Originally Posted by Exoter175
I quoted a bunch of your posts so I can help explain a few things for you, since you are extremely misguided about how the auto repair business works, so I'll be highlighting a few points here, hopefully it'll enlighten you, and the rest of the community so they don't get the foolish notion that "Since they are already doing work, maybe they'll do this for practically nothing".
First things' first, bringing a part in will not earn you a discount. In fact, it is almost insulting to every business out there, and a good majority of them WILL NOT install "your" part for a number of reasons, but make no mistake about it, the largest reason they will not, is because they cannot mark the price up. The next biggest reason is because the manufacturer of that part probably doesn't adhere to the same quality standards that the repair facility (usually dealerships in this case) will stamp their warranty work on.
As most places will have a general warranty coverage on all work done, we're not going to warranty a used part, and we certainly aren't going to warranty a cheap reproduction or reman part from an inferior quality supplier and add our warrant to it.
Also, since we aren't making a single CENT off of your mirror, we won't be obliged to discount the time it takes to put your mirror on. Most places, as it turns out, are going to charge you a MINIMUM 1 hour labor to do ANYTHING on a car, short of a flat rate service (Oil Change, Brakes, Exhaust, etc.)
Depending on where you live, that labor hour could be anywhere from 50 dollars in labor (BFE midwest) to 95 dollars an hour (KC metro stealership)
Minimum, unless the tech or manager are a close friend.
This is the next bit that I'll touch on.
First, you sound like a cheap ass. You sound like the individual who will fight me (the mechanic or manager) tooth and nail for your business because you don't want to pay what I'll charge everyone else, because you can't afford it. I'll try to fight for your business to a degree, and you'll try to drag me to that point and then go further. I will have a line I won't do the work for, and you're likely going to get me to that line, or just above it. Once we've established that, I'm not cutting you a discount on ANYTHING ever again.
Second, 100 dollars is NOTHING in the automotive repair business. Generally speaking, that's about 1.5 hours of labor or just a little under at most "mom and pop" shops.
I don't even think I can go anywhere in the KC metro and get all 8 of my plugs changed in my mustang for 100 bucks. I'm not sure what your service is, but I've written tickets for an Oil Change and Air Filter for nearly as much as you're spending, and those are 15 minutes In and Out all day long.
I realize 100 dollars is something to you, but understand that 100 dollars is NOTHING for a business that needs to earn it.
What you don't understand is that labor hour generally goes to paying a huge portion of the business, as a lot of the parts barely have any true "room" to make up that kind of "markup".
Say I sell you a distributor for $250 dollars, chances are I picked that distributor up for about $210-220, but I'm probably going to charge you an hour to put that on, 16-24 of that is going to my mechanic to put it on, he's only going to take about 20 minutes to do it, and the 40-50ish remaining goes back to the shop. In most medium sized repair facilities, I'm going to have to have about 5 of YOU a day, to pay for my business all said and done.
So to answer, no, you aren't being reasonable.
The next issue I have, and this will be true enlightenment.
Just because something takes 7 minutes and 24 minutes to install for the trained professional, does not mean I should be charging you 7 minutes and 24 minutes of my labor hour.
You didn't pay for his training, you don't pay for the facility, you don't pay for the advertising, you certainly don't pay for overhead at all, yet, you think you should only be charged for the time it took to repair?
When it comes to repair of ANY KIND, you're paying for the service, not the time. If the service calls for 3.5 hours, you'll get charged 3.5 hours. But, should your trusted repair facility employ some very knowledgeable, very fast mechanics who can get the job done in 1.7 hours, you aren't going to pay less because they are that much better and efficient.
You'll just get your car back that much sooner and be on your way to the life of whatever it is you do, that much quicker.
If repair facilities charged you for the actual time it took them, they would be out of business, or............you'd see labor hours doubling or tripling the current labor hours, just to get back to the same "profits" they have right now, but you'd see a new breed of mechanics that are rushed and more mistake prone.
You don't wan that, wise up.
Forget it then.
I'm guessing that your car is a shitbox based on the aforementioned repair costs, that, or you are getting preventative maintenance done.
But I'll give you an idea of a real life scenario.
A friend of mine had his mothers' car come into MY business to get a tune up and to replace her sway bar. After all was said and done, I think we knocked the car out in like 2 hours, but HE (the friend) also brought in a mirror to have it replaced at the last second. He asked me for a quote and gave me the number to call her to get the go ahead on the purchase.
I quoted her in the neighborhood of 115 dollars to remove and replace the mirror.
Do you know why?
The labor hour came out to about 1.5 hours, I had to remove the door panel (wasn't easy, required special tools that I had to buy because this is the business I am in), and re-pin (I did this for free) the connector to her heated mirrors.
Therein lies the issue in some cases. Newer cars cost more to fix. She was driving a 2011 fully loaded Acura TSX, this thing had Heated, Power Mirrors, Power door locks, everything, which is more shit for me to remove and/or **** up when I take her door panel off.
The connector in this case was broken, and I had to remove the connector (depin) and fix it (repin to the new one), I charge $125 dollars a labor hour for electrical work and/or invasive work. I did it for free because he brought me a ton of business my way.
Still, it cost her $115 to replace it. Do you know what other places had quoted her?
$400+ Dollars for 1.5 hours labor + 1 hour electrical/diagnostic
Yet you want that shit done for 20 dollars or "**** it, I'll do it myself"
$20 isn't shit anymore kid, I wipe my ass with 20's.
It is, especially when it is your part.
They'd certainly give you a labor discount had you bought their part or allowed them to source one for you, granted it would be marked up a bit, but you'd likely have paid significantly less on the labor.
A lot of this depends on the Year, Make, and Model of the car.
My mustang would take some time, but my 92 civic? 3 minutes flat.
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