£10 fitting charge - WHY? please do not rip us off (1 Viewer)

[slobadoberbob]

At Lincoln show I noticed the chap that does the motor home graphics.. like my Indians on horse back on the rear of my Winnebago Aspect RV was now charging £10 to fit them.

Watching him do a couple he is earning more than us lawyers do per hour at this new charge,:Cool:.

They are not cheap in the first place but to feel you have to pay now to have him come round in the evening to fit one is a bit like a thorn stuck in the paw feeling.

It was a bit like that very funny Utube link on the site this morning about what was clearly the 50p Ryan air ticket and the add on's from the baggage to the check in charges. Why is it that we have to always pay for add on's?

I was looking at a sales document a friend of mine had for a new Skoda and the list of add on's was several pages long. It read more like a kit car. Than a production car. Seems now everyone wants to get every buck they can out of motor home owners. This latest add on seems a bit rich. I doubt he will read the post, but on the off chance he does I would like him (not you lot) to tell me why he..'I said he' feels now he has to charge to put the graphic on with a bit of soapy water when he is taking his dog out for a walk. Please do not rip us off.. motor home does not equal lots of dosh in most cases.:Angry:

An honest deal, for an honest buck OK. .. not how can I make more money at this show.

It is a bit like the ideas that VanBitz live up to.. they do not fit at shows, only provide info and take bookings for work shop time.. no ladders up the side of motor homes or someone walking all over your roof in trainers that have been in the mud moments ago. Not in it for the fast buck.. I give them 5 stars for that way of doing things. It may not fit everyones idea, but to me I like it. I pay for what I get, just do not want to feel I have been ripped off (again)..what I want is good old fashion service at an all inclusive price.. not here to day gone tomorrow feelings plus add on's

Purchased a new Snooper Ventura at Lincoln.. £400.. OK a little less than buying direct from Snooper, but then there is the add on ..£29.99 when you register if you want the campera updates.. see another add on. I rest my case m'lud

Bob

 

[Jaws]

Was going to spend a fair old lump with the grafix folk..
Woman wants 4 large grafix on her car and there was going to be 3 on the van..
Saw the fitting charge and I am afraid they lost the entire sale..

If I am going to fit them myself I may as well buy them from fleabay for half the price anyway...


If anyone is wondering how to do the job, it is not difficult, and far from the 'ooh, must get it right first time' scenario folk think it is.

Tools required:
Bucket of warm soapy water ( fairy liquid or whatever )

Sharp modelling knife

Hair drier

Sponge


How to:

Clean the area to be used VERY thoroughly

Make sure the area is covered with a good layer of soapy water

Strip off backing ( and this is the only really dodgy bit.. For goodness sake do not let the graphic fold in on its self .. )

Slop MORE warm soapy water on the area

Place graphic where you want it ( if it is larger than about a foot each way get help )

Move graphic about until it is in the correct place and you are happy

Use hair drier to gently warm and make flexible the graphic if you are fitting to something with double curvature or particularly tricky corners

Use sharp knife to cut round small sticking out bits ( though hopefully you will have chosen an area that will avoid such things )

Use sponge or rubber roller to remove excess water and air bubbles

Leave to dry

Job done :thumb:

 

[harryoxford2]

Just buy the add on....

I would gladly just have bought the add on for a full vehicle transfer...which means he has to wash my rv from top to bottom for £10... just dont buy the graphics...it works out cheaper than the guys with little blue carts at the supermarkets...


ps you can buy the rest of this story with paypal...

Life is all about add ons..I was single happy and lived within my budget....then along came the wife

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[scotjimland]

Life is all about add ons..I was single happy and lived within my budget....then along came the wife

that is a fact.. two wives and six kids later ... you'd think we would learn oh:

40 years of shelling out

 

[slobadoberbob]

that about sums life up to me

Life is all about add ons..I was single happy and lived within my budget....then along came the wife

I like it do not forget the kids..boy some add on

Bob:thumb:

 

[rainbow chasers]

I saw a 'Competing' company the other day offering high season hire for the same rate as my winter hire...and my inclusive winter hire just about covers the cost!

I thought; 'How is he doing that?' and went onto his site.

Yup! High season you can have the van for £300....per person....and if you want to drive it, thats £200...per driver....and then you need to insure the vehicle at £280....(so why £200 per driver?)....and then you need your breakdown cover (compulsory) £145.....then there is bedding £25....per person......and so on it went with cleaning fees, admin fees, bank holiday fees etc.

We worked out, that for the average family on a bank holiday week you would actually spend over £2300!!

Love to know if anyone has actually booked them!

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[hilldweller]

At Lincoln show I noticed the chap that does the motor home graphics.. like my Indians on horse back on the rear of my Winnebago Aspect RV was now charging £10 to fit them.
Bob

Well I think he's doing the right thing.

