Bird dogging.

[titaniumneck]

What to do with a bird dog client. My friend that fixes boats and motors out of his house/garage has been rewiring a whole boat. A guy brought in a 18 ft skeeter 2000 year w/150 mercury. He told him to rewire boat back to the original set up. The person he bought it from cut all wire on boat except ignition,and wired everything with household light switches, romex, and household plugs. So, he had to tear out old household wiring, and reinstall, replace, and rerun proper wiring for 2 new live Well pumps, bilge, trolling motor, running lights, dash, gauge ( fuel gage, tac, trim indicator, speedometer,) and put in place tilt/trim switch on front deck, along with live well switch. Install fuse panel, 9 different switches all around boat. And tilt/trim switch in motor cowl.
This is a big long job, the boat owner is local so he drops by unannounced, drives by often on a dead end road, the mechanic lives at the end so no other reason to drive down there other then to check on mechanic. The mechanic has only had the boat a week, and works on boats on his off time, which owner new. How much is too much checking up? Also how much would a job like this cost at a legit shop.

 

[fishin98]

Have your friend,contact the customer and have a conversation on how EFFED up the boat is and how long it's going take correct it. Local boat shops around here charge $100 per hr. Your friend and the customer need to come to an agreement on a hourly rate, estimated total charge and estimated completion date in WRITING. Other than that the customer is free to pickup the boat now and find someone else. Just my 2cts!

 

[alldodge]

Suggest tell the boat owner he can come by once a week between xx to xx. If he shows up more then once a week it will cost him an additional $$ for each time. If he doesn't agree, then say you owe $$ and come get the boat. Also agree put in writing, so if it goes south you have back up

 

[titaniumneck]

How long would you think a job like that would take?

 

[BigDfromTN]

I know a guy the has a bull dozer and charges by the hour for his work. He knows the scope of the job before his equipment ever shows up. He tells customers all the time when he shows up with his equipment. "If you want me to stand here and talk I will but the Clock is running at $100 per hour. I can talk or I can work its your money."

Might suggest shop owner let boat owner know this.

 

[alldodge]

How long would you think a job like that would take?

Depends on the skill set of the person doing the job and the amount of time which can be spent on it. If someone knows their stuff, they could rip everything out in less then a day. Once all the wire, new engine harness, switches and everything else is on hand and ready to install, figure one day to install the engine harness. Then two days to wire the boat, and 1/2 day to take the boat out and test on the water.

My times are based on someone knowing what their doing and has been doing it for some time. This is also at last 8 if not 10 hour days. Take someone which knows how electric works but not familiar with the given motor or how best to wire, only working a few hours a day, it will just take longer. Every time a job is started and stopped there will be a lag in getting back into it.

 

[shrew]

Years ago, I had a buddy who was a mechanic. He had a sign in his shop (I don't remember the prices, so I'm going to use arbitrary numbers here):

Hourly Rate:

80.00/hr
$100/hr If you Watch
$120.00/hr If you Help

I agree with a sentiment about labor charges. Like a Lawyer, the minute you start calling and discussing a case, he is on the clock and has no problems charging you for the time. I would this the same way. If you drag me from 'home' to 'work' it's getting billed. The fact that you can't draw the line between my home and my work is NOT MY PROBLEM.

 

[titaniumneck]

I love, love the hourly rate sign, I will make him one for his shop, just for the fun of it.

 

[sublauxation]

I can see where it may be annoying for him to keep stopping by but there are a lot of jackarce contractors/shops out there. I just moved my office and didn't check up on the new office build out for 2 days but when I did it was pathetic what the contractors did/didn't do that I have to fix.

 

[eterry]

A gunsmith buddy friend of mine has a sign in his shop; showing a rube holding a broken gun talking to the gunsmith. He says "of course I want it fixed today, if I wanted it fixed tomorrow I'd bring it in tomorrow!"

​Some people!

 

[titaniumneck]

I understand what your saying about a contractor with construction, but they get paid before the job. A mechanic of any kind usually doesn't get paid till after job is completed and inspected by owner.