Don't You Just Hate Plastic!

[ranworthbreeze]

Yesterday was a good day, plenty of sunshine and hot, so on my way home, I had to call into Morrisons to do the weekly shop, on my own for once (Tan has had a bad back since Saturday so can hardly move, she only turned her head to look at something in the garden during our 11. o'clock drink).

I put the roof down on the short journey to the supermarket, but raised it before going into shop. Shopping done  back to the car, so dropped the roof and then put the shopping into the now smaller boot, it all went in including the beer, it is funny how more beer goes into the trolley when shopping unaided, funny when shopping on your own you begin to feel you have gone deaf.

So home and pulled into the drive, first job it to put the roof back up, pressed the button and nothing happened, so I unloaded the car to get all the bags into the kitchen, cold and freezer stuff sorted, it was time to back to the car to find out the reason why the button was not working. put the windows up and activated the down button on the roof and the windows went down, this is the normal operation so the issue was the same button would not work in the up position. Michael came to see what I was doing. The first job was to get the switch assembly out of the dashboard, not easy but managed it. I unfastened the lead from the assembly and took this into the kitchen to strip it apart, loads of little plastic parts later I removed the PCB and took it back into the car in order to raise the roof, roof sorted back to the switch assembly. The problem was just on the roof switch one switch out of six this plastic activator had a lug broken off so the raise roof switch itself would not operate.

As I said don't you hate plastic. I ordered a used assembly off of Ebay for £49.99 plus delivery costs, hopefully here on Monday, I hate to think how must this would have cost in the shop or main dealer, plenty of sucking air through the teeth. Luckily it has been raining all day  today so no sunshine missed

Regards

Alan

[Hockham Admiral]

You're very lucky that you have the technical ability to do all that, Alan. I suspect that the vast majority of us would have had to just suck air!    

[Viking23]

I have always had it as an unwritten rule that if a supplier or contractor does the sharp intake of breath, I walk away. Now that really makes them sharpen their pencil lol.

To me the sharp intake of breath is the first stage of... You are about to be ripped off, and I'm going to charge you as much as I can.

They watch for your reaction, if there is non, then you don't understand what needs to be done, but you must have it done anyway, at any price.

I needed some work done on my car for the MOT, new front anti roll bar bushes, so what was the price? they said half an hour each side, that's an hours labour... 

No, try again, for the second bush, you already have the car jacked up, tools out,  same time to clear up the tools and complete the job. You are trying to charge me twice for some of the same work.

40 minutes labour then, ok do the job. 

Now, is this something that could happen on the Broads?  I generally get the impression, a fair price for the job, but to be fair I rarely use these facilities.

Richard

[Bound2Please]

3 minutes ago, Viking23 said:

Now, is this something that could happen on the Broads?  I generally get the impression, a fair price for the job, but to be fair I rarely use these facilities.

Richard

And you wonder why broads businesses go out of business. Have you ever thought, that if used they would still be there.

Charlie

[ranworthbreeze]

With my customers, I have set pricing for certain electronic repairs or I charge an hourly rate for internal work or off site.

For people who just call in the workshop it is the hourly rate plus cost of any parts plus VAT.

My advice is never to call in certain establishments with a flashy car, it can put more than a sharp intake of breath on the bill

Regards

Alan 

[BroadScot]

Oh thank goodness for Motability, stress free! 

Iain

[Viking23]

1 minute ago, ranworthbreeze said:

My advice is never to call in certain establishments with a flashy car, it can put more than a sharp intake of breath on the bill

Regards

Alan 

I can agree with that, a business colleague of mine when he was doing commercial repairs, would look at what type of car the boss was driving, if an old battered Sierra, the price would be lower than if he was driving a brand new Range Rover or Mercedes lol

Richard

[Springsong]

I agree with Iain 

[grendel]

Nowadays broken plastic parts can be replaced a lot easier, by looking online if it a common part breaking, you can often find someone who has drawn the part up for 3d printing and placed the part online where an online printer can reproduce it for you, charging you a fee that includes a commission to the person who originally drew up the part. some of the materials available can be better quality and durability than the originals.

Shapeways comes to mind as one of the large companies that can 3d print a part for you from a huge catalog of parts created by their users.

[Timbo]

From the day Ben Gunn, future father in law, realised that some of the models I was making in 3Ds Max for film were being 3D printed for promotion purposes...he's started a small collection of broken plastic pieces from various lawn mowers, strimmers, car, pens and furniture. He regularly tracks the price of 3D printers for when the price of them drops to what he would consider affordable. I get the feeling that on the day he discovers a sub £500 3D printer I will receive an envelope filled with his collection of broken plastic junk. I of course will be posting said envelope to Grendel!