I love the people who think they can save money by having codes scanned and the like. I was doing some work at a mechanic shop and overheard some of their customer interactions. At least half of the people who called or came in were clueless. They wanted things fixed for free and such. Someone called about having their Voyager van worked on. He asked what year of Plymouth Voyager is was and she said “It is a MERCURY Voyager, not a PLYMOUTH.” He said Mercury made a Villager but not a Voyager and she starts going off on him and he hangs up.
Then they had a guy come in all mad they hadn’t fixed the problem. The shop owner told me that yeah, we didn’t fix the problem because the customer had the code scanned at AutoZone and told us not to do any diagnostic work and to just replace the part he provided. What a surprise? I have calls like this too. A guy calls and says that the power button on his laptop is broken because it won’t turn on. He was sick of the 3x other places he had taken it to who quoted him a new motherboard at $300. I figured that the reason it wouldn’t turn on was that the motherboard was junk and told him I would be more than happy to look at it but require $35 upfront. That was the last I ever heard.
Another thing is when a part is starting to fail but still tests within specs. I see this with computer power supplies a lot. The problem with these is that they can take out other components when they fail, especially in the cheaper units which seem designed to break. I used to give people the choice of replacing parts like this but not anymore. I had too many come back after I told them it might last another year but it might not and suggested going ahead with a replacement. A couple of the suspect power supplies ended up taking out motherboards and hard drives when they went south, making for a very expensive repair. The people who declined this “recommended” service were always the ones who came back complaining, threatening, etc. I hear the same with mechanics. They say you might have 2000 miles left on those brakes but that people won’t replace them. Then they are all mad when they need new rotors and such from running metal on metal.
I now have people sign a form acknowledging they are declining a recommended repair if I have any concerns it might come back and haunt me. I generally no longer offer it as an option but sometimes do if a failure wouldn’t be catastrophic.
Then you get the people who brought their computer to you 3 years ago and call and want you to fix it for free when something else broke. I basically hang up on these types.
I don’t care what industry you are in, people are people.
I agree that the “price point customers” who are looking to nickel and dime you to get the lowest price are better left to the less-capable competition. These are not good customers to have as they tend to be the rude ones and cost more than they will make you. The $9 loss-leader oil changes are a perfect example.
I also like the comments about how people catering to them are in a “race to the bottom.” I have posted an article below about this.
Also, I hate how companies make certain lines of consumer grade products for the big box stores and the like and then a better grade sold at professional outlets. Almost everyone knows how John Deere does this. People seem to think the cheaper one is the same as the one bought at a farm store. Some people are impossible to educate on this and only focus on the low price. The article below explains this perfectly.
^FWIW, after Snapper made that principled stand, they lost a lot of money, got acquired by (ultimately) Briggs and Stratton…and now sell “price-point” versions of their mowers in W-M.
To most people, a lawn mower is a lawn mower. Quality makes no difference. Honda and Toro are Consumer Reports top rated mowers this year and neither are sold at WalMart. Back in the 1960s, I came close to buying a Checker Marathon. It was designed for rugged service. I would probably have never needed to buy another car.
I don’t price shop when hiring a service person–I reputation shop. We had some work done around our house last summer and the summer before. We hired a contractor with an excellent record. We had to wait our turn as he was booked up, but the wait was worth it. One of the projects was to replace our deck. I thought it looked great. After it was installed, the contractor asked if he could come take pictures–he was proud of his work.
I think that over the years reputation shopping has saved me money over price shopping.
Yeah, I heard the same thing about Snapper. I noticed them for sale at WM one day and looked up what happened. I agree that “price point” products cost more over the long run, especially if you plan to maintain and keep something. If you have the disposable mentality and never plan to change the oil, the cheapo might not be such a bad thing.
Stihl does advertise that they are the largest seller of chainsaws and they are not sold at any big box store so that says something. They have been successful where Snapper wasn’t.
The mechanic I use when I don’t feel like doing my own work is one of the more expensive independents in town. He does a good job and I know that if he says something needs to be done, that he isn’t making it up. There are times where I ask him about something and he says that doesn’t need to be addressed. There are several times where he could have picked up work but didn’t. Some of the cheap-rate ones around here have a reputation for taking a long time or coming up with a ton of other little things they want to repair. So you pay the same OR MORE going cheap. I agree that you are better off reputation shopping and not price shopping.
