Installing a passenger side mirror?

[Hootie]

some dipshit kicked/punched my side mirror off and I had to go to ebay to buy a replacement...

I am not savvy enough (I'm a dipshit) to install it myself and I am getting a little bit of work done tomorrow at an auto shop and I'm going to bring the mirror with me and ask them to install it for me...

how much should I be expecting them to charge me for that labor since I have already bought the part?

[Exoter175]

Originally Posted by Peyton's Princess

I love mexicans because they work hard and aren't entitled...like us greedy Americans.

best blue collar workers in the country

You are misusing the word Entitled horrendously. Stop using that word.

Originally Posted by ChiefsNow

Why would you remove a perfectly good duct tape repair. You could have reinforced it with spray foam and bondo.

Or just more duct tape.

I duct taped my bumper back together when I was 16 and couldn't afford a repair. It was awesome.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Hootie may not have known the specifics of the business practices of mechanics, but he didn't start the thread with any ill intent, so why do you have to be such a ****ing prick about it? He specifically posted the OP to ask a question b/c he didn't want to offend the mechanic; it could not have been more innocuous.

I think this guy has a Doctorate. It might not be in auto technology, but I think you two can converse on a similar level.

Oh, and thanks for the lesson. What a fascinating one it was.

[Exoter175]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Hootie may not have known the specifics of the business practices of mechanics, but he didn't start the thread with any ill intent, so why do you have to be such a ****ing prick about it? He specifically posted the OP to ask a question b/c he didn't want to offend the mechanic; it could not have been more innocuous.

My first post wasn't laden with disdain for him, I simply explained to him how it works, what not to do, and what to expect. IT wasn't until after his panties got in a bunch that I really started to get on his case, or do you care to go read my first post again?

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

Wow. You are the man.

Now where did I say you were against small business? You work for a small business. I own a small business. I never said you were against small business.

I would assume you would go to hairstylist. Most mechanics, farmers, and others still go to barbers. But someone of your stature in your industry needs that extra flair. Not sure how your haircut became a point where I was wrong but thats ok.

Who does your hair anyway? Ill bet it looks marvelous!

"My observation is that you have a compulsive need to denigrate the ability, competence and customer service delivered by the guy in the independent shop in Nevada or Clinton, or wherever or the guy in the dealership in Butler or Garden City Kansas cause they are small town rubes."

Independent shop implies small business owner, by the way.

As for the hair stylist bit, it serves my point which you fail to understand.

At every level of service in this country, in this world, you are paying for the dues of others.

I don't work on your car unless there is a serious electrical or diagnostic problem that needs to get fixed. I get paid out the ass to do work on your car because I am specialized in the field with 6 years of education and 10+ years of experience.

The same is applied to hair stylists and barbers. There aren't just randomly expensive, elite barbers that people go to, to throw away good money, on an equal educational or experience level as someone at great clips, that isn't how this society works.

Someone with 50 years of barbers schooling and experience is going to charge more than someone with 50 days experience.

It is all completely relative to any service field where there is further training or education to be had.

My first love, computers, as an example. My first year out of high school, I would have been in the area of 36K, my first year out of college, closer to 62K, etc etc..

To deny that simple truth, is to admit ignorance of the fact.

[HonestChieffan]

Is this an internets persona or are you honestly this big a dickhead real time?

[Hootie]

Originally Posted by Exoter175

My first post wasn't laden with disdain for him, I simply explained to him how it works, what not to do, and what to expect. IT wasn't until after his panties got in a bunch that I really started to get on his case, or do you care to go read my first post again?

I had gotten off of work and clicked on ChiefsPlanet...I was browsing the Pioli thread and noticed the thread I made earlier, which I assumed would be dead,m was still getting hits...

I read it and I was appalled by the fact you posted THAT post to an innocent question I had about installation cost for a side mirror.

At no point was I trying to offend mechanics, I simply wanted to know if I could kill two birds with one stone and do it for minimal cost.

I was told no by Bwana right away and that was that...

but instead you felt like you needed to talk down to me and tell me how ****ing stupid I was...

and for no ****ing reason.

