"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
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Think you're a bit out of date as regards earning a living, Keith. ;-)


Don't talk so stupid, Plowie - I had 50 employees in two firms and
probably know a little bit more about paying staff than you do. Add to
that I get charged for stuff like 'bike servicing and that Swim is in
full time employ, so I'm not quite so out of touch as you'd like to
think....

The 'Service Engineer' of that shop is one of the two brothers who have
recently been *given it* by their father who is supposed to have retired
(but is always hanging about in there). It is a goldmine - they have
been strimming the local Chavs for decades; my neighbour has known them
and dealt with them for 30 years. There comes a time you tell a person
like that when an item is beyond economic repair, not just take them to
the cleaners. (Note the drastic 50 to 29 quid reduction...)

Asitappens, Shiny Nigel who works at the shop is due round tonight, if
he makes it (he's in a state with ME or summat, so there's a chance he
won't show) I'll ask him how it's going in the 'repair department'
(loft, actually). My guess is that if it's gone quiet they'll have got
got rid of the *girl* who did most of the work....