Well, yes, it is. Just try telling someone before you do the work it will cost them $510 per hour and we'll see just how much work you get.
YES! YES! YES!
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Again, no it isn't.
If so, you don't understand business, shop rates or billing.First, try reading what you wrote vs what was charged. The shop in the OP DID NOT have a shop rate of $510 per hour. If they charged an hour minimum at $85......they are on the high side of that Brownells survey. If the job had taken longer.....$85 might be for the first hour only.
Which is junk math. It only proves you dont know anything about billing hours, shop rates or really anything to do with running a business.
I picked up a quarter on the sidewalk this afternoon walking the dog. It took me less than a second.
This is the sort of business that has loyal, return customers. Between this type of shop and the kind whose business practiced a couple other posters spend so much time defending - I know which would get my return business.
Well, DTT, I often do work "by the job" or by the task (and do all the invoicing, etc.), so I certainly understand the bookkeeping aspects of business. With that understood, it is certainly possible that the gunsmithing shop time for that particular establishment is billed at $85 per hour and they may have a minimum charge of 1 hour for any walk-in-and-wait-for-it task. If so, it would have been the ethical thing to advise the customer (or potential customer) of those charges. To have just taken advantage of the ignorance of the customer as seems to have occurred per the OP is unethical at least and (IMHO) borders on theft.Again, no it isn't.
If the "shop rate" is $50 an hour, billed at an hour minimum, and the job takes ten minutes? Thats $50. If the job takes twenty minutes? That's $50. If the job takes 45 minutes? Thats $50.
Taking the total cost and multiplying by time spent doesn't give you the "shop rate". A shop rate for gun repairs can be billed as a service charge for the man hours involved or as a flat fee.
I do gun transfers at $20 per transfer, takes about five minutes. So you think I'm making a "shop rate" of $240 an hour?
For it to be an actual $240 per hour I would need to average twelve transfers each and every hour I work. Same with the shop rate for gunsmithing.
First, try reading what you wrote vs what was charged. The shop in the OP DID NOT have a shop rate of $510 per hour. If they charged an hour minimum at $85......they are on the high side of that Brownells survey. If the job had taken longer.....$85 might be for the first hour only.
Which is junk math. It only proves you dont know anything about billing hours, shop rates or really anything to do with running a business.
"It equates to" is a meaningless observation.
I picked up a quarter on the sidewalk this afternoon walking the dog. It took me less than a second.
Twenty five cents per second X the 28,800 seconds in an eight hour day X five days per week X 52 weeks= $1,872,000 a year. Do you really think thats what I earn? "Cause thats the logic you are using.
Me too. But I gave it up for different reasons.
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I'm thinking it's more like they charge $85 per hour with a one hour minimum charge. At least that's how they'd justify it.
Well said sir.The customer could have walked at any time.
There may not be another part of the store that is accessible to customers. Often security concerns and insurance restrictions dictate "customer areas".
Brownells polls gun shops for their typical shop charges every so often: https://www.brownells.com/userdocs/miscellaneous/shoppricesurvey.pdf
$85 does not seem excessive. If it does, then the young man better learn how to install an AR grip himself.
Then he should have asked. Often its not possible to get a "cost of service" for repair work until the repair is complete. My plumber doesn't do it, my A/C guy doesn't, my tech at the car dealership doesn't. They may give a range, but rarely an exact price.
How do you figure he was overcharged?
Often the cost charged isn't for the small, easy repair.....but because the gun shop has to keep a gunsmith employed. Having someone available costs $$$ whether there are customers or not.
When I do transfers, my transfer fee isn't calculated by how much time I spend with the customer when he comes and picks up. He may be here five minutes tops. My transfer fee is charged because I hold an FFL. Unpacking the firearm, recording the acquisition on my bound book and preparing the 4473 before the customer arrives is only part of what I calculate in setting my fees. Yet I know every day people leave here thinking Tom just made $20 for five minutes work.
Not only was the charge not excessive, you have no idea if the store made a profit. You saw one transaction. You have no idea if the store sees enough repairs to cover the expenses of employing a gunsmith or clerk to perform repairs.
Which is irrelevant.
1. Customer came to them, for a service they charge for.
2. The cost of the repair was normal.
3. How long it took....has no bearing.
4. Being ignorant may be expensive. Learn how to do it yourself. No one forced the kid to bring the gun in. He easily could have asked a friend, watched one of a thousand YouTube tutorials or read the freaking instructions on the box.
You should run them out of business doing free gun repairs.
Seriously, if the kid bought the grip there, they would likely have done the install free. Happens all the time with night sights. But good grief, the kid likely bought his grip and reflex sight from Amazon and you expect the shop to provide free labor? Wow.
I think your conclusions about the shop, their fees and the entire situation is out of line.
Be treated politely, attended to promptly and being thanked for my business. Rude clerks means you dont get my business.