So that is why I responded the way I responded to you. I couldn't believe you wasted an hour of your time to give me a 500,000 character life lesson I never needed or asked for.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

Is this an internets persona or are you honestly this big a dickhead real time?

You spelled friendly know-it-all wrong.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by Exoter175

Explain that to the software and engineers educating the robots on how to build a new car every 4 years, and the people that have to build and place those machines into the factories for them to being production, or the teams of people that remove said machines 15 minutes after the last car of that model design rolled off the floor, to make way for the new units to being production of the new cars that are mostly built by robots.

Yep, same industry from first half of the 19xx's.

JFC making a business more efficient by improving manufacturing techniques is not new nor does it change the fact that we have been mass producing automobiles for over a century. Refining the automobiles that we make because we have been making them for so long doesn't make it a new industry either.

Don't hurt yourself getting off that high horse now.

[Exoter175]

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

Is this an internets persona or are you honestly this big a dickhead real time?

Are you that mad about being wrong?

Short answer, yes, I can be the worlds biggest dickhead when put in front of idiots, miscreants, and ignorant who band together.

Try not to join the hive there, pal.

Originally Posted by Peyton's Princess

I had gotten off of work and clicked on ChiefsPlanet...I was browsing the ***** thread and noticed the thread I made earlier, which I assumed would be dead,m was still getting hits...

I read it and I was appalled by the fact you posted THAT post to an innocent question I had about installation cost for a side mirror.

At no point was I trying to offend mechanics, I simply wanted to know if I could kill two birds with one stone and do it for minimal cost.

I was told no by Bwana right away and that was that...

but instead you felt like you needed to talk down to me and tell me how ****ing stupid I was...

and for no ****ing reason.

So that is why I responded the way I responded to you. I couldn't believe you wasted an hour of your time to give me a 500,000 character life lesson I never needed or asked for.

You act like THAT post was completely defamatory.

I explained to you how the industry works so that YOU and OTHERS would not make the same mistake.

Jesus Christ, you act like I'm a terrible person because I told you for the first time, Santa isn't real.

Try not to cry about it too much.

[Exoter175]

Originally Posted by KC native

JFC making a business more efficient by improving manufacturing techniques is not new nor does it change the fact that we have been mass producing automobiles for over a century. Refining the automobiles that we make because we have been making them for so long doesn't make it a new industry either.

Don't hurt yourself getting off that high horse now.

Doesn't take away from the fact that you made an error in judgement making that statement.

[Hootie]

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.

You were INCREDIBLY condescending for no reason whatsoever in this post...and a post that was incredibly unnecessary in the first place.

You could have said:

"Yo, I work at the auto industry. No, we won't do it for $20. Don't even bother asking, that's insulting."

And I would have said, "gee, thanks. That's what I needed to know."

and thread could have been over

instead you called me a cheap dipshit because I don't feel the need to put a lot of $ into a car with 211,000 miles

[KC native]

Originally Posted by Exoter175

Doesn't take away from the fact that you made an error in judgement making that statement.

You are ****ing stupid.

Would you say that the automotive industry life cycle is at

A) infancy

B) adolescence

C) maturity

[Pablo]

Yeah, that response came off as really "friendly".

Exoter, do you eat your lunch all alone?

Originally Posted by Peyton's Princess

You were INCREDIBLY condescending for no reason whatsoever in this post...and a post that was incredibly unnecessary in the first place.

You could have said:

"Yo, I work at the auto industry. No, we won't do it for $20. Don't even bother asking, that's insulting."

And I would have said, "gee, thanks. That's what I needed to know."

and thread could have been over

instead you called me a cheap dipshit because I don't feel the need to put a lot of $ into a car with 211,000 miles

I think you raise a valid point. If the responses on this thread had been billed at a stealership, we'd be at $310,000 already.

[Pablo]

Hootie wipes his ass with 500 post threads.

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by Phobia

I think you raise a valid point. If the responses on this thread had been billed at a stealership, we'd be at $310,000 already.

$310,500 now