Windshield Repair Forum

I charge a fee based on scale that customers easily understand. Larger breaks, while most actually fill easier, take more resin. Its a system my customers seem to deal with fine....goofy...if you say so....I haven't had any snags with it. There are guys here doing $20 pretenda-fixes...So I keep my $35 min. and try to do the best work in town. I don't know what its like there, but here cash prices don't match insurance pay. It's actually as much as 45% less...If a customer asks me to take a lil less I grab it. So what if he sends his cousins wanting the same price.

the dime, nickel repair does not take any less resin than a quarter size chip... unless you are recovering your used resin by sucking it back in the bottle. You are using on average say 4 drop per repair and when repair is finished the rest of wasted.
You sound like you are working off the seat of your pants with not fixed moral. Your price can adjust daily based on the bills that need to be paid....

If you are as good as you say you are, you should not have to drop your price to the level of the other lowballers. I would rather do 4 - 5 jobs at 50 that 6 - 8 at 35 and bust my ass and use up more resin and supplies.
Math:
@50 4= 200 5=250 Time average working at 20 min each.. 1.5 hrs max
@35 6= 210 7= 245 8= 280 Time average working at 20 min each.. 2.5 hrs max
for an extra 30 bucks.

It does not matter what Joe blow down the street is charging, If you are better, they will pay the price willingly.


Come on dude, wake up and smell the roses. Don't bust your ass chasing that extra dollar.

just chippen away wrote:If you are as good as you say you are, you should not have to drop your price to the level of the other lowballers. I would rather do 4 - 5 jobs at 50 that 6 - 8 at 35 and bust my ass and use up more resin and supplies.
Math:
@50 4= 200 5=250 Time average working at 20 min each.. 1.5 hrs max
@35 6= 210 7= 245 8= 280 Time average working at 20 min each.. 2.5 hrs max
for an extra 30 bucks.

It does not matter what Joe blow down the street is charging, If you are better, they will pay the price willingly.


Come on dude, wake up and smell the roses. Don't bust your ass chasing that extra dollar.

Come on man....don't be so lazy......you sit around doing nothing most of the time any way....go ahead and do a couple more repairs during the day and keep more happy customers...turning away folks makes no sense...at all.

I didn't really mean for this to get to a point where we are slamming each others methods or reasons for pricing. To me, whatever method you use (ie. competition, labor involved, size of problem area, ease of setting a fixed price etc) as the owner of your own business, is fine by me. I was just interested in what you might charge for your first and then any subsequent repairs on the same windshield. For example, I am thinking about limiting my deal to 3 chip repairs per windshield at this scale - 35-15-10, and if there are more - 20 each.
I did notice that many chips also have small cracks extending from them. The less professional looking tent setups here (I am spending alot on a professional look) charge for the chip and charge for the extending crack(s) separately if they are over an inch or so. Is this common policy? Do I charge by the inch for a crack, or set a fixed price? Yes, my price may indeed seem low, but again, I have reasons for the pricing. I am just curious if my ideas are in the ball park of the business or am I out in left field?

Work clever not hard.

I agree work clever...I thinks it's very clever to give every customer that shows up every possible opportunity to get a good repair. If that means a lower rate for some then so be it. I'd rather give the customer a great experience and get paid than letting him/her drive up the road to the car wash, get ripped off, then never use windshield repair ever again. When you turn away a customer because your cash rates are rediculous you hurt the industry. The customer is either going to drop the idea all together right then and there, or go to a competitor who might do pretenda-fixes, causing the customer to avoid us like the plague. We should all try to look at the big picture. There is plenty of time to sit in our vans, under our tents, in our easy chairs, where ever. None of us our non-stop busy fixing windshields...lots of time goes by sometimes with no customers...I average maybe 1 an hour on a great day....more like 1 every 2 hours on average. I hope we all are on the same page that windshield repair needs to be kept in the best possible light. The more negative feelings for customers the worse it gets for everyone.

Come on man....don't be so lazy......you sit around doing nothing most of the time any way....go ahead and do a couple more repairs during the day and keep more happy customers...turning away folks makes no sense...at all.[/quote]




I do not sit around like a lot lizard waiting for someone to show up. You are know better than the car wash guys sitting there as you are sitting in another lot of sort also...

We know you guys there work totally different then the rest of the world.... You already told us that.

I drive to all my customers and average 1 per hr for the time I want to work. We have tent sites out here and the only ones that use them are the ones that want cheep work, they do not want to pay alot for a job so they get what they pay for.... The ones that call me have already had there mind set to have me do the job from referrals or past work of 20 yrs.. Some new customers will ask how much and then will say ok. I will have the money waiting. I verry seldom have the ones that haggle on the price, if they do they are the ones that really do not have the money. I will even float the payment and do the job and they can pay me when they think about it..... I have NEVER lost a customer from skipping on a payment.

I have a bad reputation on here, but I have a top reputation on my work with the insurance AGENTS, and all the customers I have do in the past years....

Can't you see it that the rest of us old timers are trying to tell you the better way to work and you spend more time fighting us thinking you know better than us.

You sound like my wife trying to fight her way with me thinking she has a better unproven method.
I will let her fall a few times till she puts her hand up for help.... I am still waiting for her to say "Your right dear"
When are you going to put your hand up so I can put a white flag in your hand?

So far the only smart thing I have heard from you is your choice of a solid chainsaw. STIHL.
Johnsrude, and Huskavarna are also my choices.

Everyone works different some drive from one side of town to the other and back doing insurance etc referals takes awhile to get there and lots of gas so you better get a good price from them Others tend to try to saturate the same area for the day drive little do several in the same area often at the same time 4 for $35 each in the same parking lot compared to 2 at $65 driving several miles to get there whats the dif? as long as your daily total covers the bills who cares how much you charged per? If you are sitting in a Lot or Carwash again figure how many you will average and make sure you charge enough to make what you need. If you are doing one a day I guess you better charge $200 6 a day at $45 its all relative The point is dont fall into the "I get so much" trap charge what your area will bear