Another group of people that annoy me are what I call the “bid shoppers”. These are essentially “price point” customers but they call, wanting to know exactly what it will cost and how long it will take. Half the time they don’t even tell you what is wrong. I never hear back from them when I tell them that I cannot give an estimate without seeing the device first and require $35 upfront. I have talked to mechanics and they get this to. As I say, people are people no matter what you do!
I like my new computer guy (retired Air Force computer instructor) because he refused to work on my old computer because my old guy had evidently used pirated software. We just went through an ad for Micro Center, picked a couple possibilities and I went and picked it up. I have no idea what quality it is but it is an HP and he seemed to think it was OK for a duffer. I never asked his rate and ended up costing about $250 to have everything transferred and set up. All I had to do was plug it in. So for a little over $550, I got what appears to be a pretty decent machine. We’ll repeat the process for my wife a little later. If you haven’t dealt with Micro Center, they have everything at a very competitive price and the sales people were tops. Besides Minneapolis they have stores around the country.
One of the local farmers was sitting around a coffee pot with other farmers for their regular, 6 days a week 7 A.M. whinefest and he spent 10 full minutes ranting about being in a neighboring city the prior week and getting charged 7 dollars to balance a tire.
I knew the place he was grumbling about and he got a bit ticked at me when I suggested the large sign posted right over the balancer states 7 dollars for a balance and not only that, but the employees always tell someone right up front what the charge will be so 7 bucks should not be a surprise unless they deaf and blind.
This is the same guy who shelled out 1700 dollars for a ring/pinion gearset for his Case tractor and just slapped them in there. When I asked him about pinion pre-load, backlash, and so on he said it was not needed and that’s just an excuse for mechanics to rip people off…
Another funny thing I have experienced is when I have something for sale super cheap to clear it out, people seem to be more demanding of the specs! I was once clearing out some old PCs with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse included for $50. This was back in the Windows XP days and these ran Windows 98 so were a generation or so out of date. In my opinion a computer for $50 is doing well if it turns on. People were calling me asking if these included a wireless mouse and keyboard as well as a flat panel monitor! Keep in mind this was back when these now common features were new and a good flat panel would set you back $1000 and a wireless keyboard/mouse combo was easily $150-200. People would gripe about me not having better stuff bundled with these $50 computers! I mean seriously, what do you expect for $50? Then they would say they were on a fixed income and wouldn’t have the money until their government check came and I never heard from them again.
As for the computers, they are like mowers. You have many different grades for the price point people. One thing I do like about Apple is that they don’t buy into making this cheap crap and don’t skimp on quality. You may find iPhones and iPads at Wal Mart but they aren’t made any cheaper. They are just the versions with less memory and such but you can buy these anywhere else or online too. They aren’t a special “made cheaply for Wal-Mart” version. You never see the actual computers for sale there. People may complain about other aspects of Apple such as how they go out of their way to make it harder for the end user to repair but quality isn’t something you can gripe about.
@cwatkin I do computer repair/building on the side. My policy is that, If I can’t fix it or I misdiagnose something, I don’t charge anything. IMHO the customer shouldn’t have to pay if I can’t uphold my end of the deal. I do charge $20/hr, but only charge for actual touch time.
However, like I mentioned, it’s not my full time job. It’s just something I do to fund my never ending computer upgrade habit. I’ve never had anyone complain about how much they have to pay me as I’m much cheaper than any chain, and most independent brick and mortar stores. 95% of my business is referrals. What I’m seeing of now, Is that a two years ago the parents of a student that went to the school I work at had an HP that finally died after about 8 years, the motherboard failed and it was not worth repairing IMHO. The kid was and still is into computer games, and he wanted a gaming computer, he was looking at the usual suspects (Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Velocity Mirco, etc.) but their offerings were more than the parents wanted to spend. I told them I could build them a gaming computer that would be capable and not break the bank, so I put together three proposals, and they chose the one that was in the $1200 range. They said that there were fine with that,. I asked if they wanted me to assemble the computer on site or just deliver the finished product, since the kid was interested in computers, they thought it would be a great opportunity for the kid and as it turned out, his dad as well, to see how to assemble a computer (which is not nearly as difficult as people think). So I ordered all the parts, it was a mid-range gaming computer by 2013 standards ( i5-4670k with a mild overclock, 8GB RAM, 60GB cache SSD, 2TB HDD, GTX 760 video card). I was able to come in about $80 under budget, which was nice. Everything went smoothly with the build and they were exceedingly happy with it. It turns out that the kid told all his friends about the computer, and they decided that they wanted gaming PC’s too, in the past year and half I’ve built 6 computers for former students. It’s not a bad deal really. I retain the rebates and charge around $40-$60 for the labor to put together a computer. So I usually net around $100 for around 2 hours of labor with no real overheard to speak of.
