Harley's, Ford's, Chevy's - they all use flat rate, it covers the situations where they run into problems.

As stated, if you don't like it, find a good indy or do your own.

The part I hate is even the Tech/Mechanic only gets paid for the time he is actually working on the bike.

Also those that said they were only charged for the 15 - minutes got a steal of a deal. Remember a good tech can do in 30 minutes what it may take you 1-2 hours to do, if you have all the proper tools.

You always have a choice.

 

maybe a new tech, or a tech's helper, but unless things have seriously changed lately, that's how a good mechanic makes his money. the more jobs he has going on at book rate, the more he can get paid. he may only work a 40 hr week, but if he jobs out at 60 or more hours, that's what he gets paid for.

 

Myself, being a flat rate technician, for the last 20 years....this is all I got...

 

Not sure about lately. My son works at the dealership and was telling me the hourly rates of the new guys and the top techs, and he said if they're not on a job they're not on the clock. I interpreted that to mean real work, if they are getting the full flat rate time not as bad.

I do know I wouldn't want to depend on the $$s he told me.

 

Welcome to the world of vehicle ownership OP.

Get handy and do it yourself or always be prisoner to someone who'd like to put one in ya.

 

Last tech I talked to said the exact same thing. If he isn't actually working on a bike, he isn't getting paid.

 

Well, You must have know I was going to give you a big "THANKS" for that one!!!

 

Harley techs get paid crap, I couldn't live on what the master techs make. 20-24 dollars per flat rate hour. You got to hustle to make any real money. Auto industry around here is $35-37 per flat rate hr. Even at home I charge 50 per hour, and thats all mine. If people want to complain, I simply remind them, the next time, that I'm cutting back on my customers....and they didn't make the cut.
Not only that, but if the vehicle comes back for any reason, I will be fixing it for free. (unless its a non repair related problem) So I have to do it right the first time, in the allotted time, to make minimum pay scale. It works both ways for the customer

 

yeah, that's basically what I said. they get paid for the flat rate time that the job takes. granted, the dealership charges app. $100 per hour, and the tech is definitely not making that. but if he's making $20 per hour, and has enough jobs in his bay to bill 60 hrs, then he's making $1200, and the dealership is making $4800....

 

Trust me, every honest shop uses the flat rate manual. It's best for you, and it's best for them.

Do you really want to pay noob tech to stumble through a 2 hour job in 5 hours? Do you want to pay a crooked tech..."Well, we won't know how much until we're done..."?

If an honest shop uses the flat rate manual and charges you for two hours, and the new tech takes 5 hours, you pay for two hours.

If the honest shop pays its techs well, and they stay around long enough to get really good at their job, and the shop charges you the two hours according the flat rate manual, and their best tech does it in one hour, then they make a better profit because their techs stay with the shop.

Like everybody already said, the honest shop will tell you up front how much. If you don't want to pay it, don't. If you want to take it to the local grease monkey, do that. If you don't want to do either of those things, then do the work yourself.

You've got every choice you could have. Do what you want.

And, yeah, when the techs aren't working on a bike, they're on "standby", which might be minimum wage.