My Rates
We all know mechanics and repair shops get a bad rap because of some unscrupulous individuals out there. These days, your average repair shop charges around $150- $200 per hour for labor alone. Dealerships can charge as high as $250 per labor hour. Specialty repair shops could be way higher! Lucky for you, I am very fair and I will treat you the way I would want to be treated. You won’t be overcharged and will get the truth about your vehicle’s issues and what it would take to fix it. In the end, I simply want a fair exchange of pay for my services.
Alright, so what do I charge?
Here is the simple truth… in order to stay in business, I need to be compensated for my time like anyone else. I have to load gear into my 8-cylinder work vehicle and drive to you. As high as gas prices and cost of living are, the service calls that I make must absolutely be worth the trip out to see you. Given the aforementioned, below is a very basic rundown of my flat and hourly rates.
- Phone consultation: FREE. I will chat with you about your vehicle’s issues on the phone or via email, no charge.
- Initial service fee and drive to your location: There is an $80 flat rate visitation fee just for me driving to your location and helping you.
- Diagnostics and checking things out: Ideally, I will only charge an $80 visitation fee for attempting to diagnose and narrow down the cause(s) of your vehicle’s problem(s). The $80 fee will fully applied if you have me do the work to repair your vehicle once we arrive at what the problem(s) could be. Alternatively, if the diagnostics require more than an hour of exploratory work, I will discuss this with you and we can go from there. Most mechanics try to figure out problems through diagnostic equipment, basic visual/acoustical inspection, or just tinkering with things in order to see something obvious. Sometimes though, things like engine shrouds/cowls, belts, hoses, wiring harnesses, covers and other components have to be removed in order to inspect things more closely and precisely–this is where extra exploratory time comes into play. In this scenario, I will discuss options you.
- General hourly rates: My rate is $80 an hour. This rate encompasses all work performed on your vehicle. I will need your approval before any repairs commence.
Payment Policies
PARTS: I don’t stock any parts. I don’t work on a credit system with customers and I will not pre-purchase any parts with my own money. All parts must be paid for upfront by the customer. Here are the current options:
1) Hand me the cash and I can run down to the local parts store and pick up the part.
2) You can pay me via Paypal or Zelle and I will acquire the parts through online or in-person vendors.
3) I can give you the list of the necessary parts and you can purchase them from the vendors online (usually that means Amazon.com or RockAuto.com) and you would then let me know when the parts arrive.
4) With parts list in hand, you could walk into the nearest local parts supplier like O’Reilly’s, Autozone or NAPA.
FURTHER EXPLANATION OF HOW APPLYING THE INITIAL FEE WORKS: As mentioned previously, the initial $80 visitation fee will be applied toward the labor of any repair/service for up to one hour of work. All labor hours thereafter will need your approval and agreement to before continuing and completing the job.
To give you an example of how the $80 is applied, here is one scenario:
Example: I come out and diagnose that your vehicle’s no start/no crank problem and I determine you will need a new alternator. Let’s say the job takes 1.5 hours to complete. That comes to $120 labor plus the actual price of the alternator. Since I apply the $80 fee towards the labor of the alternator job, you would only pay an additional $40 in labor on top of the visitation/diagnostic fee, plus the price of the alternator. My $80 diagnostic fee never applies toward part costs, only labor.
PAYMENT METHODS
Currently, I accept the following methods:
- CASH
- PAYPAL
- ZELLE