Heard a kid at the shop say something that stuck with me all week

I was at the local parts counter in Tacoma picking up a brake caliper when this teenager walks in with his dad, holding a cracked serpentine belt. He tells the clerk, "My teacher said belts are cheap, labor is what gets you." That got me thinking about how we explain repairs to customers. I've spent 8 years turning wrenches and I still catch myself talking about parts like labor is invisible. Then I worked a $450 job last Tuesday where the belt was $22 and the rest was time. Has anyone else noticed customers react better when you break down the hourly cost first?

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claire_fisher4128d agoMost Upvoted

Heard my buddy rant about this exact thing after his sister's AC unit died last summer. He quoted her the compressor price first and she nearly choked, then he added labor and she went quiet. Once he flipped it around and said "the part's 80 bucks, my time's the rest", she calmed right down and even tipped him. Customers just need to see where the money's going, that's all.