Labor rates

How do you folks in the repair business handle your shop rates when a customer prices parts- tires in this case- a couple of times then decides to buy them elsewhere but still wants you to mount them because your labor rates are cheaper? Normally I just go with shop rate x hours, but there are a few customers that want to call a couple times a week buy very little, and in this particular case the calls just result in me getting to do the grunt work on somebody else's part sale. Again, normally if a customer walks in with old rims and tires and New tires, I just mount them and charge whatever time it took... But there's a whole lot of time not getting billed here. Am I getting too grumpy in my old age? How do y'all handle this? How would those of you who are just on the customer end expect to be treated?

I am guessing you have one problem customer? I would delay with them tell them you are busy when they call and that you will get back to them. People usually get the point pretty quickly.

I don't understand your 'shop rate'. Guys here are $100/hr(big shops more) . Doesn't matter if they do tire swaps,balljoints,sparkplugs...labour rate is what it is. Most get 'time to repair number' from some computer program.
Where they 'win' is when the job takes less time than the 'book' says ,so if they're fast maybe 5 jobs done 4 jobs 'by the book'.That earns them $100 more (plus profit on parts)
Where they lose is when the job takes longer (busted bolts !)and they're honest,then 2hrs of realtime is only charged as 1hr(according to the book).
I've got 'problem' customers too..I just tell them I'm busy come back later,which is true most days though 'busy' can be subjective ! Interesting how ALL the 'problem' ones want stuff done for $20 and ME to supply free parts. There's fewer and fewer these days though...as I'm 'busy'.

Jay

A buddy of mine ran a shop. He would take the mark up he would make on the parts and the labor he would charge anyway. And charge the customer that rate. Weather they got the parts from him or not that way he wasn't losing anything.

Sounds like they are using you. Like stated above, you most likely don't need customers like that. I have been lucky, that I have a great group of customers, most of the time. I have had a couple act like jerks, and I simply will not tolerate that. My accountant told me when I first opened my own shop, "if you're getting more work than you can do, you're too cheap". At first, I kinda thought that was a little arrogant, but I was just starting out. Now, I can easily see, he was right, although, I have not raised my shop rate since I opened. Parts go up every year. I am busier than I like to be, but that is better than no work!

Some tire shops here won't mount tires that they don't sell.
There's a local tire wholesaler nearby that we have account with. We get tires without the markup, but the deal always is that when we buy tires from them, we have to install them ourselves. That keeps the local shops happy because we're not stealing their markup. Seems fair to me.

   Hey JD,,,I also do some shade tree'in for people I know and "want" to help, but there will always be those that try to get to you,,and then,,there are those that actually do NOT have the funds to go else where, That I try to help.
   The Dealers "flat rate" here is $121/hour, and in some instances,,,can actually save you money as they can only charge you what the book says it should take to do the job. If the mechanic cannot fix your vehicle,,the flat rate says 2 hrs for the job,,in that 2 hours,,,,the dealer cannot charge you his actual time, even if it took him 6 hours!!
   In most cases,,I charge $60/Hr,,but, as I said,,I  do charge some at the $30/Hr rate too. I DO NOT do any jobs where I install THEIR parts and I tell em so BEFORE I agree to do the job. I am very firm on this and They can go elsewhere if they insist on them buyin their parts.

Funny thing is the guy I work with is just the opposite he doesn't want to try and find old tractor parts so he refuses to get any parts I have to get everything. Same holds true with my truck parts. But then he knows I only buy quality cause I don't want to pay labor to take the cheap part back out and put the good one in later.

While I am certainly no expert I did run my own shop for years and dealt with the cheapest of the cheap, gun owners. I  had figured that there will always be somebody willing to shuffle parts across the counter for cheapo money and I was right, and you cant change that. Like you I would price a job parts and labor and people would shop the parts , go buy them at Midway or the like and bring them in expecting me to do the labor portion only,, Grrr. So the first thing  I  tried was price parts at basically a break even price and upped labor so my net remained the same.  Then I had people wanting to buy the parts and take them elsewhere to be installed, Grrr. Finally settled upon a policy that I would not install customer supplied parts except under certain circumstances and hung a big sign by the door so nobody could claim to be surprised by it. Told those that didn't like that policy to not let the door smack'em in the butt when they left.

