Mr. HowMuchDoesThePartCost

[wolfstrike]

Mr. HowMuchDoesThePartCost

...i came close today,

...i came SO close.


yeah? how much did it cost to build your car?

3 grand?
...for that brand new BMW piece of junk

and you pay , how much?, per month.


plus a couple hundred in insurance donations.

[frigetater]

uuuhhhh......ok

[DPSwitch]

When I was doing service, I just showed them a catalog if they wanted to know. Usually one that shows the price doubled in the book.

[otto]

How much do the eggs cost the restaurant?

[Airmechanical]

hey wolfwhine;:D

if you use a flat rate price book you could then respond by saying

you dont know how much the part cost, but you do know how much it will cost to do the repair!



.

[RoBoTeq]

hey wolfwhine;:D

if you use a flat rate price book you could then respond by saying

you dont know how much the part cost, but you do know how much it will cost to do the repair!



.

This is one good way. Another is to get philosophical and ask; "how much is your comfort and safety worth?"

[skorepeo]

The part cost plus your schooling cost plus benefits and insurance cost add the cost of gas and vehicle maintenance why then there is overhead cost this equals :D

[wolfstrike]

we use a flat rate.

i just say i don't know they come stocked on my truck.

...they never believe it.

[spotts]

we use a flat rate.

i just say i don't know they come stocked on my truck.

...they never believe it.


Thats because it's not very believable. :confused: Rookie excuse.

[coordinatesales]

The cost is the cost of the part + the customer's share of the cost of doing business:

Not limited to;

401K
Coffee
Health Insurance
Holiday Pay
Office Benefits
Sick Pay
Uniforms
Vacation Pay
Air Conditioning Equipment Maintenance
Building Repairs
Cleaning Service
Electric Utilities
Facility Mortgage Payments
Furniture
Gas/Oil Bill
Landscaping
Office Rent
Parts Storage Racks
Security System
Shop Tools
Callbacks
Miscellaneous Hardware
Air Conditioning License
Answering Service
Bad Debt
Business Licenses
Cash Reserves
Certification Tests
Chamber of Commerce Dues
Collections
Company Picnic
Dealer Meetings
Employment Testing
Help Wanted Advertising
Interest Expense
Internet Access
Inventory
Inventory Shrinkage
Invoices
Legal Services
Liability Insurance
Management Training
Mobile Phone Charges
Mobile Phones
Office Training
Pagers
Property Insurance
Recycling
Subscriptions
Tax preparation
Technician Training
Trade Association Membership
Brochures
Charitable Contributions
Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Door Hangers
Home And Garden Shows
Magnets
Newsletter
Newspaper Advertising
Other Advertising
Outdoor Advertising
Patches
Radio Advertising
Sales Commissions
Warranties
Website
Yellow Pages
Youth Sports Team Sponsorships
Accounting
Calculators And Adding Machines
Computer System Maintenance
Computers
Copier
Copies
Fax Machine
Files And File Cabinets
Network
Office Supplies
Phone Bill
Phone System
Postage
Postal Equipment
Printing
Software
Stamps And Pads
Telephone Bill
Telephone Equipment
Training Equipment
Trash And Disposal
Water Bill
Call Taker
Dispatcher
Employee Incentives
Employee Pay
Management
Office Staff
Receptionist
Technician Pay
Federal Taxes
Local School Taxes
Local Taxes
Municipal Property Tax
Other property Taxes
Sales Tax
Social Security Taxes
State Taxes
Unemployment Insurance
Worker's Comp
Gasoline
Ladders
Radios
Tires
Tools
Truck Decals
Truck Depreciation
Truck Insurance
Truck Inventory
Truck Ladder Racks
Truck Maintenance
Truck Shelves
Trucks
Profit
Tool Insurance
Truck Plates
Life Insurance
Equipment Insurance
Warranty Expenses
Code updates
Other trade book updates
Permits
Dental / Vision Insurance
Equipment Consumables
Inventory Tax
Research & Development

Now that I think about it, I need to raise my prices again!

