Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire $54.95 to change brake light bulb!

Makes sense on some jeeps. They blow to change out and flat rate books show 2-4 hrs depending on model

They probably forgot to add disposal fee too.

And I bet the book tells the tech to disconnect the battery before doing such "electrical" work.

I'd never pay it but I get how they got to 54 bucks. Flat rate's prob 3/10 of an hour, so that's 18 mins, 48 in labor, 6 bucks for the bulb. (local powersports dealer is 160 an hour so I think 160 is prob the neighborhood the shop rate is)

They take advantage of the ignorant and the old.

It's fine to complain if that is needed, or if it helps you feel better. But, when you put yourself into a system, you deal with the systemic. The entire med care/insurance scheme is beyond ridiculous and far from capitalistic- a condition that our society has enabled and supported - so far. It will take more than complaining to correct that one.

And women, and girly men.

seeing how mechanics around here are $200 an hour just to look at the car, does not surprise me at all

centershot;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope your part of Idaho is getting a mild winter so far too and you're all well.

When I read the title to the thread, I was reminded of a couple instances from when I was in charge of maintaining the equipment and vehicle fleet for a mid sized local construction company.

The boss' wife drove a Mercedes SUV - a diesel so maybe a 450? I want to say it was a 2016-2018 model maybe?

Anyways, she brought it to me one day to see if I could look into a burned out taillight bulb on the passenger side.

When I took a look initially, I couldn't figure out how they'd managed to hold the taillight assembly in.

If memory serves I had to go in through the back and remove an access cover in the storage area at the back, but when I got that cover off I saw what looked like a medium sized computer which was directly in front of the bulb holding assembly.

Since I had no idea what would happen if I disconnected the computer and had no way of re-flashing or rebooting the thing, I put the cover back on, informed the lady and then called a local shop which specialized in German cars.

They did the job alright, but charged here something close to $1500 because of the labour to do the computer removal and reboot, etc.

The second instance was the first time one fine but chilly BC winter day the dash on our '03 Dodge pickup informed me that I needed to replace a taillight bulb.

Easy enough I thought, but since the pickup doesn't fit into our car garage at home I had to work at it outside. When the taillight assembly screws came out and nothing moved - at all - I had to resort to reading the owner's manual.

In there they informed the gentle reader that one "should not and could not" remove the taillight assembly if the ambient temperatures were even close to freezing as one risked breaking the plastic pins which were what was holding the silly thing so firmly in place.

For the life of me I can't recall exactly how it was I warmed it up enough to pull that assembly very carefully straight out, but I do recall complaining loud and long to my wife afterwards how some engineer somewhere - likely in Mexico where the truck was assembled - built something that couldn't be worked on outside for half the year.

Now if we started a thread on changing headlight bulbs, I'd have another story about that same truck and might admit to how many hours it took me to find that one hidden screw which nobody in the YouTube videos I watched managed to mention...

Not that I'm bitter mind you, not much...

All the best to you all this Christmas Season.

Dwayne

Doctors have it easy- - - - -only two models to work on, and no changes for at least a thousand years. They also get to bury their mistakes. If you want to bitch about what a mechanic charges, do your own repairs. Don't bitch about farmers with your mouth full, and crawl under your house and unclog that schiddy sewer pipe while you're at it!

Women.

Stealership…. Lol

As reported by several people above, fixing things on cars today is no longer a screwdriver and wrench deal. Cars are intricate and require specialized training to do what seems like simple things. Or stuff gets broken, and then you can be really deep in parts and labor. It is better and cheaper in the long run to let the experts do it - even if it seems like a simple job but turns out not to be.

On many FWD vehicles now, you have to drop the engine to change the spark plugs. That's just one example.

And I'll call you out as a first class A-hole.

I used to love when a customer would come back and complain that I didn't grease their front end during a LOF and then gladly show them how retarded they are because their vehicle doesn't have zerk fittings. Or the [bleep] that insisted in looking over your shoulder while you worked. "Accidently" dropping the oil filter into the roll around drain pan would throw oil onto their clean shirt.

Why?

Why do you think it's ok to make a parts guy look up all the part number for you when you have no intention of buying them? They're usually on commission and you're taking time away from them that they could be doing a job that actually pays.
I don't begrudge anyone for wanting to save money, but if that's your goal, then do your own dam work and figure out what you need yourself. Would you call a lawyer and expect him to give you free advice so you could represent yourself in your own trial? Or call a realtor to look over your house sale that you're doing yourself and not expect to pay them?

You guys are forgetting the charge for "shop supplies", you know the two disposable shop towels for the mechanic to wipe his hand on = $50.00 thank you so much.

Imagine that......a repair shop that wants to charge a customer to repair something. And to make matter worse they actually quoted a price to do it in advance.
Shocking I tell you, absolutely shocking.

I wonder how many parts people I've put into the welfare system calling and talking to them for 5-10 minutes every few years. 🤣😂

got $300 to change a fuse once... felt like a Doctor for a day...