Without a “no warranty on labor,” what is the length of the warranty on labor?
Exactly. No restaurant in the world that I’m aware of gives you an itemized bill for parts and labor.
Not so fast, some let you byob, charge you a ‘corkage’ fee…course, you probably won’t break down before you get out the door…
They don’t give you a breakdown of how much of your restaurant bill represents “parts” (in this case, food) and labor, but they most certainly ARE charging you for both those parts and their labor. Or did you think that the $35. price of a lobster dinner, as opposed to a $7.50 ham & cheese sandwich, was simply arbitrary on their part?
Again, unlike auto repair, no restaurant in the world that I’m aware of gives you an itemized bill for parts plus labor.
As someone who does much of his own maintenance, but who lacks certain machinery, I’ve never had a problem getting assistance, though I make a point of getting the OK BEFORE tearing the car down.
For instance, I bought a front wheel bearing and had no problem having a shop “press out” the old bearing and “press in” the new one. Aditionally, I’ve bought a “salvage” manual tranny, and got it installed, no prob (except that I paid up-front, with NO WARRANTY written and initialed on the work order.)
I think the restaurant analogy is a good one: compare the cost of a bottle of Merlot IN a rest. vs. the same bottle in a “package shop.” Also, I’d see no problem with a shop charging the equivalent of a “corkage fee” on parts supplied by a customer.
Aaaaaa, the great thing about an analogy is that the two things being compared are not expected to be identical, only similar in some way. The analogy is more useful if the items being compared are NOT identical. So the insignificant difference in the bill doesn’t make the analogy invalid. If anything, it highlights all the other similarities between the two situations that make the analogy valid.
If one wanted to itemize a restaurant check, it would be pretty easy. Just divide the check in half. Labor at a restaurant is usually about 50% of the overall cost.
When it comes to kitchen staff and managers, EVERY restaurant charges for BOTH parts and labor. When it comes to bartenders, wait staff, hosts, and bussers, the labor is mostly paid separately in the form of a tip, which allows you to pay separately for labor.
Gee, the more I talk about it, the more apt is the analogy. Perhaps you have never worked at a restaurant.
Labor Rate: $35/hr
If you watch: $50/hr
If you help: $75/hr
If you supply parts: $100/hr
If you supply parts AND help: $200/hr
In your case ,meanjoe, They may be treating you as ‘one of them’ different than ‘joe customer’.
I see this happen in the car biz and in other areas too.
I went to the doctor last week and when he told me things to do and symptoms to watch for, I told him my wife is an R.N. and would not let me skimp on home treatment. After which his tone changed with me. He spoke more technically and clinically direct as though I would know more than ‘joe customer’.
Whitey
Thank you for helping me to point out how aaaaaa just doesn’t get it.
The more he protested, the more he proved my point.
It’s obviously necessary to make a profit, but charging three times the cost of the part for picking up the part at a car part seller is excessive and yes greedy.
Greedy? Are you sure? In a free market economy like ours, prices are determined by the market conditions (supply and demand). The percentage of profit doesn’t determine the prices customers are willing to pay. If a part costs $50 and sells for $250 at a point where supply and demand are equal, here in the USA we sell the part for $250. If you don’t like it, perhaps you would be happier in Cuba or China.
The shop has other expenses to pay too, like insurance, rent/mortgage, employee benefits, etc. Their profit margin is usually calculated after adding a proportional amount of those expenses, not just how much they pay the supplier.
It also depends on the scale. Is it really greedy to charge $6 for a part that costs $2? I don’t think so, especially if $6 is the price the market will bear.
Yes, I just don’t get comparing apples and oranges. Clearly both restaurants and auto repair shops are businesses, but that’s about it. Putting aside the double-talk that differences make an analogy valid, consider the following: unlike restaurants, the main business of auto repair shops is not making and selling perishable products. That businesses consider the cost of parts and labor in their pricing has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that repair shops give you an itemized bill for parts and labor while restaurants do not.
They didn’t check the correctness or quality of the part. They just stated that they do not install customer supplied parts. Period.
With regard to your point that if it was just the markup, they would install the part and inflate the price of labor: See Rod Knox and Caddyman below.
And they are correct to refuse, based on all the responses you’ve been given below. They aren’t in the parts inspection business, it may be a part of perfect quality, just the wrong one. You seem to still think they were in the wrong, even though you’ve been given a dozen reasons why their actions were entirely reasonable. Why is this?
I’ve always liked the above labor rate breakdown. Good discussuon, but some people don’t seem to understand why shops don’t want to deal with this type of thing. In my experiences, many people back down when told that, if ANYTHING goes wrong, it will end up instantly costing more than the savings from getting the stuff from the cheapest parts store they can find.
I once had one of those worst case scenario jobs come into the shop. It was an early '90s Civic someone started changing a head gasket on in their backyard a couple years ago, decided to give up, then really needed the car running again. They, however, were willing to pay A LOT of money to get it running again, and did, and ended up supplying the parts that were in the trunk, and allowing me to supply the other nearly thousand dollars worth of parts the car needed. It was a good sized ticket, but also a weeklong headache and jigsaw puzzle. I don’t think I would want to do it again. The car did come back a few months later, after I was no longer working there, and the manager said to me, “he’s letting us get the parts this time.” Good.
You present a wonderful argument for price gouging. By the way if I don’t want to buy a part for $250 that costs $50, I will not go to Cuba or China of course, but I will buy the part for $50 and go to a shop that does not engage in price gouging to have it installed.
Does the fact that the auto parts are not perishable mean the owner shouldn’t have the prerogative to refuse to install your parts? Why does the itemization of the bill make a difference? I don’t follow your logic. Please explain your reasoning.
I am beginning to realize the sign that says “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone” was made for people like you. Coincidentally, you see these signs at both restaurants and automotive repair shops. Isn’t that incredibly ironic?
Perhaps you should look up “price gouging” in the dictionary.
price gouging, noun: pricing above the market price when no alternative retailer is available (dictionary.com)
All I am talking about is selling things at the market price. How is that price gouging? Please explain.
I’ve heard the restaurant analogy (about bringing your own food in) used ever since I pumped gas back in the 60s. I’m sure it was around many years before that.