The minute he starts fitting he's on a loser:

Awkward customer.
Bad surface or at least dirty.
Chance of slip up needing new graphics and/or repaint.
Danger to himself from van fittings.
Maybe have to remove van fittings.
General third party risks requiring insurance.

Is a tenner adequate is the question ?

 

[GJH]

I have an open mind about this, especially seeing John's "how to" list:

Clean the area to be used VERY thoroughly

Make sure the area is covered with a good layer of soapy water

Strip off backing ( and this is the only really dodgy bit.. For goodness sake do not let the graphic fold in on its self .. )

Slop MORE warm soapy water on the area

Place graphic where you want it ( if it is larger than about a foot each way get help )

Move graphic about until it is in the correct place and you are happy

Use hair drier to gently warm and make flexible the graphic if you are fitting to something with double curvature or particularly tricky corners

Use sharp knife to cut round small sticking out bits ( though hopefully you will have chosen an area that will avoid such things )

Use sponge or rubber roller to remove excess water and air bubbles

How long does that actually take? At £60 an hour, £10 only buys 10 minutes. A solicitor I know charges £150 an hour - only 4 minutes for your tenner

When is an add-on an add-on? If we sell our products by mail order we charge the same for the items as we do at family history fairs plus what it costs us for the postage & packing. A friend in the same field offers free P&P but his total mail order prices are similar to ours and he doesn't knock anything off at fairs.

Graham

 

[slobadoberbob]

Every 6 minutes if you do not mind!!!!!!!!!

I

How long does that actually take? At £60 an hour, £10 only buys 10 minutes. A solicitor I know charges £150 an hour - only 4 minutes for your tenner



Graham

Fairs fair Graham we charge at 6 minutes intervals.. speak to me for 2 minutes I still charge for 6 and if you speak to me for 7 minutes that is charged at 12 minutes. The rate depends on how many years you have practiced and what level within an organisation. Some partners charge over £400 an hour and the accident company's get about £40 an hour for what they do.

When I was in practice I was at £119 plus vat per hour. That had to cover my part of the office expenses and secretarial use as well.. so the hourly rate was a lot lower. When doing legal aid work (Legal Service Commission now) we wer paid £27.50 per hour for criminal work. So putting on graphics pays a lot better in my books.. all of 5 minutes for the one on the back and less for the one on the generator cupboard.. and I had to trim that one myself.

But I hate kit car principles, I want it at a price and not keep adding on for this and that.

Bob

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[GJH]

It basically all comes down to market rates I suppose Bob - what enough people are willing to pay or what people can't avoid paying

Graham

 

[slobadoberbob]

I do not like paying it is clear

It basically all comes down to market rates I suppose Bob - what enough people are willing to pay or what people can't avoid paying

Graham

I hate to pay Graham... I normally pay cash.. but at Lincoln I decided to use my debit card.. my mobile needed a top up (I have one which Sue uses monthly and mine is pay as you go as I do not use it often).. So I try topping it up with £10 off my card and it will not take it... I buy a few other things.. then next day try and pay for the Ventura camera up date and my card is declined I try to top up again on the phone this time and again it is declined... Call Abbey and they say it was blocked as I did not use it often and I had tried to do a phone top up and that has the highest rate of fraud. Plus and this is the best bit.. I was buying from people everywhere at similar time.... never heard of the motorhome show... hence buying from this dealer in the midlands and another many miles away they thought the card had been nicked.

So I have to use it more or have it continually blocked.. Sue's card on another account at Abbey is OK as she uses it all the time... I must admit I am lazy as often it is easier for her to go to the person and pay for the goods while I sit out side on the buggy and hold ezzie's lead.

I can just picture filling the yank up at a petrol station on the way home late at night to have the debt card refused... more reason to carry cash.

But I prefer to pay cash... but to be be honest I do not like to pay for items I do not need or as this thread has been about add on's ... but when I do pay I do not want my card declined duie to suspected fraud .. would not mind if I did not have the funds in the bank, but when I cannot use my own money I do see red:Angry: almost as red as the add ons:Angry:

Bob (poor lawyer):Blush:

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

In my opinion , if I'd payed out for the graphics in the first place , I'd rather pay £ 10 for them to be fitted correctly, by a professional .
If a mistake was made it would be up to him to sort it out. Not me, by having to buy another.
Its a bit like an X neighbor of ours not wanting to pay Ralph's labourer to do a job for him as he would be paying
" a labourer" shock horror...
more than he earned per hour doing his job .
Yet the said neighbor didn't have a clue how to do it , or would have made a right mess when doing it .

Bev

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[slobadoberbob]

but then.........

