Oscilloscope, necessary tool or nearly worthless? Battling other shops

[Enzo]

I can buy a can of beer at the grocery for a dollar or less, If I buy the same can of beer at a restaurant or bar, it cost me $4-5 a pop.

I used to give away small parts, because to sell them, I had to use a 15 cent sales form.

I charge $4 for a jack. SOme of those jacks cost me 18 cents, some of them cost me $3.25. I charge a $4 minimum for ICs, even though the 4558, TL072, etc cost me less than half a buck. I do not apologize for that. I charge 50 cents for a resistor that cost me a penny.

[glebert]

Just like the music store that adds a charge for their part of the repair transaction because it does take them some time and effort, if you only charge your monetary cost for a part you screwed yourself on the time it takes you to order and maintain inventory.

[bob p]

I can buy a can of beer at the grocery for a dollar or less, If I buy the same can of beer at a restaurant or bar, it cost me $4-5 a pop...

Location, location, location.

If you want to buy a beer from a vendor at an MLB ball game it's going to cost you $10.50.

Why? Because he's in the right place at the right time with the right product.

[bob p]

That still doesn't explain why they charge $3 for a shop towel when I can buy a roll of them for $2.

-rb

it probably has to do with making sure that they charge enough in sales tax to easily meet the tax auditor's expectations. if they didn't charge enough tax to make an auditor happy, then they'd be going through the fine-tooth audit all over again, and potentially being assessed penalties if they didn't charge enough tax to cover their tax exempt purchases for that year. they probably want to get everything off of the books in the year it was purchased so that they don't have to carry anything forward.

you can blame it all on the tax man who wants his money and the accountant who wants to streamline his accounting. i honestly don't think that the shop operator gives a hoot about the $3 towel charge on a $1000 engine repair. he only puts that line item on the bill because he has to do it.

[Sowhat]

I ran a big Chicago music store service department in the 60's and early 70's before moving out to California and even back then I had a scope, generator, meters and all the nice trimmings at hand and not just for show, I actually used them to effect repairs. I find a scope invaluable for numerous reasons and I don't see how anyone can claim to provide professional service without these things being available even if they don't use them much... they actually do have a use. Now a days however that compliment of test equipment has increased to include things like inspection microscopes, hot air stations, temperature controlled irons, and a lot of SMD related stuff because aside from tube gear, I do solid state, digital and even luthier work. I have a comprehensive but small machine shop as well, I'm armed for bear!. For years out here in California I ran my own shop in my own home and I didn't quibble about money very much, I was having fun and anyway during the day I was working aerospace engineering which is what actually paid the rent. Since I retired I have teamed up with a local San Diego music shop and they let me move my repair shop in store to give them a more professional presentation. I charge them by fingers. 1 finger means 1 hour which is my minimum and 2 fingers means 2 hours and so on. Parts are charged to include shipping costs, taxes and handling and what the parts actually cost. So, it would be 1 finger plus $16.98 in parts and like that. What they charge is up to them, I think they tack on 30% or so to cover things like electricity and air conditioning. I give them a wholesale finger price of $40.00 a finger. That's relatively cheap around here but it's a wholesale price and gives them enough margin to make things work... pays for my gas and a bad Starbucks iced mocha habit.

[nosaj]

I ran a big Chicago music store service department in the 60's and early 70's before moving out to California and even back then I had a scope, generator, meters and all the nice trimmings at hand and not just for show, I actually used them to effect repairs. I find a scope invaluable for numerous reasons and I don't see how anyone can claim to provide professional service without these things being available even if they don't use them much... they actually do have a use. Now a days however that compliment of test equipment has increased to include things like inspection microscopes, hot air stations, temperature controlled irons, and a lot of SMD related stuff because aside from tube gear, I do solid state, digital and even luthier work. I have a comprehensive but small machine shop as well, I'm armed for bear!. For years out here in California I ran my own shop in my own home and I didn't quibble about money very much, I was having fun and anyway during the day I was working aerospace engineering which is what actually paid the rent. Since I retired I have teamed up with a local San Diego music shop and they let me move my repair shop in store to give them a more professional presentation. I charge them by fingers. 1 finger means 1 hour which is my minimum and 2 fingers means 2 hours and so on. Parts are charged to include shipping costs, taxes and handling and what the parts actually cost. So, it would be 1 finger plus $16.98 in parts and like that. What they charge is up to them, I think they tack on 30% or so to cover things like electricity and air conditioning. I give them a wholesale finger price of $40.00 a finger. That's relatively cheap around here but it's a wholesale price and gives them enough margin to make things work... pays for my gas and a bad Starbucks iced mocha habit.

So the customer is really introuble when you say its an arm and a leg.



nosaj

[rjb]

I can buy a can of beer at the grocery for a dollar or less, If I buy the same can of beer at a restaurant or bar, it cost me $4-5 a pop.

Now I get it.
I'm paying for the ambiance.

-rb