insurance sounds kind of scetchy and besides,what's that point of insurance anyway if the modder doing it is sapposed to be a expert and never brick,you might aswell do it on your own in that case.

 

[Raylight]

Hello, I would like to ask whether the following prices are worth it for a full installation and set-up of A9LH on a N3DS via the DSiware downgrade method.

I have contacted a local private vendor who has quoted me AU$80 for a full installation of A9LH and Luma on my N3DS running 11.0 firmware.

He then proceeds to make claims about the risks of bricking and that an additional insurance payment of AU$50 will entitle me to a new console if it ever happens to my 3DS.

In total it will cost me AU$130 (US$100) for a 'risk-less' installation of A9LH.

I want to know whether this is fair for this kind of service.

for that price he better throw in a favor or two otherwise its not worth it.

 

[gamesquest1]

I wouldn't go higher then 40$ for the whole service though.Paying extra to someone for insurance sounds kind of scetchy and besides,what's that point of insurance anyway if the modder doing it is sapposed to be a expert and never brick,you might aswell do it on your own in that case.

well i guess its really just acting as a sort of disclaimer, i have fixed a few consoles for people who simply got a random brick, all the steps done correct, but the process just decided to fail that day, with most things like this, sure its 99% safe, but there is still that 1% brick risk

but 80$ is absurd, thats pretty much the actual cost of a replacement motherboard, in which case he is charging you for the replacement part before its even needed and you dont get a refund if you don't, imagine if your home insurance was the entire price of your home contents....it defeats the purpose

what would make sense is if he had a say $10 brick insurance, that way if he does 8 consoles he will eventually end up in profit and should a brick ever occur and he can use the $10 from each user to pay for the repair, thats how insurance is supposed to work.