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I just paid $685 for an alternator

Yah same thing happened to me about a month or 2 back.

I was down in my home town (2hrs from my place) and the car starts to show signs of electrical problems. The way it was acting I knew it was the altinator. So I got it into town to a shop that is basically my only choice. Even tho I vowed never to give them my buisness again after some tranny work on an escort of mine, but thats another story. 680 dollars later I have a new altinator installed.

The thing that gets me they charged me $480 for alt, $100 for labor, and $100 for a battery that I didn't ask for. The problem was I was back home with a car I borrowed from my parents so I never was able to get there and complain about it. I knew it was going to be expensive but don't tell my that the alt was $480.

Now if I would have done it $120 for parts, $12 for beer, and some beat up hands.
 
Nofrag said:
Shop supplies? Are they talking about beers?
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lol. no kidding. that's supposed to be covered by the hourly rate wtf? and $92 an hour? that's HIGH imo. unless its some kind of specialy/performance shop.

i picked up a rebuilt alternator for about $100 iirc. definitely the way to go. they usually carry warranties that are just as good. heck, doesnt AZ also offered remans as well?

man, $700 (close) for an alternator job, geez...! :blackeye:
 
Oh wow 3 hours? On a hoist?

I changed it in an hour on my driveway. You have to get used to changing alternators with some Cougar/Contours LOL!
 
the problem with mechanics for me has always been the classic problem of a company that makes money off of your problems. You bring a car in and ask how much will it cost. They say well i wont know till its done. (walk away). You get the work done at the shop then all the sudden your ac doesnt work. you take it back they make more money. then your balljoints are busted etc etc etc.. it is never ending.

On top of this, shop owners for some reason are some of the worst communicators in the world. most likely because they dont have to be. If you have a car towed there, they have you by the balls.

In my experiences, shop owners are some of the most unethical/greedy people I have ever met. that's why i started doing things myself. even if it was a headache at least i know what was actually done.

On the other hand its your own damn fault for not asking what it would cost, and they are assholes for not giving you a heads up on price before starting the work it's not like they didn't have your number. i understand they have overhead, but thats not the customers problem
 
The charges seem a little high but not overly excessive. The unspecified " shop charges " is pretty much a universal scam nowadays.

Realistically though, the only way to avoid high repair bills is to learn how to do the job yourself.
 
FIND said:
Most shops dont want you to bring in parts. One this cuts into money they should rightfully be making for their work, two, if they want to guarantee their work, they will have a hard time verifying the part you bring in is good. If I replaced an alternator with one I bought from NAPA, and the alternator went bad, the customer would bring it back, and NAPA would give me a replacement. I hope this doesnt happen, and that is why I do business with a supplier that I know is going to sell me parts that I won't have to replace. My supplier keeps sending me good parts cause he wants to keep my business, if I had to keep doing a bunch of free replacements, I would find another supplier in a hurry. If I replace an alternator with something a customer brings in, and it goes bad, what am I supposed to say when the customer comes back to me? Should I just keep replacing the alternators with the ones he brings me, doing more and more work for free?
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I see what you are saying about this. I still feel like the mark up they made was a little much.

