It’s HOW much for a key? But I only paid $xxx for the car!!

Like most retail businesses, we sometimes get customers that are flabbergasted by the price of things; like a spare key for their car. Most of the time it’s someone who bought an older car that still has an electronic key, whereas whatever vehicle it replaced did not, and they’ve been used to paying $2-3 for a spare key.

And more often than not, they object to the price we quote for a spare by pointing out how little they paid for the car.

I understand that in most cases it’s not directed at me personally, or at my business, but perhaps just a protest against the ever-increasing cost of things we need to keep moving, and in this case, the increased cost to support a feature of their vehicle they probably don’t even want (at least until it gets stolen).

Still, it does give me pause to wonder what it would be like to try and make this point at any other establishment. When you buy a tank of gas, do you pay less per gallon than the person in the brand new Escalade on the other side of the pump? When you called about a new set of tires, did they ask you how much you paid for the car and adjust the quote accordingly? Are your tags cheaper to renew than a newer, more expensive car?

I made keys onsite for an early 90’s model service van owned by a boat repair business who, when presented with an invoice for $150, jokingly commented they only paid $300 for the van. I quipped “so I bought a boat off craigslist for $200 and it needs to have the bottom repained. . . so by that logic it shouldn’t cost more than I paid for it, right?” They understood and were quick to laugh about using the same protest on me that undoubtedly many of their customers also used on them.

I learned it costs about $55 per square foot to repaint a boat bottom. And no, they don’t care what you paid for the boat.