Wow--- service / maintenance prices

[HDDAN]

I had a nail in the rear tire of my winter Buick. I went to NTB to get it fixed. The salesman came back and gave me the same story about the power steering fluid. I said no thanks. He came back a minute later and told me that my battery did not have enough cold cranking amps and that I should let him sell me a new one. I said no thanks. When I was leaving, he was running the same line about the battery on another customer who told him to put in a new battery. It has been in the single digits around here with below zero wind chills and my Oldmanmobile Buick started every morning. This is a variation on the old "cut the fan belt with a ring knife" trick. Oh by the way, check my avatar, I have a 2010 1SS. The Buick is for the snow.

[derklug]

There is enough legitimate work that needs done, a reputable garage doesn't need to upsell useless repairs. And yes, we love it when you fix your own stuff, because we get the big bucks for fixing it right.

[CPanther95]

Does an "X" or "H" pipe exhaust system still have a left handed smoke shifter? Those things are as expensive as hell to replace.

[drtwo]

Originally Posted by Oldrocker

I guess everyone in your profession are just honest little angels, huh?
Also what does this thread have to do with the 2010 Camaro?

Most of them are yes!

Unfortunately MOST in the automotive profession are NOT honest and have stained the reputation of them all. Poll 10 people who have been to a repairman and you'll hear the same. (don't poll the repairman as they OF COURSE are 'very honest')

And yes I would consider this 'off topic' but so are the movie reviews that we see here.

[2ss-booya]

Originally Posted by drtwo

And yes I would consider this 'off topic' but so are the movie reviews that we see here.

And the oscars are political!? oh say it isn't so.....

[drtwo]

Yep, my stats are well established and have been verified over and over to the point that they are now considered fact in all 50 states and internationally. You can actually verify them yourself by, as stated above, simply polling 10 people that have lately been to an auto repairman. On average 8 out of 10 felt that they have been shamed, bamboozled, coned, swindled, taken advantage of, etc...

Even look at the last 20 responses and count them...>80% negative.

If you want stronger statistics simply poll 100 or 1000 and you'll get the same response percentage. This is NOT novel information. This is time tested along with snake oil salesmen, door to door salesmen and that ShamWow guy (for cripes sakes it's in the name SHAMwow). People know that going into the profession, just like the used car salesman. What continues to draw people to the job is the very thing that destroys their reputation...predatory, exaggerated profit.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of honest mechanics out there. I personally haven't found one that I use, but I know a guy that knew of one once!

[hunt]

Originally Posted by Oldrocker

Now that is too funny. So you were just trying to show off your ignorance after all.

We'll instead of calling him an idiot, why don't you post statistics to back up what you claim then? I'm inclined to believe him, just from friends i know having dealt with repair shops. On a side note i took my truck in for an oil change and they tried to sell me windshield wipers for 22.00 and a nut for 18.00.

If i can do it myself i will, and if i can't i'll still try to figure it out and learn how.

[Cam_Cam10]

I'm a repairman and I stand behind those of us who are honest. Don't get me wrong if someone comes in for an oil change I'll let them know lf something else that I noticed is wrong. Nobody comes
into a shop for an oil change and ends up leaving with a new battery, wipers, he'll even spark plugs. Well in my shop lol

[Banshee]

It is very difficult to get people in the door at a service station, oil change place or gas station with a garage mechanic.

What really pisses me off is when people tell me stories of getting raped by means of overpricing. To wit, my grandmother went in for brakes with her 1995 Chevy Lumina. She was charged $610 for brakes...NO parts other than brake pads, rotors and drums were replaced. She had 41k on the odometer at the time.

That is INSANE and totally wrong to take advantage of an 80 year old woman!

I priced out the best rotors, pads, shoes and drums without my jobber discount and came up with $240 in parts.

Another example was when I went in for an alignment for my 2002 Trans Am. Tire place said alignment couldn't be done because the tie rods were bad. So I humored myself with an estimate and to change 2 inner and 2 outer tie rods was $423. I went down the street to NAPA and priced out Moog and came up with $120 for the parts and took me 1.5 hours to change them out with a jack in my driveway. The $423 did not include an alignment.

What these places do is charge you the inflated price of the parts. You ever buy a part and on the reciept see your price and the "other price"? Example...I bought two gallons of ordinary blue windshield washer fluid, 2 for $3. Their "other price" was $7.98. Most, if not all repair franchises buy these parts at jobber cost which is 30% less than what you or I can get them for, then charge you that "other price" As another example, my inner tie rod I paid $36, other price was $68 and Belle Tire was charging me $77 for that SAME Moog part which likely cost them $25 in the first place.

Complete BS!

