Another shop rate question

[Randall]

Wondering what others do when a customer brings in more than one piece at a time. Say you get two amps at once from the same guy. Do you bill each one separately, or do you bill for the combined time it took to fix them both? I have a 1 hour minimum at $50/hr rate. Would you apply that 1 hr min. to each one if they took less time than that? Or would you charge just for one hr if they both were relatively easy jobs?

[Jazz P Bass]

Whatever it takes to pay the rent.

[rf7]

I charge $45 each as a diagnostic fee, just to look at the amp. If it's super easy, I might give the guy a break on that, but if I have to pull the amp apart, not really.

[bob p]

Don't sell yourself short. Each amp is a separate project, and it's OK to bill them as separate projects. Your basic shop charges should always cover all of your work, and each service that you perform needs to be itemized on the bill. In the event that you encounter a special situation or you want to do a favor for a customer or give a discount then it's easy enough to write something off, list it as a no-charge service, or just provide a discount off of the total invoice. IMO you should always itemize all of your work on the bill, and whether you decide to charge for each line item or discount some of the bill is entirely your decision.

Realistically speaking it's a lot easier for a customer to realize that you're cutting him a deal if he sees a line item on a bill and then sees you providing that service for a fee, free of charge, or at a discount. If he never sees that line item, there's no way for him to recognize what you did for him, and no way for him to appreciate the fact that he is getting a discount.

My two cents is that you should itemize everything on the bill. Then you get to make the decision about discounts. This helps both you and the customer to get a clear picture of the total work done, the total amount of the bill, and the total amount of the discounts. Transparency is a good thing.

I also think that having a pile of bills available for review that accurately indicate the total amount of work you've done, your total for billable services, and your total discounts will help you to get a better handle on running your shop.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Or would you charge just for one hr if they both were relatively easy jobs?

That. A little "good will" goes a long way.

OTOH you have to hope said customer doesn't start bringing in lots of similar repairs expecting a discount, or tell his friends you're there to be taken advantage of this way.

[bob p]

It should go without saying that you should also keep a clean set of documents in the event that you should ever run into a problem. Documentation of what you did vs. what you didn't do may be essential if there is ever sort of complaint about the work that you did, or heaven forbid that there were some sort of liability problem. Treating the two amps as separately invoiced items might also be helpful if you run into a situation where the bill doesn't get paid on one of the items after you do the work, if one of the amps gets picked up and the other doesn't get picked up, etc. I think it's nice to treat each item separately and then give a discount if you want to when the customer pays the two bills. Personally, I'd hold off on giving the discount until both bills get paid.

[drewl]

If you bring two cars in for service, do they give you a special deal?
I think no....
Goodwill does go a long way, but it depends on the circumstances.

[Tom Phillips]

Two people go to a restaurant together for dinner. The cost for each meal is the same as if they went separately at different times.

[Chuck H]

What they said. But I'll add:

if the ability to interact with one customer a little quicker on two simultaneous orders instead of two separate customers DOES save you any time, pass it along. Like Leo said, a little good will goes a long way. A customer that brings you two amps at the same time is offering trust. Treat them right and it's good PR and a happy customer. Just DON'T SELL YOUR TIME SHORT! Only pass along any real time savings. Honest pay for honest work goes both ways.

[Justin Thomas]

I don't do this for any meaningful part of my time, and most of it is doing maintenance - "check it over & keep it going" stuff. And since it is so rare, and since I live in the boonies, I usually go in and pick the stuff up myself on a trip to town. So yeah, you get a non-PITA-discount for handing me all your amps at once instead of calling me every four days...

I charge half of what the other guy in town charges, cuz I don't have any fancy equipment or overhead. And I don't exactly know what I'm doing... People say I should charge more, though. Most people get away with $40 + parts. Parts prices are inflated enough to pay for shipping, either actual or what it would be to replace stock. Scratch-builds or chassis gut&reconstruction is more, though...

There's a reason I don't do this as a business...

Justin

[Randall]

I'm in line with the separate charging. I know I give a lot of time away in my shop, but I have never documented it on a bill. At $50/hr I am the best thing going in my area, because mainly the only other thing is music stores with bad reps. So, my gut says weed out the ones who call and have no idea what anything costs in the first place, and concentrate on the pro clients who are happy to have a fast and honest shop like mine in town. And after a recent disaster with a psychopath whom I am now worrying about that has been inside my home (bad mistake on my part) the weeding out seems better all the time. Looking for and finding an abusive disgruntled customer you severed relations with's mug shot on line is pretty disconcerting.

[Chuck H]

And after a recent disaster with a psychopath whom I am now worrying about that has been inside my home (bad mistake on my part) the weeding out seems better all the time. Looking for and finding an abusive disgruntled customer you severed relations with's mug shot on line is pretty disconcerting.

Holy "S"!

So then, when the guy calls up and says "Hey! I have another amp thing I need you for." you just sort of him and haw trying to find a good way to tell the mook that your too busy right now. Of course then he tells you he's not in a hurry... Been there with bad, whack job customers/people. Never with a guy quite like that though. Very unnerving.

[bob p]

Here's an idea to avoid that type of problem -- provide service through your local music stores. Let them deal with the customers so you only have to deal with the music store. Nobody comes to your house, you go to the music store once a week to pick up and drop off. In some respects, this type of plan works out best if you adopt a fixed-rate repair schedule rather than charging by time.

[52 Bill]

Discounting to good steady customers will build goodwill and increase return business, but too many discounts may cause a lack of respect for your time and talents.

If you are really doing this as a business, you need to separate your home and shop lives, and limit access of the customers to your private areas and family members. That may mean a separate garage entrance or a sectioned off part of your home.

Even the nicest of customers can sometimes cross the line regarding your privacy and the bad ones will look for ways to access things that they have no business in.

The usual problem is that if people know that you live where you work, they may feel that if they need something they can call you and expect you to be there for them at any time of the day or night.

[Enzo]

If you go to the same bar all the time, and the bartender buys you a round every once in a while, it feels special. If he buys you a free one every third drink, you come to expect it and think he is cheap if he charges you for all of them some night. If I buy one can of corn at the store, they donl;t discount me if I buy three cans of corn the next night.

Repairs are separate. If A guy brings me a whole system, like his PA setup, for a wringing out, then I charge time and materials for that service, but if in doing that I find the power amp has a blown channel and the graphic Eq has a couple broken sliders, then those become separate repairs.

Sometimes repairs are easy, and my hour minimum charge covers it and leaves 45 minutes to spare. Should I discount my time just because I am good at this? And what about the time I took a lot longer but only charged an hour anyway?

And for god's sake use odd numbers. If you charge $20 for some part, it looks like you made it up, but if you charge $19.43 for a part, no one questions it, it looks like you looked it up in the price guide. That MUST be a legit price.