Rip off price for a bike service
- Thread starter Soup890
- Start date
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young Ed
Veteran
here is link also going as a status/feed thingy update for ll to see as i get lots of requests for link!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HOME-MECH...sure_Cycling_BikeLocks_SR&hash=item230d2a53af
Cheers Ed
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HOME-MECH...sure_Cycling_BikeLocks_SR&hash=item230d2a53af
Cheers Ed
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Working in an LBS might be an ideal job for me, but I would be depressed with the state of bikes, and the pay is not great.
Whilst on this rip off idea, some of you might know I do PDR, well I had a guy phone me week or two ago about a dent on his Ford Focus and he told me a bodyshop had quoted £680 to repair and repaint it, only a car park ding. Anyway last week I popped out and had a look, this time he told me again about the bodyshop quote and the fact that another dent guy had been out and said it was not repairable using my method. Well that guy was in a rush or something because I quoted for the job £75+VAT which the customer agreed to and did the job to his satisfaction in about 10 minutes. When I presented him with the bill he reluctantly paid and said I was a highway robber. Rubbish mate I just saved you over £500.
The car was the Electric Orange which to repaint a door needs most of the side fading out to get a colour match.
The car was the Electric Orange which to repaint a door needs most of the side fading out to get a colour match.
Is it really a good idea to make a hobby a job, personally I would find fixing something as simple as bikes all day long not very challenging. Offering little reward in terms of satisfaction or monetary.
young Ed
Veteran
if you would of made it look hard and taken an hour or hour and a half he would be happier!
Cheers Ed
Maybe, but why? on top of that I have a lot of customers that I have to get to each day. I seldom get muppets like this one, most customers are very happy to pay up knowing we have saved them money and time.if you would of made it look hard and taken an hour or hour and a half he would be happier!
Cheers Ed
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
I've serviced mates bikes and it's been more time getting the thing clean. Guess what, all works well after a scrub....
young Ed
Veteran
he feels like you have done more work and doing it in 10 minutes looks/feels like you have done a small quick jobbie that is worth a tenner
but in all fairness £75 is very good for professional level dent repair especially considering you came out to him
Cheers Ed
Well I have been doing it for 20 years now and have very thick skin, so next time the guy calls me and he will it will be even more. I hasten to add I only ever go out to a customer when they are within 5 minutes of my route, anything else and they come to me.
It is not the job I charge for it is the result. Or the other one, you are not paying me for what I do but what I know. I use the first one.
young Ed
Veteran
you could stand there and guide any ones hands to do the job and it would work fine but as you say it is your knowledge and experience
Cheers Ed
Do you want to slap some money on that statement? for every 400 people that attend a PDR course in the USA only 1 will make a go of it. In the UK the number is very slightly better.
It is certainly not rocket science, but most people find it extremely difficult even with a good trainer standing behind them.
I will give you a tip seeing as you are very new to this life thing and are yet to get a job I expect, never not ever say a tradesman job is easy if you want to keep them as a friend, no matter what they do.
ayceejay
Guru
- Location
- Rural Quebec
There is this very old chestnut that I may have posted up here before but it bears repeating.
A guy (call him Bill) works at a plant as maintenance man for a decade or two. When the new boss takes over he sees that everything is working just fine so he lets the maintenance guy go, economy right? After a while the production line slows and nobody knows why and several millions are lost in production then somebody boldly says "call the old maintenance guy".
Bill installs a widget that gets things rolling again and puts in his invoice: "widget - 25 cents, knowing where to put the widget $1000.00."
A guy (call him Bill) works at a plant as maintenance man for a decade or two. When the new boss takes over he sees that everything is working just fine so he lets the maintenance guy go, economy right? After a while the production line slows and nobody knows why and several millions are lost in production then somebody boldly says "call the old maintenance guy".
Bill installs a widget that gets things rolling again and puts in his invoice: "widget - 25 cents, knowing where to put the widget $1000.00."
e-rider
Banned member
- Location
- South West
people pay car mechanics more because it's generally more difficult to do those jobs yourself and the car mechanic would probably have a higher level of training. However, everyone has the same right to earn money. I have a very high level of training for my job but don't get paid very well - life isn't always fair in that way! Also, comparing bikes to cars, the value of the car itself is much higher than the average bike so people are reluctant to pay for bike servicing.
I personally have never taken my bike to a shop as it's all easy to do yourself and I can do a better job than the LBS anyway. I do think that £30+ per hour labour is totally acceptable though; people have to earn a living.