[IOM-SS]

sister took her car in. service station called her told her the radiator needed replacing. she told them go ahead she has been going to the same place for over 15 years went over to pick up the car listen to this $1500.00 for parts labor. called me i told her i would call the 800 number let the state know what this guy was up to. only thing we could figure out was it was just before the first of the month therefore the rent was due. my sister would not let me call. needless to say she has not taken her car back their again

[acatlover13]

Doesn't surprise me...I've checked three different places and they all want over $300 for a tune up on my Buick Rainier....I mean damn...it's sparkplugs and wires for goodness sakes! Yes....I can do it myself (and I will be this time), but where will I find the time?

[Superman09]

Originally Posted by Banshee

It is very difficult to get people in the door at a service station, oil change place or gas station with a garage mechanic.

What really pisses me off is when people tell me stories of getting raped by means of overpricing. To wit, my grandmother went in for brakes with her 1995 Chevy Lumina. She was charged $610 for brakes...NO parts other than brake pads, rotors and drums were replaced. She had 41k on the odometer at the time.

That is INSANE and totally wrong to take advantage of an 80 year old woman!

I priced out the best rotors, pads, shoes and drums without my jobber discount and came up with $240 in parts.

Another example was when I went in for an alignment for my 2002 Trans Am. Tire place said alignment couldn't be done because the tie rods were bad. So I humored myself with an estimate and to change 2 inner and 2 outer tie rods was $423. I went down the street to NAPA and priced out Moog and came up with $120 for the parts and took me 1.5 hours to change them out with a jack in my driveway. The $423 did not include an alignment.

What these places do is charge you the inflated price of the parts. You ever buy a part and on the reciept see your price and the "other price"? Example...I bought two gallons of ordinary blue windshield washer fluid, 2 for $3. Their "other price" was $7.98. Most, if not all repair franchises buy these parts at jobber cost which is 30% less than what you or I can get them for, then charge you that "other price" As another example, my inner tie rod I paid $36, other price was $68 and Belle Tire was charging me $77 for that SAME Moog part which likely cost them $25 in the first place.

Complete BS!

I am a mechanic and yes we do mark up the very same parts you could go down and buy yourself. But we have bills to pay and if we only charged the customer exact cost for the parts our labor rate would be astronomical and people would complain about that. We try to be honest we will even bring customers into the shop and show them exactly what is wrong, why its wrong, and what we are going to do about it. But marking up parts is all part of business. How much do you think NAPA paid MOOG for those tie-rod ends you paid $36 for?

[Banshee]

Originally Posted by Superman09

I am a mechanic and yes we do mark up the very same parts you could go down and buy yourself. But we have bills to pay and if we only charged the customer exact cost for the parts our labor rate would be astronomical and people would complain about that. We try to be honest we will even bring customers into the shop and show them exactly what is wrong, why its wrong, and what we are going to do about it. But marking up parts is all part of business. How much do you think NAPA paid MOOG for those tie-rod ends you paid $36 for?

Thats NOT the point!

The point is labor rates are labor rates, parts cost is parts cost. No Sh*t you have bills to pay. But to mark up a part that costs NAPA $15 who then charge me $25 if I were to fix it myself, but you buy it for the BS price of $52 because my car needs it and you are fixing it.

I would rather NOT be treated like an idiot who believes he should pay a 125% markup on a part. The only difference is that I know what these parts cost, 99% do not.

You are the goat leading the farmers sheep to the slaughter. WHat ever happened to honesty? Is it so difficult to show we paid "X" for the parts, the labor is "X". HAve not you figured out that people are not stupid and that most of them come to you out of necessity and know they are getting bent over and screwed? Have you ever realized that people also know that if you show you are being fair and not marking up and unnecessarily making an additional $27 on a $20 part that word of mouth and referrals because you are fair and not trying to skim 125% on a part you did nothing special to get.

Is it fair for me to buy a part for your grandmother for her garage door opener for $30, charge her $75 for it and then another $110 for an hour labor?

WHat about your friends? Would you do that to them?

[Superman09]

Mark up is perfectly fine with me. When my home A/C unit went out last summer I had to call a repair man knowing full well he would both mark up his parts and also charge labor. I researched around found a reasonable company with a good reputation called them up and the fixed my A/C. Like I said if we didn't mark up the parts our labor rate wouldn't be $110 an hour it would probably be north of $250, and nobody would come to us. They would go to the guy down the road how charged $110 an hour and marked up his parts. Truth be told most people don't know what the parts cost we are buying, yes some do but most don't. I could very very easily screw people over for hundreds upon hundreds of dollars in unnecessary repairs because I know what I am looking at and the average joe doesn't. But we try to be honest and not screw people for things they don't need. Again mark up is a part of life, its either mark up parts or raise labor rates you take your choice and complain about the other.
As for friends it depends, my friends I fix on my own time, they buy their own parts and give me a hand on the work. If you come in on company time friend or not you pay company rates.