quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
I think he went about it the wrong way. He should have gotten a quote in writing for the labor and material.

This, in spades.

And, to the tradesmen here, no offense intended.

I'll try, perhaps inarticulately again, to explain: Of course you'll need to bring parts, that's a given in most cases. By "mobile hardware store", what I meant was charging an additional retail mark up on top of one or two other retail mark ups before you. As I said, I have no problem whatsoever paying a little more to reimburse for the cost of getting the parts. What I have a problem with is an exorbitant mark up just because you can. That's wrong and unethical IMO. You're not a hardware store and a plumber. You're a plumber (or electrician, or welder, or whatever it is you do).

My previous example of building the chicken coop is perhaps the best way I can explain how I look at it. There's not a chance that I'd charge my customer extra for the nails I bought for the job. I'd charge him what I paid for them, or perhaps more for gas if I had to drive to the next town over to buy them.

Anywho...no hard feelings. I do appreciate what you guys do and respect your knowledge in your given field. Just make it a point to be honest and upfront with your customers, even when they are dumbasses like me who don't ask these questions beforehand.

We ARE HONEST. You're not understanding that we are a full stocking retailer that happens to be mobile. The majority of the time I price my parts about 10% BELOW West Marine's prices. What you don't get is you don't add in all of the costs to actually get the part to you. Sometimes I overnight a part because YOU need your yacht fixed before Friday for the weekend. SHipping is a lot sometimes.

I am a marine store AND a yacht manager/repairer. I stock many items, buy them from a wholesaler and sell them to a retail customer. I can easily sell $10,000 worth of parts to one yacht owner and simply get them and deliver them to the boat and install nothing. I do it all of the time. It saves the customer money as I price it a little less than retail and I make some money. I had a customer (yacht owner) in the USVI's that owned a large construction company that built large hotels in the carribbean. He'd send me a list that filled a shipping container every 6 months, I'd get the stuff, get him a good price, and deliver the stuff to the freight forwarder and in a day or two move $20k in parts. Sometimes he'd want 50 5 gallon buckets of Shell 40 weight Rotella oil, plus a bunch of other stuff.......for example, some yacht items, cases of CAT filters (oil,fuel,etc.)

Garmin sells a VHF200 VHF radio, it has a volume knob and squelch knob, which it's common for these knobs to break, they are sold as a set on Garmins website for like $4.75, and it is the ONLY place you can buy them, what they don't tell you is they're the only ones that sell it and shipping and handling Is $18 for ground.

You're also comparing a sub standard part many times to a higher quality part a professional will use. Here is an example.

Stainless 1 3/4" hose clamp from Home Depot (these last 6 months on a yacht and are JUNK, they split where the gear holes/notches are in the body as there's very litte material between the hole and side of the body)
$1.27 I change 100s and 100s of these a year on various yachts.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ev...mp-6736595/202309380

1 3/4" Premium MARINE ABA hose clamp $6.29
https://www.westmarine.com/buy..._002_002?recordNum=1

Notice how the entire body is solid stainless and the gear is knurled into the outside of the body. These last 10 years or more 99% of the time AND they don't cut into the hose AND they provide a much stronger grip. Now I might sell that clamp to my customer for $5.79, but if he just looks at the bill and doesn't know the difference between ABA and a crappy Breeze hose clamp.....then he might think I ripped him off, when I really installed a premium product that he won't have issues with in 6 months and saved him 10% like the situation you're discussing on this forum and comparing crappy Lowe's PVC to probably a premium PVC.

And Again, I inventory between 150-200 of these ABA hose clamps in my truck at all times,around $800 tied up in just hose clamps. I have a minimum of 4 in less popular sizes and around 10 of the popular sizes in about 20 different sizes.....do the math and see how much cash I have sitting in my truck in just hose clamps. Sometimes I use/sell 4 in a month, sometimes I use/sell 100 in a month.