In my opinion , if I'd payed out for the graphics in the first place , I'd rather pay £ 10 for them to be fitted correctly, by a professional .
If a mistake was made it would be up to him to sort it out. Not me, by having to buy another.
Its a bit like an X neighbor of ours not wanting to pay Ralph's labourer to do a job for him as he would be paying
" a labourer" shock horror...
more than he earned per hour doing his job .
Yet the said neighbor didn't have a clue how to do it , or would have made a right mess when doing it .

Bev

But then if the grapic is say £50 then say £50 with fitting. It is unlikly any person at the show would not want it fitted. That is why he is there to sell a product which really is applied by him. (in the past he has not added any fitting charge and I have had a couple from him over the last year at various shows)...So what happens to the solar panels do you buy them and then pay for them to be fitted or is that an inclusive price? I do not know as I do not have major things fitted at shows but prefer to go to a workshop where my RV is under cover and has the correct equipment to enable people to work on the roof? but what say yea? do you have to pay extra to have the solar panels done? or saterlite units? at the shows?

Bob

 

[JJ]

Well I think he's doing the right thing.

The minute he starts fitting he's on a loser:

Awkward customer.
Bad surface or at least dirty.
Chance of slip up needing new graphics and/or repaint.
Danger to himself from van fittings.
Maybe have to remove van fittings.
General third party risks requiring insurance.

Is a tenner adequate is the question ?

This is becoming quite scary... once again I am in agreement with hilldweller (can you get medicine for this on the NHS?)

I would gladly pay someone a tenner to put a graphic on my expensive motorhome. When I get my new "thumb print" after the Wagon respray, not even I would be silly enough to try to put in up myself...

JJ

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

But then if the grapic is say £50 then say £50 with fitting. It is unlikly any person at the show would not want it fitted. That is why he is there to sell a product which really is applied by him. (in the past he has not added any fitting charge and I have had a couple from him over the last year at various shows)...So what happens to the solar panels do you buy them and then pay for them to be fitted or is that an inclusive price? I do not know as I do not have major things fitted at shows but prefer to go to a workshop where my RV is under cover and has the correct equipment to enable people to work on the roof? but what say yea? do you have to pay extra to have the solar panels done? or saterlite units? at the shows?

Bob

Well , as you were talking about the graphics , I'd pay for them to be done. As i said . But if it said £50 fitted , id ask how much it was for them without fitting , if I was capable of doing the job.
As far as the solar panel is concerned , we bought ours and Ralph fitted it . It was a job he was more than capable and confident of doing.

Charging for fitting is a normal practice , think about carpets , tiling , laminate flooring etc.
You dont usually buy it , at what ever price fitted, you know it will be extra.
If you can do it your self then you save your self some money . If you cant , you pay someone who can. I dont see a problem with it at all.

If he is loosing sales however , and people are actually telling him its because of being charged to fit, surely he'd just put the price up to cover the fitting charge anyway .
Or I would. If it was my business. As long as the price was a competitive price , people would still pay it.

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[hilldweller]

once again I am in agreement with hilldweller (can you get medicine for ths on the NHS?)
JJ

No chance, NICE threw it out years ago after the annual budget for a major hospital was blown in three weeks and the poor sod still needed 16 more operations and a head transplant. He did eventually leave the hospital, just before it closed down, in a lead lined coffin labelled as Industrial Waste. This coffin is still doing the rounds, UK, India, China, North Korea, Iran, USA, UK but no-one will tackle making it safe. Sellafield did give a quotation but then they could not get planning permission for a new deep mine in Fair Isle, it was blocked by the Australians who did not want the waste that close.

 

[GJH]

So I try topping it up with £10 off my card and it will not take it...

Had a similar experience with my Barclaycard a couple of weeks ago. I booked a hotel on-line - a massive £29 - as we are going to Chester in November to exhibit at a family history fair and don't want to have to leave here at silly o'clock. A few hours later the hotel rang to say that Barclaycard had declined the transaction.

When I rang Barclaycard they said the reason was because it was an unusual transaction for me. First question they asked me to verify my identity was about a transaction in July - which was £990 for two electric bikes at the Cheshire show. Now that size of spend on the card was definitely an unusual transaction for me but it wasn't queried at all.

When I asked why they hadn't rung me he said they had tried but the number was unobtainable. They had used a number we gave up about 15 years ago when we left BT, even though they have rung me on the correct number in the meantime when they declined a payment because they had my date of birth completely wrong. That was one for about £200 for printer inks shortly after they had allowed the transaction for about £1500 when I bought the printer.

Try and explain that they are in breach of the DPA by holding inaccurate personal data (when the accurate data have been supplied) and all you get is "it's only for your security sir".

Graham

 

[GJH]

And rightly so, You should have seen the state of Rita and Norris on Corrie last night when they found out that their cards had been cloned. Poor things. :Sad:
Jim

Corrie Jim? What's that

I used to work in the Information Security field so I'm all for security but Barclaycard need to start by making sure their records are correct. In the first case they had over-written my correct date of birth with a DoB for me that I never supplied and in the second case they had a phone number that I told them I had changed about 15 years ago (and they had used the correct one subsequently). In both cases if Barclaycard's records had been correct there would have been no problem.