FIND said:
As far as diagnostics go. It would be really bad to just assume a customer is right when they come into your shop. Say a customer comes in and says replace alternator. OK, so you do, and they are still having charging problems. Then what? You take the blame for it, and the customer wants you to fix it for free, because you should have replaced the alternator and fixed the problem. Now you are tracking down a stuck relay or bad wiring somewhere for free, while a customer is telling all his friends about the shoddy work your shop does. Not diagnosing problems with a car is horrible for business. I have had plenty of customers come in to my shop in the past telling me to fix a specific part, and then gotten ahold of them after doing whatever diagnostics to tell them that they didn't actually need a job done and that I could fix their problem for much less money.
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If a customer says change the alternator and it doesn't work, that isn't the shops fault. If a customer says find out why my car is dying and they change the alternator and that doesn't fix it, then that is the shops fault. When I say change my alternator, I don't mean find out if my alternator is bad and then take care of it, I am saying replace my alternator. That is the work I want done. I am working in a resemblance of a shop, my schools service floor, where we have to do everything like a shop would. When a car comes in, and then say I need an alignment, we give them an alignment. If they come in and say my car is pulling to the right, find out why, we check the suspension and find out if anything is bad and then we do an alignment. If someone tells you to do something, it is your job to do it. If someone asks you to find out why something is happening, then your job is to diagnose and then let the customer decide what they want fixed. If they say change the alternator, doesn't fix their problem and they come back and say well it didn't fix the problem, you say, well you specifically told me to change the alternator so that is what I did. You didn't ask me to diagnose anything so I am not going to charge you for that. For a shop to just charge for that when the customer didn't ask for it isn't ok in my opinion.
 
Brokendown said:
I see what you are saying about this. I still feel like the mark up they made was a little much.

If a customer says change the alternator and it doesn't work, that isn't the shops fault. If a customer says find out why my car is dying and they change the alternator and that doesn't fix it, then that is the shops fault. When I say change my alternator, I don't mean find out if my alternator is bad and then take care of it, I am saying replace my alternator. That is the work I want done. I am working in a resemblance of a shop, my schools service floor, where we have to do everything like a shop would. When a car comes in, and then say I need an alignment, we give them an alignment. If they come in and say my car is pulling to the right, find out why, we check the suspension and find out if anything is bad and then we do an alignment. If someone tells you to do something, it is your job to do it. If someone asks you to find out why something is happening, then your job is to diagnose and then let the customer decide what they want fixed. If they say change the alternator, doesn't fix their problem and they come back and say well it didn't fix the problem, you say, well you specifically told me to change the alternator so that is what I did. You didn't ask me to diagnose anything so I am not going to charge you for that. For a shop to just charge for that when the customer didn't ask for it isn't ok in my opinion.
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The problem is customers never see it that way. I can link you to a million threads online that say something like "did X shop ruin my transmission when I had them change my headlight bulb? I usually use wagner bulbs, but they put in GE bulbs."

Would you really do an alignment on a car without checking to see if the ball joints or tie rods are good? It is good business to check things. It is bad business to just take your customer's request and run with it. Even if you do exactly as a customer says and replace the alternator. If the alternator wasn't the problem, the customer is going to assume it is your fault if things aren't fixed when you do only what they say and don't check anything. If you find the real problem and if you can save them money on top of it, they will tell all their friends you are a genius and generate business for you. Remember, being a mechanic is volume work. You need to keep busy all the time, and get as much work in and out of your door as possible. Also, as with all service jobs, a customer that keeps coming back is worth more than a hundred 1 time customers. Return customers refer friends.

That being said, you don't do work without a customers permission, ie you wouldnt swap trannys on a car just cause someone comes in for something else and you notice it is bad, but doing diagnostics is part of the job.
 
OP, I see you live in Ellington, CT. Been down there many times. I go to metal shows at HOF Billiards a lot.

Anyways, you have a super talented Contour/Mystique mechanic up in Chicopee, MA. Totally worth the trip if you've been paying prices like almost $700 for an alternator. His username on here is aircougar.
 
i dont care what shop it is, you only get charged diag if you dont have them do the job. and the reman only cost about 100 to most shops, and they arent supposed to charge you more then the list price. AZ lists brand remans for $185 and brand new ones for $207. soooo even IF they got you a brand new one, they still ripped you almost 100 bucks.
shop supplies??? dialectric grease maybe, but wait, the alts come with the grease allready in the plug. so that was just a scam charge to get some more money outa you. and you said that you used to work there, wow. they really bent you over and gave it to you.
 
