I work on computers on the side and deal with the people who want free repairs all the time. I request a $35 up front diagnostic and this chases a lot of people off which is a GOOD THING. Trust me, those who want skilled work done for free are not worth pleasing. These are the people who try to scam you so it is best to simply run them off with a reasonable diagnostic charge and not have to deal with them. For the others, I apply the $35 to the final bill as long as they pick it up within a week.
The worst are the people who buy some throwaway computer like an eMachines or much of the other stuff sold at Wal-Mart or Black Friday sales which seems like a “great deal” due to the low price but costs as much to repair as it does replace it with another piece of junk.
Trust me, you should expect to pay for a diagnosis of any problem from any competent mechanic. If a mechanic offered to do this service for free and I didn’t already have a relationship with them, I would be a little worried. There was a place in town that would fix any computer problem for $50 and trust me, I think they were the best thing ever as they brought me a lot of work after the initial repair was junk.
The OP hit upon one of the greatest myths about modern auto repair: all you have to do is plug in a $50 code reader, it tells you what part to replace, you replace the part, and the car is fixed. Two minutes tops, done. “Autozone does the same thing for free!” Therefore, any shop that charges anything more than $0.00 for this service is a scam operation that is ripping people off. In reality, once you get the information from the scan tool, which is far more extensive than the information you get from the $50 code reader (the $5,000 one really does do more than the $50 one), you must then go through the diagnostic procedures prescribed by the manufacturer to determine the cause of the code being set. This can easily eat up an hour to arrive at a firm diagnosis. On the other hand, guessing and throwing parts at the problem can sometimes work, but can get very expensive very fast, and can leave the customer very frustrated.
I expect to be paid for my time and I expect to pay others for their time and services. When I was teaching, I routinely turned down overload courses because the rate was so low. I argued that if I worked in a factory and was asked to work overtime, I would receive time and a half. The rate for teaching an overload class was less than 1/4 of what I received for a class on my teaching load. My chair would often become angry and say “We need this course taught”. My answer was always, "Either pay me overtime rates or find someone else to do the job."
I think $78 is reasonable compensation for the mechanic’s time and the equipment.
I think $78 for the computer diagnostic is reasonable. Some shops might not add it on when the bill is over $1000 simply for customer relations, but they’ll just make it up somewhere else; i.e. your total bill would be the same probably. Certainly if you asked for a computer diagnostic service alone, they’d charge you at least $78, probably more. Here in the SF bay area you’d have a hard time to get a complete computer diagnostic service for less than $150. I expect this shop has already discounted the price since your other charges were substantial.
It’s like if you go to a CPA for preparing your tax return. One CPA may charge you $100 for the intitial visit, and $300 more for preparing your return. Another CPA may not charge you for the first visit, but will charge you $400 for preparing the return. It’s six of one or a half-dozen of the other I guess. Either way, you pay $400. The alternative? Prepare your own tax return.
I’ve related the tale before but it bears repeating. In the Sunday edition of the Daily Oklahoman newspaper they used to run a lot of letters to the editor.
Perusing the paper one weekend I note there is a letter about auto repairs so it caught my eye very quickly.
The author of this letter sent in a 300 word diatribe about how easy it is to work on modern cars.
To quote this guy; “any idiot can be a mechanic nowadays. They don’t even have to know anything. All they have to do is plug in the computer and it tells them what part to replace”.
Too bad it’s not that easy and actually, that comment sounds like a CarMD commercial…
I Live In A Rural Area. Most (All ?) Shops Around Here, Independents And Dealers, Will Not Charge For Diagnostics If One Follows Through On Repairs, But Will Charge For It If You Take The Results/Recommendations And Hit The Road.
They don’t necessarily just jack up repair expenses to cover diagnoses, either. I’ve seen them scan and check transmissions and charge a half hour to replace a speed sensor, for example. The independents are at $45/hour, dealers $70 +.
I’m sure others must have a situation similar to what’s going on in this area. The competition for service business is fierce and even dealers run ads in our local paper for free diagnostics to drum up some work, any work.
I know many local business owners. The uncertainty of the ObamaEconomy and ObamaCare is devastating business of all kinds in our neck of the woods. It’s quite sad, really.
But a good mechanic has many years invested to learn the trade and most have in excess of $50,000 in personal tools and equipment. How many white collar workers have that much invested directly in their jobs?
My first personal computer cost me $5,000 back in the 80’s. I’ve had numerous computers since then. I usually buy a new system every other year. Plus I have a pretty high-end server I use. So over the years I’ve probably spent over the $50k.
Then there’s the cost of college and continued education I’ve had over the years. Seminars I’ve had to attend to keep up with the latest technology. These seminars are NOT cheap ($3k+). Masters degree along the way. And even at close to 60 I’m still learning new things.
“My first personal computer cost me $5,000 back in the 80’s.”
You reminded me of my first early-mid 80s computer. It was a Timex Sinclair and was marketed as the world’s first, under $100 computer.
Using that cassette tape deck to load programs took quite a while, but it did some pretty amazing things for a hundred bucks in that era. My little thermal-paper printer was real treat, too.
Mid-late 80s, I bought an Apple 2GS so my son could get in on computers at a very young age. That set-up was more like a $grand.
Mike, we’re close in age I suspect. Those early systems cost a small fortune. People today might not realize you could almost buy two new cars for that kind of cash back then. Not many people could afford them personally.
The first task given to me on my first career job was to construct my own system. S-100 cards, 8 bit micro, 16k of DRAM (two 8k cards) and an 8" floppy (192k iirc). Wire wrapped most of it, some hand taped and etched in house. Programmed in native assembly and a couple years later, forth. DOS wasn’t an option. You bit banged the PROM with your own code to bootstrap the floppy.
Things progressed rapidly in those days. Wasn’t long after, PCs started showing up and replacing the systems we built.
e-machines are junk? Nonsense. I am writing this on a 2006 e-machines that runs maybe 12 hours a day most days. Check out Consumer’s Report on brand reliability. You just lost credibility.
Never owned an e-machine. But I have looked at them at places like Best Buy. They might be fine for the average consumer. But they sell nothing in the higher-end. If you work for a living with computers or you’re a gamer…then e-machine usually isn’t an option.
As for the average consumer…The biggest jump in sales have been the IPad and it’s competition. MOST people don’t need anything more powerful then an IPad. That’s why everyone is now making a tablet.
Things progressed rapidly in those days. Wasn't long after, PCs started showing up and replacing the systems we built.
My first toy computer was an IMSAI (watch the movie War games). It was an 8080 processor (same as my Rainbow). But no hard drive…no software that ran on it. I was able to get a Basic Interpreter - so I wrote a few programs. No assembler…but you could program in machine language with the front panels (that was fun).
The PC’s started popping up. And then when IBM and Microsoft got in the game and standardized things…it really started to move. Apple was in it’s own world and before IBM came into the PC game they were the leader. Now with the IPad and IPhone they are at the top again…and IBM is out of the PC business.
In 1970 I was introduced to the world of computing feeding Hollerith cards to a Honeywell processor. My how things have changed. And/nand gates ring a bell with anyone?
In my neck f the woods we used to call those cards “eighty column IBM cards”. I recall with laughter writing in Fortran and spending many hours at the keypunch machine!
“In 1970 I was introduced to the world of computing feeding Hollerith cards to a Honeywell processor.”
I worked for Volkswagen in the 70s and these cards were used for ordering inventory. Our home utility bills were processed and sent on these. I remember puching those little chads out on these “80 punch” cards to take a final exam on a college test, too.
During the summer I was cleaning out the cellar…and found an old box with a Fortran program I wrote on a card deck. I still have them. Not even sure what the program does anymore. But it is Fortran…and some JCL cards thrown in. I showed it to my Son who laughed. That same summer I also introduced my Son to Crank Windows when I rented a Uhaul to move some furniture.
The original name was Hollerith. Named after the guy who invented them. There’s a very very funny skit done by Bob Newhart about the Hollerith card. Bob Newhard did a lot of industrial skits. He was paid by IBM to do a few. Bob became famous in the 50’s and 60’s doing these one way conversations on the phone. The skit he did was he worked at the patent office and Hollerith was calling in to patent his cards. It was extremely funny skit.
And the Hollerith card dates back to long before computers. They were first developed for the 1890 census.
At the time it was…But compared to today…it’s NOTHING. Apple’s IPad is faster, has more memory and can do more then the large Mainframes I worked on in the 70’s.
Many people my age I worked with in the 70’s are no longer in the computer field. Many didn’t like the constant changing…constantly learning new technology or a new language. Structured programming was just becoming popular in the 70’s. Very few languages even supported it. Now everything is OOD (Object oriented design). That was a big change for many of us old timers. And now it’s old habit…along with OOD design patterns. You adapt or you fail. Personally I LOVE the fact the field keeps changing. It’s exciting. Some people HATE it. They like being comfortable. And those are the ones that are now working at Home Depot at 1/3 the salary they could have right now if they stuck with the change.
I persobally find the constant changes to be unsettling. I love computers as tools, but most of the changes don’t improve thair ability to accomplish the end item tasks that I use them for. The constant changes and updates seem to be there for the sake of the industry itself. I realize that this perspective is because of the way I use computers, but my bias remains.
