Jeffersonville, OH | hinfarm - 4/27/2024 10:38
Thank you for posting stuff like that. Many people have not sat on both side of the desk.
Would they drive 5 miles to harvest 1 acre of corn for $40? No, they wouldn't.
Do they expect your parts people to work on a project you described then track it down in NLA warehouse and are appalled it cost $30 for that old fuel gauge? Yes, they are..
And please don't take my comments as saying that all customers are like that, they most definitely aren't...and I'm betting that the OP isn't either...but some are, and those are the deals that stick in your memory.
I would not expect to be charged time to look up parts when I went looking for them, but if I get a bill and it's there, I'm not going to say I'd be shocked. I see all kinds of charges on invoices I wished I thought of. We never have charged a fuel surcharge, but some of the other local dealers have it on every parts invoice. I don't like it, but I don't run their business.
Just like freight charges, we bill what it costs us to ship a part, plus a buck or two, depending on the charge...meaning, if UPS charges me $16.36, my shipping gal will put $18 on there...if it's $48.59 it's more like $52....that's not a ton of margin for packaging, tape, labels, and labor, but if we don't ship it, we don't sell it. So, I'm not trying to get rich on shipping a package, but in reality I'm probably barely covering my costs of paying her to do that job, so at the end of the day, it comes out of my overall parts margins. Corporate stores have people who's sole job is to manage things like that, and make sure that every task is income generating, and they come up with those charges to make sure all costs are covered.
That's why there are choices in who we work with...
Chris |
Was I ripped off?
