R
RustyPup
Guest
Thanks RustyPup,
I haven't picked up a Yellow Pages in years thanks to the internet. Guess I'll have to find one somewhere!
The guy's I've spoken with have given me hourly rates and told me it would take an hour and a half! Thanks for giving me something to shoot for (especially knowing how long it should take) when cold calling.
I had a couple of shops quote me the same way - hourly shop rate. None of those shops had any idea how long it would take, so they were kind of hesitant to give me a direct quote. I basically had to pry it out of them by telling them that I prefer to use cash and needed to know about how much to bring with me.
When I got to the yard of the blaster I went with, they were pushing a car they'd just finished out of the shop, so they had everything set up and ready to go. I told the dad what I was building out of the drum, told him that I needed the inside as clean as possible, but the outside was less important because I would be painting it. I took the drum out of the Jeep, the son carried it into the shop and started blasting away while I stood in the parking lot and chatted with the dad. In literally 10 minutes (probably less, but certainly not more) son brought the bare drum back out and put it into the Jeep for me. We chatted for a few more minutes and I left. I got home so soon my wife asked me if they had been closed or something. We both thought I'd be waiting quite a while.
Your mileage may vary, but it's worth checking out smaller local businesses. I've found that it's much easier to deal with folks one-on-one when they can make the decisions themselves and not have to run it by someone higher up the food chain than they are.
Good luck!