Charge per hour.

[miniconnect]

had to have head gasket on our elderly scraper tractor done a couple months ago. kind of job that I'd think the mechanic doing the job may have done 100 times in his career. job done, tractor back in service.
Then the invoice landed, after a major grumble about labour, consumables etc no hours specified or other details. but the best of it a £3 SANITISATION charge! Its a scraper tractor that went to be repaired covered in muck and came home the same way. no way it had any sanitisation!
£3 for nothing onto every invoice is a nice earner.
it's not much in the grand scheme but it's the principal of it.

 

[njneer]

had to have head gasket on our elderly scraper tractor done a couple months ago. kind of job that I'd think the mechanic doing the job may have done 100 times in his career. job done, tractor back in service.
Then the invoice landed, after a major grumble about labour, consumables etc no hours specified or other details. but the best of it a £3 SANITISATION charge! Its a scraper tractor that went to be repaired covered in muck and came home the same way. no way it had any sanitisation!
£3 for nothing onto every invoice is a nice earner.
it's not much in the grand scheme but it's the principal of it.

Would have charged you £30 sending it in covered in muck , it’s the principle of it ...

 

[getting on]

Seems very reasonable to me, when I started reading I expected way more.
Are you next door to the dealer?

20 miles away. Thanks for all the comments. I feel better now that its off my chest.

 

[kiwi pom]

20 miles away. Thanks for all the comments. I feel better now that its off my chest.

You did very well

 

[Jd Everytime]

I phoned main jd dealer about header tank bubbling. They said they've a mechanic just 4 mile away they can pop in to pressure check it so I agreed they were on site 15/20 mins . £117 labour charge! And charged travelling 45 mile both ways. I have questioned it!!! Tractor got repaired by independent mechanic very well for alot less ££

 

[miniconnect]

Would have charged you £30 sending it in covered in muck , it’s the principle of it ...

their labour charge more than covered it.
I offered to wash it but they collected it as it was, it was their choice.

 

[Tim G]

We had a refrigeration engineer out to replace the compressor on the freezer in our farmshop. He charged us travelling both ways which were different rates. When we queried it he said it was higher to come to us because he came from the previous job (who he'd probably charged too) and the lower amount was from ours to his home. The previous job was actually closer to us than his home but he got lost........
Won't be having him back.

 

[Grassman]

Local car main dealer £180 plus vat per hour.

Our local main land rover dealer is £200 hr

 

[kiwi pom]

We had a refrigeration engineer out to replace the compressor on the freezer in our farmshop. He charged us travelling both ways which were different rates. When we queried it he said it was higher to come to us because he came from the previous job (who he'd probably charged too) and the lower amount was from ours to his home. The previous job was actually closer to us than his home but he got lost........
Won't be having him back.

I rang a company to come out and fix something, no problem, we'll come next Tuesday as we cover your area on Tuesday's, it will save a call out. Guy turns up, does the job then when the bill comes i still got the travel charge. Turns out they line up a bunch of people in the same area then charge travelling to all even though they could literally be on the same street. Nice little earner.
Bit naughty that.

 

[quavers]

son is workshop foreman for a recovery company. they charge workshop hrs @ £60, he gets £13.50 flat rate no overtime rate. my bike dealer charges £64/hr.

seen the council advertising for a mechanic , £29000 a year and £26500 for a store man and i bet they wont be rushed off there feet

 

[njneer]

their labour charge more than covered it.
I offered to wash it but they collected it as it was, it was their choice.

Fair does to you if you offered many don’t .
I think you may find the “Sanitation” charge might not be related to cleaning per se but more disinfectant relating to Covid protocols.
Having it on the invoice perhaps is their way of covering themselves and proving that they have been doing their bit for sake of liability.

 

[ARW]

These charges are a lot but it’s all cost of running a business in my point of view
The engineer has a cost per hour, he has to earn enough for himself, the workshop foreman, the workshop rates, office staff, insurance, training, new tools, all the runnings of the show
The van has a cost per mile, travelling time is wasted time as he could be spannering something in the yard
Consumables have to be charged for, if you don’t you can soon be out of pocket by £1000s a year
Oil has to be disposed of, along with other waste and its has to be disposed of properly and paid for, they aren’t burning tyres on a Sunday night and tipping waste oil on
Then they have to make a profit, most probably to subsidise the high purchase price, instead of making the mark up they get it in sales and service parts.
If they went bust the sneering thread would be rife!

