Got my Annual Oil Change… had a $10 off coupon.
So they take off $10 but add back $8 in “Shop Supplies”.
They did not add a Rent surcharge or uniform cleaning charge.
What is Special about Shop Supplies other than to IRRITATE the Customer.
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I know this is pretty common at Dealers… but now it is Everywhere!
It’s like most nuisance fees. They want to advertise a competitive price and still maintain or increase their profit margin. So the solution is to bump up the invoice total to the customer without suffering the lost business from a higher advertised price.
It’s in the billing software. They go to seminars to “maximize your bottom line”. Everything is a line item. I have a guy who fixes Apple stuff for me and when he says “we’re good, no charge” I think I must have stepped through a time warp.
Many, many decades ago I worked for an audio/visual company who sold and repaired A/V equipment for schools in Virginia and the general public.
When equipment came in to be repaired, there was an automatic charge for C.L.A. (Clean, lububricate and adjust). Although ‘automatic charge’ sounds like a line item scam, we actually always cleaned the equipment and performed the adjustmets and lubricated moving parts. These were tape recorders, projectors and so on.
My mechanic actually does that to me fairly often. I told his office manager last time that if he keeps doing stuff for me for free, I’ll keep bringing my cars back for free work!