Your setup for computer repair/setup probably works well in your case. You deal with people you know or have been referred. I deal with people who have been referred word of mouth as well as people off the street that range from great to terrible. I used to do free estimates but began having too many issues with people trying to jerk me around and stuff just simply being left behind and never picked up. I was beginning to lose more money from people like this than I was making. I also had the people who would bring me a device, never answer the phone, and then call back a year later expecting me to still have it.
I do charge an upfront $35 to diagnose it but that applies towards the repair of the device or purchase of a replacement if the old one is beyond economic repair (totaled in the car world), as long as this is all done within one week of the diagnosis or repair completion, whichever comes later. After 7 days, I keep the $35 and they pay the full amount. After 14 days without contact or payment of any kind, they forfeit the device. I make everyone sign a form now agreeing to those and other terms and conditions. This is done to prevent leave behinds, prevent deadbeats/troublemakers who have no intention of paying from even coming, and get jobs turned around fast so completed units don’t pile up. I once used a storage locker and that got expensive real fast. Most of them in there never got picked up so it was a complete waste. The remaining ones left for extended periods were charged for the rent I was paying on the locker which ticked people off. I didn’t bill for my time to put it in and get it out of storage either. I now charge $10/week to store them myself if that is required to keep things simple. Basically, if you do it right and have half a brain, you get the $35 back as part of your repair or purchase. Otherwise I get to keep it. I know this has chased off a lot of the crap I used to deal with as well as a few good customers but my life has been made so much easier since instituting the upfront fee.
I have also found that marketing on Facebook is essentially a waste of time. This might be just my personal experience but that is where the “bid shoppers” and “price point” people hang out. They end up taking a bunch of your time trying to haggle and I have had enough of that. I am to the point where I have enough work that I have a hard time keeping up with the customers who are willing to pay so why cater to the problem ones?
In light of the other discussion thread, I do see the value in sidebars as comparisons when the subject comes back around to theme of the forum. Please do bring this back to cars, or feel free to take your discussion privately. Thank you.
I know many of the mechanics around here deal with the same exact thing. Replace the word “computers” with “cars” or any other word and you will hear the same stories. I had to ask one time I was doing some technical work for a mechanic and it seemed like at least half the callers and drive-in people were out to lunch. I asked him if this was typical and he said yes. You could tell he would just switch off and move on to other customers. The guy has a good reputation in town and again doesn’t have to cater to anyone who walks in the door. He can be selective about his customers. He also gets the bid shoppers who want to know what is wrong, how long it will take, and how much it will cost all from a 2 minute phone call.
Then there are the people who attempted their own DIY car repairs. I get this all the time and have seen trashed equipment. He says that simple jobs have been made into expensive ones or the car has to be towed in because the owner damaged it. I also know a guy who repairs mowers and is a warranty service provider for about all of them. He gets more brand new mowers that he has to refuse warranty service on because the owner was too dumb to add the can of oil in the box to the crankcase. They sometimes lock up and sometimes go BOOM!
Then there are the people who run them with an obvious problem or drive them “until the wheels fall of”. Again, anyone who is self-employed sees the same stuff with a different product. It could be cars, computers, mowers, or whatever. People are people so that part remains constant.
The country rock band hasn’t had a raise in over twenty years and now I’m playing jazz for free dinners.
hows that for an hourly rate ?
oops…CARS…and hourly rate justification.
Running a weekend band has overhead and expenses like our repair shop and other services.
DRIVING is a big expense when our local territory includes New Mexico AND Arirzona AND Navajo reservation four corners. Plus that driving includes TOWING all that gear which I’ve commented on before .When people ask about towing capacity I’m usually the first to pipe in about STOPPING ability when towing.
Speaking of cars, driving one that gets 50+ mpg is a nice thing when you get a mileage deduction on your taxes when you are self-employed. Unfortunately towing band equipment around isn’t a deal where you can drive a Prius or Geo Metro. I take the truck for bigger jobs or where they want old junk hauled off for recycling. The scrap easily pays for the extra gas.
