Customer told me I was ripping him off, then watched me fix his alternator for an hour

Guy pulls up Saturday morning, says his battery light came on. I test it, tell him alternator is shot, quote him $380 for a reman unit plus labor. He goes off, says he can get a part for $150 at AutoZone and I'm just trying to make a fast buck. I told him fine, go get the part and I'll put it on for free. He comes back an hour later with a Duralast, I pop the hood and spend the next 45 minutes breaking loose a seized tensioner bolt, dealing with a stripped bracket, and bleeding from a knuckle scrape. He watched the whole thing. When I fired it up and the light went out he didn't say much, just handed me $40 and left. Has anyone else had a customer totally change their tune after seeing how the work actually goes?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_river2d ago

He goes off, says he can get a part for $150 at AutoZone" - yeah, and that's the whole problem right there. People see the part price online and figure you're pocketing the difference, but they don't see the reality of what it takes to actually get the old one out... I get it, $380 sounds like a lot when you're staring at a $150 part on a website. But that hour of labor, the busted knuckles, the seized bolts, that's what separates a backyard job from someone who can actually handle it. Honestly, I respect the guy for sticking around and watching, probably learned more in that 45 minutes than he did in years of just paying someone.

james_ross2d ago

My buddy Dave learned this the hard way last fall. He thought he'd save $200 by swapping his own alternator, read a forum post (sound familiar, @the_river?) and figured how hard could it be. After four hours of fighting a rusted bracket bolt in the dark with a neighbor holding a flashlight, he finally got the old one out but realized he'd bought the wrong part. Ended up calling a mobile mechanic at 9pm who had it done in 30 minutes with the right tools, cost him $175 just for the visit. Dave still talks about that night like it was a war story, swears he'll never touch another alternator again.