Buying Advice 1st Breakdown - Need advice

[EFC]

Hi guys,
Buck, (Thank-you for the invite) the distance between my "tractor/implement seller" and myself is 50 miles one way. Equals out to approx 200 miles to come get it, take to his shop and then return it to me and go back home. $ for diesel at the time was approx 3.98 p/gal = approx $50.00 for fuel; & time @ wheel = approx 1 hour each way. I figured $10.00 p/hour to just sit & drive was fair. Total = out to $40.00 just for driving, which = out to $90.00 for that service. I offered & gave him $120.00 for doing it. I wanted to be honest & fair, since he wouldn't quote me a rate.
Invoice, period??? Seperate invoice for the (2) seperate jobs??? Detailed, itemized invoice??? I know I should have been given - or even offered - something along those lines, but I wasn't. I was given a hand writen invoice that said parts and labor.
We had a verbal agreement that the valve install should be around $300.00 and certainly not over $500.00 --thus-- you should understand my jaw-dropping expression when tractor is returned and I'm told the total was $900.00! I questioned everything and was just told "that's what it cost."
To be honest I haven't paid it all yet. I gave him $600.00 and told him he has to wait for any balance because I just don't have it.
To be even further honest, I feel that $600.00 should cover it in full but that's what I'm talking about here; trying to gather an opinion if that is a fair price - or not - since I don't know the individual costs for 1/4" elbows [it took 6] and such. The pictures show what was installed, all are 1/4" lines except for the 3/8" feed from my loader block to valve and the return back to the sump. None of those fittings are gold, silver, or bronze and I'm just baffled by this cost. Am I being flim-flamed???
I have no binding contract to hold me to paying the balance, but I'm an honest man -- if it truly does cost this much for those fittings, then I'll continue to find a way to pay it off. Up until this event I had (what I thought) was a good connection between us. I bought my tractor and all of my implements from him and we got along just fine. Good prices on everything and I know he made $ on every deal but I was content with what my costs were too. Then bam, things got real expensive suddenly. So, I just don't know. I want to be fair, but neither do I wish to be an easy mark.

MYYAZ33 - "Gulp" is exactly what I did when confronted with the final tally for this service work!! So that's the whole story guys. My thoughts are I need to find a new repair place if'n I ever need any further work done to my "lil red beast". And that's a shame because I'm normally a very loyal type of customer. Any further opinions or advice? Believe me, I'm all ears!!!
Thanks for listening --- Greg

I would pay the bill. It is the right thing to do. But the dealer should itemize the work by shipping, parts and hours spent on each project. If for nothing else than to justify the cost. Your paying for a professional to do the work it should be done professionally. Part of that is payperwork.

There is just no way to put a guy in a truck for less than 1.80 a mile and break even, and that is if you haul all the time. Between the costs of the truck/maintenance, the employee (I would NEVER put a $10 an hour employee in front of my 50k truck and your 15k tractor), the fuel, the insurance (commercial insurance it 4 times higher and should cover your tractor if in an accident), the trailer cost, the tires and over head anything less and its charity.

So a couple hundred should have been shipping and a hundred for sales tax so the job really should have been billed at 600 or around 300 for each job. Not sure of his shop rate but at my shop its 80 and each job probably took at least two hours each so that leaves 140 for hose and fittings. Fittings can be all over the board for price. If you have unlimited amounts of time you can find them for a dollar but most of the time the are between 4 and 10 bucks a fitting depending on the style. Hose $2 to $4 a foot. Doesnt take many parts to add up to $140.00.

He left a big grey area by not giving you an itemized bill, grey areas are full of surprise and mistrust. Good news is your tractor works and from the pictures he did a quality job on the valves.

 

[Gregster613]

Buck,
Thanks for your opinion & explanation of how a shop owner looks at the picture. I have realized that I was probably low-ball on the transportation end; my comments (for me) were accurate though. I do enjoy driving and getting 10 - 15 p/hr for doing so [fuel paid seperately] (especially in this economy) is OK by me.
Iregardless of my personal feelings I have paid the bill in full. I am completely happy with my new system and I don't want to foster any bad-will between anyone. I just would have prefered recieving a detailed invoice along with the bill since it ended up totaling far more than the original "verbal agreement" we had. Then perhaps I could have easily understood why.
I am now gun-shy per any future needs that include any repair shop. I will be asking for and expecting a written quote and a very detailed invioice upon job completion.
Thanks.........Greg

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Greg, I just now realized that you live up in Ramona. I live down in Lakeside.

 

[Gregster613]

Hi Brian,
Yeah, you're just down the 67 a short bit from me. When I first read your profile, I thought 4000' mountains probably meant somewhere up in the San Bernardino (sp) area?
I see you're mainly a Mahindra man; I was seriously looking at them when I began tractor searching but then our local dealer fell out of the loop. Bummer. Glad to know that a fellow TBN'r is local & close by!
Keep on tractorin' and enjoy your vast spread. Greg........

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Hi Brian,
Yeah, you're just down the 67 a short bit from me. When I first read your profile, I thought 4000' mountains probably meant somewhere up in the San Bernardino (sp) area?
I see you're mainly a Mahindra man; I was seriously looking at them when I began tractor searching but then our local dealer fell out of the loop. Bummer. Glad to know that a fellow TBN'r is local & close by!
Keep on tractorin' and enjoy your vast spread. Greg........

Hi Greg, 4000' mountains are up in Ranchita. Right now just a weekend place, but someday we'll get there for our main place. I drive through Ramona just about every weekend.