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PSA: A customer argued that charging $150 for a diagnostic is a rip-off, but my shop owner said it's the only way to cover the time for complex electrical issues.

He said, 'If we just guess, you pay for the wrong part, but if we spend two hours tracing a short, you pay for the fix,' which made me rethink flat-rate pricing versus hourly for diag work, so what's your shop's policy?
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3 Comments
corap21
corap2123d ago
What if shops charged a lower diag fee but applied it to the final repair cost?
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granthunt
granthunt23d ago
My local garage does that with a $25 fee, and it feels fair.
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leehall
leehall23d ago
That idea about the lower fee getting applied to the repair is SOLID. My mechanic does a $35 check that goes toward the work if I choose to do it there. It made me way more likely to say yes when my brakes needed pads, because I wasn't just throwing that money away. It feels like they're invested in fixing the problem, not just charging me to look at it.
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