What do you say/do when someone says, “Your prices are too high?”

[Dan Tran]

Hey, some customers you just don't mesh with. Nothing wrong with that. If you can't see eye to eye before you even start the job, well that's a tough place to start from and it's unlikely to get much better.

Yeah,

I learned that the hard way last year.

I was hired to do and AIO buff, but because the guy was a difficult person—I felt that my heart wasn’t there to complete it.

Since I had gotten as far as claying, I decided to slap a sealant on it and call it a day and refunded him the difference in price.

He still ended up giving a negative review. Fortunately it wasn’t a google review.


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[Calendyr]

What I would do in this situation is tell the person that the price you are quoting is for a detail that will bring the interior to as close as perfect as can be done. If that doesn't fit their budget, you can do the work for the amount they are willing to pay and you will simply focus on the most needed items, not seeking perfection but instead improving the appearance as much as possible for the lesser amount of time that will be spent with the lower budget. If that is not good enough for them, there is not much more you can do.

[Calendyr]

Hey, some customers you just don't mesh with. Nothing wrong with that. If you can't see eye to eye before you even start the job, well that's a tough place to start from and it's unlikely to get much better.

Absolutelly right. Had that happen to me last week. A guy called me to do a compound on a 2002 Jaguar. So I start asking him the usual questions about how the paint is right now, what he is expecting and all that. So he asks me if I can come over and have a look at it so I can give him a quote. This is not something I usually do but for paint correction I can make exceptions since it's hard to judge by phone. So I start taking down his information to book a meeting. While I am doing that he says something like : "I contacted a paint shop to do the work but I did not go with them because they are charging way too much and I am not a sucker"... all sorts of alarm bells started ringing in my head.... so I asked him what budget he had in mind for the work. He tells me he doesn't have a specific budget, he will pay what it will cost... then goes on a story about being a business owner and paying people his whole life to do work and that he prefers to pay by the hour. So I tell him ok. Well, paint correction varies a lot from car to car depending on many factors, but at the very least you are looking at a bare minimum of 6 hours of work. He mentions the car wash can do it in 2... I did not go into much details but explain to him that they are using different tools and the quality of the work will be much lower. He asks me what my hourly rate is, I telll him 40$ per hour. His answer: "Come on Daniel, that work is not worth more than 25$". So at that point I closed down my booking software and explained to him that I did not train for years to work at minimum wadge after expenses. I told him if that is what he wanted to pay, the service is available at car washes, and I was not the guy he was looking for.

Even if he had changed his mind on the price i don't think I would want him as a client. This is the kind of people who will never be satisfied and will cause you headaches. I can't remember who said you should always qualify your clients, this is one of the prime reasons why.

[PurpleTowel]

For me it's a bit different, as my business is a side hustle, and I only work on the weekends. I don't need to take every job that comes through the door.

I had a guy come to me last week and ask for a full interior deep clean—seat removal and everything—on his late model Camry. He asked me for a quote via e-mail without seeing it first. I figured it was a train wreck and told him where my prices begin for that type of job, but explained that I needed to see it in person to determine exactly what the cost would be. He brought it over that night, and it was worse than expected. I added up the time in my head and gave him my estimate, to which he promptly responded that the drive through detail center down the street was only $100 and could I do any better. I let him know that I don't discount my work, and that they'd do a fine job on his Camry and sent him on his way.

He called me back the next day and scheduled a full interior detail for next Saturday, at my full price.



My work is valuable, my time is valuable. If they can't see that, then they can find someone else to clean the spills and Cheerios out of their back seat. I worked hard to figure out my value and my labor rates, and I don't change them for anyone but family.

[fightnews]

If someone says my price is to high in a condescending way I tell them The price is fair they are just to cheap. Shuts them up everytime...

[MattPersman]

The people price shopping just want you to stoop to their level and then ##### about the work after. Tell he/she you are not a high volume production detailer. Those places can charge less cause they got 4-5 guys making 12-15 bucks and hour working on an assembly line blasting it out. Then you move the seat and see they didn’t even vacuum that out half the time lol

Favors now a days seem to burn

Stand firm on the price he/she knows what the others are

I get it people are looking for a deal. Me too but it just doesn’t always happen. The best services are some times higher priced. $50 a day or two later if he/she is thrilled with the outcome is nothing. Don’t count on a tip either if many of your customers tip you now cause you already went over what the low ball production places quoted.


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[Maestro Sam]

Best thing to do is have a portfolio of not just before and after pictures of your work, but a story of the car you are detailing. Post many pictures of the before and after pictures of one car so the future clients can see the dramatic difference your work has created. I detailed a cargo van couple of weeks or months ago and the owner wanted to beg me to lower the price dramatically after agreeing upon a set price together. I told him I will no longer detail the car and take it somewhere else. Need to weed out the cheap people and take in customers who really want quality work.

[RTexasF]

For me the trick was determining if the potential customer wanted cheap no matter what or if they were open to reason/discussion. Are they genuinely asking why the price is what it is or just barking out the standard "so & so does it cheaper" spiel? It took a little time and conversation to determine this but generally paid off. All of the work I did was referral so I was fortunate that it didn't come up that often. If it was determined that cheap was all they wanted then I declined the service and thanked them for giving me an opportunity.

There's lots of excellent advice here, I hope mine has at least been helpful.

[sudsmobile]

If someone says my price is to high in a condescending way I tell them The price is fair they are just to cheap. Shuts them up everytime...

I bet it does. Nothing shuts down the conversation with a potential customer quicker than insulting them.

[fightnews]

I bet it does. Nothing shuts down the conversation with a potential customer quicker than insulting them.

Yeah, that's why I haven't had 1 customer yet. But I'm doing gods work here. Sometimes people need to be called out on their attitude'