Did a DD8854 for a lady today. Calls for 1.6 hours labor. She looks at the invoice and says "X for labor huh? You don't pay him that much do you?" My response. "That's our price". Top it off she was late for her appointment and then complains that it took a little over an hour to fix. Just venting here. We shoot ourselves in the foot when you market the replacement and repair industry as a commodity. What think ye?

I ran into that on a windshield that NAGS showed over three hours.
I explained that we quoted him a price to do the job and the hours are book hours that are suggested and the tools cost extra that make the job faster. They did not affect his price. He continued to be unhappy about it because it had taken us about an hour to do it.

So I figured up the time with him. We astarted with the time I spent looking up his part on the initial phone call, the time my CSR spent checking his insurance coverage for him, which he had a large deductible. The time we spent ordereing the part then receiving the part in and putting it up while another person entered it into our inventory. Then the time of us having to call him and let him know the glass was in.
Now it was time for him to bring the car in for the job and we had almost an hour in his job already. He showed up to get the job done and now I paid someone to pull his vehicle in the shop, two people to begin the instalaltion, a person to go get the glass and begin prepping it for installation, all the while the CSR was getting the VIN, Mileage, etc and entering it onto his ticket.

Once he seen that really there were sometimes up to four people that were being paid to take care of his job he finally accepted it and refused to pay the 5.3 hours we came up with together in time relating to his job.
Funny how if they think they are overcharged they wont quit, but if they think they are undercharged tough luck for us. LOL

That's been happening to me too lately, car owners wondering why labor shows "x" and it only took us "y" to complete. Now I just delete the automatic labor hours that come up and type in our "miscellaneous" labor line and enter the flat rate. Those calls have gone away.

No, guys. He took the alloted time. She was complaining about how much labor per hour it was and then asked if i was paying installers that rate per hour. amazing.

Maybe she was surprised by how much labor you were charging?

I'll go with glassgod on this one. Just delete the hours all together and show a flat rate. Can't argue with something that isn't there.

Flat rate is history. Different cars require different skills and sometimes that is reflected in the book time. Go get your car fixed at the dealer and there will be an hourly rate on your bill. Thats the way it should be. Now if you want to hide the amount of hours being charged and just put the price in, that is fine with me. Just don't go back to flat rates.

Flat rates is a part of what is killing this industry. Flat labor, flat kits ect. LIKE A TIRE ,,, WHEN IT'S FLAT,,, IT DOES NOT WORK! My opinion and I'm stickin to it

If your so worried about consumers see'n the hours have your pos not make it show. Or they make this really neat thing called white out ;)

Brilliant idea Larry Jr.... they just don't pay you enough!

It's not really a flat rate, if I type up a quote/work order for $285.00, I break it down any way I want, usually something like: $80.00 - 110.00 labor, then $18.00 - 30.00 kit, then the remainder is the part and molding if required. All depends on if it's a used car, COD, or a friend. Of course if it's a network you must show NAGS hours usually. Never had anyone complain about labor since we started a miscellaneous labor line. Most people understand the training and experience involving an automotive glass replacement, along with the accesories and overhead. If they don't and they want to argue after the fact, I don't want their business anyways.

Many collision shops are switching over to a "procedural fee" structure, rather than a "$ per book labor hour" system.

I'm told the insurance adjusters are having fits, because their computer software can't figure out a way to audit it, it just won't 'plug in there'.

Of course, that's the whole point. How the shop figures it's charges, is UP TO THE SHOP.

The amusing part is, why the adjuster is breaking down the way the shop's bill is calcualted at all. All that should matter, are Parts Used, Labor Performed, Total Bill Dollars. Why would an insurer care how a bill is calculated, how the total is arrived at; all that matters is the bottom line, the dollar of loss for which they are contracted to indemnify.