"Keith G" wrote in message
...

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Think you're a bit out of date as regards earning a living, Keith.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


Like it might not be?

**IME, your story could be 100% on the money.

Trevor Wilson