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

[dabeldesign]

“Well it’s just a small break, it just needs to be tacked back on, it should only take a few minutes…”


Does anyone get tired of hearing this?!? I’ve heard this same thing about 3 times this week from different people inquiring about me fixing their equipment.
Well sure, sometimes it turns out that it really only is a few minutes worth of welding but not after I spent 25 minutes to get there, 10 minutes to pull out all the cables and set up the equipment, 10 minutes of careful grinding and prep work, and of course at least 10 minutes to clean everything up! This is why I tell them from the beginning that there is a 1 hour minimum charge but they insist that it will only take a few minutes. That makes me wonder, aren’t you hiring me for a reason? Didn’t you seek me out because you wanted me to use my knowledge and experience to fix your problem?? So WHY are you telling me how to do my job?!

If you don’t want to pay for a quality repair job then find someone else with their HF 110v flux-cored wirefeeder and have them fix your tractor, but don’t waste my time…




...ok, i feel better now

[MAC702]

Yep, and we probably get a thread a year on it, too. People just don't think through everything we do before and after welding that little break on their $5 wagon.

[aametalmaster]

Yup then after someone tries to fix it with their HF flux core welder and bugger it up than they bring it to you and it takes twice as long. I see it weekly...Bob

[dabeldesign]

I knew I wasn't the only one, I just had to rant a little; 3X this week is enough already!

[dabar39]

dabeldesign, When did you take over my shop???

That's what I deal with all the time. It baffles me how people can treat us like that, but, they do. I can give a quote on a project and they think it is negotiable, they wouldn't think about going to their doctor, lawyer, dentist or Wal-mart for that matter and haggle over the price of an item, but they think they can get away with it when dealing with us, Why?

I get cr*p all the time when I tell them that I have a minimum charge of 1 hr. plus materials, like you said they think it's only a five minute project and you are ripping them off.
Sometimes I get so frustrated that I feel like shutting the doors and going back to work for someone just so I don't have to deal with it.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. Dave

[dabeldesign]

dabeldesign, When did you take over my shop???

That's what I deal with all the time. It baffles me how people can treat us like that, but, they do. I can give a quote on a project and they think it is negotiable, they wouldn't think about going to their doctor, lawyer, dentist or Wal-mart for that matter and haggle over the price of an item, but they think they can get away with it when dealing with us, Why?

I get cr*p all the time when I tell them that I have a minimum charge of 1 hr. plus materials, like you said they think it's only a five minute project and you are ripping them off.
Sometimes I get so frustrated that I feel like shutting the doors and going back to work for someone just so I don't have to deal with it.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. Dave

Wow, are you my long lost brother? We sure seem to think the same!

I've learned to stick to my hourly charge and don't ever negotiate price. It takes as long as it takes and it costs as much as it costs, that's it! If people want to be cheap and haggle price, I happily turn them away because they always end up causing more problems than it's worth.
Sheesh, i've only been doing this a couple years and I'm already fed up with people!

[phaxtris]

i get that 'oh it will only take 5 minutes', i tell them every time 'NOTHING, and i mean NOTHING takes 5 minutes'

[fun4now]

i wonder if we could haggel on the price of gas !!!
5 minuits is nuts, heck i cant even do a 5 minute job of my own in my own shop in that time.
my lawn mower deck hooked on the curb and broke lose a mounting bracket. 5 minuite job right, not!! by the time i got it in the shop ground down to get a good bead, then welded then put away the welder leads and the grinders and get back out again 15-20 minimume . and that was just a quick stick weld, so no gas to deal with turning on checking flow, then turning back off.
i just dont see how you could actualy do any walk in jod in less than 30 minuits.

[Black Wolf]

As bad as that is, I can still top it!!!

At the shop I just left, the Foreman was an uneducated French-Canadian fellow from Quebec that used to work in a mine. No understanding of metal. No understanding of weld strength, joint preparation, welding procedures etc.
His catch phrase for just about everything involving welding/repair/fabrication was "I'm not a welder, but if it were up to me, I would do this,..." He's one of the biggest reasons I left. He'd tell you how to do something (I usually refused to do it his way) and when/if it failed, he would run to the owner and say he had "nothing to do with it". The other fellas in the shop wouldn't stand up to him and I just got tired of fighting with him everyday.

Later,

[Winger Ed.]

The other classic statement at the begining of a conversation that makes me cringe, is hearing,
"All ya gotta do,,, is,,,,,,,,,,,".

Nowdays, whenever I hear that, I get this real tightening sensation a little ways below my belt.
.

[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]

5 minutes my a**

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!