General question on tint quoting/pricing

[Darkimag22]

7 hours ago, nehuge said:

Okay, so if you had 1988 Mustang glass out of the vehicle and 1988 Porsche 944 glass out of the vehicle, what makes the Porsche take twice as long besides more film?  Just trying to follow the logic.

 

The logic is that you have no idea what is easy and what is difficult when it comes to tinting...if you did, none of us would be having this ridiculous conversation.  

 

Just curious...what vehicle EXACTLY are you wanting tinted???  Or is it still a secret???

[Dano]

"It's a car, I said it's a car....you guys are bunch of d*cks. I already told you it's a car, why won't you tell me how much is a car?" 

 

I'll bet a dollar it's some euro crap or a corvette. Any takers?

 

[TintDude]

Also, there is the whole BMW owner thing.

[nehuge]

Close, 

37 minutes ago, TintDude said:

Also, there is the whole BMW owner thing.

Close, 1993 Mercedes Benz 500E.

 

Pretty much every window is square and mostly flat.

Windows came out without scratching tint, and with my channels, will go back in without scratching tint as I have personally taken the entire interior down to a shell for various projects at one point or another.

 

BTW Tint dude, like the avatar, Vic Rattlehead rules.  I guess Megadeth does too.

[TintDude]

I didn't mean you were one, just that they are on a whole other level of pain in the butt customers.

 

 

[nehuge]

12 minutes ago, TintDude said:

I didn't mean you were one, just that they are on a whole other level of pain in the butt customers.

 

 

LOL I try not to be, even though this whole post is super sissy nanny la-la sounding on my part.

 

Example, my later model car needed some repair work when someone clipped my car in the parking spot at the store, and I told the shop "do your thing" because any new cars in my opinion are plastic disposeable appliances and if it wasn't perfect then who cares.  I'm not that picky on all fronts.

 

Now with the 500E, it's my baby, so when I re-painted it, I was like "what do you mean $20K quote on paint if I sand it and have the everything stripped (entire interior, seats, door panels, bumpers, door handles, windows, etc etc)?  I don't need Barrett Jackson, but I don't need Maaco either.  So I have to babysit all these places to basically say "I know you have no money in custom jobs, and you try to turn and burn with "collison" only, but this thing is all ready for you to shoot, just shoot it and don't rip me off".  I think they throw an outrageous price out there to get rid of me instead of just saying "we're not interested".  Hence my being a bossy cow about this.  It's like literally the 37th thing in a row on a couple of cars I've had to deal with. Not paranoid, just seasoned and documented string of labor in America not being thorough and hurried in the last decade it seems.

 

I can just hear "if you can afford a Mercedes you can afford to not be a picky ass with a window tint price".  Shuttup.  It's 35 years old which is older than me and I don't want a car payment because I don't make a lot of money.  Hence me working on most of it myself except for these types of things.

 

Now I have "Rust in Peace" in my head, jammin' out. heh

 

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by nehuge

[Dano]

33 minutes ago, nehuge said:

 

 

Now I have "Rust in Peace" in my head, jammin' out. heh

 

 

Well I guess you're not all bad after all.

 

I would recommend finding an old schooler running an independent shop that worked on these cars the first time around. Have the glass in place with the panels pulled. Remember to leave the switches on the front seat for operating the roll ups.

 

The new group of tinters can't seem to do anything that doesn't come off the precut software correctly. You are mostly right on that point.

 

[doctor4766]

It's fairly common to have a caller ask "How much to do a small sedan?"

Invariably it's some kind of European car that is more difficult to tint than your average Camry.

Note that a small sedan can be an hour's work, or it can be 3 hours work.

This is why it's crucial that we know what we're quoting on.

I see your point that just because it's a Mercedes we shouldn't punish you with a higher price, but if that Mercedes is a bigger job then we reserve the right to charge more.

Hopefully that back window isn't laminated glass too, as not only will it be more difficult to work on out of the car, there's a high risk of breakage during refit and those Merc rear windows don't come cheap.

Good luck

 

[pbalentine]

If the customer just says, Mercedes or BMW its either really old or a brand new, high-end model. I add a small mark up for all Euro & Tesla. Then I double that or triple the fee for high-end model or old classic model. Also, the biggest factor I use for pricing is not film cost or difficulty, its the stress of doing it. Also, panel removal on these can take 2-3x longer. 

 

[Dano]

^^^and be 2-3 times more expensive if something goes south.