[Immo]

They do good work, BUT negotiate the price up front. They did some work for me… The owner told me that he thought it would take 4 hours and his hourly rate was $85. I waited while they did the work. The work took 3 hours, but they charged me for 4 hours anyway. My car was in his shop for a total of 3.5 hours, but I watched the tech take several breaks to chat on his cell phone and also stopped to eat lunch. When I questioned it the owner started a screaming match with me. Complaining about his overhead, etc.

He stated that he told me four hours, so that was what I owed. I asked him if it took 6 hours, would he charge for four, and he said "no I would then charge you for six". So what is the difference?

I sent him a letter the next day:

Neal,

Why did you ignore your own policy yesterday? You have a sign on your wall that clearly states your hourly rate of $85.00 an hour. I agreed to pay that hourly rate. The job took 3 hours and yet you charged me for 4 hours. If your employee ran into issues installing my parts and the job took 6, I would have paid for 6 hours because I agreed to an hourly rate not knowing how long the job would take.

I am in the service business as well (and have been for almost 17 years). If I tell a client I think it will take 4 hours to complete a job and it takes 3, I bill them for 3. If I tell a client it will be $400.00 to fix their computer network, I charge them $400 regardless of how long it takes. That is how you perform ethical business with good customer service.

You kept referring to dealerships and how they have fixed pricing for a job. I don't pay for their employees to eat lunch, chat on their cell phone, or have extended conversations with others (which is exactly what happened yesterday). I pay for a job to be completed.

This should have been a Firm Fixed Price, or True Time and Materials. If your employee would have worked on the job non-stop, it would have been 3 hours (excluding that time that I paid for him to take a lunch break and to make personal calls on his cell phone). The car was pulled in at 10:00 am and was done at 1:30. If you take out 30 mins for the lunch break and phone calls, that is 3 hours. Why should I have to pay for his lunch and personal use phone time? As his employer, you were not willing to pay for that and I do not feel it is fair practice to have those charges and then some passed on to me.