Flat Rate Detailing

[SmackTard]

Hey there, I`m new around here. Just had a quick question,



I was wondering what everyones thoughts on Flat Rate detailers were. Are they sub-par detailers because of the speed they have to work at? Or are they all in all just a new breed of the professional detailer?



For those who don`t know: Flat Rate is the same as Piece work...you get payed based on "hours" produced instead of hours worked.

[Invigor]

It doesn`t help our image. They`re all a bunch of hacks...I hear they use cutting pads with creme waxes sometimes

[Harbison215]

This all depends. Many people can`t afford nice cars, let alone `proper` details. There is a big difference. Its like saying that Burger King and Morton`s both comparable `restaurants`. Each caters to the needs of it`s directed demographic.



Of course, some detail shops are just disgraces and others are truly operated by enthusiasts, while many shops lie somewhere in between.



If you are an enthusiast and want a glass finish detail, than flat rate probably isn`t for you.

[todd@bsaw]

You have to be careful here. Many detailers are flat rate (about 50%). Any shop that charges as a package could be considered flat rate. It all depends on how the technician working on the car gets paid. If the technician gets paid a commission off the package price... they are paid for an estimated number of hours that package should take.



For anyone saying this pricing structure is poor quality needs to look at a few things first. Any shop charging package pricing is doing the same process to every car. They will lose money on vehicles that take longer than the designated hours but will make up for it on other vehicles that take less. This doesn`t mean the other vehicle is getting less of a detail unless the technician is cheating. As long as the shop wants to keep up their reputation, the quality put out will still reflect the shop.



One of the only times you are not going to run into this is if the shop pays their employees hourly. Then you are going to run into the problem of having just poor technicians that don`t know anything about detailing.