Explaining Repair Costs To Your Customer

Every so often your customer will question the amount you are charging for a particular repair. You should be prepared to give him an answer that truly explains why the cost is what it is. I approach it this way: We all know what inflation has done to prices. If the gun was purchased 10 or 15 years ago, its price has probably doubled or tripled; and if it’s 20 or 30 years old, a comparable new gun sells for as much as five or even 10 times as much.

So you can’t blame the customer if he balks at paying $200 to repair an old gun that cost him $75 when it was new. Of course, if you know the customer well, it wouldn’t hurt to remind him that, back in the day when he paid $75 for anew shotgun, he was working for something like $2 or $3 an hour. (And so were you.) No so anymore. Today’s gunsmith can hardly keep a shop open charging less than $35 an hour.

But here’s an even better approach, particularly if you don’t know the customer well: Tell him to divide the repair cost by the number of years he’s owned the gun. If he’s owned the gun for 20 years and he’s looking at a $200 repair bill, that means his cost of maintenance is $10 a year, and once it’s repaired, his gun will be worth, say $275. That means it’s basically cost him nothing to own the gun for 20 years. Now compare this with what he’s spent on automobiles over the I last 20 years.

You can spend $20,000 on a car, spend $2,000 a year maintaining it, and sell it in 5 years for maybe $5,000. The comparison makes that $200 repair bill seem pretty insignificant, doesn’t it? In fact, you could tell him that the maintenance cost on his gun is actually so low that perhaps you ought to charge him more. He won’t want to hear that, but if he has the brains of a spent primer he’ll quickly decide to spend the money and leave the gun with you.

Anyway, my point is that, given the way they hold their value and the low cost of maintaining them, guns area great investment’ and they deserve to be treated as such. If you run into a true tightwad, don’t whip a dead horse. The owner of a broken or malfunctioning gun needs to have the repair done for, without it, he has nothing but a handful of iron and he knows it. Besides, think of how many cases of beer he’s bought in the last 25 years and what has he’s got to show for it’empty bottles and a big belly.

Actually, I don’t suggest you mention that to him, but you might keep it in mind. In any case, if he thinks your price is too high, don’t get excited. Show him some of the guns you keep around the shop. Let him see just how nice your refinishing is and how slick your action work is. But don’t apologize for your price. And above all, don’t start cutting your price. You’ve done all you can and now it is up to him. If you’re still holding his gun in your hands, it’s a lot easier for him to tell you to go ahead.

He has, in his subconscious, already let go of it. Hopefully he’ll begin to realize that yourprice, when amortized over the life of the gun, is pretty damn cheap and with a little luck you could still get the job. Remember, you’re the craftsman, the gun guru, the gun doctor; you don’t have to defend yourself in anyway. With all that said, there are jobs you won’t want to take and there are times to say no to a repair job.

In the past, we’ve talked about knowing what your skills are and sticking to your area of expertise. This time, however, I’m thinking about those jobs that are based solely on your customer’s nostalgia for "dad’s old gun" or "my first gun" or "a trophy I brought back from the war." I am not unthankful for this type of business if I’m going to get paid for it, but you have to be careful that you don’t get caught up in the customer’s nostalgia.

Remember, your time is valuable and restoring old guns is a time-consuming enterprise’ and it’s often impossible to know what problems you might run into once the gun is apart and you’re committed to do the job. If you’re working for someone who’s willing to spend whatever it takes to restore his heirloom, that’s one thing. But if the customer is one of those cheapskates we talked about, you might come to regret taking the job.

Nevertheless, when you do finish a restoration for the right type of customer, be sure to keep some Kleenex handy because he’s likely to shed a tear or two when he picks up his beautifully restored gun. And, heck, seeing his reaction, you might need a Kleenex, too.