I'm by no means trying to rip anyone off here... but I work with a guy who I consider to be a friend. Last week, he wanted me to do a brake job on his 2002 Escort on the rear drums. He gives me the money and I buy the parts. The TOTAL cost of the job came to be $130 parts AND labor. I spent the better part of 5 hours doing the work because I wasn't using the facilities at school and the drums were beyond fused to the hubs. I ended up having to hammer a hole into the drum just to be able to pry it off with a pry bar.
That's not the problem. He was grateful for that. I ended up making a mere $45 on that job.
He wants me to do a basic tune up to the car since it's most likely 100% factory since the car rolled out of production. He gives me $100 to cover parts. Cost came to about $70 for spark plugs, wires, PCV valve, fuel filter, and air filter. Tonight at work, we are discussing what time I can do it tomorrow. I mention to him that I will need $20 more to do the job to cover labor (a total of $50 in my pocket for the job). He got pretty mad at me for that one. Claims that I'm supposed to be his friend and that I'm ripping him off. He said that just the other day he drove by a shop that advertised $55 labor. I told him "that's their HOURLY rate. They go by book time, which could end up being 3 hours for all you know. Not only that, shops like that mark up their parts and only have to buy them at COST." Then, he tells me that I'm not some specialized mechanic like they are and that I shouldn't be asking him for that much money. I told him that I'm going to SCHOOL for a bachelors degree in Auto Tech and most of the "mechanics" at those chain shops don't even have a high school degree.
We exchange some yelling... mostly I was yelling because I felt like he had no right to insult me like that and tell me that my SUNDAY time was not worth $50 to him. Icing on the cake here... the shop that is supposedly "specialized" charged him $600 to do his front brakes 6 months ago (I saw the receipt). When I was doing his rear brakes, he wanted me to look for the grinding noise he was hearing. I removed a front wheel and what do you know... he has NO pads left on his front brakes. I tell him this and he takes the car back to the shop to find out why the brakes didn't last. They charge him $40 labor and free parts to redo them... here's where it gets better. A week later, his fucking caliper falls off. They forgot to tighten down the bolts to the knuckle. And he tries to tell me these shops are "specialized"... yes, they're special all right.
Am I out of line for charging $50 for a fucking tune up? What a cheap bastard... he can pay a shop $600 for an easy as PIE front disk brake job but can't pay me $50 to install plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, and PCV valve? wtf!
Bookmarks