There is a flock of people around looking for someone to do their work for nothing. My theory is if I am not going to make anything I am going to sit in a chair and relax. If your good at what you do people will come to your shop and pay your rates, however if your reputation is working for cheap, that's what people will expect when they come knocking and the cheapskate flock WILL find you.

I dont work on guns any longer but still have my machine shop. I bought a horizontal boring mill a few years ago because I could not get my own work done that needed to be preformed on one. Now I have a backlog of bore and sleeve work, mostly on antique engines. Last fall I quoted a guy $XXX to supply install a sleeve in a 8HP Witte. He shows up a month later with the engine,,, and a sleeve in a box. Wants to know how much I will knock off the job. Told him to take the sleeve home with him, or the entire job, whichever made him happy. He took it all home and I still have 3 months worth of work lined up to do on that machine.  Again moral of the story is be good at what you do and the heck with the cheapskates.


Edited by Butch(OH) - 31 Jan 2017 at 10:19am

WORK IS WORK, I CHARGE $35 PER HOUR NO MATTER WHAT THE JOB. 

I guess I need to tip my mechanic next time because I have supplied a part or two for him on occasion but never did it to save money, was doing it to help him out from having to call and make a run to get the part. Maybe if I do that again I'll ask him to double the rate as he is very reasonable?

Acdiesel wrote: WORK IS WORK, I CHARGE $35 PER HOUR NO MATTER WHAT THE JOB.  IF THEY SUPPLY THE PARTS THAT'S GOOD FOR ME, ( THE LESS WORK i HAVE TO DO WITH PHONE CALLS AND CHASING AFTER THEM) IF I HAVE TO BUY THE PARTS I ONLY CHARGE THEM FOR THE PRICE OF THE PART, NO MARK-UP. AND I DO LOOK AROUND FOR THE BEST PRICE. I HAVE PLENTY OF CUSTOMERS AND NEVER ANY COMPLAINTS AND MOST PAY ME MORE THEN THE AMOUNT ON THE INVOICE. ( USUALLY $10 OR $20) JUST MY 2 CENTS    DAN

I have bumped up payment on an invoice or two over the years as the work was performed far cheaper than any other quotes, and I knew it was done right. If an invoice seems low to me, I always ask if they feel they covered everything on their charges as I want to be fair plus good reputable shops for working on these older units are getting scarce.
Ran the little D12 over to a fella's shop after reassembly as the fence row find shown the tranny/rear to be in hardly used condition when initially inspected. But she had a slight growling we could not nail down. This ex A-C mechanic split it and built a bushing for the quill shaft and called me the next day saying it was ready. Colder than a witches boob in a brass bra that day but he mentioned his wife was on him to "till" up about a 1/2 acre garden next to his shop they had not used for years. Since the engine had about 30 mins. on it (built by someone else), asked him for his preferred break-in method. Told me he knew who did the engine work (complimented his machine shop)and advised I should get her warmed up and start working her through the gears in stages as she was worked. Asked if he had a small disc and we dug one out of the briars behind his shop and I froze my but off chopping up his wife's vegetable plot. Turned it to powder for him and he came out occasionally to adjust the carb and gov'ner and check the little gal with his temp gun. Thanked me and then checked my valve clearance and double checked my torque on head before I loaded her on the trailer.
Think of him when I walk by that D12 in the shop as we lost a good man to cancer about a year after he fixed that bushing.

Been using the same tire shop for years and I buy my tires from him if he has what I need but if I buy from somewhere else either they mount them or I do it myself. I do bring my own oil and filter and he does the labor on the oil changes and he is good with that but any other work he supplies the parts. He is not always the least expensive on tires but I am willing to pay more to get good service. One caution about installing tires from somewhere else is that you may be assuming part of the liability if a tire is defective and causes injury. From a customer's viewpoint I respect the mechanic's right to make a reasonable profit on parts to cover overhead, etc. One thing that irritates me is for a shop to tell me to bring it on in and then take hours or days to get the job finished. If you are too busy just let me know and I will wait or make other arrangements if I am in a hurry.

if it ever came down to where i'd hafta pay that outrageous shop price, that mechanic is gonna get the chit job!