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Topic:
Custom installers hourly rates
This thread has 36 replies. Displaying posts 31 through 37.
Post 31 made on Friday September 20, 2002 at 18:44
avgenius1
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
May 2002
448
Props to all in our industry! It is tough enough to do this job with a smile on your face everyday, only to have a wealthy customer 'cheap' out at the last minute leaving us to re-engineer a system on the fly and then complain about the price. I agree with all of you that we are underpaid/valued by the end user. If that isnt bad enough we ALL have pressure because of the "Voltage Village" guys out there to lower prices and compete. Well no longer at our company, if it isnt a protected line we dont carry it. I will not be pushed around by any customer to compete. I have been behind numerous Tweeter installs(God help us all!)and I have a question for those guys; How do you get Dolby Digital/DTS to pass through analog stereo outputs on a DVD player? Its bad enough that you guys are trying to sell 'custom systems' to the uneducated consumer, with 6 weeks of training (because we all know that it only takes 6 weeks to become an expert in this field) but now you want to install. I would really like to know if anyone can pass digital signals over analog rca outputs as this would be an amazing feat. Sorry fellow posters, I am just sick and tired of national chain stores lying to and cheating customers for the a buck. By the way, it isnt really old school but does anyone remember Soundstream(scream) and all the nightmares that came with it?
"Some may never live but the crazy never die" ~ Hunter S. Thompson
"There will be plenty of time to sleep when I am dead" ~ Me
Post 32 made on Friday September 20, 2002 at 21:18
zinon
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
September 2001
621
Soundstream was great when they worked.They basically took a car amp and changed the power supply amp and presto you have a multi room amp that worked one out of five times. No wonder they went out of business. Or maybe it was when I called their tech department for help when the amp sometimes would turn on in the middle of the night and they said that it was like an exotic sports car (when they work they work well) . Tell that to your client after spending a lot of money. Or maybe it was their power strip that was trigged by a tiny relay that would burnout when it powered the system up or maybe never mind
Zinon
Post 33 made on Saturday September 21, 2002 at 12:27
glockman
Lurking Member
Joined:
Posts:
September 2002
5
I charge $150 per hour with a minimum of $1000 for programming Crestron and Phast. I charge between $200 - $400 for prontos (depending on macros, etc.) Attic work is $100 per hour and reg work is $50-$100 per hour.

Can you find an unlicensed installer cheaper? Yea. Until he takes twice as long to complete the project.
Post 34 made on Saturday September 21, 2002 at 12:41
glockman
Lurking Member
Joined:
Posts:
September 2002
5
[email protected],

You are selling yourself and others in your industry short. Either you are not capable of doing the type of installation we are talking about or you are extremely underpriced.

Perhaps you are a "hook up" kind of guy instead of a custom installer. In that case $50 per hour is normal. I pay my Phast programmer $50 per hour and he is worth every dime.

You can't believe that someone could get $800 to program a remote? I am fixing someone else's installation of a phast system for $7500 labor.

Please do not sell your industry short. Are you in this industry? Do you go to CEDIA and CES?
Post 35 made on Sunday September 22, 2002 at 15:57
Shoe
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
August 2001
1,385
glockman, nice post, I couldn't have said it better myself.
Post 36 made on Wednesday September 25, 2002 at 14:47
Alan Rutherford
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
June 2002
208
A Tribute to You Guys (this seemed the right place to put it):

I am not a Custom Installer - I'm just an average guy that wanted a good A/V system for the house. I'm good with computers, I've had military electronics training (like, 30 years ago) so, I figured, how tough could this be? I spent at least 100 hours researching equipment (reading reviews, auditioning equipment, etc.) over a period of 3 months or so - I hadn't bought any GOOD A/V equipment in years, and had to find out what was out there. After my purchase (from knowledgeable people - just not remote programmers), I spent another 20 hours or so determining (what seemed to be) optimal speaker placement, hooking up the equipment, correcting my own hook-up mistakes, etc.; and another 50 hours or so for the remote - trying to program a Sony remote, giving up, trading it in for a Pronto, scouring this site, picking the brains of the GREAT people here, learning how to program a Pronto and actually programming it (after receiving a HUGE head start with ccf files copied from this site).

Now, I have a fairly decent system (for my budgeted $6,000), though not on the level you guys are at. Let's just say I have a good upgrade path! Now, let's see - I charge my clients $140/hour for my time (I'm a CPA). So, 100+20+50=170 hours. At $140/hr., that's ... $23,800? Even discounting the research time, that's 70 hours, worth $9,800.

Are you guys worth your fee? $150/hour seems reasonable, now that I know, what? 1% of what you guys know?

Just my $.02 worth. Thanks.

P.S. I STILL come to this site regularly to get ideas, listen to the REAL pros, and learn.

Post 37 made on Wednesday September 25, 2002 at 15:10
QQQ
Super Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2002
4,806
Alan:

Now that's a definite ego booster!
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