In article ,
Keith G wrote:
A few days ago he told me the local Robber Baron 'HiFi Shop had quoted
him 50 quid to fix his (presumably ancient) VCR machine. I told him to
tell them to get stuffed and gave him a perfectly tidy Panasonic DVD
Recorder I simply never use.

The shop has apparently phoned him since and said they could now fix the
VCR for 29 quid!

****ing shysters...

I dunno. Just how much an hour has a shop got to charge to cover its
overheads? How long does it take just to open up a VCR to say replace a
drive belt? How much longer to find an unspecified fault?

I'll make a start. To employ a half decent service engineer in the SE of
England will cost you about 30 grand a year - before you add on NI etc.
So a labour charge of at least 30 quid an hour is the minimum - most will
charge rather more.

Think you're a bit out of date as regards earning a living, Keith. ;-)

--
*All men are idiots, and I married their King.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.