Let's get serious

[Don Bradner]

On 1/6/2008 at 6:41 PM Gregory OConnor wrote:

>I dont think a shop would consider what is fair unless they are
>thinking of charging a premium. product familiarity will attract
>business and local shop rate should prove profitable.

Right. I can't imagine giving a lot of weight to asking my customers what they
think is fair when pricing my product.

Prices on goods and services that I sell are based on what they cost, plus
reasonable (to me!) expectations of profit. If the customer does not think that
is fair, they don't buy it, and I discontinue it. I do not lower the price to
match their concept of fair, because I would not remain in business that way.
There have been a few, rare, times when prices have been raised to discourage
business, when demand was outstripping our ability to supply, but in most cases
where demand rises we increase capacity to handle it.

I would not object to paying 80, 90, 100, 110, or 120 per hour if the work is
performed efficiently and completely. An example of where I do object to cost:

I once paid $90 per hour in Memphis for 12 hours of work. The first 8 hours were
by a guy who spent it all in diagnosis and came up empty. The remaining 4 were
to a different mechanic at the same facility who both diagnosed (about 15
minutes) and repaired the problem.

I paid the bill to ransom the vehicle, but was eventually reimbursed for those
first 8 hours; it took a lot of effort along the lines of what Gregory suggested
he might do in another post (web exposure involved). Yes, the facility was out
costs for that first 8 hours, but I consider that their problem because they
assigned an obviously inadequately trained/experienced individual, and did not
observe that he was over his head right away.