[inspectorjoe]

I get this question all the time what can you say but just show them the flat rate pricing book and say this is the toatal price for the labor and the part and the tax

[gevans]

I usta have this lil story printed on paper, and have actually handed a copy to customers asking that question. I'll try it from memory:
Some engineer built a mass production machine for Henry Ford. It was making him money hand over fist. When it broke down, nobody in the factory could fix it. He called the engineer, who came and tapped it with a hammer in a certain location. The machine then worked perfectly. Ford got a bill for $10k, and blew a gasket. He asked the engineer to itemize the bill. It went something like this:

Tapping on the machine with a hammer: $5.00
Knowing where to tap: $9,995.00
Total: $10,000.00
Have a nice day.

I Snoped it, some good reading: http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/where.asp

[renaissanse man]

I usta have this lil story printed on paper, and have actually handed a copy to customers asking that question. I'll try it from memory:
Some engineer build a mass production machine for Henry Ford. It was making him money hand over fist. When it broke down, nobody in the factory could fix it. He called the engineer, who came and tapped it with a hammer in a certain location. The machine then worked perfectly. Ford got a bill for $10k, and blew a gasket. He asked the engineer to itemize the bill. It went something like this:
Tapping on the machine with a hammer: $5.00
Knowing where to tap: $9,995.00
Total: $10,000.00
Have a nice day.Good one! :D

[DPSwitch]

You can always tell them that the part was free, the entire bill is labor.

[otto]

It's not the part, it's the packaging! Let him keep the box.:)

[ryan_the_furnace_guy]

Part: $7.99
Other: $436.99 (includes my psychiatrist sessions so I don't beat them senseless when they push this issue)

[crackertech]

Part: $7.99
Other: $436.99 (includes my psychiatrist sessions so I don't beat them senseless when they push this issue)

:D:D

[Airmechanical]

You can always tell them that the part was free, the entire bill is labor.


that may actually work on some of my customers!:D



.

[marter]

Sir i dont handle the billing.. you number you want is XXX-XXX-XXXX

have a nice freakin day

[ryan_the_furnace_guy]

Sir i dont handle the billing.. you number you want is XXX-XXX-XXXX

have a nice freakin day
make no mistake, if you are standing there with the bill and waiting for a signature...oh...you handle the billing...maybe not the collecting, but the billing...:D

[otto]

I am lucky, I don't handle the billing.

[y7turbo]

I am lucky, I don't handle the billing.

one of the reasons l Love commercial work. 99.99995% of the time your dealing with people who dont care about the cost or what you did. They only want to know if its working or why its not working and when it will be working.

[Catpower]

The price of the part is always dependant upon the customers attitude!

[coolperfect]

I give all my customers bills with baeak down the thing that gets me mad is when they complane mostly the ones who work on 400%

[Twilly]

Twilli just sings em this song and they look scared and quit asking Twilli questions...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-zXsqrA-9s

[ryan_the_furnace_guy]

Twilli just sings em this song and they look scared and quit asking Twilli questions...
Ahh Twilli, you slay me! :eek::D

[midhvac]

The cost of us carrying parts is a lot more than most people realize.

The money I spend on gas shagging parts is really starting to get my attention lately. And if I stock up on the parts and buy more than I'll use in a few months, I have problems getting the vendors to warranty them. And it can also put me in a cashflow bind.

Then there are numerous cases where the parts house has given me bad parts. That costs me money no matter what the outcome is.

Are these customers willing to stock parts for their system?

Will they be able to warranty those parts they bought if one is bad?

And what will they do with those parts when they have to replace their system?

I have so many obsolete parts in stock now, it makes me sick every time I look at them and think about what I paid for them in terms of today's dollars. At least I have them off the truck now.

I can recall carrying some parts around in my truck for several years before I finally needed them.

And I have to carry about a zillion different air filters and water panels on my truck, and a certain percentage of them are unusable after x amount of time because they occupy so much room I have to keep moving them to get to other things.

Sometimes I think these people believe that there is only one set of parts, filters, etc. for all furnaces or A/C's.

The bottom line is that there's obviously no way for us to be able to break even on the total cost of our parts without charging more for them than we paid for them. We're not parts houses. We have more expenses than they do. And even they don't sell parts for what they buy them for. If they get shipped a bad part it doesn't cost them nearly as much as it costs us. I've spent over 4 hours on numerous occasions on jobs involving those parts.

If on the other hand, the customer provides us with a bad part, they're going to be charged for the extra labor involved, and they'll feel our pain. (Been there done that). Hopefully, they'll realize that the true cost of the part is more than it appears to be at a glance. Time is money too, and gas ain't cheap either.