Schaff buys American Piano Supply

[Roger Jolly]

Hi Susan,
                I'm going to play Devil's Advocate.
You are out of brass flange clips, and have to special order some for a
customer.
You return home and process the order.
You have paid for a phone call, and the shipping charges, plus a second
visit to the customer to install. 
Even if they are next door neighbor's, there goes at least 1 hr of time.
The part cost but a few cents.  How much do you charge the customer for the
part?
You probably have a few thousand dollars tied up in inventory, who pay's
the interest on the money?
>From my own point of view, I either give the nickle and dimes parts away,
and see it as the cost of doing business, or charge a $20 minimum parts
handling fee. Now that could be seen as a grossly inflated mark up. But in
reality it's survival to stay in business.
Large ticket items we just double the invoice amount.  It's called profit.
I have a $10 minimum parts policy for things like 3 or 4 hammer shank's, if
you use common sense you will not be challanged.  You have to be fair to
yourself, as well as the customer.
We all end up in doing jobs that we loss money, so it balances out when we
can make it up in other areas.
Grining from ear to ear.
Have a nice day.
Roger
 



>Actually, the "retail" price list (200% of true price) is one thing I'd
>enjoy watching quietly fade away. It seems an embarrassment to me, and
>means I could never show it to a customer, because I would have to
>explain why the company would print inflated prices. I can hope that
>the bad old days when a company _assumed_ that most of us would like
>the chance to deceive our customers are over. Not that we shouldn't
>mark up parts prices, but we shouldn't need to hide the fact that we
>are doing it. Life seems easier when there isn't that shadow of
>duplicity between us and our customers, IMHO.
>
>Susan
> 
Roger Jolly
Saskatoon, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505