Increase the cost of your labor and don’t markup parts.

Explain not all parts are created equal. You need to pick parts you trust so you not back to do this over.

I think enough people been burned by the lowest price on the Internet to know that’s true.

There are two kinds of client that want this. The pain in the ass kind that you don’t wanna work for and the client that just wants to understand the math because they have to. The second one is a decent customer.

If it were me, I’d give them the breakdown to satisfy them, but have a policy that, for liability reasons, I don’t install parts supplied by a third party.

Break it down. Then when they buy cheap crap off amazon then charge them again to fixit. I tell them up front if they provide their own part/ supplies. If its the wrong part then I charge to come back. If it breaks I charge to come back. If its broken and doesn’t work blah blah blah. I charge to come back. If I provide the part then it’s my problem which is why there is a markup.

You can either do it or say “Sorry, we don’t provide itemized invoices.”

Itemized invoices is a way for people to nickle and dime you. They see you’re charging $200 for a part that’s on Amazon for $75 and then try to negotiate a lower price or tell you they’ll order the part and have it waiting for you.

Big picture it’s all about how you want to run your business.

All of my quotes are built using a spreadsheet that adds up component pieces so they can be sliced and diced however the customer wants. We always start by quoting the total for the whole job and then we can open it up if they want more detail.

The details are made up, but they are in there.

Absolutely, I understand the importance of transparency. Our pricing covers skilled labor and ensures top-quality parts. We strive for excellence and value your trust in our expertise. If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to discuss them. We appreciate your understanding and look forward to serving you.

Just say you get B2C pricing deals on parts and it won’t match retail prices anyway. That you give a complete turnaround service which involves using the parts that you get from authorized suppliers. Then give your breakdown with your prices. I understand that you can’t claim any of that if you just buy your parts retail and do markup.

Just say no , that’s the damn price

“sure, I charge $600 per hour of data analytics, how will you be paying for your breakdown?”

I may or may not break it down for them.

“That is the total price for the service”

I also remind them that I will not use parts they provide.

“Ok, pay my diagnostic charge and do whatever you want with those (probably wrong) parts you found on the internet”

I can spend hours doing a quote, I am not giving out that info so that they can nickle and dime someone else, I also don’t leave plans and measurements with quotes so that they can use my work to get a cheaper price.

I also won’t work for someone that says they can get it cheaper, I don’t care, My price is based on knowing exactly what the costs are

There’s a couple ways you can deal with this:

• Vague Part descriptions with retail price, ie “shop supplies,compressor, wiring harness, etc” and then labour. If you are confident your pricing is fair this is a safe way to cooperate.

• put the markup in your labour. List all the detailed part numbers, then make sure what the customer googles for price matches what you will charge. The customer will see you giving a competitive price for parts and they can’t easily price check your labour. Don’t give them labour hours just a lump sum labour cost.

• give them your detailed parts info, with markup and your detailed labour info. They may shop you and go somewhere else. They may ask you to take something out. You’ll have to decide how you handle that but I’ve had luck pointing out politely they came to me for help and this is what I need to do the job right and guarantee the result.

• not share - depending what you are working on it can take a lot of unpaid time and effort to estimate the work. If you are polite about that, a reasonable customer will be understanding, and it’s perfectly fair to discuss it politely. Something like “I’m very sorry but we invest a lot of unpaid time and knowledge into researching what this repair requires. Any qualified shop should be able to look at the same information and provide you with a competitive quote.” You could also use a self depreciated way out “Because we’ve been burned in the past quoting on other shops incomplete estimates we wouldn’t quote you on this without looking at it ourselves, and other shops giving you a competitive price should make sure they assess and quote directly to make sure they don’t miss something important”

We generally assess the job and client and what they are worth to us. We’ve never done the hide the markup in the labour as that’s just not our style but it’s something we’ve had coaches bring up repeatedly.

Generally we don’t share part numbers but somehow clients still find ways to price check. It happens.

For the most part we’re transparent- we make our money by marking up stuff we buy elsewhere and charging labour. I’m not sharing what my markup is, that’s my business. I have worked with parts people bring in, but I scrutinize the heck out of them when they come in and if they are wrong, well I charge markup on parts I bring in and guarantee and labour on parts you bring in and I sort out. Markup is going to be cheaper.

Labor x. Parts y. Total z. Don’t like it? Go elsewhere.

“I don’t work with customer-provided parts, but I’m happy to provide a price breakdown for your reference.”

When pressed about cheaper parts, respond with “when I buy parts and I break them, I assume that cost and provide new ones. When customers provide parts and I break them, I don’t replace them and I charge more for a return visit when new parts arrive. It’s much higher cost and slower repairs, so I eliminated that for a better experience and now I no longer use customer-provided parts.”

I would just quote them a really high price for a job so they’ll go elsewhere. That way you don’t have to refuse their business.

That customer sounds like they’ll be more trouble than it’s worth to deal with them.