Oh boy...I think I just got hosed by the Repair Man

[Eli]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Duroc, so I assume that if you take your car to the garage to have some work done on it, they quote you $55 an hour for labor, then tell you that you need your battery replaced, then turn around and charge you $400 for the battery, it'd be alright with you?! Hey, they have to make their money somewhere.

There's a huge difference in markup between $28 online, $40 in a retail store, vs. charging someone $190 for the same part after it's installed. To conclude your "here's another way of looking at it", suppose your wife/gf called me to repair her computer. It turned out to be the video card. I charged $100 for labor, and then charged $700 for the video card. Would that be okay with you? Or, suppose I charged $200 for labor, then charged $700 for the video card?

Would it be better if I charged $400 for labor, then $700 for the video card? There's a gray line. On one side is reasonable mark-up on a part. On the other side, it's ripping someone off. Megamorph was clearly ripped off. Thinking you can play games by decreasing the hourly rate and increasing the mark-up is complete bullsh!t. Labor and parts are two different things, not something to be interchanged by creative accounting.

I'll agree wholeheartedly that $35 for labor was cheap for the repair. Nonetheless, if that's the rate the company set, that's the rate they should charge. That doesn't give them the right to rip him off on parts though.

People with the logic of some of you is the reason the government was paying 1000's of dollars for hammers. Well, you know, they guys selling the hammers have to make their money somewhere! They had a lot of down time. They have a lot of overhead - secretaries to pay, book keepers. Would you rather they charged only $20 per hammer, but $40,000 for delivery?

IT DOESEN'T MATTER!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111oneonetwo

There are people that pay thousands of dollars for a purse, and they aren't even getting "ripped off" in their minds.

As a business, you are free to charge whatever you want. If you charge too much, and nobody does business with you, you have screwed yourself.

If you charge too little, and don't make enough money, you have screwed yourself.

There were people selling 40,000$ hammers because there were people that were stupid enough to pay 40,000$ for a hammer.

Get it? Good.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I wouldn't trust a lawyer that charged less than $200 an hour. I don't think I'd trust a repairman that lives in his truck...