this aint a question, just a gripe

[SICFabrications]

getting close to dusk season and my phone rings off the hook of peeps wanting holes patched in the bottoms of their flat bottomed aluminum boats... i bid each and everyone and quote a price and each time, they balk slack jawed at the price....

i know that i am a little more expensive than other shops around, but not by a few dollars per hour... this is the gripe...

fella this a.m. calls me up, i agree to bid the job, he brings the boat by and i look it over.... prolly gonna take me about 8 hours for repairs. cracked stern, 3 cracked ribs, 11 rivet holes that are full of silicon, and a cracked transom... after bidding the job at 650 bucks including materials and clean up dude was appalled that it would cost that much and asked me where i thought it was gonna cost that much...

my reply: here is a machine, here is the consumables and a hood.... you weld it and you will owe me 100 bucks for each leak it has AFTER you repair it...he told me that he didnt know how to weld aluminum and that he heard it was very hard to weld... i just shrugged and walked back into the shop

[Gadget]

Truth be told Stan you are better off that he walked away. I suspect he would never be happy even if it never leaked again.

[matteh99]

Well he was probably thinking I can buy a lot of duct tape, JB weld and calk for $650.

Fixing things right is expensive but usually worth it.

[Charley Davidson]

I get that all the time even with my $40 junk art "my husband can make this for $4" Yep he can if he has a $1500 welder, a $75 grinder, a $1000 plasma cutter and spends 3 or 4 days in a scrap yard looking for all the right pieces.

[KHK]

Everyone wants work for free. Some want you to pay them!!

[tomsign]

a guy walks into a sign shop to get a door that was replaced repinstriped (hand painted) the sign guy quoted $250, the guy told him to do it, it took him about 5 minutes, the guy with truck said he was not paying him the $250
because he seen how long it took him, the sign guy said yeh it only took 5 minutes, but do you know how many years it took me to get that good and that quick with a brush, and walked over the the door, and wiped off with thinner.
the following week another sign Co. brought same truck to him to get it done, that sign Co. charged the guy $325. for the work

[KHK]

a guy walks into a sign shop to get a door that was replaced repinstriped (hand painted) the sign guy quoted $250, the guy told him to do it, it took him about 5 minutes, the guy with truck said he was not paying him the $250
because he seen how long it took him, the sign guy said yeh it only took 5 minutes, but do you know how many years it took me to get that good and that quick with a brush, and walked over the the door, and wiped off with thinner.
the following week another sign Co. brought same truck to him to get it done, that sign Co. charged the guy $325. for the work

There is JUSTICE!!

[Lonewolf9029]

SIC: aluminum duck boats are the worst. Lord knows they've tried every type of J/B, silicone, or whatever; they're is. But, i do know what you're saying. I don't usely want to fool with it anyway, so I quote them $140hr-4 hr minimum. i don't need that kind of work . They'll complain if you were able to do a perfect job. Don

[odleo]

Stan it was better that you just walked off from the cheapskate. Glad you were able to put him in his place by handing him your gear and telling him to weld it himself

[Ascinder]

My math teacher used to always say that cheap and good might as well be parallel lines in space-they never meet up. On the other hand there is such a thing as reasonably affordable and good. I feel your pain. I always used to get customers that would try and haggle you down, some worse than others. I just used to to look at them and say if that's what you want to pay, that's the quality of work you can expect to receive, I'm not running a charity. They usually paid what was originally quoted.