another pricing q?

**Brian_Brice** · 06-21-2006, 06:30 PM

as i posted in another thread reguarding my unhappiness with collinite 920...i detailed a 18 foot walkabout yesterday i used mary kate mold mildew remover(13 ounces of it...as needed on this moldcraft) half a liter of mary kate black streak remover. 303 on all vinyl i resulted to claying the oxidation and aio due to the lack of progress with 920. then i sg and 845, he was very pleased i expected much better......ten hours total i almost feel guilty saying anything near 200 because i havent charged him yet, what do i do gentleman??? oh and hes a dentist that charged me 300 dollars for floss lol.

**awahl63** · 06-21-2006, 07:03 PM

charge him your hourly rate

**Brian_Brice** · 06-21-2006, 07:11 PM

i dont really have one thats the problem, i usually go by the job and quote before hand, never discussed price with his boat although i did do him a huge favor on his jeep and xj8

**imported_Cycopath** · 06-21-2006, 07:46 PM

determine what you would like per hour, multiply by number of hours. that is what you tell him

**Brian_Brice** · 06-21-2006, 08:45 PM

is multiply the x button?

**bineabble** · 06-21-2006, 09:13 PM

.......yes

**autobahn** · 06-21-2006, 09:14 PM

you should be charging AT LEAST $20 an hour, if you spent 10 hours $200 would be the minimum you should be charging.

**imported_Grouse** · 06-22-2006, 07:37 AM

there is another thing to consider. You should be charging your time + materials.

so lets say your initial call out for an hour of work is 60, and you are 30 every hour there after. That would be 330 for your time alone. Does that cover your time and chemical cost? If yes, then fine if not add in the special chemicals you purchased. say you paid 40 for them your price to customer should be 70-80.

What sucks for you is you should have had this discussion with him long before you started work.

that my have included a couple of test areas to discover what works and what did not. This should have been part of your estimateing process.

don`t be suprised if he gets sour grapes from your lack of comunication.

**quamen** · 06-22-2006, 08:31 PM

i bet it turned out good,but it sounds like to me you were maybe not getting the results from the process you took which ended up taking longer. If i ever ran that into that, i feel that is a lesson learned from myself and do not take it out on the customer. maybe i wasnt familiar with a type of coat or what not, and that is not their fault but mine. When i first started detailing i was very slow and it took me much longer,but i didnt charge by the hour,but by the job. i didnt feel it was my need since i wasnt experienced yet to charge by the hour, since that isnt their fault. now i can do that same job in half the time and charge more than i used to when it took double time.

**Brian_Brice** · 06-23-2006, 05:11 PM

well no sour grapes, he loved it, i just wasnt 100% pleased, keep in mind this things gel coat was cracked in many places that i couldnt seem to do anything with. he wants me to keep it up for him regularly so in the future if theres something else that comes to mind i might just redo the whole the entire exterior, thanks for the feedback.