"it should only take a few minutes..."

[fun4now]

yep all ya gotta do is,,,,,,,,, take it some where else.
ya gotta love the guys that know how to do every thing but have to have some one else do it all....

[dabar39]

First thing this morning, first phone call of the day, it's started already. Guy wants to know if I can go out to his location and repair the deck on his mower. Tells me the front mount has come off of the deck, just needs to be bent back into place and welded, shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. I know this particular piece of equipment as I have worked on it before, the deck in question is 1/4" plate and the area he says came apart is one that has been scabbed together many times before by one of his helpers. I told him it was going to be a time and materials job and would be a minimum 2.5 hr. service call.
I could hear the sound of his jaw dropping to the floor on my end of the phone. Then he gets that all too well known attitude of "why so much, It'll just take 5 minutes. Now I go through the hassle of telling him about the half an hour to load up my van, the half an hour or so to get to him, the time to unload and set up to do the actual job at which we all know is gonna be more than the predescribed 5 min., the clean up time, the travel time back to the shop, and then the time to unload again. I know some of you guys are gonna say I should already be loaded and ready to go with my service vehicle, it is for the most part, but I don't keep torch bottles and stuff like that in there. Now he's gonna call me back if they can't fix it themselves, I already know he's trying to call everybody else in town till he gets what he wants, it just aint gonna be by me.Dave

[DDA52]

I get this all the time as well. I guess it is an industry standard. I also get it with tractor work. Someone always wants me to load up a 7K # tractor and haul it up into the hills an hour away for a five minute job. I have always had a 2 hr minimum for both types of work. Sometimes, I think it should be 3 hours. One day, I'm sure it will be.

[fun4now]

dabar39
i just did the same repair on mine. a few major diferences though. mine was in my shop and only the first fix not going over some ones elses bird poop helper fix. and mine was only 3/16" matereal, and it was off the mower. no way its 5 minuits. some thing majer went wrong this time or his helper would be bird pooping on it again would be my quess. so it could end up being a verry long repair. i cirtenly would not want to weld over and around his helpers bird droppings, thats some sereious prep time waiting to happen on a refix. best to let him sucker some one else into it.

[dabeldesign]

First thing this morning, first phone call of the day, it's started already. Guy wants to know if I can go out to his location and repair the deck on his mower. Tells me the front mount has come off of the deck, just needs to be bent back into place and welded, shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. I know this particular piece of equipment as I have worked on it before, the deck in question is 1/4" plate and the area he says came apart is one that has been scabbed together many times before by one of his helpers. I told him it was going to be a time and materials job and would be a minimum 2.5 hr. service call.
I could hear the sound of his jaw dropping to the floor on my end of the phone. Then he gets that all too well known attitude of "why so much, It'll just take 5 minutes. Now I go through the hassle of telling him about the half an hour to load up my van, the half an hour or so to get to him, the time to unload and set up to do the actual job at which we all know is gonna be more than the predescribed 5 min., the clean up time, the travel time back to the shop, and then the time to unload again. I know some of you guys are gonna say I should already be loaded and ready to go with my service vehicle, it is for the most part, but I don't keep torch bottles and stuff like that in there. Now he's gonna call me back if they can't fix it themselves, I already know he's trying to call everybody else in town till he gets what he wants, it just aint gonna be by me.Dave

Those are the jobs you can be glad to let pass by! Even if you do the job and it looks awesome, they will still find something they don't like about it and complain and try to get the price down. The funny thing is, they would just as soon as have their "helper" lay down some rat terd welds that look horrible!

Oh, and I usually have my truck ready to go but I don't keep torch bottles in it either (it's also my daily driver). So I still have to take a few minutes to load up the truck on top of everything else...Maybe I should start charging a 2 hr min too!

[shade tree welder]

Down here around Houston i have a 4 hour minimum service call, get a few hagglers , i just tell them call someone else, which they probally have allready and found out the other prices. I agree with all, there is no such thing as a 5 minute job. Here at my shop i have a 1 hour minimum,first complaint;"I did not pay that much when i bought it new", i tell them that is why it is broke"poor craftsman ship, get what you pay for

[fun4now]

2 Hr min. if ya haggle of watch, its 3Hr min. if you give advice its a 4Hr min.

[dabeldesign]

2 hour minimum...4 hour minimum... I guess my one hour minimum is a steal!

[Winger Ed.]

Another common statement that makes my teeth grate:

Whenever someone sees you doing something-anything, they'll say,
"Oh,,, you can come over and do mine too".

I was trimming the tree in my front yard one day.
Some visitor at the neighbor's came up, and said,
"I have a tree in my yard that needs trimming too, maybe you.....".

I told her, "Sure,,, bring it over".

It was all I could do to keep a straight face as she looked at me like I was crazy.

.

[fun4now]

"Sure,,, bring it over".

LOL