I received a call from a local repair shop that had my Husqvarna 128LD string trimmer. He said that he had to replace the carburetor, fuel lines, plug and fuel filter. I gave the required $20 deposit, and he said that the bill I owed was $138 totaling $158. Is this a normal charge? I thought it was a little high.
$158 repair bill?
cutman2000
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I received a call from a local repair shop that had my Husqvarna 128LD string trimmer. He said that he had to replace the carburetor, fuel lines, plug and fuel filter. I gave the required $20 deposit, and he said that the bill I owed was $138 totaling $158. Is this a normal charge? I thought it was a little high.
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1,478 Posts
Considering a new one cost $200 I would expect the shop to contact you before doing expensive repairs.
I just bought a back up carb for my 128 to have on hand. Cost $22 and takes about ten min. to install.
For the parts you identified, the cost would be around $40.
I just bought a back up carb for my 128 to have on hand. Cost $22 and takes about ten min. to install.
For the parts you identified, the cost would be around $40.
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I agree with you. Im going to pay this and learn from my mistake.
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I disagree with you and not sure why you are speaking from the perspective of the repair shop, unless you are a mechanic or shop owner and taking this personally. I am a business owner also, and one of my jobs is to make intelligent decisions, from the smallest cost to the highest. I support my local shops, but I'm not going to throw away my profits to do it. Ill pay what the market consider is fair.
Ztman provided numbers which tells that he made an intelligent decision. I thought this all along, I guess I just wanted to hear it from another.
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I called the shop to see if they had started, so I could cancel. But I asked again about the charge, and she said, "Wait a second that's not right, it's actually $111.65, not $158." So I told them to go ahead and do it.
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Good for you, As a business owner and mechanic I would of fixed it myself and not complained here but hey...
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Im not a mechanic JLSLLC. Im a business owner.
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i made that mistake before. i had a $400 trimmer and spent $200 on repairs. the trimmer didn't last maybe a year longer then totally crapped out. this trimmer was pretty new only a few years old. it was dropped and it had to get a new carb and air breather plastic parts and such.
honestly if a repair is gonna cost half as much or more as a new trimmer just throw it in the trash and buy a new one.
honestly if a repair is gonna cost half as much or more as a new trimmer just throw it in the trash and buy a new one.
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Buying China parts on the internet and then installing yourself is not the same as having a shop install oem parts. You probably got charged an hour of labor.
I think it's in line. I would have brought a new trim
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2,385 Posts
It sounds high. I too think if it was going to be that expensive, they should have contacted you. I am always on the fence with repairs on equipment over 3 or 4 years old. I am lucky that I know a good repair guy that works on the side, but the only problem is he won't get it done as fast as the dealer. But he is way cheaper.
I had 2 blowers for instance and both are older. Both still seemed to have life left in them but I got tired of one small issue after another with them. So, I just purchased another one. My repair guy was able to fix the others for pretty cheap but still, I didn't want to keep putting much into them. Those other 2 blowers are getting to that age that these are probably the last repairs I will make to them.
That being said though I still have a lot of old half way running small equipment. All my Stihl stuff just won't die. I still have 3 FS80R trimmers ROFL..They all 3 still work but I just got tired of something happening to them every few months. Only had one piece ever just totally crap out on me and it was an old Echo edger. Which was a surprise because the blade edgers don't get near the use as the string trimmers. Expensive repair bills suck though. The dealer will really get you on these repair costs.
I had 2 blowers for instance and both are older. Both still seemed to have life left in them but I got tired of one small issue after another with them. So, I just purchased another one. My repair guy was able to fix the others for pretty cheap but still, I didn't want to keep putting much into them. Those other 2 blowers are getting to that age that these are probably the last repairs I will make to them.
That being said though I still have a lot of old half way running small equipment. All my Stihl stuff just won't die. I still have 3 FS80R trimmers ROFL..They all 3 still work but I just got tired of something happening to them every few months. Only had one piece ever just totally crap out on me and it was an old Echo edger. Which was a surprise because the blade edgers don't get near the use as the string trimmers. Expensive repair bills suck though. The dealer will really get you on these repair costs.
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Where was China parts mentioned? I didn't bring it up.
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While you complaind about a repair bill for a trimmer on here all day, I as a business owner made enough today to buy 3 trimmers if I chose too. Could only imagine if if was a skid or a ztr what you would do, troll on and check yourself and hit the ignore button
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Shop rates aren’t cheap. If you don’t want to pay it, fix it yourself. I was a firefighter/paramedic full time and mowed 35 lawns a week “part-time”. I usually worked about 90 hrs per week not including maintenance, bookkeeping, billing, and taxes. I’m sure that if you don’t like the shop rate you can find time to fix it. :dancing:
Stihl carbs are cheap from the dealer but Shindy and Echo stuff was expensive. I had to replace a carb on a Shindy backpack blower that my helper managed to break the throttle lever off of. It was over $100 from the dealer. I found the same carb with hi/lo adjustment screws online for like $25. It was for a model airplane but identical other than the Hi/lo screws.
Stihl carbs are cheap from the dealer but Shindy and Echo stuff was expensive. I had to replace a carb on a Shindy backpack blower that my helper managed to break the throttle lever off of. It was over $100 from the dealer. I found the same carb with hi/lo adjustment screws online for like $25. It was for a model airplane but identical other than the Hi/lo screws.
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Another reason I stay with Stihl. they bought out Zamba carbs and it slashed the cost of the carbs in half. You can get some stihl carbs for a little more than $30 at the dealer.
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You bought a bottom of the barrel trimmer and then took it to a dealer to be repaired. What we don’t know here is what was said in the conversation that took place between the service writer at the shop and the customer. I’m guessing it was something like “tune up and get it running” since they replaced the air filter.
Tune up parts and a carb are easily $75. Add a hour labor and you are at $158.
Tune up parts and a carb are easily $75. Add a hour labor and you are at $158.
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I don't think the dealer did anything wrong by any means. Still I would just sort of be like ummm you know that can get this repair cost over $150 if you're not careful. A new on isn't much more. But I am sure they make way more profit on repair and parts than selling a new one.
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Is it the repairman job to educate the customer on repair cost or buy new? Or is it the customers fault for not knowing?
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