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Did Tech rip me off?

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#21
BassNeo said:
If you feel that you 'were taken' you should mention it before you pay the bill, and at the very least you should ask them to justify the price. Did they give you a quote?

Seeing what you had done, there's likely a couple hours work to do the job properly and if the work is quality, then it's probably worth the money if you can't do it yourself.
Click to expand...

2 hours???

It's a P-bass!!!

1) loosen strings and lift bridge (since it will be replaced).
2) unscrew pickguard.
3) remove pickups
4) solder new ones in and place in the cavity.
5) reassemble pickguard.
That takes *me* 15min, and I am no pro!

6) put new bridge in. You have to make sure it goes centered at the right location to allow adjustment. It may require some small drilling if the existing holes do not align... but that doesn't take a lot of time... and chances are the replacement bridge was designed to use the existing holes, Badass and the like.

7) string up, and now adjust intonation and action.

Do you really think 2h is reasonable???

For a straight pickp swap?

If you say yes, I wish you lived nearer me, because I'd love to take care of your bass work. I can do the electronics part and basic setups, and anything more complex to my luthier... and we'd still be making a healthy overprofit :hyper:
;)

*UNLESS* he's getting a full set-up too. Adjusting action/bridge saddles does not qualify as a full set up... although perhaps it is the only thing required if the bass is already perfect.
So the question, to me, is whether $125 was for a full set up PLUS changing pickups and bridge.
Then it still sounds on the high side, but not crazy.

The bottom line is: it's well worth learning to solder and do your own setups. You get what you want, faster, and a lot cheaper.
 
#23
MrMeacham said:
I posted a few weeks ago about my bass taking so long. I went to pick it up yesterday and he charged me $125 in labor to swap out the p bass pickups, pots and change the bridge. I paid prices that were a few dollars more than internet retail for all the parts as well. This was a guitar shop that had to get wholesale costs on things. As they held my bass hostage I felt like I got taken big time. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

First of all, the guy is in business to make a profit. Retail, MSRP and List prices are suggested prices. The store or tech can pretty much charge what they want to unless the manufacturer limits them to a certain price range or profit margin. He had a cost associated with getting and stocking the parts. It sounds stupid but, he has to account for the time it took to order the parts, pay for them, receive them, etc.

Secondly, why didn't you ask for a price before the work was done? This would have eliminated any misunderstandings.
 
#24
I was told that it would be $75 plus parts. I could have had the bridge done for free at a different shop or did it myself. I didn't expect it to add $50 to the price. The bass was professionally set up already so the adjustments had to be minor. I simply went from the basic fender bridge to the standard. Electronics is something I know nothing about. I figured they had to strip the bass down to do the electronic work so having them swap the bridge out at the same time made sense. My mistake. I will never agree to have anything done without a written estimate in the future.
 
#26
So after the first post about the crazy wait and the issues of cost at the beginning of this one I took the P out to play. It was not set up properly. I tune down a whole step. I've had it set up for that and the nut changed in the past. I told them to make sure it was set up for a whole step down. It was set up to standard with the same heavy (105-50) Chrome set of strings I had on it! The set up is worse now than when it went in and I'm out $$. I called and the Tech doesn't work Mondays. That's expected. I hope to bring it back Wednesday and pick up Friday. I'm beyond hot at this point.
 
#28
No, We had that heat wave, I was hot and angry about the price, they were going to hold the bass hostage if I didn't pay, so I just paid, put it in the air conditioned car and drove home. Lots of mistakes on my part. Never has any issues with other shops. It's about $8 in gas each time I have to go the store. It stinks.
 
#29
mcnach said:
2 hours???

It's a P-bass!!!

1) loosen strings and lift bridge (since it will be replaced).
2) unscrew pickguard.
3) remove pickups
4) solder new ones in and place in the cavity.
5) reassemble pickguard.
That takes *me* 15min, and I am no pro!

6) put new bridge in. You have to make sure it goes centered at the right location to allow adjustment. It may require some small drilling if the existing holes do not align... but that doesn't take a lot of time... and chances are the replacement bridge was designed to use the existing holes, Badass and the like.

7) string up, and now adjust intonation and action.

Do you really think 2h is reasonable???

For a straight pickp swap?

If you say yes, I wish you lived nearer me, because I'd love to take care of your bass work. I can do the electronics part and basic setups, and anything more complex to my luthier... and we'd still be making a healthy overprofit :hyper:
;)

*UNLESS* he's getting a full set-up too. Adjusting action/bridge saddles does not qualify as a full set up... although perhaps it is the only thing required if the bass is already perfect.
So the question, to me, is whether $125 was for a full set up PLUS changing pickups and bridge.
Then it still sounds on the high side, but not crazy.

