I agree with all of that, except for making it a reasonable rate. Go up to the edge of reasonable, then bump it up by $15/h.

Shoot higher!

If you are contracting in a situation like this a reasonable rate could mean $250-$1000 an hour. Really depends on what kind of money your currently make.

A better approach in the case would be to offer to investigate, and provide a flat rate. You can charge $3000 flat fee, and you may solve it in 1.5 hrs.

And -always- minimum two hours.

Oh god yes. Otherwise it's always the same: try to bargain you down to billing 30 minutes work, then complaining that you didn't do the 1.5h of work they'd agreed wouldn't be done to save costs. The usual "in lieu of paying you more, we'll complain harder" nonsense every client from hell pulls.

Or just set a day rate, and limit scope to helping with the specific problem. "It's $1200/day, and scope is limited to helping you understand how to recover from the described problem. All of the work recovery work will be done by you, and my role will be limited to advising."

I agree, but I'd say your missing a zero.

I would ask for 5x my rate easily in this case where I don’t want the work

I once desperately wanted to get out of a bunch of work that someone wanted me to do so I did what you suggested.

They accepted :(.

Hahah I actually like to decide my rate on this exact basis - what amount of money would I feel happy if they accepted.