Unemployment benefits story (sympathy or sob)

POOnomics, a smellier version of voodoo economics!

 

I'm not sure where you think the price gouging is.

Just like a union worker who would get paid time-and-a-half for working on a Saturday and double time for working on a Sunday, I charge extra on weekends.

My customers know and understand this. My competitors have similar billing procedures.

Every customer has the option of waiting until Monday for service when they would be charged regular rates, but they made the decision to have the machine serviced today.

I need to charge extra otherwise I would never get a day off -- and I still rarely do.

Customers would expect service on a Sunday for a small drip that could wait until the next day. Or they would call in a problem that had been festering but they hadn't yet addressed.

The overtime rates keeps everyone honest.

Now, they could choose to have redundancies built into their operations to avoid such problems. If coffee is so central to their business, the could have two brewers. (or have French presses on hand as a back up.)

You will notice that every Starbucks retail store has two coffee brewers and two espresso machines. This means they are not down if they have trouble with one of their machines.

My customer has chosen to take the risk and operate with a single brewer.

This makes it very important for them to have a good and reliable service person they can call -- even at 6:30 on a Sunday morning.

It's very important to note that not only am I good and prompt, but part of what they are paying for is my availability.

I've made a very conscious decision to not take on more business than I can handle.

Someone who can charge 1/2 of my rate, but can't be there for 72 hours is of no use to my customers. They need service right away.

Now, you may think that it's outrageous for me to charge $700.00 to repair a machine when a new on would cost $1,600.00.

I would disagree. This machine is not very old. If I didn't think it was worth repairing, I woul recommend they get a new one.

But there's another issue. This is not a machine that they can run over to Target and purchase. It must be ordered and shipped. They would not be able to get it today.

And, even if they could get it, they would still need to pay someone about two hours worth of labor to install and calibrate it.

You can't just set this machine on the counter, plug it in and start brewing.

So, you can keep questioning my integrity. I'm ok with it. I'm not defensive at all about my services.

I charge a fair rate and I do a good job.

In fact, I save my customers money. By repairing machines right the first time, and seeing potential problems, they have fewer service issues. This also leads to less down time and lost sales.

I know for a fact that my major customers spend less on service now than they used to -- despite my higher hourly rates.

 

No sense trying, YF. Coffee machines can be fixed, but stupid can't.

 

I know I'm not going to convince Point of Order. But, I think most people here are much more open minded.

I'm not trying to "teach anyone a lesson" or show anyone up.

But, it can get tiring to talk only theoretically about these issues. So, maybe my experience will make some people look at things a little differently or at least see the other side of issue.

Most of the people here have only ever worked for big companies. And many of these companies have had financial problems and/or have treated their employees poorly. So, I think it's sometimes hard for them to see things from a business owner's standpoint.

I think that's a shame because it's limiting. And the people here are too smart to have such a narrow view of the world.

 

Trickle down Reaganomics whereby conservatives claimed that cutting taxes would increase revenue into the government and thereby reduce deficits is what George H. W. Bush described as "voodoo economics." The idea was then, and remains today, a complete fantasy.

 

Pretty much...

But honestly, if I were dishonest, I could make a lot more money.

I could change out (and re-use) perfectly good parts. I don't do that. But I've seen it done. I've seen invoices for repairs that make no sense.

A bad technician will over fix a machine. Because they won't know what's wrong with it, they'll just start changing out parts until its fixed. That costs more money and takes more time.

I don't do that.

I get in there, I identify the problem, I fix it, and I get out of there.

And I always go over all of my repairs with the GM and I always leave behind any parts I replaced so that they know I'm not going to go use them again.

When I first started out, I was not as good as I am now. I often took longer than it should have to fix a machine. So, I didn't charge for all of my time.

I once sent a bill to Illy (a big Italian coffee roaster) for work done on their behalf at a hotel.

I really fucked up on this job and it took way longer than it should have. So, the work order showed how long I took and the invoice showed the number of hours I worked, but then the labor charge was much lower.

Their accounting person called to question the bill. Though I had indicated the reason for the reduction, she hadn't noticed it. When I explained the reason, she was shocked. She said no one had ever done that before.

I did it a lot at first. I did it just the other day at the Hyatt when a machine gave me troubles and took longer to fix than it should have.

So again, though my hourly rates are high, they're going to come out ahead by using me.

I am very fair and very loyal to my customers.

 

POO, you've accused me of extortion and price gouging.

I think I've been very fair to take the time and reply to you with great detail explaining how my billing works.

You've just called that "spinning".

Why not try to respond to my detailed responses?

 

You write way too much.

 

Yeah, but do you know how expensive it is to hire an editor?

 

I agree with all of that. But that has nothing to do with how much YF charges to fix coffee machines.

 

Also, I probably could not charge as much if I only fixed coffee brewers.

I also repair espresso machines, including very high end "super automatic" machines.

Lots of people know how to fix a coffee machine. Very few know how to fix these espresso machines and carry the necessary pats.

By doing both, I offer my customers "one stop shopping" and can get higher rates for repairing coffee brewers.

 

Aw, now you're just being mean.

I'm sitting here writing a report for 75 bucks an hour. It isn't that hard to write. Other companies pay between 20 and 40 bucks for similar reports. Maybe POO could tell me where to send half of the money, and I could write "no thanks, I'm good" on the check.