Posted by tim in Work Sucks on October 8, 2006

Yesterday was chocked full of people who couldn't comprehend the concept of spending $30 every 3 months to maintain their car. Those people would argue with us at the shop about the prices being too high for an oil change, and they had to make sure that other customers present had to share in the experience.

One such customer pulled in and complained right away about the light check procedure. When one of the guys was gathering her contact information, she asked, "How much is an oil change, anyhow?" The guy helping her said, "$29.99 plus tax, which..." The lady immediately butted in and said, "OH MY GOD! You have GOT to be kidding me. You guys are charging $30 bucks for an oil change?! Nobody in this town is that expensive. You officially have the highest prices in this entire town and you need to do something about it.

She ended up giving in with little hassle, and we changed her oil for $31.36 after taxes.

(Okay, this isn't going to be quick after all...)

People just can't understand what it actually costs for us to change their oil. Something else they don't understand is that motor oil prices don't fluctuate like gasoline prices do. Yes, the price on oil went up about the same time gas did, but it didn't come back down. Oil prices never come back down. In fact, as of the first of October, the oil prices went up a whoppin' $0.60 per gallon! Sure, the customer only sees a $0.60 increase in price, but tell them that. People are bound to be complaining after the next price increase, which will probably be the first of the year, and will probably bring the price up to at least $32. Do the employees see that money? No. Do the owners see that money? No. Do the suppliers see that money? Heck yes they do.

If we were to raise our prices every time the suppliers did, we would have a very unhappy customer base, more so than we do now.

My speech for customers who are unhappy with the prices is this:

"Our suppliers have raised their prices 6 times in the last year, but we have only raised our prices this once. The cost of oil is constantly going up, but we try our hardest to keep you, the customer, from experiencing a price increase. Thus, we try to only make a price increase once a year to reflect the suppliers' increases."

So far, it's shut people up in a hurry.

What I find funny, though, is that those same people that complain about the prices are actually frequent customers who have been in several times since the actual price increase.

  • Customers == Rage!

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