# Big In Quantity Zero In Quality



## TownWrench (Sep 27, 2005)

I Have Managed To Convince Many People, Customers Or Not To Purchase Small Eng. Equipment From The Smaller Dealers.their Is A Small Dealer In My Town Who Turns Away Business When He Knows The Product Was Purchased From The Larger Chain Stores.don't Know Weather This Is Good Business Or Not,turning Business Away But Maybe It Sends A Message To The Consumer.because When They Go Back To The Larger Chain They Bought It From ,first They Have To Find Help, Then They Need To Find Help In The Garden Department And So On.also Their Told To Go On Line And Look Up The Parts They Need Themselves.i'll Repair Anything That Runs On Fuel As Long As The Customer Is Willing To Pay Whatever The Price!any Comments And Suggestions Welcome . Thanks Townwrench


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## justin3 (Apr 10, 2007)

Most of my local dealers don't fix consumer products brought at larger chain stores. They say most of the time its too expencive for the consumer or its just plain not worth it. Lets say you brought a $99 yard machines at walmart (open box) for $79 then 2 years later it needs a carb rebuild/clean. You take it to one of my local dealers they are charging around $70 an hour. Most consumers would complain thats $10 less then I paid for it. My dealer would say "you get what you paid for" and its true.


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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

I guess that is a good way to expose your business to the public that may want to be your customer. If you want to gain customers, you need to expose them to your business practices. I am sure turning away the public is a good way to give them a favorable opinion of your company.


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## pyro_maniac69 (Aug 12, 2007)

we take the box stores crap in, and we look at it, tell the people how much its going to cost, and if they don't want it, they owe us a $20 bench fee, and out labor rate is 56/hour

so all in all, we still get money off them. 

But of course after I tell them how much it is to fix and they don't want it fixed, I always tell them to buy a stihl, echo, or something that costs a bit more.


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## newz7151 (Oct 15, 2006)

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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

The techs are located in regional repair centers around the country. We service all of MI, northern IN and northwest OH. During peak season we have about 35 techs working in the Gas shop. There are additional techs working in the Mech. shop. Our repair center services well over 10K product a year.

Also consider that Sears sells over 1 million mowers per year. That's not counting the other L&G equipment. Plus they are the largest seller of major home appliances. Then there are vacuums, TVs, microwaves, compressors, air conditioners, woodworking equipment, sewing machines, etc.

In Home also repairs items for other manufacturers such as Whirlpool (and other smaller companies). In Home repair recently picked up in home repair for Home Depot major appliances.

And you wonder why there ar 10K repair techs?


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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

Forgot to add. We do service a lot of equipment purchased elsewhere. During peak, at least for the mom-and-pops around here, it can take 4 to 6 weeks to get things repaired. Our turn around is normally under 7 days. If someone drops something off at the door, it's repaired in 1 day (if parts are available). We do carry over 5000 different part numbers with close to $1 million parts inventory.

A few older pics of the shop and shipping/receiving is at
http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showpost.php?p=1072942&postcount=8
http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showpost.php?p=1072948&postcount=9


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## newz7151 (Oct 15, 2006)

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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

The bench fee is $29.99 which is not much more then most shops charge. Generally (at least from our shop) if the item is under warranty but the damage was customer fault and the estimate is refused, that fee is waved.

Some reapir centers and lines have diagnosers with "installers", others don't. There the diagnosers have to call the customers with estimates. Our 2-cycle and artisan lines (generators, power washers, 2 stage snow throwers) are all cradle to grave where the tech diagnoses, gives estimates, repairs and tests the unit.

The labor costs on accepted repairs are flat rate no matter what repair is made. I believe for the mower line flat labor rate is $64.99. Each mower that comes into the shop gets the deck cleaned and an oil change no matter what the repair is. The only ones that don't get an oil change right off of the truck are those with bent cranks as a high percentage of them have the estimate refused and if accepted would have to have the oil emptied anyways. If the engine needs a new crank, short block, or deck the labor charge is still $65 bucks. So say a shop charges $15 for an oil change, you could look at the labor costs for any repair to $50.00, not many shops will put in a new crank for $50 bucks plus parts.

We are just moving over to a computerized system this month with bar codes and all that. Before that everything was manually input.

Not sure about Austin. I know a couple of years ago they consolidated some repair centers. They eliminated a few of the underperforming ones.

I see you failed to comment on the number of Sears techs after you found out just how many product lines they actually have to repair


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## newz7151 (Oct 15, 2006)

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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

I think that number is a bit low, but then you said


> so, if 3,8000 stores can keep that many techs in jobs, what does that say for the product they sell?


 I explained how that many can be kept busy and figured you'd have an additional comment. Personally, I think the need for less then 3 techs per store is quite good since they have dozens of different product lines to repair.


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## newz7151 (Oct 15, 2006)

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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

Of course that happens just like it will with any retailer. I think the last study showed that over 90% of products bought at Sears are serviced by Sears. Sears also services many products that are sold elsewhere, we see them daily.


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