Uber expensive repair at United Radio

I've been pretty lucky, and not had to get much gear repaired, so I just wanted to get clear:

Are people taking the position that 14 hours to replace two chips (7 hours each!) and 140 bucks an hour sounds pretty standard for audio repair.

I just had an electrician in for 75 bucks an hour; that's a good rate for around here, but I don't think people are getting 140.

Sound like audio repair must be more like maintenance for nicer watches, which strikes me as extortionate, and a very good reason not to buy such watches.

Sokogear: I was just observing 140 seems like a high hourly  compared to many skilled trades.

Perhaps you are right that it is a scarcity issue.

But I'm still not clear why the hourly is irrelevant to thinking about whether pricing is fair: is your position that if the op was charged 2 grand for 15 minutes of labor by a skilled tradesperson, that  would be irrelevant  to his thinking about whether to use that provider again?  What about 5k per 15?  What if the competition charged 30 bucks an hour?


Many providers charge by the hour, not the job: how do you compare in such cases, since you don't think about the hourly rate?

hourly rates are used in all sorts of businesses for estimation and also for charging on jobs where there is uncertainty in scope (and the customer is willing to accept the open ended risk) -- if there is trust between provider and client then it works well, prevents the provider from 'padding the cost' to cover him/herself, otherwise it may well become a platform for abuse

Agreed completely, jjss49.  I had a complete kitchen rehab done by a remodeler who worked by the hour.  Of course, I had experience and trust with him.  Lower pressure for him, in an unpredictable older house, and I didn't have to pay extra for his "surprise insurance."
And of course, hourly rates can be useful for comparison shopping when the the temporal parameters of a job are pretty well known, as in the case of sokogear's example of grass cutting.
Bottom line: the hourly rate is not the bottom line, but can certainly be information useful information in shopping and assessing value.