Graham

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[GJH]

I know Graham and I was only having a larf. The amount of incorrect information held on us by alll manner of organisations is incredible.

Trouble is you often only find out about it by accident.

Two weeks ago I had occasion to threaten to sue a company for contravention of the Data Protection Act. They had all manner of information about me that they shouldn't have had and a lot of the information was old and out of date. It didnt much bother me but it really upset June.

I havent heard from them since.
Jim

Nice one. Worth trying to make them prove they've corrected their records (rather than spend a tenner on a Subject Access Request). If they were really stroppy I'd send in a SAR anyway just to upset them 'cos it'll likely cost them more than a tenner to process it

Too many of them hide behind "confidential operational procedures" and the like.

Graham

 

[Scout]

This is becoming quite scary... once again I am in agreement with hilldweller (can you get medicine for this on the NHS?)

I would gladly pay someone a tenner to put a graphic on my expensive motorhome. When I get my new "thumb print" after the Wagon respray, not even I would be silly enough to try to put in up myself...

JJ

we can, you wont be able to, your not in the the country enough

 

[Jaws]

I keep forgetting there are those who can and those that can't.. ( and no disrespect meant or intended here )
Always been a hands on sort of bloke ( had face slapped for it but well worth it LOL )

At the show I bought a new refillable gas system, a couple of extra lockable handles for the garage door and a couple of extra cigar sockets for extras such as external water pump and the lights..

Today I fitted the new gas system, fitted the new handles and the 12v sockets

Late this afternoon gas guy turned up, leak tested and ran up system .. Cost me a cuppa :thumb:

When I get a wiggle on I shall order up womans grafix and pop them on ( done a fair few in my time so no biggy.. usually about 10 minutes tops for something up to a couple of feet across and down )

On the other hand if you have not got the confidence to have a go your self I agree.. a tenner is a bargain ( but they wanted a tenner each and we wanted to buy 6.. suddenly not such a good deal )

Now then.. all toys fitted so what the hell am I gonna do tomorrow !!!

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[Jaws]

If it was a 'nip' then no worries
Sadly you are somewhat further away than that though !

 

[PORKSTER]

"It only take ya five minutes" I hate that saying
Does it really only take 5 mins to put graphic on ? Doubt it
But if the 10 pound charge puts people off having Indians and wolves on their van GREAT NEWS will save me putting G bad taste tax on them if I become Chancellor. Or calling the fashion police

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

slobadobabob wonder where he is now ? This post is six years old ........

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[laird of Dunstan]

Was going to spend a fair old lump with the grafix folk..
Woman wants 4 large grafix on her car and there was going to be 3 on the van..
Saw the fitting charge and I am afraid they lost the entire sale..

If I am going to fit them myself I may as well buy them from fleabay for half the price anyway...


If anyone is wondering how to do the job, it is not difficult, and far from the 'ooh, must get it right first time' scenario folk think it is.

Tools required:
Bucket of warm soapy water ( fairy liquid or whatever )

Sharp modelling knife

Hair drier

Sponge


How to:

Clean the area to be used VERY thoroughly

Make sure the area is covered with a good layer of soapy water

Strip off backing ( and this is the only really dodgy bit.. For goodness sake do not let the graphic fold in on its self .. )

Slop MORE warm soapy water on the area

Place graphic where you want it ( if it is larger than about a foot each way get help )

Move graphic about until it is in the correct place and you are happy

Use hair drier to gently warm and make flexible the graphic if you are fitting to something with double curvature or particularly tricky corners

Use sharp knife to cut round small sticking out bits ( though hopefully you will have chosen an area that will avoid such things )

Use sponge or rubber roller to remove excess water and air bubbles

Leave to dry

Job done :thumb:

Its best to use Johnstones baby shampoo ,4 drops per liter of water gives you a "slip" solution to apply the graphics ,on bigger graphics a solution of alcohol and water to make the edges stick is sometimes used

an empty household spray bottle the type that you pump helps to apply the slip solution to the areas that you want to put the graphic on

 

[scotjimland]

slobadobabob wonder where he is now ?

last I heard he had sold the RV and given up motorhoming due to ill health ..

 

[bubble63]

Extra's!

Went to collect the van from the Cambridge Fiat dealer, it was in for a£169.99 oil change

£179.98 please said the nice man at the desk when I picked it up

But it should be &169.99 I challenged.....

Ah ......you've had the convenience pack he tendered

Err.. .. Yes £9.99......it's for a plastic seat cover , paper mat and filter disposal

I couldn't speak and just glared at him

Shall I remove it , he said meekly?

I think the puce colour of my face convinced him removal may be a good choice

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