Holy CRAP $680???!!! This is why I do all my work myself that is highway robbery although the labor rate IS about right... The alt was far too expensive, I just paid $117 for a brand new one off of Rockauto and they should not be more than $200 at any local chain. Shop supplies is just a way for them to gouge customers. What supplies? Grease? Dialectric grease is literally the ONLY thing they could charge you for and even charging you a few bucks for a dab of it on the alt connection is messed up.

I understand that not everyone can do this sort of thing themselves or has access to tools etc... Some of us HAVE to pay those prices but goddam... For $680 you could go out and buy the alt and belt, full socket sets of both SAE and Metric (craftsman, not Snap On or MAC but more than enough for backyard mechanics) and just do it yourself with the multiple how to write ups on this website.
 
a lot of you guys have seem to have no idea what shop supplies is. every customer gets charged the same amount for shop supplies (although some places base the charge on a percentage of the total bill), whether any are used or not. this prevents one customer, whose work required say 5 cans of brake clean, some quick dry, and other SHOP SUPPLIES, from getting an extra $100+ added on to their bill unexpectedly. so even though the work you were having done may not have required any shop supplies to complete, you still get charged a minimal fee to help cover the costs of those supplies used through out the day. THIS IS NORMAL FOR PRETTY MUCH EVERY SHOP.

the labor rate is about right as well, hell my local dealership charges $90/hr and I live in Kentucky. did they over charge the number of hours for the work, probably, but unless you got a quote stating a certain number of hours to complete the work before hand you're SOL. You told them to replace the alternator, you didnt ask how much it would be or how long it would take so that means its pretty much fair game to charge the actual time it took (which if you have never changed an alternator on a V6 Contour before could easily take 3 hours).

as for the price of the alternator, the shop likely went to Ford for a new one. MSRP of a new unit is $235 according to Team Ford. since this sounds like an independent shop, they likely would have been charged a little under that. 50% markup on parts is not uncommon, considering thats roughly what Ford marks up their prices as well, so $295 is, unfortunately, about right for that too (even if they just got a new alt. from the local parts store for ~$200).

now I dont think you should have been charged for the diagnostics since you did A. tell them what it was (although them verifying the problem/cause is good business) and B. you had it replaced there. That said, its up to the shop as to whether or not they charge for the diagnostics, even if you do have the car repaired there.
 
That is BS for the shop supplies then. So I'd have to pay a $40ish fee for supplies not used on my car? Wth? Um no, I'm not paying for supplies not used for my vehicle, period. If it takes like 2 tubes of rtv, a can of brake clean etc... then charge me for that and ok but if it doesn't take anything but a dab of grease like in the OP's case then there should be no fee.

Ugh, this reminds me of the whole "redistribution of wealth" thing that the democrats keep talking about. No, it is MY money, I WORK HARD FOR IT. If you need to use a bunch of supplies to do a job on my vehicle then ok charge ME for it but charging me a supply fee so Joe Schmoe doesn't have to pay an extra $50 for supplies needed to do a job on HIS car is yet another reason I will NEVER use a shop and why I do all my own work.

The only exception is my father in law who works at a Honda dealership and does all the scheduled maintenance on my wife's CR-V for no labor charge and parts are at his discounted rate. But that is a unique situation.
 
ScottyDsntKnow said:
That is BS for the shop supplies then. So I'd have to pay a $40ish fee for supplies not used on my car? Wth? Um no, I'm not paying for supplies not used for my vehicle, period. If it takes like 2 tubes of rtv, a can of brake clean etc... then charge me for that and ok but if it doesn't take anything but a dab of grease like in the OP's case then there should be no fee.

Ugh, this reminds me of the whole "redistribution of wealth" thing that the democrats keep talking about. No, it is MY money, I WORK HARD FOR IT. If you need to use a bunch of supplies to do a job on my vehicle then ok charge ME for it but charging me a supply fee so Joe Schmoe doesn't have to pay an extra $50 for supplies needed to do a job on HIS car is yet another reason I will NEVER use a shop and why I do all my own work.

