Nate,

I wish more people on this board would realize that, as your example shows, the flat rate system works both ways. Sometimes customers end up getting a break on labor when things don't go as expected. Instead all too much I see complaining about labor rates if a tech gets the job done too fast and they feel ripped off because of that. Hey, if a tech can do the job efficiently without compromising the safety or integrity of the repair then IMO they are entitled to the extra money. The main purpose of the flat rate system is to get reasonably accurate estimates for the customer. Otherwise, if everyone got paid for the actual time spent conceivably someone could let a car sit all day after being repaired and the customer being billed for all that time. Problem is there is no perfect pay plan that will satisfy both the shop and the customer at the same time, so IMO flat rate is the better system even though I wish I were hourly instead as I'd get paid more the way things are where I work (not enough work to make 40 hours a week most of the time).

As far as alignments go, although I hardly ever do that kind of work I have seen cars that drove reasonably well that were way out of spec on the alignment rack and those that were perfectly aligned that had a pull to one side.

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Erich Loepke
2010 Ford Focus
Currently Benz-less