Got into it with a shop owner about flat rate vs hourly for electrical diag

Last month in Phoenix, a buddy's shop billed 8 hours flat rate for a parasitic draw that took me 2 hours to find. The owner said it's fair pay for the skill, but I think hourly is more honest for tricky electrical work. What's the right call here?

3 comments

3 Comments

jakelee1mo ago

But what about when the skill fails? If a tech spends 8 hours on a flat rate job and still can't find the draw, does the customer pay for those 8 hours of "skill" that didn't fix the car? Or is the shop just eating that time and losing money? Seems like the risk should cut both ways.

brianm2726d ago

Building on what Patricia said about paying for knowledge, the real value is in the diagnosis, not the repair. A tech who can rule out a dozen possible causes in 30 minutes is using years of experience to save the customer hours of guesswork. That kind of diagnostic skill is exactly what flat rate is supposed to compensate, because the knowledge itself is what gets the car fixed even if a specific job takes longer than expected.

patricia_singh811mo ago

You said it took you two hours to find. I read an article once that argued flat rate is really paying for the knowledge, not just the clock time. So maybe the owner has a point about fair pay for the skill, even if it feels off.