>Also, at least in my office, we have a lot of customization to get all the software to work the way we want. I just upgraded WordPerfect on the first machine, I spent 4 hours dragging all the custom crap over and figuring out how to make the rest of the upgrade easier. I wouldn't expect an inexperienced tech to figure it out.

I agree with you that the experience you pay for is really peace of mind.

I think i'd just dump all the custom crap, do the upgrade, and let the users put their customizing together on their own time. It depends largely on whether you're support power users legitimately customized for efficiency who would be less productive with a vanilla upgrade, or end users whose customization is color schemes/pop-up assistants/etc. who will whine on monday morning but get over it. (i'd love the pleasure of working with the power user, BTW)

I think John's issue is with a $125/hr tech wasting time and money on a task that could be safely given to someone on staff. My post (as usual) was a bit extreme towards oversimplification, and your reply provides the other side of the issue.

"... defrag your hard drive for only $75/hr! Make checks payable to ..."