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Why I stopped doing free diagnostics at my shop in Toledo after 12 years
I run a one man repair shop in Toledo and for years I did free diagnostics on every walk in machine. Last month I added up what that cost me and it came to about $4,800 in unpaid bench time over the past year. People would drop off a laptop, I would spend 45 minutes cracking it open and running tests, then they would say thanks and take it somewhere else for the actual repair. I get why folks shop around, money is tight, but free diag work trains customers to treat your time like it is worth nothing. I switched to a $40 diagnostic fee that gets credited toward the repair if they hire me, and my no show rate went from around 30 percent down to almost zero. Some techs on here will say free diag brings in business, and maybe it does in bigger markets, but in my experience it just brought in tire kickers. Curious if any of you charge for diag and how you frame it to customers who push back.
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phoenix_bailey22d ago
Feels good to hear someone else say it out loud. I ran the same math a couple years back and it was ugly, so I started charging too, and the folks who actually want the work done never blink at it. The tire kickers weed themselves out, which is the whole point.
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