So when you are having shop work done or own a shop what do you expect of your customers....

Pre-pay?
Pay as you go?
Pay when it's done?

I dont have a lot of experience with this as the only modification I have ever had done personally is a bodylift in high school, but my pops is the king dinaling customer at the local 4x4 shop. He has had a Suburban, F150, F250, F350, F350, CJ7, Wrangler, Fourunner, Z71, Tacoma, etc... modified somewhat. Full buildups on the CJ7.

Anyway, he usually pays at the end for anything under say a grand, and anything more he drops a check when he stops by to check out what is going on.

I was at the local shop when old boy with a 42K build up on a CJ7 came in to drop off a check for 7K which he apparently did every week.

I think it kinda depends on how big the tab is gonna be. Just make sure that if you drop off checks periodically you dont loose track of where your at with them. Next thing ya know your in the poor house!

If it is a one day in/out job I pay when done.
However if it is one of the 'in for a month' type job I have no problem paying for the parts up front and the labor when completed.

Eric

I always charge for parts up front and if its more that a few hour job I will get Labor payment after so many hours.. say 30. If a customer shows up and has a huge bill they may not be able to pay it even thought you told them what it was gonna be...then theres conflict

I agree with Snow on this one. From a customer service standpoint. Although, usually when I build people stuff, it's "pay when done", but my bills and builds are hardly ever as involved and labor intensive as Snows.

OTH, the shop does have your vehicle and can legally lien sale it to recoup thier costs, if you can't pay. But that really doesn't make anyone happy.

Personally if I'm paying, I have no problem paying for parts upfront, and then labor as it goes. (Not that there is anything I don't do myself)

I agree with parts up front and labor at time of delivery. If you don't get paid for labor, you have wasted some time on an asshole that wasn't gonna pay you to begin with. No big loss, but still something you can go after them for and maybe see money for someday. If you don't get paid for parts, on the other hand, you yourself have an unpaid bill to someone else. Usually when you buy parts for a customer there is a profit margin, and sometimes it is enough to offset any losses from not being paid for your labor.

20% at time of signing (it there is a contract)
40% at beginning of job
40% at completion of job

at work i bill people for the work and its all at the end easy for me when your bank roll is unlimited:D

for my rig if i take it to a shop i'll pay for parts up front and labor upon pick up and if it was a huge bill i'd drop a check at each stage of the build up.

Poll needs one more option:
Pay somebody to work on it??? What fun is that

Originally posted by oldjeep
Poll needs one more option:
Pay somebody to work on it??? What fun is that I'd agree but if I worked on it, which the desire is there but the knowhow seems to be lacking, you wouldn't want to be anywhere near my shit when it grenades.

Over a certain amount say like ..2500+ I wouldn’t want to pay it all up front…

Allot of house renovation contractor’s do 33.33.33

33% up front
33% at half completion
33% when done

I dunno it depends on the job

i perfer to make them pay in full when jobs is done in full.

Only time I pre-pay anything is if they have to take it somewhere else to have work done, i.e. alignment ect....

A guy with a small shop will starve to death if he buys your parts outta his pocket, then works on your junk for a month and a half, THEN collects 1/8th of his annual budget from you.

As for the lien sale shit, I have worked at a lot of shops, with a lot of non-paying fuckers, and it never seems to work out, if the guy is a cheap ass and won't pay for the work you are doing, his rig probly ain't worth the work you have got into it. A guy may drop $10K on a suspension and cage for a $4K jeep, but it is no guarantee that if he doesn't pay you will be able to auction off the $4K jeep and $10K suspension and cage for more than about $2K, which leaves him $4K in the hole, and you $8K in the hole, and both of you are pissed off.

I worked installing car audio in high school, we had cars that would leave "on the hook" with $2K worth of stereo installed, and that was only the stuff that had to be done BEFORE the interior went in.

Luckily the shop I worked at in college was cool, all the customers were FL retired folks who thought nothing of a $45K tab to build the hot rod they WISHED they had had when it was new.

Long and short of it, you gotta pay enough to keep the guy fed and in business, but keep him short enough that he is not financially better off NOT finishing your rig.

I used to agree with the general consensus, then on my last big order (over $3K) of parts, I got stiffed for about six weeks on a $1K part. The shop wasn't returning my calls so I called the manufacturer. The owner himself got on the phone and told me, yeah, I got 10 sitting right here, but you're not getting jack shit until those bums at your local shop pay their bills!!!

After about a half hour of screaming in their showroom, driving other customers away, they conceded that I would have the part within the week. The lame thing is, the best the fawkers at the shop could come up with was "they shouldn't have told you that, it was unethical." My question was, "ethical or not, in your eyes, if it's true, that's all I need to know"

Haven't been back since (fawkers).:mad3: :flipoff: :flipoff:

I am not paying for anything until I can inspect the work. Anyone that cant sport the budget for the work, aint worth paying. If they were that good of a shop, they would have enough credit to purchase/sublet work IMHO. Plus, they would be comfortable enough that you would like their work and not give them a hassle about paying for it.

Money for parts up front. Money for labor when it is done.

And 42k... :barf: