Thanks Mike. I’ll keep that in mind.
What, no change in your pocket ?
Me neither, I always grab some to pay the odd cents of any purchase to get rid of as much as possible…
Till we visited our son in San Francisco. Once we rented a car and next we just took public transportation after getting off the plane.
—turns out I couldn’t keep ENOUGH change in my pocket ! As we hung out with our son it turns out HE had a huge pocket full and we soon learned his ways of life.
To locomote anywhere requires change.
If in a car, constant meter feeding, tolls, parking garages etc.
If on foot…as is our son…there’s bus fare, BART fare, train fare, turnstiles, admissions , passes, tips, etc. Most might take a card too but change sure helps the seamless flow of his daily life.
I was quite surprised in this day of electronic transactions…even on a hand-held at the flea market…that he had so much need for small change.
I haven’t carried change or cash in more than 11 years. These days, the only thing I use cash for is to play in local disc golf tournaments. I always hated carrying pennies, and the convenience of being able to track my expenses and see where my money is going has helped me manage my finances better.
It;ll get even more difficult. I went to pay at a parking garage recently and they don’t take money, only plastic. If I didn’t have a credit or debit card I would have been trapped in the garage. No, there was no attendant and yes, they had barriers.
I get tires of being in a long line at MacDonald’s where all these people ahead of me are paying with their Debit Cards, even for a crummy coffee!
“Hess gas here in the North East have FREE AIR stations”.
Triedaq has been promising for years to take me to New England. Now I know how to make him do it. I’ll tell him that in the North East there are FREE AIR stations. I’ll then let some of the air out of the tires. As cheap as Triedaq is, he would drive to New England from the Midwest just to save a buck.
Mrs. Triedaq
I was surprised a year ago pulling into an unmanned gas station, credit debit swipe card only, in the middle of nowhere, I was the only one there, it felt kind of spooky.
One local station charges 75¢ but you can use it for free with gasoline or any other purchase. Sounds about as fair as you’re going to get any more. But I just use my 12V compressor unless it’s an emergency.
If a charge for compressed air, use of the restrooms, etc, etc, etc, is acceptable, then why is a “service supplies” charge on a garage repair order often considered not acceptable?
I haven’t seen Hess stations in the Baltimore/Washington market for years. They say that they have stations in MD and VA, but the only VA station I’ve seen is near by BIL’s house in Chesapeake, and it’s been about 30 years since there was a Hess station near me.
I don’t find debit cars to be inefficient. Swipe the card, input 4 digits, and a few seconds later, the transaction is complete. It seems to me it’s about as long as counting change.
Shops shouldn’t do business with customers that consider a “service supplies” charge unacceptable.
Those are the kinds of customers that don’t value good work.
They just value the bottom line.
Perhaps it’s best to turn them away the next time they show up.
After all, it is legally permissible to turn away someone’s business.
“We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone” . . . especially if you’re a cheapskate, ungrateful SOB . . . POS etc.
You guys can flag me all you want.
But those cheapskate customers are the ones you can do without.
Those are the guys that are more trouble than they’re worth.
@ok4450 I certainly hope you’re not the one who flagged me.
My post was to show that I agreed with you.
But if it was you, oh well.
To air is human.
Oh… Never mind…
I personally don’t at all object to being charged for shop supplies. But I wonder why this is a charge that suddenly materialized in the last 20 years or so. I know, different times, and everyone is running leaner than they used to. Soon restaurants are going to start charging for “sanitizer to clean table”, and “energy used to cook your food”.
It’s possible that things are better itemized these days
Some customers want to know exactly how that $427.35 repair breaks down
I didn’t flag anyone. In Rome they have a table cloth charge for taking a table in a restaurant. I always just figures it comes out in the wash. If I’m charged $5 for shop supplies and an $80 hourly charge or $85 hourly charge and zip for shop supplies, the bottom line is the same.
@Bing you’re right
It does come out in the wash
Most likely people were always getting charged for shop supplies, but weren’t aware of it
Now that everything’s itemized, people are protesting.
“Hey, you didn’t charge me $5 for shop supplies last time”
Personally, I don’t have a problem with a shop supplies charge. It’s generally posted in view and on the repair order. At the dealers I’ve worked for they usually charged something like 2.5% of the ticket and it’s very easy to blow through that percentage and more.
If anything, it goes back as reimbursement to the parts department where most of those supplies come from.
I never added incidentals to my invoices. It was much easier to just calculate the flat rate to cover all the overhead. But most local independents did the same while dealership shops usually had some flat fee plus a percentage of the total invoice tacked on to cover shop rags and whatever else. It seemed like nit picking from both sides of the issue.
So why is oil change $20 but add $4 for oil disposal? Jeez, just charge 24?