Service Prices

[bkeller500]

Bkeller, you make some valuable points, but you missed one key one. Every professional is deeply invested in themselves in their chosen occupation. It may be thousands of dollars in education, thousands of dollars in capital equipment, thousands of dollars in tools, etc. Take a look in the truck of your HVAC service tech, plumber, electrician, etc. and you will see their investment, not counting their time getting to the point where they can come to your place to service your needs. I don’t hear a complaint about their rates when they have to help your solve a problem you can’t handle. Don’t complain about a small engine service guy charging you $100.00 an hour for service when you can do it yourself. I’ll bet you will gladly pay a little more to hire anyone who will provide you a quality product or service the first time. I just paid $1700.00 to have my well pump replaced. I couldn’t do it myself, so I had to hire someone. Pump cost $725.00 and the job took 3 hours for two guys to complete. Is that rate too high, not after I saw how professional they preformed their job. Now if you see someone charging an excessive rate and not doing a quality job, I’m behind you 1000%. Just my normally wrong opinion.

I am all in for hiring competent service guys to do the things I cannot do. In fact my earlier post was meant to say just that. Most of us do not have the time, space, finances or skills to do a lot of those tasks. We do what we can and we depend on others skills to do what we can't. As I stated earlier, Hat's off to the guys that do the service work when we need them. Like a earlier post stated, if we are treated fairly we will gladly pay for the work done and gladly move on. To the guys that are trying to provide service and make a living doing so........all we ask is that you kindly explain what needs to be done and that you do it at a fair price. If you have to diagnose to find the problem, that time should be chargeable too. Treat others as you would want to be treated and you will do fine. When I ran my business everyone got a fair deal, even if they did not realize it.

 

[Mower King]

Nobody likes being charged a lot of money for any repair, especially after they pay and the problem is not repaired......but if it is repaired, they don't mind it "as" bad.
Just remember, you can't always please everyone.....no matter what you do, even if you do a lot of it..... for free!

 

[bertsmobile1]

I have found the trades in my area have been terrible.

High prices, low quality work, there have been many times I have hired a professional to come out and do a job and then after they are finished and paid, I have to go back and fix something myself.

It really gives meaning to "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

I am sure there are some good tradesman out there that take pride in their work, but from my experience at least, they are few and far between.

When we split up the missus sold the house.
Down here you have to get an electrical compliance certificate because real estate agents are so crooked ( gas ones too if gas is fitted ).
When the electrician checked the wiring he finished off with "Your husband did a good job on the wiring didn't he ?"
She naturally had to deny this because it is illegal to do your own, even if you are a licensed tradie
She then said the electrician was an old family friend so what made you think my husband did it
"No commercial electrician would do the job so neat & carefully " was the reply.

 

[grumpygrizzly]

I'm happy just buying those chainsaws/blowers, weed whackers, that "ran last year" that they can't get running this year so they go buy a new one and try to "pawn the non-runner off" at the wifes yard sale.

I've picked up Stihl Chainsaws, a still leaf blower, Husqvarna leaf blowers, you name it. The best weekend I had was a few weeks ago when I saw two identical Husqvarna leaf blowers at a yard sale and the guy wanted $10 each. It was late in the afternoon and I told him I'd give him $10 for the pair. Sold.. Very next sale I found a Stihl Leaf Blower, asked the guy how much he wanted, he says "Just take it, I can't get it running..

All three of those leaf blowers went through my initial testing where I dump the gas, pull the plug, run my wire wheel over the plug to clean it, fresh fuel, little shot of ether in the spark plug hole to make sure it fires..

All three started on the 2nd pull.

I can sell that Stihl all day for $100 to lawn maintenance crew, at least $60 each for the Husqvarnas..

If any of them wouldn't have started, I'd part them out and wait for the next lot to see if they needed parts.

Word of advice. If you see anything with RYOBI on it, run, DO NOT WALK, away as fast as you can. For me, those are the bottom of the line for 2 stroke engines..