The bottom line is: it's well worth learning to solder and do your own setups. You get what you want, faster, and a lot cheaper.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's more like this:


  1. Pull case from storage.
  2. Remove guitar from case.
  3. Place guitar on bench.
  4. Place case into storage.
  5. Take measurements for set up.
  6. Remove strings.
  7. Remove bridge.
  8. Remove pickguard.
  9. Clean guitar.
  10. Clean neck and fret board.
  11. Oil fingerboard.
  12. Polish frets.
  13. Clean bench.
  14. Remove pickguard to solder station.
  15. Heat soldering iron.
  16. Allow for soldering iron to come up to temp.
  17. Tin soldering iron tip.
  18. De-solder connections at jack.
  19. Remove new pickup from box.
  20. Place old pickup into packaging.
  21. Solder new pickup connections.
  22. Clean pickguard.
  23. Remove pickguard to set up bench.
  24. Test connections for continuity.
  25. Install pickguard on guitar.
  26. Remove bridge from packaging.
  27. Place old bridge in packaging.
  28. Install new bridge on guitar.
  29. Set saddles for relative intonation and height.
  30. String guitar.
  31. Perform complete setup.
  32. Retrieve case from storage.
  33. Place old bridge and pickup in case.
  34. Place guitar in case.
  35. Place guitar and case in storage.
  36. Clean bench.
  37. Log completed repair with stats into data base.
  38. Generate invoice.
  39. Call customer.
  40. Wait two weeks for customer to pickup instrument that absolutely, positively had to be done before Friday night.

Quite a bit longer than fifteen minutes.

Bridge replacement requires complete set up. There is no discussion on this subject.

None of this allows for phone calls, live customer interaction, UPS deliveries or anything else that breaks the train of thought. All interruptions cause a loss of time at the bench because it takes a minute or two to bring the mind back to the work.
 
#31
Log completed repair with stats into data base.
Generate invoice.
Call customer.
Wait two weeks for customer to pickup instrument that absolutely, positively had to be done before Friday night.
Click to expand...

Post should start. Call customer to have him drop off bass saying your ready. Leave lying around for a week without working on it. Tell client you'll have it done for a gig by Friday if he really needs it 8 days later. The last three things you quoted never happened. He called Friday night a 7pm. Long past the time I dared wait to grab a replacement and couldn't quote a price. It was picked up a week later. Now he needs to ad time to do the set up properly like he was paid to do. Definitely 1/2 hour of excuses before work gets done there as well. Bad business practice all the way around.
 
#32
MrMeacham said:
Post should start. Call customer to have him drop off bass saying your ready. Leave lying around for a week without working on it. Tell client you'll have it done for a gig by Friday if he really needs it 8 days later. The last three things you quoted never happened. He called Friday night a 7pm. Long past the time I dared wait to grab a replacement and couldn't quote a price. It was picked up a week later. Now he needs to ad time to do the set up properly like he was paid to do. Definitely 1/2 hour of excuses before work gets done there as well. Bad business practice all the way around.
Click to expand...

Sorry that you've had a bad experience. This is one way it should work. There are many ways of running a shop efficiently. This post was written to rebut the idea that the guitar only required fifteen minutes of work.

Scheduling work flow as you suggest is impractical. Just one customer coming in late, or not showing up at all means lost billable hours. Two such occurrences in every week and it is time to start looking for gainful employment. As far as leaving the guitar "lying around for a week without working on it", some shops prefer to have an instrument in the shop for a few days to allow it to acclimate to that environment. Others are simply not good at scheduling.

The rest speaks to business practices.

You are unhappy with how this has been handled. It is time to confront the shop owner and ask that, once the repair is done correctly, they do something to make this right for you. It is incumbent upon you to do this. If they're smart they'll do something for you. If they offer nothing, remove them from your list.
 
#34
202dy said:
Actually, it's more like this:


  1. Pull case from storage.
  2. Remove guitar from case.
  3. Place guitar on bench.
  4. Place case into storage.
  5. Take measurements for set up.
  6. Remove strings.
  7. Remove bridge.
  8. Remove pickguard.
  9. Clean guitar.
  10. Clean neck and fret board.
  11. Oil fingerboard.
  12. Polish frets.
  13. Clean bench.
  14. Remove pickguard to solder station.
  15. Heat soldering iron.
  16. Allow for soldering iron to come up to temp.
  17. Tin soldering iron tip.
  18. De-solder connections at jack.
  19. Remove new pickup from box.
  20. Place old pickup into packaging.
  21. Solder new pickup connections.
  22. Clean pickguard.
  23. Remove pickguard to set up bench.
  24. Test connections for continuity.
  25. Install pickguard on guitar.
  26. Remove bridge from packaging.
  27. Place old bridge in packaging.
  28. Install new bridge on guitar.
  29. Set saddles for relative intonation and height.
  30. String guitar.
  31. Perform complete setup.
  32. Retrieve case from storage.
  33. Place old bridge and pickup in case.
  34. Place guitar in case.
  35. Place guitar and case in storage.
  36. Clean bench.
  37. Log completed repair with stats into data base.
  38. Generate invoice.
  39. Call customer.
  40. Wait two weeks for customer to pickup instrument that absolutely, positively had to be done before Friday night.

Quite a bit longer than fifteen minutes.

Bridge replacement requires complete set up. There is no discussion on this subject.

None of this allows for phone calls, live customer interaction, UPS deliveries or anything else that breaks the train of thought. All interruptions cause a loss of time at the bench because it takes a minute or two to bring the mind back to the work.
Click to expand...

With due respect, it sounds like you haven't done this much :rollno:
I have.
 
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