I had a set of cylinder heads I wanted to have checked out before I sold them. Maybe even get a standard valve job on them in a worst case. So I bring them to a local shop that my friend uses. Shop owner tells me that if I wanted him to do them, its gonna cost a minimum of $1000. Uh what?. "Yeah, we're gonna have to change all the seats, guides, blah blah blah". Runs off basically every component in the head. Then starts telling me hoe the ethanol makes the metal soft that why the heads needed all new seats . I was totally confused. Trying to process it all, I informed him that I wasn't building a race engine, I was just hoping to get a valve job on a set of heads. Usually around $225 these days) Didn't make a difference, he was stuck on that price. Oooookay, thanks anyways! .... I went to my friend to see what the dudes problem was. "Oh, he just didn't know who you were or he was probably just too busy and didn't want to do it." What? First, why would you, as a business owner not want to see a new customer walk through the door? I cant tell you how many referrals Ive given my carb guy. So many that the guy made it a point to thank me when I last walked in for a couple of gaskets which he didn't even charge me for, but I digress.... Second, if your too busy, just say so. Id respect the guy more. Instead, he was just a dick to me and gave me some wild price to blow me out of the water. Someone he didn't even know. Guess what, anytime I hear that guys name in conversation, what do you think Im going to say about him? I have no idea how guys like this stay in business
Last Friday I went to a local camper sales place to get a price for a 20 ft awning to put on my enclosed trailer.They were advertising a big sale then. I walk in,the guy looks up,never got any books or anything out and tells me $3000 for the awning I asked him about.So,I say how much for a Manual one istead. He says that was the price for a manual crank one.He then goes on a spree about if you get an electric one,you need a power inverter blah,blah blah. I then say to him there is another camper sales plact 45 minutes away that gave me a price of $1500 for all of the awning components,and I wanted to give them a fair try as it is a bit closer. He looks at me and says "I guess you should go to Milton and buy your awning." I just wheeled around and walked out.There were others who followed me.One guy said that will be the last time he buys from them and wondered why I didn't confront him..I told him for 1/2 price I know a better dealer. He asked me and we looked the number up on my phone and address.He said he was heading that way as well..
That is a standard response to "I don't really want to do it, but at that price, I might" Went on Home Advisor to look for a painter. I solicited 4 bids. 3 of the bids were in the same ballpark area, and the last bid was 300% higher than the others. Same explanation - I will do it for that price.
I have and I've done it. I even offered one guy all my profit back on a deal if he agreed to never call me again. You must have rubbed the guy the wrong way.
We see this all the time in custom machining. We'll have some parts to be made, solicit quotes, and sometimes 1 or 2 will come back way high. It's just the shop usually doesn't have the capacity to do them in the required time, and it's considered bad taste to no-quote, so they'll tack on a bunch of money, and if you're willing to pay it, they'll suck it up and do it for that big a piece of pie, but they go into it knowing you'll likely find a better price somewhere else. A few months down the road we'll send out more jobs, and they'll be right in line. That said, if the guy was a total prick about it, well, then maybe he's just a prick. Or he has some odd deep seated hatred for ostriches......
I bought a used truck off Craigslist a few months back and it needed an alignment. I took it to a dealer who has treated me very well in the past. But this visit I noticed a bunch of new faces. After getting the truck on the rack, the service rep calls me over and proceeds to list all the front end issues on the truck that needed to be corrected. Total cost to me - around $1800. I told them no thanks, I checked under the front end before purchase and didn't see any of the issues mentioned. Got a referral from a mechanic friend and got it done for $65. I asked the guy who did the work if he saw any other problems while he was under the truck and he said, "no, I wouldn't have aligned it if there were any problems". Makes me sick to think of the folks who know nothing about cars/trucks getting ripped off by that dealer.
Walked up to an auto parts store years ago ,local one off store before we got ran over with corporate chain stores of today. It was right at 6 pm was met at the door by employee/owner ? who said we are closing you will have to come back tomorrow. He didnt know if we were buying a $1.50 spark plug or needed to buy half the store. I never went back ever. Not that I at all like the chain stores now a days but this attitude kills small business.That store went under years ago.
A small business owner would never usually say we are closed , I use to be one . an employee most likely would
It's a common problem. Hard to tell them apart without a score card. Thankfully, some apps like Yelp and the like are helping. Can't take them at face value for everything but you can get a feel for a place. I've had my wife take a car in for something I didn't think I had time for. I very specifically listed what I wanted donw. She usually calls at least once or twice with them telling her in the background about all the extra work it needs. I tell her to bring it home, I'll do it myself this weekend. Another time, I had a shop tell me that my then truck, a ZR2 S10 which is know for being hard on ball joints, that my whole front end needed to be replaced, all ball joints, tie rod ends, hubs, drag link, pitman arm and idler arm to the tune of $1200. I replaced the lower ball joints and idler arm. Everything else was tight and good to go. Took it to a second shop that lined it up like new and said it all looked fine. There are good shops and shady shops.
I had a similar experience, some time back, with roofers. We specified the type of shingles we preferred. All were within a thousand dollars of each other. Most were tear-offs. One was $2,000 higher than anyone, and it was a roof-over. The guy came to do the estimate in a very nice older Ranger. He was driving a late model Caddy when he dropped off the estimate, in person. As I was looking at it, he asked when they could start. I told him he was a couple grand over everyone else. "I don't know how anyone could do it that cheap", was his response. As I ripped his estimate in half, I told him that I don't know how anyone would even think about having him do a roof-over for that much. I think he advertised as a roofer, doesn't even have a crew, hires a local company to do the job, then pockets the difference for doing only an estimate.