How do you figure prices for ding repair? Do you discount for friends?
I’m repairing two boards for a friend whose wife backed over them with the mini-van. One was simply replacing a busted fcs center fin, two stress cracks on the deck, some shatters on one rail and two sheared off tips on a swallowtail. The other was more extensive, primarily stress cracks and compressed foam on the bottom and a totally mangled fcs side fin and plugs which had to be removed, plugged with foam patches and new fcs plugs and fin installed as well as reglassing both the bottom and deck to support around the area.
The guy’s a good friend and I don’t want to gouge him but I’ve also put a lot of work into the repairs. He also said to charge him big because he’s making his teenage son pay for it because the dope left the boards behind the car in the first place! Thanks for any help.
I price waaaaay too low. I discount for friends, but I multiply for idiocy.
What you are describing is idiocy in three parts. Charge 50% to the idiot kid and 50% to the idiot wife who didn’t think to flaming well look or ask. Plus 100% to the bozo who let it all happen while he was being surf hero and not paying attention.
First board - shatters plus cracks plus FCS replacement plus swallowtail nightmare, plus idiocy - $75-125.
Second board - FCS plus more FCS plus patches plus etc - $150 plus. Multiply both times a moron factor of your choice. The term punitive damages comes to mind. If that means you get no more idiots, good, let them take their business elsewhere
Be careful with charity work, it can get out of hand. I do all of the neighbors boards for free, unless it’s really hammered stuff (3 neighbors). Then I only charge really about 1/4 of the regular price. I do this because they put up with the dust, tool noise, fumes, etc. and these homes are very close together. All relatives pay 80% of the regular price, and I even charge my kids. This isn’t to be greedy, because the I’m not financially dependent on the repair business. Rather, a lot people have no respect for their boards. Most of these same people have no respect for anyone else’s board either and provide free fin cuts and rail dings everytime they’re in the water. Like Doc’s idiot/moron factors, I have the “take responsibility” tax. If you don’t really care and have money, come on in and I’ll assess your penalty. If you don’t have a lot of money, be ready to hear my lecture about the guys whose hands shaped, glassed, and sandpaper stroked that board just so you can have fun. If there’s any tears when I’m done, I’ll do it for free.
Here’s a price list. When I get an inquiry, I try to provide this as a base line estimate with some room for discussion. I’d like to think that with prices for sandpaper, masking tape, brushes and everything else going through the roof that the days of a $10.00 per ding repair schedule is out of date.
When I get the damaged board, I go over every ding the owner wants fixed and circle it with a marker - some boards are really ratty and if I repaired every little ding, it would cost more than the board is worth.
Howzit John, Looks like the repair business making some bucks. I guess I’m to cheap on some repairs: FCS plug $10.00 a plug, leash plugs $10.00. But broken and buckled boards I’m right there with you. Aloha, Kokua
John that price list is totally right-on and on the money for what I charge as well. A couple of differances though. Being that I am on Maui; If I do a buckle I will not guarantee it. I never do snaps. Instead I just try to make them some kind of a deal on a new board(one of my shapes). I acquire a new customer/team rider and don’t have to worry about the son-of-a-gun comin’ back and complainin’ about the poor repair job I supposedly did when he snaps it the second time at The Bay or Ho’okipa. I used to do this same approach in Calif. when I was up at the “Chicken Ranch”. Eventually I would have a pile of snapped sticks laying in the back room. Discarded polyester horses. On a sat or sunday afternoon with not much goin’ on (or off) I would get a twelve pack and spend the afternoon putting them back together. I was pretty good at it, but always considered a snapped board to be a damned good reason to get a new stick. After I got 3 or 4 of them back together, I would haul them back and forth to the beach on weekends until they eventually sold to some beginner for $150. Again, no warranty. I am going to copy your price list and hang it on my shop door. Hd McDing
John is correct about hammered boards, it becomes a fine line between a repair and a restoration. I’ve expended more effort on these than glassing a new one, so you have to adjust the pricing according to the going rate for glass job. Also, I don’t guarantee any type of delams and charge storage if the board is not picked up within 2 weeks. I’ve also had a lot of customers who redamage their boards and bring them back thinking it’s covered under the guarantee. One guy claimed a rail repair just cracked and split on the phone, and when he got here he admitted it fell off a roof rack. Same story with fin plugs and boxes; they just take off the damaged fin and say the glass just mysteriously buckled up. Another guy broke his tail off 3" from where I previously fixed it and said a good repair wouldn’t do that. For these folks, I fire them as customers. They get a “pink slip” that says they’re terminated on the basis of thinking that I’m as stupid as they are.
Me, I don’t give any specific guarantees. So if somebody complains, I can always have a look at it and invite them to find somebody else to do the work if they are trying to pull a fast one.
I also have a sliding scale - show up in a new range rover with gold chains, surf fashion and attitude and your board goes to the back of the line, behind the next six that come in, and your price doubles. Maybe triples or more if ya piss me off. Show up in a Dumbvee and you’re better off buying a new board someplace else, it’ll be cheaper.
Kid walks in carrying in his beat up fifth-hand board in worn out sneakers ( most definitely NOT skate shoes) with lawn mowing green on 'em, "ok, kid, watch carefully, cos I’ll do this one and help you do that one. and on that one there you do it all, ok? Good. " and they walk away with skills, tool advice and maybe I bought 'em lunch too.
I don’t want to be in the ding biz forever, after all, nor did I learn it all on my own. Somebody taught me. When I get out of it, which I was hoping would be last year, I’d rather that those few things I was taught and stumbled across on my own didn’t vanish.
To make it easy, I used to just charge by the hour. The only boards I was working on were all rescue paddleboards used by the lifeguards in the town where I lifeguard. So over the winter, I’d just take my regular hourly lifeguard pay rate and keep track of how much time I spent doing ding repairs. Seemed fair to me. Even the truly hideously mangled boards with big delams on the deck from knee paddling, nose and tail opened up, and rails that were so hammered that I just smoothed them out with filler then ran 4" glass tape down each side, generally came in at 1/3 the replacement price.
Now, I just consider time spent over the winter doing ding repairs as quiet, peaceful time that I get to do something I like, and get to give back to lifeguarding some of what it has given to me. So this past winter, for the dozen or so boards I went through, I charged the town $450, including picking each board up from its beach and returning it once repaired, and polishing/waxing each once repaired. They don’t have to replace the boards as often, the guards have boards that still float and don’t cut them up with sharp edges of 'glass from shoddy repairs, they look good, and I get to find something to keep me out of the bars at night after work.
And I claim the right to give the hairy eyeball to any guard who drags one of the boards across the beach or whacks one into a door jamb.
