[Hidden-tech] What to charge for emergency support ?

[Andy Klapper]

I just got off the phone with one of my clients and they wanted to know what
I would charge to provide emergency support for one of their products for
one of their major customers.
Based on the conversation it looks like they are thinking about a weekly fee
to have a beeper (though what's the point of a beeper when you have cell
phones?) attached to my hip and then a per call fee for after hours (7pm ->
7am weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday).  This would be in addition to
any hourly changes.  So if they call at 4am I get paid x plus whatever time
I put in (at a higher rate?)  If things can wait until 7am ->7pm then the
client gets charged my normal rate.
As further background, I am a senior software engineer specializing in
TCP/IP based server applications written in C++.  Over the course of the
last year I've ended up taking over the real time portion of an existing
product of my client's through repeated enhancements.
The questions are;
* Does the structure that they propose seem right?  (Seems reasonable to me,
but I've never done this before and want to avoid any gotchas that others
may have learned the hard way).
* What would reasonable rates be for wearing a beeper, getting a call at 4am
in the morning, and then for performing the work?  (2x normal rate, 3x, 5x?)
* Do I want to be the first responder or have somebody else look at the
problem first?  (I'm thinking no, I'd rather sleep if possible).

I look forward to hearing all of your experiences and advice on this
delicate issue.

Andy Klapper
Asgard Technology Group, LLC