Lawn Equpiment service and repair

Dustinkerr

Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
Threads
10
Messages
25
hey gals and guys,, just a question , anybody do service nd repair on their own? how do you do your pricing? just wanted to see what other small business owners have to say?
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Threads
64
Messages
24,647
When I first started out I carried over the previous owners flat rate charging as it was easy.
He had flat rates for labour that were really cheap & loaded up the parts to the extent they were oft dearer than original parts.
Latter I got a copy of the scheduled fee for warranty servicing and use that as the basis of my labour charges.
So I bill 1.5 times the hours Stihl pay their dealers for warranty work ( about 1/2 the time it actually takes me to do the job ) for repairs.
Servicing is set at 2 hours for ride on tractors, 1.5 hours for ZTR's , 0.75 hrs for walk behinds & Hand helds but this is only for servicing a mower that is running when it arrives.
People seem to have a problem with the difference between a service & a repair.
Where I do get a lot of customers from is the free pick up & delivery. If you go through this site you will see lots of people who are total novices doing their owns repairs because the dealers charge too much for pick up & delivery.
Being a one man shop , I do these after hours in any case and can generally work it to drop one off & pick up another on the way back. Note hand helds get brought in as I generally make nothing on them.
The local guy charges 1/2 hour each way ( $ 50) , the big dealers 10 miles away charge 3/4 hour each way ( $ 90 ), I do it for free within a 10 mile radius.

As mowers were new to me when I took over the business I supply free loan out equipment because the research and parts sourcing can take months for some older mowers.
Also the loan mowers regularly get bought by the customer because they find them better than what they were using.
The loaners were cheap, non runners I bought to practice & learn on so most cost very little, I make sure they are perfect mechanically & ignore the cosmetics which is where you make losses on selling used machinery.

At $ 60 / hr charge 1/2 what the glass fronts do ( $ 120 to $ 150 hr ) and 2/3 what the local shop dose ( $ 90 hr ) and on the bill, 4 hours @ $ 60 /hr goes down better with the customers than 2 hrs @ $ 120/hr when they are only being paid $ 30/hr for what they do.
 

TJR345

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2017
Threads
0
Messages
48
I do my own repairs and maintenance.I buy from dealer to online.Some places offer semi annual filter sales and some youtube lawn guys give discount codes for online providers.
 

Dustinkerr

Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
Threads
10
Messages
25
Thanks guys that's a big help
hope you all have great success and make millions!!!
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Threads
64
Messages
24,647
No one makes millions repairing mowers but you can make a comfortable living.
What made the big difference for me was extended hours & overnight servicing for trade customers.
Prebooked the trade customers drop off their mowers on their way home , usually betweens 4 & 6 pm.
I service the mower and have it ready for them to collect between 4 & 6 am the following day.
They all have keys to my yard so I don't have to be there to hand over the finished equipment.
Thus I now service nearly all of the local mowing companies.
Same goes for parts, they sit out in the yard in a box and get collected when the team goes past in the morning.
When I first took over I used to give them 15% discount but now they pay 10% more and would happily pay even more for the convienence of no downtime for routine servicing.
They also never complain about parts as breaking a belt on the job costs a lot more than loosing a few hours of service life.
having a full team standing around picking their noses because a spindle bearing packed it in is a lot more expensive that changing a spindle that is "just starting to go "
They understand the idea of "service life" so a deck belt every year, spindle bearings every year, drive belt every 2 years etc they understand and most of my customers will keep the replaced parts that are still useable as spares in their truck.
A friend has a lot of arbourists & he does the same thing.
They each have a hook on the inside of his fence and drop the chains on there on their way home, he sharpens them after dinner then hangs then back on the hook wrapped in cling wrap so they know he has sharpened them.
he is currently doing around 200 chains a month @ $ 10 a chain and when he finds a stuffed chain, he makes a new one
 

cashman

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 23, 2013
Threads
9
Messages
283
Hello Bert! I don't know if you order anything direct from the USA, but I was wondering what your freight charges are for let's say a 2 pound package shipped from the US to you on regular UPS of FedEx?
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Threads
64
Messages
24,647
Around $ 50 depending upon the volume as all post goes air now days.
I have a shipping agent who ships out of Long Beach who gives me $ 500 / pallet.
Thus I get big orders and have then shipped to him.

I never ever use any direct shipping method apart from the USPS all the others are crap.
My workshop is 75 km from the Sydney GPO and just outside of the Sydney metro transport region so none of them deliver to the door.
Thus the $ 20 to & $ 50 extra paid for faster freight gets the package to their depot in 2 to 3 days where it sits for anything up to 10 weeks before it gets sent to me usually by Australia Post.
If they do use a contractor, the contractors can not read english and rarely see the letters 2070 in 6" high numbers on the gate and those who do see a padlock & chain so they just drive away as they get something like $ 2.75 per drop.
Thus I have to drive anything up to 50km to retrieve the item 2 to 3 weeks latter after they get a contact phone number from the sender.
All of the 3rd party shippers charge a customs clearence fee of $ 50 to $ 80, regardless of weather the items are duty free or not.

Evilpay just gave me a refund because a package sat in Fedex's warehouse for 14 weeks.
They kept sending me an email to contact Fedex urgently and a hot link which took e to a web site that said "no action is necessary" with no way to contact a real human.
 

cashman

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 23, 2013
Threads
9
Messages
283
Wow! I've had customers here balk at paying $8 UPS to get a blade shipped on a zone 2 address. It's one of the reasons I don't repair mowers at my house anymore. Customer don't like paying freight charges but you have to pass that expense along to them. Manufacturers have basically done away with the local Service Distributors and most everything has to be shipped now.
 

GarryCal

Forum Newbie
Joined
Oct 16, 2017
Threads
0
Messages
1
That one of the reasons I would never do it either.
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Threads
64
Messages
24,647
Wow! I've had customers here balk at paying $8 UPS to get a blade shipped on a zone 2 address. It's one of the reasons I don't repair mowers at my house anymore. Customer don't like paying freight charges but you have to pass that expense along to them. Manufacturers have basically done away with the local Service Distributors and most everything has to be shipped now.

Different markets
OZ id the same landmass as mainland USA but with a population and economy around the same size as California.
Thus we don't expect free delivery and we know transport costs money more so because a very large number of us are employed in the transport sector and those who are not always have to factor transport costs into every project.
We accept that we are a little pimple on the backside of the earth & anything brought here has big transport costs

When we had a regulated market we had fewer makes & models so parts supply locally was good.
Since deregulation of everything consumers have now learned that the benefits of open competition are massively outweighed by problems of lower volumes
I now carry around $ 50,000 in spare parts ( wholesale price ) and by the time I get the business in proper operating condition that will be closer to $ 100,000, f not more.

Nearly all of the mower shops down here are part of a franchise of some sort and all franchises discourage carrying parts for anything over 5 years old so they can flog you a new piece of equipment.
There is a 100% wholesale mark up ( transport costs come out of this ) and then another 100% retail mark up so no surprise what the fanchisors want the franchisees to do.
 
Top