The only exception is my father in law who works at a Honda dealership and does all the scheduled maintenance on my wife's CR-V for no labor charge and parts are at his discounted rate. But that is a unique situation.
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Its done so nobody has to pay a huge amount for shop supplies, especially if its not something they are expecting, since its not something can be quoted for every individual job. I think the highest I have seen for shop supplies is roughly $15. Think about it this way, if you go in and get quoted $500 for a job and then when you go to pick it up its $600 because of the unknown variable of shop supplies, you are going to :censored: about the extra cost. to keep you happy and coming back for more service, the shop pretty much has no choice but to eat the cost of the shop supplies and bring your bill back down to the $500 they quoted you. Know, instead of charging you $100 for shop supplies that you used this trip, they charge you $10. you are not likely to :censored: about that $10 and you will come back again. By charging everyone a small amount for the shop supplies used throughout the day, it keeps the customers happy and coming back and it keeps the shop from loosing their ass on things like brake clean, quick dry, rags (that the shop has to pay to have washed), etc.

Its not BS at all, just a way to make sure that everyone is happy and all the little things get paid for, since shop supplies arent something that can be quoted with any real kind of accuracy (and the little things add up very quickly)
 
Shop supplies fall into the overhead category. If you aren't meeting overhead as the shop owner, then it's your job to drum up more business, not figure out a scam to stick it to the next guy.

Mechanics get paid peanuts compared to the charged labor rate. If overhead isn't being met when the customer is already being overcharged, then that is by no means to be taken out on the customer. If they didn't rip people off, they'd have enough customers to make a profit without overcharging.
 
Nofrag said:
Shop supplies fall into the overhead category. If you aren't meeting overhead as the shop owner, then it's your job to drum up more business, not figure out a scam to stick it to the next guy.

Mechanics get paid peanuts compared to the charged labor rate. If overhead isn't being met when the customer is already being overcharged, then that is by no means to be taken out on the customer. If they didn't rip people off, they'd have enough customers to make a profit without overcharging.
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overhead is what it takes to keep the shop open, heat/ac, electricity, salaries for tech/service manager/owner/etc. and are all relatively fixed rates. shop supplies is not a fixed rate by any means and are not needed to keep the shop open, but rather to complete the job that you brought your vehicle in for. they are things the DIY home mechanic has to go to the parts store and buy (and they are stocked at the parts counter at a dealer/shop) and are essentially parts needed for vehicle repair. as such, the customers need to pay for the parts needed for their vehicles, but since it is such a huge variable to the cost of the repair it gets minimized and spread out over all of the shops customers. the things that fall under that shop supplies are things like brake clean, quick dry (oil dry), carb cleaner, heat shrink tubing, plastic push pins (for things like door panels or body panels, such as the SVTs side skirts), dielectric grease, etc.
 
That's just as much a part of overhead as the bottle of gojo at the sink. The parts argument doesn't work, they don't spread the cost of parts around. Overhead is what it costs to run the business, it includes wages, supplies, everything that is needed.
 
Nofrag said:
That's just as much a part of overhead as the bottle of gojo at the sink. The parts argument doesn't work, they don't spread the cost of parts around. Overhead is what it costs to run the business, it includes wages, supplies, everything that is needed.
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So why do you keep insisting that they cannot pass the cost of their overhead on to you? Would you rather that shop just give a bill that says labor $100 an hour with no line for shop supplies? They are just splitting up the expenses on your bill so you can (hopefully) understand what it costs you.

Do you think that every shop should just charge you $15 an hour because that is all they pay their tire guy, and the owner should just get a second job just so he can keep his shop open and have the pleasure of having you accuse him of ripping him off?

If you don't like paying the bills, do the work yourself. Plenty of us on here are mechanics, or very mechanically inclined, and there is plenty of help/advice how to do things on here. You can also ask any time, and there are plenty of people to help you.

Unfortunately, when you take it to someone else to have it repaired, they are going to charge you what they think is reasonable wages, plus what it takes for them to stay open and make a little profit.
 
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