What to charge after a HACK?!

Hi DB

I tried to convince this customer to have me prep his new car. but his complaint was that it will take me the whole day... yada yada yada. now he wants me to correct it after its hacked. I quoted him $100 for wash-clay-wax before... mind that his a co-worker.



heres a hacked brand new S4














sorry for another painful post!!

 

Oh no. The hood! :yikes:

 

theres holograms all over the car.....it was hard to catch it with my camera. but you can see some light ones on the doors etc

 

Now a lot more work and time and money

 

I wouldnt hold back on pricing.

The car is screwed up.

 

I'd charge more now.

 

For sure, charge him by the hour. I had a freind do the same thing........

 

If he made a the decision to take it somewhere else, I'd charge him full pop to fix the mess the other guy made. I usually tell people my price and if it comes back because someone else messes it up, its double to fix it. Because it was inconvenient to leave it for a day, now he loses his car for two days and an extra couple hundred bucks! DOH!

 

^ i totally agree, sort of like measure twice cut once.............

 

I'll make sure he read you guys comments hehehe

 

These kinds of situations, where someone closer than just a walk-in, etc., gets into trouble, after you offered to do the work, and now they are in trouble and want your help.

To me, now it looks like a wash-clay-correct-possible-polish-possible-re-wash-apply-sealant/wax, etc., which would have to cost more because there are now more steps/time involved..

How well are you acquainted with this co-worker (asked rhetorically); is there anything you can both talk about trading work for, so that the $$$ damage can be mitigated ?

What about just doing a true 1-step like say, Meguiars D151, which finishes down quite nicely in my experience, and tell the Client up-front, that this is all they get for the same amount of money originally quoted?

Hope you can work this out to everyone's satisfaction.

Good luck with this.
Dan F

 

im pretty close to this co-worker, he likes me to do the correction on his S4 and a Bmw X3 mini detail on spring time. I told him I'll hook him up, but didn't mention the price yet....so im posting to see what DB has to say to back me up on my price when I finally decide what to charge him LOL. Thanks

 

Zhen I would emphasize that what you are required to do now is completely different than the relatively simple wash, clay, and wax initially quoted. This is substantial paint correction work throughout the car! This is a big project job now that will take ALOT of time to correct.

 

I would charge him accordingly..you did offer to help him out before he took it to the hacker..and now that he has come to you shows that he respects your skills and needs to pay well for your skills and knowledge..if he would of let you do it in the first place he wouldn't be spending more to fix what the CHEAPER guy did to his car.

 

Bingo! Wash, clay and wax - 3-4 hours. Wash, clay, single stage polish, ( any pad with Power Finish on a PC ) and wax will be 7-8 hours. Even if you are friends, doing it for under $200 would be crazy. Thats only $25 / hr.

 

Make the hackers pay, and charge full price....

 

I charge what I charge regardless of what needs to be done. I charge by the hour and work on the car until it's mint.

 

what a shame, I'm sure it'll look mint in the spring after your done with it

 

With Richy on this. Charge hourly and just tell him how much defect remove he is looking for then estimate how many hours its going to take you to get there and tell him it can either be + or - 2.5 hrs from the estimate incase it takes longer.

 

definitely charge more. Your initial quote didn't include fixing someone else's shabby craftsmanship. It's your time, it's your products and it's your skills that are needed to fix the vehicle properly so charge accordingly.