Uber expensive repair at United Radio

That's why car repair places I deal with just tell you how much to do a job. Forget about the hours. It's irrelevant. If they don't know how much it will cost, either get a narrow range or go somewhere else.

Don't complain about the hours and the rate. Would you feel better if he said 7 hours and $240 and hour? The price is the price.

It's called a free market. Places charge what they can get, what the market can bear. Places that charge too much will lose business and those that charge too little will get more. They will then adjust and business volumes will adjust. This assumes that they all do an effective job.

Nobody is getting ripped off here. If a buyer and seller of a product or service agree on a price and both have delivered on what they said they are going to do, then it's a fair deal. If it wasn't they both wouldn't agree to it. If the OP couldn't find anyone to fix his amp for what he considered a reasonable price, he wouldn't do it.

@dasign - you have options  - take it or leave it. If the market for their service was significant enough, other places would offer it (authorized or not). What about if you had something that you couldn't get parts for and that couldn't be fabricated? Then you could sell it for parts or toss it. It's the risk you take buying something without warranty. You pay less, you take the risk. 

You made the deal, got what you paid for, be happy. We are not here to be therapists. Get over it and enjoy your amp that works now. Hopefully they gave you some warranty on the repair.

@jdoris - to equate high end electronic repair rates with electricians is hysterical.  It’s based on specialization - the rarer the service, the more it costs. No disrespect to electricians, but there are tons of them everywhere.

high end audio repairmen? Obviously a rare breed. As I mentioned before the hourly rate is irrelevant anyway, the question is, how much to do the job?

@jdoris - all anyone needs to look at is what is the cost of the repair and what options you have. If someone has not idea how long it will take to do a repair or won't give me a tight (do not exceed) range, I won't use him. There is a market for everything, and hourly rates are one way places can rip you off by not doing a job as quickly as possible. I find that if you pay by the job, you will get it done as efficiently as possible. For example, if you take your car in to a dealer for an oil change, the lowest guy on the totem pole will take care of it because they charge a fixed number of hours for that job, and he will be the cheapest for them. If you need a tune up or some diagnostic engine work, they will put the most experienced guy on it since he can get it done quickest, even though they will charge the same for it.

Different technicians have different levels of experience and it takes them different amounts of time to do a job. If they are learning and maybe only have done something once or twice, it is going to take them a lot longer.

I'd rather have the more expensive guy do the job quicker for the same price than the guy taking longer, even though his hourly rate is lower.

If a guy cuts your lawn, do you care how much he charges by the hour or how much the job costs? I don't care if he is super efficient or a slow poke as long as he does a nice job. Same exact thing.

+1 jjss49

If all things are equal that may be true, but rarely are all things equal....