Boys & Girls,
I know you dont like word problems, but you might find this one interesting.
You take your car into the local Honda dealership for a service. You know that the mechanic completed the service in about 5 hours. You also know that the dealership charges $90/hr for labor. So, what should your labor cost be? You would think the overall labor charge would be about $450 but, you would be wrong.in my case, the dealership charged almost $900. Their explanation the technician that performed your service is one of only a handful of Honda Master Techs in the entire country. I tell you this only to help you understand why your repairs were completed so rapidly. Had we chosen to have one of our other Techs do the repair on your vehicle it is entirely possible the repairs would have taken over a day.
Do you understand the labor charge methodology? The dealership has a standard set of times associated with each task, provided by the corporate headquarters. If the mechanic takes longer to perform the task than the standard time, the customer only pays for the standard time. If the mechanic takes less than the standard time, the customer still pays that standard amount. Would you ever in your wildest dreams have thought that one of the technicians could perform the tasks at twice the speed of the standard times? Wouldnt that make you think that those standard times are far from accurate? Were not talking about an hour long task being performed in 30 minutes were talking about two major services that, based on standard corporate times, should take about 10 hours.in this case, those tasks were completed in 5 hours.
If a dealership hired a tech that proved to be less than proficient - failed to complete assigned tasks in the requisite amount of time, the dealership would more than likely release that individua it would not be cost-effective to do otherwise. That removes the normalcy of the curve upon which the task completion times are based. This means that the task times are biased towards the dealership and not the customer - they are no longer average task times but maximum.
Given an ideal world, from the perspective of the dealership, if this Master Tech continues to work at twice the normal speed - this allows the dealership to garner $180,000/yr [$90/hr x 40 hrs/wk x 50 wks/yr] pure profit. And, apparently the dealership doesnt feel inclined to share that with the customer. If all of the technicians perform their tasks in less than the standard times, as assumed, how much more pure profit is being raked from the customer base?
I truly believe that this practice is inherently unfair. The dealership depends on the very same customer base they are abusing. Ken Brown, the Fixed Operations Manager of Cleo Bay Honda stated that he made a couple of phone calls to other Honda dealers in our area and confirmed they charge approximately the same amount for the repairs as we did. So, I am convinced, in my mind, we have not over charged you for the work performed. Given that other Honda dealerships do the same thing speaks volumes about the corporation known as Honda.
I will no longer be taking my business to Cleo Bay Honda will you?
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