[ic] Taking a Poll

[Jim Balcom]

On 17 Apr 2001, Doug Alcorn wrote:

DA>>I'm not sure what you're talking about here.  I know Midas and
DA>>Jiffy-Lube don't charge the same rates for the same work.  Granted,
DA>>every Midas charges the same rate.  And local, non-national, shops
DA>>certainly have their own rates.  The point is that not every mechanic
DA>>is created equal and they don't charge like it either.

I disagree with you.

Most of the shops that I am familiar with use a 'Flat-Rate Manual'.
And, that says that it should take 8.7 hours to remove the head and
replace it. The shop then multiplies that by their hourly rate to
determine the cost. If the mechanic can do that job in 6 hours, then
they are ahead, and the customer still pays for 8.7 hours. If the
mechanic takes 10 hours to do the job, the customer still gets charged
for 8.7 hours.

DA>>I would be opposed to RedHat trying to set flat-rate fees for tasks.
DA>>They have a large amount of influence in this particular niche.  If RH
DA>>wants to setup and say, "Here's our flat rates for us doing it,"
DA>>that's one thing.  But to say, "We're setting up an open market for
DA>>getting contract work done and here's the per job cost," is another.
DA>>
DA>>I think RedHat setting prices for tasks would be more like GM or Ford
DA>>coming out and saying that an oil change should cost $10 retail or
DA>>even a clutch $500.

I think that it's OK for RH to say, "We can install IC 4.6.7 on a
virgin server - with no catalogs in X hours." Then, "Once the server is
installed, we can install the 'Construct Demo' in X hours."

We're not talking money, only the amount of time that a professional
will need to do it.

I would like to think that in order for a contractor to be endorsed by
RH that they would then need to agree to bill only for those hours,
regardless of how long it took them to do the job.

This gives people protection against someone like me coming along and
offering to do a job that I am not qualified to do and billing them 10
hours for a 3 hour job.

-= Jim =-

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Tagline for Tuesday, April 17, 2001 at 21:30 PM:
Smash forehead on keyboard to continue...

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