Sabremech Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 2 hours ago, PTK said: Personally I think we should be grateful for our mechanic pay his bill and say thank you. That's the relationship I have with my A&P. He knows I value and appreciate all his help whenever my Mooney needs something. If I call him for something he'll accomodate me even if it's after hours. Of course I would never call him to come out after hours unless it was some kind of emergency. He is in business to provide a service and deserves to make a profit. As far as the op is concerned he says his mag failed away from home. He found a mechanic on the field willing to help him so he could get on his way. He is lucky for that and should be grateful. Having said that we do need to be careful and pick a mechanic wisely. Unfortunately this is difficult to do with an aog away from home. I wish there was some kind of website where people could post their experiences with shops we may not be familiar with when away from home. The website idea has been floated around numerous times and isn't plausible because too many people can't be truthful and would bash a shop,or mechanic who may not be on the Internet to defend themselves over a false accusation. Ask me how I know about defending myself on the Internet! I think there should be a website for mechanics to list all the CB's and keep them from coming into their shop and rip them off! Can't have one list without the other. Fair is fair! Just listing good shops or mechanics won't work either, because all it takes is one bad review from someone with an agenda or who is impossible to please and a business could be irreparably damaged. Bad, Bad idea in this day of social media. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertGary1 Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 2 minutes ago, Sabremech said: The website idea has been floated around numerous times and isn't plausible because too many people can't be truthful and would bash a shop,or mechanic who may not be on the Internet to defend themselves over a false accusation. Ask me how I know about defending myself on the Internet! I think there should be a website for mechanics to list all the CB's and keep them from coming into their shop and rip them off! Can't have one list without the other. Fair is fair! Just listing good shops or mechanics won't work either, because all it takes is one bad review from someone with an agenda or who is impossible to please and a business could be irreparably damaged. Bad, Bad idea in this day of social media. Not sure I agree with that. In the age of Yelp and Google, Amazon reviews I think readers are savvy to the outlier reviews. -Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRM Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 23 hours ago, Hank said: But so small . . . . Yet so powerful...and efficient as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLCarter Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 67% is a bit much unless it covers next day freight both directions. There is nothing wrong with making a profit and the market dictates what that profit is, too high and you lose business, too low and you wont last for long. My motorcycle shop had 3 profit centers, Parts Dept., Service Dept. and Sales Dept., Parts averaged 35% gross profit and rarely did I sell over MSRP but almost always had to match or get close to someone on the net that was whoring out their parts, Service was 50% gross profit and the Sales (used units only) was 25% gross, in the event we outside work performed it got marked up as well. These are pretty much industry standards except OEM parts are 100% gross, new unit sales is 14% and labor 65%+ (I paid my techs better). The aircraft industry is screwed because of the paper work and liability to produce a part, my best guess would be that cost is more than what retail SHOULD be. In high school I worked at a Jewelry Store as an engraver, most of the jewelry had a 500%+ mark up, Eye glasses are well over 700%. So while aviation is generally expensive chances are there isn’t much profit left for the last guy in line. Just remember you as the consumer ALWAYS has the choice of where and who you spend your money with, personally I will almost always go to the mom & pop places due to the service is generally better, but if they try and break it off in my ass by charging 67% more than I can get it for… I’m gone 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Junkin Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 5 hours ago, PTK said: I wish there was some kind of website where people could post their experiences with shops we may not be familiar with when away from home. I have the next best thing - Sporty's Breakdown Assistance. Its like an auto club for your airplane, and I used it last month. I was AOG, called the number and gave my information to their call center, and within 20 minutes I was talking to a technician who referred me to a local shop in their network for repairs. There was no guess work in trying to find a mechanic, and the technician I talked to encouraged me to call him if I had any questions about anything that the shop told me. VERY slick and worry free, and the annual fee is less than $200. All the work is managed by Savvy Aviation, Mike Busch's company. Cheers, Rick 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 7 hours ago, RLCarter said: 67% is a bit much unless it