Uber expensive repair at United Radio

I've been pretty lucky, and not had to get much gear repaired, so I just wanted to get clear:

Are people taking the position that 14 hours to replace two chips (7 hours each!) and 140 bucks an hour sounds pretty standard for audio repair.

I just had an electrician in for 75 bucks an hour; that's a good rate for around here, but I don't think people are getting 140.

Sound like audio repair must be more like maintenance for nicer watches, which strikes me as extortionate, and a very good reason not to buy such watches.

@jdoris - to equate high end electronic repair rates with electricians is hysterical.  It’s based on specialization - the rarer the service, the more it costs. No disrespect to electricians, but there are tons of them everywhere.

high end audio repairmen? Obviously a rare breed. As I mentioned before the hourly rate is irrelevant anyway, the question is, how much to do the job?

Sokogear: I was just observing 140 seems like a high hourly  compared to many skilled trades.

Perhaps you are right that it is a scarcity issue.

But I'm still not clear why the hourly is irrelevant to thinking about whether pricing is fair: is your position that if the op was charged 2 grand for 15 minutes of labor by a skilled tradesperson, that  would be irrelevant  to his thinking about whether to use that provider again?  What about 5k per 15?  What if the competition charged 30 bucks an hour?


Many providers charge by the hour, not the job: how do you compare in such cases, since you don't think about the hourly rate?

@jdoris - all anyone needs to look at is what is the cost of the repair and what options you have. If someone has not idea how long it will take to do a repair or won't give me a tight (do not exceed) range, I won't use him. There is a market for everything, and hourly rates are one way places can rip you off by not doing a job as quickly as possible. I find that if you pay by the job, you will get it done as efficiently as possible. For example, if you take your car in to a dealer for an oil change, the lowest guy on the totem pole will take care of it because they charge a fixed number of hours for that job, and he will be the cheapest for them. If you need a tune up or some diagnostic engine work, they will put the most experienced guy on it since he can get it done quickest, even though they will charge the same for it.

Different technicians have different levels of experience and it takes them different amounts of time to do a job. If they are learning and maybe only have done something once or twice, it is going to take them a lot longer.

I'd rather have the more expensive guy do the job quicker for the same price than the guy taking longer, even though his hourly rate is lower.

If a guy cuts your lawn, do you care how much he charges by the hour or how much the job costs? I don't care if he is super efficient or a slow poke as long as he does a nice job. Same exact thing.

a tradesman electrician and a highly skilled electronic tech cannot be compared - may as well compare a butcher to a surgeon - yes they both have skills but they live in different worlds, solve entirely different problems, do entirely different work

hourly rates are used in all sorts of businesses for estimation and also for charging on jobs where there is uncertainty in scope (and the customer is willing to accept the open ended risk) -- if there is trust between provider and client then it works well, prevents the provider from 'padding the cost' to cover him/herself, otherwise it may well become a platform for abuse

bottom line, you own expensive/rare hifi stuff, there are times you need to pay up when repairs and/or maintenance are needed - it is just heartbreaking when people with expensive stuff bellyache when it is time to pay the piper  😂😂😂