Hi all, as much as I admire and respect the work that Randy Webb has done both for me and for the MINI community , there is a fact of life doing business with him that I thought I'd pass along.I was in touch with MOREFUN recently lamenting thay we had missed each other at the recent pulley party held at Yarrowsports in Providence R.I., and he happened to mention that he had had an Alta catch can installed ,partially as a means of justifying even going there .It took Randy approximately 20 minutes to install the catch can ,for which he charged Mark $170 in labor and $120 in parts .the explanation he was given was that there is a minimum labor charge at Pulley Parties of 2 hours @ $85/hr.This seems pretty harsh to me ,but as long as we all know going into these events that this is the case, then I guess "buyer beware" as Susan Warnak of channel 5 here says.I would also mention that Mark has had NUMEROUS mods installed by Randy, including pulley and unichip.I would have thought this would buy him some consideration. Jock

edited: bad math skills

 

Why $270 for labor? 2 hours@ $85= $170.

 

edited original post........my bad

 

I hope something has been left out of this story - if not that's insane!

 

I'd like to hear from the man himself offering some kind of justification for this kind of treatment

 

First, this seems like the wrong place to be making this post.

Second, I guess that's what you get for not verifying charges before letting someone begin work.

 

$170 for 2 hours, that actually took 20 minutes = "Bookrate"

It keeps everyone on the same playing field for price.

If you had to install it 'cold' it would probably take 2 hours. 'cold' meaning: no experience with install/product, no tools out, owning tools as implicit cost of hourly rate, removing packaging, opening hood, install, put away tools, test....

Price, Product, Service; Pick Two.

My .02.

 

It is a trade off, If you can't afford to screw it up yourself = pay top dollar

I did, to have an expert install it, who just traveled thousands of miles to make a living, and you get to watch and ask questions too

This is definitely not charity work ...

As a light hearted side note: Next time bring a coupon (Inside joke)

 

I second that. This should be a PM, email, or a phone call. It shouldn't enter the public forum unless it becomes a "real" issue that screams for whistle-blowing. This hardly seems to be to that level yet.

 

I'm not really sure how you missed it, but $400 installed (parts and labor) is the going rate. It has been for over two years, and pricing similar to that has been used at almost every pulley party and installation done by numerous vendors.

Also, if he wasn't happy with the price then he should have taken it up with Randy.

If there is some additional information here that warrents this thread going forward PM me and I *may* consider re-opening this thread. Otherwise, this really just looks like something that should have been handled off the forum (even though he was charged a fair market rate).

Dave