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Think you're a bit out of date as regards earning a living, Keith.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

**Not that I enjoy agreeing with Keith, I understand where he is coming
from. Let me explain:

As a service guy, I assess each job as it arrives. I offer two options to my
clients:

1) A rough guesstimate of the job, based on the description of the fault and
my experience with the particular piece of equipment. This is free (I know -
stupid me). I also advise the client I feel the job is not worth proceeding
with. A surprising number of people will after request an item be serviced,
even though it is not economical to do so.
2) A full quote, which lists the parts required and the time taken to do the
job. For this, I charge AUS$55.00 UP FRONT. That cost is deducted from the
final cost. One of my mates in the business now makes more money from quotes
(which are not proceeded with) than he does from actual repair work.

IMO, if the story related by Keith is factual, then, IMO, the service guy
was morally wrong. Legally, probably not, however.

Let me also state, that fixing stuff is not the path to riches that it once
was. It is hard work and the rewards are not great.

Trevor Wilson