DaveK

I went to a car audio shop today to see what they would charge to install my speakers - it's the same audio shop that installed the head unit and alarm when I bought the car and they did a good job at the time. The conversation was :

Me : "I have some speakers I want fitted to my car. How much do you charge just for fitting?"
Them : "What car is it?"
Me : "Porsche 911"
Them : "About fift..... er.... £80 + vat"
Me : "Yeah? Well fu.... I'll think about it".

(I didn't really say the last bit!). I'm guessing that most other cars would have been half the cost - in fact, my mate had a head unit plus multi-changer installed in his Fiat coupe at the same place, including some re-wiring so that the head unit was ignition powered rather than battery powered - for £50.

I was really just being lazy - but I am NOT paying £100 for someone to fit a set of £130 speakers. Expect a post in a week or so (when the speakers turn up) titled "How do I get the door panels off?".

warmfuzzies

Dave,

expect a " anytime we next meet" invitation.........It's not difficcult, just time consuming, I'll see if I can dig out some pics.

kevin

Kahdmus

I experienced this also when I called around to get my aero mirrors painted last year. I called one place back a day later and they quoted me HALF the price when I said it was for a Honda Civic! Grrr...

Eric Kessel

One thing to keep in mind, the stereotype, based in reality I think, that the Porsche owner is going to be a bit harder to please quality wise than the civic owner, so they will have to put more effort into a little mirror respray.........

PC2

I think I fit into that stereotype, cuz I had the body shop repaint my aero mirrors 3 times before I was satisfied.

Sorry for contributing to the high prices.

bhensarl

Yeah, thanks a lot, Pete. I usually just let them half-**** the job and accept their ****-poor work. But thanks to you they charge me too much for mediocre service!

Brian

Kahdmus

LMAO!!!

Pesty

phoned a place near me for tyres.

first quote £595

phones another place £570

phoned a third place

this time they asked what car is it for. I say a Porsche 911

they say £760 !!!! for exactly the same tyres

I spot a patern emerging At least I got a good laugh out of em. they did seem most perturbed but then I was almost choking I laughed that hard.

when I told them my best quote so far they said well beat that. I told em to shove it dropped £200 in 30 secs either im the best in the world at bartering or they were trying to rip me off cos of teh car

Julian Thompson

...I suppose I should not say this becasue I am not flavour of the month with my views at the moment but what's the point of a one sided argument...

I would always quote more money to work on a more expensive car becasue if, in this litigeous world we live in, I break or damage something on a more expensive car in the process of working on it the cost of the parts to fix it will be much more. Also the customers tend to be enthusiasts who are overall much much more critical of EVERYTHING you do, be in installing a pair of speakers, fitting some tyres or painting mirrors.

Not for nothing is Porsche labour more expensive than Proton labour and these more privately owned shops are just trying to make a living. In general I would run a mile from a Porsche owner who is being coy about paying labour because invariably the job will always be more complex on these cars than on a more basic model and then time runs over and the poor old business is expected (again) to foot the extra labour itself.

The guy in the car audio shop started to say £50 and realised he had underquoted the job - what about when the customer decides the sound isn't quite right and then the shop owner has to justify and test the install, maybe swap the speakers out for some others etc... so he said £80 to cover himself. Not a crime.

Cut the industry some slack chaps?

<runs for cover>

robmug

Julian - probably both are true. There's both types out there, and the trick is finding the ones who charge more for the right reasons.

Julian Thompson

Yes, fair comment - we have a car audio fitting shop as part of our operation and it is being hammered by people buying gear off the internet and then trying to get us to install it. Some clients just can't internalise the fact that if they supply their own parts we have to charge much more to install because there is no margin in the gear !

TaylorSea4

You know, I think Julian really hit it. I used to work for a window tint/ stereo boutique, and there IS a difference in doing a job on a Civic versus a 911. Probably not harder, just higher expectations of the customer. It's the same reason my expectations for PappaDeaux (high-end cajun seafood) are higher than my expectations of McDonald's. For the record, our owner wouldn't install new equiptment that was knowingly purchased elsewhere.

That's not to say I'm not guilty of hammering luxury/ sportscar owners. Used to run a valet for a popular nightclub, and we'd always hammer an extra 5 bucks outta the Porsche/ Ferrari owners. Mostly because they'd give us the f**king dissertation about how valuable the car was and such. What, you mean a new 911 Turbo is expensive?? Sheee-it, man. I had no clue.

Julian Thompson

Indycam - you are absolutley right of course, it does and it is a pleasure to work with quality equipment.

The point is that even taxation is based on the ability to pay. Think about this - I am just buying a new house so I rang a surveyer.

He said "Okay Julian I can survey your new house; how much is the house so I can give you a price for the survey?"

He meant that if my house was £100000 he would not be trying to charge me as much as if my house was £500000. He would still have to make the appointment, drive to the house, make the survey, climb into the roof, check the foundations etc and then write the survey up afterwords but his fee was much more for the £500000 house than it would have been for the cheaper one.

We accept this situation without blinking.

Why should I not say to you, "Oh you are running a £50000 car here so it is a more risky and difficult job to get a standard of work that is appropriate in such a car. Our rate for you today is £50 per hour rather than £25 per hour that we charged last week to fit that second hand radio into your daughters £500 first car"?

Just the same thing.

Ruairidh

Although Julian there is a difference with the Surveyor (not that I'm defending that profession) - if he ***** up a survey on a $500k house his liability ordinarily will be higher than a $100k house.

But overall I agree we shouldn't be screwed and pay more for the same work just because it is assumed we can afford more...

Julian Thompson

Actually I'm saying the reverse ! I'm saying that although it would be nice if we could pay the same it just isn't possible. He's got to charge more for the survey on the dearer house and I've got to charge more for the work on your 911 than on your basic Honda!