They offer a service at £X amount, if you are not prepared to pay it then don’t use that service

 

[Estate fencing.]

These charges are a lot but it’s all cost of running a business in my point of view
The engineer has a cost per hour, he has to earn enough for himself, the workshop foreman, the workshop rates, office staff, insurance, training, new tools, all the runnings of the show
The van has a cost per mile, travelling time is wasted time as he could be spannering something in the yard
Consumables have to be charged for, if you don’t you can soon be out of pocket by £1000s a year
Oil has to be disposed of, along with other waste and its has to be disposed of properly and paid for, they aren’t burning tyres on a Sunday night and tipping waste oil on
Then they have to make a profit, most probably to subsidise the high purchase price, instead of making the mark up they get it in sales and service parts.
If they went bust the sneering thread would be rife!

They offer a service at £X amount, if you are not prepared to pay it then don’t use that service

Exactly!
Farmers are best at moaning that things cost so much, these are businesses that have to make a profit not charity's for farmers to keep on what they are doing, if you don't like the cost of getting things repaired or jobs done then do them yourself!
The best statement from farmers "I make less than minim wage" but they fail to mention that they spend half there lives taking to people at sales and hiding in the house because it wet!

 

[bluebell]

all looks so very expensive because farm profits have no way keep pace ? have a look at some costs of say 30 years ago and i bet the ratio was more even ?

 

[kiwi pom]

all looks so very expensive because farm profits have no way keep pace ? have a look at some costs of say 30 years ago and i bet the ratio was more even ?

Despite that there are still farm businesses that have grown from next to nothing to large businesses, employing people, putting up new buildings, buying tractors and making a living for the owner.
So a profit must be possible?

 

[Gapples]

It's all down to expectations at times I suspect, I remember once many years ago when I was foreman, a customer phoned in & asked if I could get someone to call in check the disc speed on his Taskers ( yes a long time ago )
He said please don't make it a special journey.
So a couple of weeks later I asked one of a lads to call in on his way to another job, he checked & set up the disc speed as required, a small job.
Anyway we sent out a bill for 30 minutes labour & the 2 miles traveled out of our way down to his farm & back, that's all we charged.

Anyway the customer came in & complained to the boss saying I had promised we'd do it for free ( I hadn't ) As far as I was concerned we as a dealer workshop were there to make a profit & provide as good a service as possible, but there were always customers who complained after every job we done being totally unrealistic in their expectations of the time required to do jobs, occupational hazard of the job.

 

[NorthEastLad]

new tools,

Very few dealers will provide tools to the mechanic, maybe specialist tools.

The vast majority of the tools are laid for by the mechanical himself.

 

[uztrac]

My local garage who does all my family vehicles charges £40.00 + Vat. Nothing is to much trouble for them,good service from them.

 

[steveR]

Finnings want £450 just to come out and diagnose a fault on a Cat loading shovel even though we know what’s wrong with it
They won’t order parts or send a fitter until it’s diagnosed by them!

Have come across Finnings impressive service charging structure before now. Suffice to say, the guy running a Cat, now uses an independent.

 

[Phil P]

I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way but, you can tell the people who have only ever farmed! Farming is an industry like no other buy retail sell wholesale so margins are always tight. But that said I’ve never met a poor farmer .

I always think I have a bit of a unique perspective when it comes to dealers as I worked for one for many years, then set up on my own and also farm, on top of that I do work in the industrial sector which real puts prices in perspective.

The op sees a bill for £166, I see at least three years at college plus time served, a vehicle + maintenance, road tax, insurance, public liability, indemnity insurance, tools, gloves, rags, cleaning fluid, the knowledge to do the job, it may have taken an hour to do the job but in reality it tech will be best part of 2 and a half hours between calling the Forman (who pays his wage?) been assigned the job travelling, doing the job, booking out time parts, secretary then has to make out invoice and postage. It all has a cost!!!

Now to put it in perspective, I recently did a small welding job at a local airport. Two hours from leaving the yard to getting home, probably 25 minutes of welding including prep. £500 +vat