re: Purchase parts and expect me to put them on...

I don't have a problem with them asking, but they getting pissed that you declined is BS. Tell them to hit the road.

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You dont have to warranty their part. Make that clear when you accept that paying gig.

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That should be a given and it would be in writing and signed by the customer ahead of time.

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How does that affect your shop standards?

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Because when the job doesn't turn out quite right because the customer brought in shitty parts, its going to end up reflecting badly on the shop. When someone asks the customer who did that install or repair job, the customer will say your shop name but its unlikely that they'll mention that the reason something isn't quite perfect on the finished product is because they bought discounted off-brand parts on the internet to save a few bucks.

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The math is simple. I charge $200/hr at 75% gross margin. I expect to sell approximately $200 in parts at a 33% margin to be used during that hour. That’s about $140k/yr in gross margin on parts and $300k on labor.

I’m not giving away 1/3 of my gross margin so I can cater to a bunch of cheap arse people buying Chinese junk off Amazon that mostly won’t work, and that will inevitably waste a bunch of my staff’s time when it doesn’t work. I didn’t invest millions of dollars to open a business so I can be free tech support for Amazon or anybody else. You make think my rates are high, but the reality is that’s how much you gotta make to run a legitimate business with real overhead.

If you know what you’re doing by all means buy the stuff you need in the cheapest place possible and fix it yourself.

I’ll do a carb job on my kids dirt bike because it’s fun and I can teach him to be a man. I’m not changing the oil on my truck because I’m not messing with 15qts of used oil and jumping through hoops to track my maintenance just to save $50.

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You don't need integral calculus to figure out the maximization here is to spend more time turning wrenches with a 75% return than waiting for parts with a 33% return.

That's easy. Charge them labor time, no warranty. Once it's out of the parking lot, it's no longer your problem. Easy money.

ETA: markup cover alot of things. Paying straight labor time doesn't necessarily include the tools used to do the install or the shop, or the electricity. Doesn't cover warranty labor. Doesn't cover restock fees for people that approve a repair and just never being their car back after the parts are ordered, I could go on, and on, and on. Even with the markup, it's often times cheaper than the consumer could get the same part for, at least that's how it is supposed to be.

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What's board's opinion on buying stuff and expecting a business to install them for you?

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If it’s car audio equipment I don’t see a problem, especially if it’s vintage or high-end.

My OG Infinity Perfect 12.1 12”’s are better than practically any subwoofer on the market today, and most certainly in its price point. Same goes for the old school Japanese XM amps.

Just charge your hourly for install and be done.

200 dollars a man-hour . so over priced. cheaper to junk rather than repair


I take a different approach with my car repair shop. If there are expensive long delivery repair parts I will offer to advance the cost at check in.