covers next day freight both directions. There is nothing wrong with making a profit and the market dictates what that profit is, too high and you lose business, too low and you wont last for long. My motorcycle shop had 3 profit centers, Parts Dept., Service Dept. and Sales Dept., Parts averaged 35% gross profit and rarely did I sell over MSRP but almost always had to match or get close to someone on the net that was whoring out their parts, Service was 50% gross profit and the Sales (used units only) was 25% gross, in the event we outside work performed it got marked up as well. These are pretty much industry standards except OEM parts are 100% gross, new unit sales is 14% and labor 65%+ (I paid my techs better). The aircraft industry is screwed because of the paper work and liability to produce a part, my best guess would be that cost is more than what retail SHOULD be. In high school I worked at a Jewelry Store as an engraver, most of the jewelry had a 500%+ mark up, Eye glasses are well over 700%. So while aviation is generally expensive chances are there isn’t much profit left for the last guy in line. Just remember you as the consumer ALWAYS has the choice of where and who you spend your money with, personally I will almost always go to the mom & pop places due to the service is generally better, but if they try and break it off in my ass by charging 67% more than I can get it for… I’m gone It’s a good thing that Spruce didn’t sell motorcycle parts. Clarence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGL Aviation Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 Most shops do. However, personally I do not agree with this shop’s business ethic. Our mark up is very reasonable. The only reason we mark up is to attempt a ‘recoup’ some of the cost on administrative work (searching for the part, contacting the vendor, etc). We do allow our customers to purchase the parts themselves (often with our discount) if they put the legwork behind it. This is one of those situations we really frown upon. Some shops have truly lost sight of what’s important and miss the opportunity to help someone out on a really bad day in the name of a quick profit. Sorry you had to experience this. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLCarter Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 59 minutes ago, AGL Aviation said: Most shops do. However, personally I do not agree with this shop’s business ethic. Our mark up is very reasonable. The only reason we mark up is to attempt a ‘recoup’ some of the cost on administrative work (searching for the part, contacting the vendor, etc). We do allow our customers to purchase the parts themselves (often with our discount) if they put the legwork behind it. This is one of those situations we really frown upon. Some shops have truly lost sight of what’s important and miss the opportunity to help someone out on a really bad day in the name of a quick profit. Sorry you had to experience this. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Agreed, shops that do that don’t stay in business long or have a very small customer base. One of the local OEM dealers took my discount away from me so I stopped buying from them, 60 days later they were in my office asking what was needed to gain my business back. I guess loosing 7~8k a month is sales and now having to pay retail for their machine work that I did for the opened their eyes a little 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTurtle Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 in my computer service business I added 30% markup to anything I ordered... I think its fair for a service biz to upcharge hardware/parts. They have to stock it, order it, return it if its bad/wrong. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Peace Posted January 11, 2018 Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 On 1/8/2018 at 3:32 PM, AaronC said: My specific example is my mag failed on a field away from home. May I ask how many hours were on that mag when it failed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronC Posted January 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 Less than 300 hours. Just heard back from the mag shop rebuilding it... they said it was all messed up. Housing was cracked (probably from over tightening the bolts on installation), that made pretty much everything inside unusable. The only salvageable part is the coil. The owner of the shop (on the field I got stuck at) is the one that called me. He said since it's going to be a lot more to repair the part than originally quoted, that I could just pay the mag shop for the repairs, and him for the removal and install. I thought this was very nice. I will post back when we get our plane back with a full report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertGary1 Posted January 11, 2018 Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 How can you over tighten the mag on install? The only bolt (at least on Lycoming) tightens the coller which has a lip sized for the mag. Further tightening doesn’t put more force on the mag itself. -Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2018 Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 If it is a Bendix magneto installed with the wrong gasket the mounting ears bend and crack in time, just my guess. Clarence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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