Glad you have found a great shop helping you w/your car @maralissa . I expect you already know this, but however they frame it, the shop and the mechanic has to make enough money to make it worth their time. If they can’t bill enough to cover the rent for the shop, the light, water, & heat bill, tool costs, and their salaries and benefits, they’d do what anybody else would do in that situation: stay home & watch tv and eat potato chips instead 
Maybe I’m reading something into nothing but it appears to me the OP is taking a subtle jab at asemaster for placing a markup on parts sold through the shop. Asemaster’s method is the correct one even if there is disagreement.
To me anyway, a mechanic who does not mark parts up almost certainly has to be a small and possibly one horse operation to be able to afford to do this.
One also wonders if the labor charge isn’t bumped up a bit to make up for selling the parts at cost. Lose 50 in parts markup and add 50 to the labor total.
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It takes a whole lot of people to make the world work, and everyone is entitled to do it the way they wish, me I was bad at the business concept because I felt If I made an extra dollar for a million people that needed help, I was a millionaire by taking an extra dollar from people that needed that dollar. If a guy is happy not marking up parts and basing cost on labor, and happy to be a one horse operation that is fine, but as stated previously that is not SOP, but I would not demean that person for doing work and charging as the person sees fit. Sure may not live in a McMansion, but McMansions are over rated. Being happy with your life can be more important to some than being rich.
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I haven’t got the foggiest idea what you are talking about. I had a simple question and it was answered. It’s the end for me. Yes, you are doing too much reading into questions…
I realize that in a perfect world there would be no bias or discrimination, preferential treatment, etcetera.
However, having worked several businesses, including 2 car dealers, and having friends who have run their own, I can tell you that this is not a perfect world.
Some places I’ve worked would go to extra lengths to assure that certain customers were happy, impressed, and pleased in hopes they would return. I’ve seen employees fight over being able to take care of these customers.
On the other side of this are the customers, much less desirable for one reason or another, who are treated poorly in the hope that they don’t return.
I’ve seen this at both dealers and independent shops.
What do customers do to get preferential treatment?
Sometimes it can be based on someone possessing a pleasing personality, being a genuinely nice person to be around, or somebody that would carry on extremely interesting conversations.
It can be based on food. We’d have employees bending over backwards to assist (in almost any way) customers who brought in donuts, cookies, or other treats.
And last, but not least, and since all the employees that dealt with customers where I worked were men (and they did what men tend to do), some would give special treatment to customers that were pleasant to look at or ones the employee dreamed of befriending, so to speak.
CSA
I have at times been critical of the conduct of specific mechanics. But, never had I objected to a mechanic making money on doing my work – if indeed he does it correctly. And, if not, it’s the failure to do the work correctly that I object to. As pointed out here often, any business has to make enough money to pay the employees, taxes, and all such costs, plus compensate the owner for his investment and work.
And, all of that is usually a considerable amount of money.
If you have the tools and other equipment and experience and ambition needed to replace the parts, assuming you know which part to replace, by all means install it yourself. This is Reality 101. If you can do it yourself, you don’t have all those people to “feed”.
IF for any reason you can’t or won’t do the work yourself, put on your big boy trousers and stop whining how much it costs. Or, give up owning cars altogether. There is a known minimum cost to owning a car, depending upon just how good a car you want.
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@kurtwm2010, I did not mean to say that you made a subtle jab at asemaster. I meant maralissa…
sorry, I only read “…original poster…”
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I agree with that sentiment as far as life choices go and it makes no difference to me what someone does for a living, but as a professional in the industry, I disagree with that business model.
Competition for clientele is a healthy part of business, but when you decide to be a full-time, professional auto technician, mechanic, whatever you want to call it, you also take on a responsibility to the profession and others that choose the same. It’s not enough to be happy with just enough to pay your bills at the end of the month. It is also your duty to take pride in your work, to maintain and promote the image and standing of your chosen profession, and advance the industry to a more professional level. Working for beans doesn’t really fit in with that. Auto service and repair should be easy for the customer, quality driven, professionally performed to high standards, and expensive. That’s the way the industry can grow and flourish and continue to meet the needs of the motorist.
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