| | | quote | Originally posted by bmwguru:
I'm not a complete ass to my customers. On certain jobs, I bill what I believe to be fair. Mercedes Benz charges 4.0 hours to replace the front brakes-pads, discs, electrical sensor. I charge my customers 1.5 hours.....it still takes 20 minutes, but I don't come out and say I'm charging 1.5 hours at $100 per hour. I say the labor is $150. which is cheaper than Mercedes which is 4.0 hours at $140 per hour.
I do agree that the auto industry is a sham. I have seen so many techs purposely break parts of cars to generate work for themselves. I walked out on a shop that the owner wanted me to do that and when I refused, he told me to do it or get out....I left. I won't make up stuff to sell that customers don't need....there is enough that break on German cars to keep me very busy as is.....and i can sleep at night.
Dave |
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I agree with your practice and do the same myself. And even though I don't work for myself, I'm respected enough at my shop to make my own call on labor times. For instance an early Caravan pays 5.8 hours to install a blower motor because technically by the book your are supposed to remove the dash and HVAC housing to R and R it. A competent tech can do it under an hour if he knows the tricks. I adjust my time to make enough money to keep us all happy ( customer, shop and myself) which is usually 1.5. For this reason and many others, I have many many repeat customers who ask for me by name. I even have 2 customers that drive from Canada just to have me service their Sprinters (Mercedes) even if its just for an oil change. I'm a firm believer in selling the customer what they need and nothing more. And if its something I'm really stumped on, I will tell them honestly up front, that this is an educated guess and that I will take care of them if it doesn't fix the issue. That's really the only way to be in this business with the scammers and crooks that give the rest of us a bad name. -Jason
