LMAO:LOL:

What the **** makes you think I would know this? I don't think I've ever had a conversation with you before today. I recognize Sauto, but I don't recall ever having much interaction with him. You're making up some bizarre narrative much the same way you make up phony labor charges.

Do the world a favor and spare us your morality lessons. There may be honor among thieves, but in the end, there are no honorable thieves.

All mechanics should just charge by the job instead of having a crazy "Labor Hours" system.

My local mechanic tells me how much the job will cost. He has it figured out. People get confused when they are charged 2.5 hours of labor when it only took 1.9 hours because the mechanic is a badass that is efficient.

then I don't think I would call you a crook or a cheat...If I know what you are doing up front and I agree...then we have a contract.

I'm not honest? Am I not the one here telling you guys exactly how 99.9% of every business is ran except for apparently you butt buddy Sauto.

Listen, he works for a mom and pop shop in BFE, if he opened a shop in KC, he'd be out of business the next day. It doesn't matter how good his work is, or how friendly he is with customers, the sheer cost of business would drive him in the dirt, which is why most people will hire managers to oversee the business and make sure it is ran right. Simple minded folks like Sauto don't have the stomach for business, to crunch numbers night and day so that they can stay in business and provide their service to the public. I do, and I'm being honest and you are reaming me for it?

Sorry for educating the dumb-masses.

Which is why I decided to post at length about this, so people know exactly how this field of business is ran so they know what to expect.

This, somebody knows how business works. It seems like he's one of the few in this thread actively posting who knows the concept of "You get what you pay for" and knows that SPEED and turnaround factors into that.

Who are you to say that the number is already inflated?

In all honesty, unless you are a top notch mechanic, you're going to run pretty close to that book time, if you do it right and follow every step. I've seen guys cut corners and half ass it and do it in half the time, but then again, I don't PAY them to half ass things.

My work is top notch, you get nothing but the best from me, and that includes my anal retentive ways of making sure everything is perfect. You're paying for the best service in KC, and you're going to pay for it. Not because I say so, but because my service is the best, my service comes with degrees and certificates, and because it comes with a work ethic second to none. It will never hurt me to have a mexican take a job away from me, lord knows I've always got work to do anyways.

The point is, every business marks up the book time so they can get 10% here or 10% there.

I've yet to hear you bitch to me about how we markup our parts too, because we make more in the markup of parts than we do in our book times.

Yet, I don't think you'll call that unethical.

Interesting how you argue one side of the coin here, and not the other.

Correct, but I don't believe anyone is arguing they should "catch a break".
What is being argued is that if I have a job that the book says should take 8 hours, is it ethical for Extorter to charge for 10. He may be able to get it done in 4, that's irrelevant. The book (be it Chilton's, AllData, or Mitchell) calls for 8.

So charging that extra 10-25% that he claimed is outright theft.

Give me a ****ing break. You might be able to slip that shit past old ladies who are easy targets for snake oil salesmen, but I'm not some ****ing rube. If you want to charge more, raise your hourly rates.

If you're so swift at twisting wrenches, you deserve to charge more per hour. What you don't get to do is bill customers for work that didn't get done.

I have a personal boxing coach. He charges me by the hour. If he trains me for two hours but bills me for 3.5 saying that he gets 3.5 hours worth of results in two hours, I'm going to tell him to go **** himself. If he's so great, he can charge more per hour. He doesn't get to bill me for work he never did.

A lot of these jobs are paid for by insurance companies. I'd love to see him bill an insurance company for 2.4 hours on a job booked at 2 hours that can actually be done in 90 minutes.

He would never get away with that. Instead, he just rips off customers who don't know any better.

for the record, I'm a good tipper, and understand the need, was just trying to troll hootie

Agreed.

You claim ignorant now? We've argued in probably 3 or 4 threads Saul, you might want to fix that memory before you call an honest man providing a public service announcement, a crook. It looks bad for you.

In all honesty, 50% of the jobs done on a daily basis are flat rate, I'm charging you X dollars to do Y job. That figure, of course, is based loosely on book hour and labor rate, and then discounted slightly to a good looking number, so that I can inspect the car for any other faults so I can make more money fixing more stuff.

Now, when you come in with a Jetta that has a Dual Mass Flywheel that is prone to disintegrating and you want me to A. find the source of the problem and B. fix it, you're going to get book hour.

This business is a contract business, I won't charge you more if I take longer, and I won't charge you more "just because".

I'll inspect the car and its issues and write up a ticket, show you the ticket, and explain to you everything about that ticket so you are comfortable with it before any signatures are done, before any cash is in my bank.

In all honesty, when I had my own shop, I went out of my way to explain exactly what it was that was wrong, why I was fixing, and made every effort I could to get across to my customers what was being done so they were comfortable with it.

Sure, it took a little bit more time, but I NEVER had a case of "WHy did it cost this much" or "Is my car ready yet" after or during the job. My customers dropped off their cars and were 110% confident it would be fixed on time, and that I'd bend over backwards to get it done so.

On this point I'm not going to beat around the bush or try and sugar coat anything.

You're a Goddamned liar.

Like I said, it should just be a "By the job" bidding system, similar to windshield replacement.


That way you don't get ****ed by a slow mechanic that runs up the clock.

Why don't you show me one of those threads, you lying ****ing thief?

Well, I have learned a lot in this thread.