parts markup (LAC)

[William Magliocco]

First things first.  I'm not a professional automotive
technician.  What work I do is confined to my personal
fleet of cars, and very select friends & family.

I can understand when a business owner servicing cars,
electronic goods or whatever can refuse to install
customer supplied goods.  I have worked in the service
end of consumer and industrial electronics businesses,
and currently work in the "wonderful" business of
broadcast engineering (so I perform service to the
"end user"). ;)

The reasons are simple-first off, liabilites &
warranties...the business does not want to deal with
faulty parts you may have procured on a re-repair
basis. Nor would they want the ambulance chasing
weasels & wolverines, er, I mean lawyers if the part
you procured and he installed leads to a problem with
the vehicle meeting its ugly fate.

Second is money, natch.  While I agree that wrench
rates are pricey, what would they be if all customers
got their parts from mail order,
AutoZone/Advance/PepBoyz/NAPA and the like?  The
wrench _expects_ to make a buck on the parts, and that
is reflected in the posted labor rates. 

OTOH, maybe if you let the wrench make a buck or two
on the little parts, when you need to really save some
jack (i.e. the PS rack), the wrench might then be
inclined to cut you some slack...but I would not
suggest this on a first business deal with the wrench.

Just my $0.02

OAC-Audi parts are expensive...so is the wrench labor.
 We listers do what we can to keep the cost of running
our four ringers from eating us out of house & home.

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