Why repair shops won’t install customer parts

Learn why auto repair shops won’t install customer parts

Customers often bring their own parts to an auto repair shop and are surprised and even angry when the shop says they won’t install them. Or they will install them but only at a higher price and without any warranty. Here’s why auto repair shops won’t install customer parts.

Reason #1: They lose money. Shops make their living on the profit from labor and parts, just like every other retail service business. When you bring in your own parts, you’re basically asking them to make less money so you can save money.

Reason #2: Customers usually buy the wrong part or the lowest-quality part. Shops know which brands are good and which ones are garbage, but customers don’t. It’s very common for customers to buy the wrong part or a cheap part that doesn’t fit quite right. That puts the shop in a terrible spot because they’ll have time invested and then have to wait while you get the right part, and that’s time they can’t bill.

Reason #3: If your low-quality part fails, you’ll blame the shop for shoddy installation. It’s another losing proposition for the shop because no matter how good their job was, you’ll be roasting them on social media. It’s happened enough that most shops don’t even want to deal with customer parts.

Here’s why shops have to add mark-up to the part cost

1) Somebody has to order the parts. That time isn’t billable.
2) The technician diagnosed the problem and now has to wait until the parts arrive. That time isn’t billable.
3) The shop has to provide a warranty on the part. If the part fails within the warranty period, the auto parts company will replace it for free, but the shop doesn’t get reimbursed for the labor.
4) Somebody has to pay the parts bills every month. That time isn’t billable
5) For all those reasons, auto repair shops can’t sell you parts at their cost. They’d go out of business

They’re in business to make a profit, and that profit comes from labor and parts profit.

You found the part cheaper online or at the local auto parts store — so what?

Most shops won’t install customer provided parts. The ones that will install customer parts usually increase the labor cost to cover the lost profit on the parts

You can find just about everything cheaper online than from brick-and-mortar stores. Plus, you can often buy the exact same part at a local NAPA store and pay less than the repair shop would charge you. So what? The store is selling you the part, so you can install it yourself. Don’t want to do that? Well, that’s a different story.

Think about this scenario: You buy a steak at a meat market. You can cook it yourself, and all is good. But you can’t take that same steak to a steak house and offer to pay just the labor cost to grill it for you. The restaurant would be out of business in a month if they did that. And that’s precisely what you’re proposing when you bring your own parts to the auto repair shop and want to pay just the labor to install them.

Overall, bringing your own parts is a terrible idea. In many ways, it’s like bringing a steak to a steak restaurant and offering to pay only for the labor to cook it; and then complaining when they say no. .

©, 2013 Rick Muscoplat