SteveSr
Addicted to ArboristSite
If this was customer error (i.e old, or water logged fuel) I would educate them and charge them a minimum diagnostic fee. In shops around here that is about a 1/2 hour labor at whatever your rate is. You could also sell them a better fuel storage container but a new plastic jug might not save them if it is just old fuel.I had three saws Thursday that the owner said would not start. I dumped the fuel, put fresh in, choked, pulled maybe 8 or 10 times and they started right up and ran normally.
Our question is, what are you supposed to charge for that ? Nothing? $10 $15
Customer definitely caused this damage by dropping the saw and he knows it and has no one to blame but himself (or his crew). I would charge him the Stihl standard labor rate to fix whatever damage that he caused. What is the labor to replace a torn boot and replace the wiring harness?How do you balance that with a MS201TC dropped out of a tree that you screw with for two hours, but you can't really charge that.
When I was in school 4-5 decades ago I repaired TVs and other consumer electronics for tuition and pizza money.. Occasionally you would just get a "dog" that sucked time that you couldn't charge for. You would make it up on other "easier" candidates. Sort of like your auto mechanic that can get paid for doing two jobs at once.