I have a local place, Eureka Car Stereo... quoting me 6-8 hours to put a viper 2 way in my car. I think thats a lot of labor. They charge 50 an hour. 300-400 just for labor? Is this fair?

 

Place I worked at is top notch in the area, we charged $180 for a Keyless/Alarm/Start system install. The only thing that changed the price was if the system wasn't bought there, then we tagged on an additional $50.

We were a $40 an hour place. We gave ourselves 4 and a half hours on a Keyless/Alarm/Start system. Not too many systems on the market that are all 3 that aren't 2-way.

Tell them to rent you a car for the day, pay you the salary you make in a day and take the day off, buy you a hooker, pay for a steak dinner and a case of beer. And call it even at $400.

 

alarms are a good mark up for shops that are normally sold with installation included. These shops will normally only carry one brand, maybe two that they use and are familiar with and do warrenty work with. Alarms are touchy installations that if done wrong can lead to major repairs, repeated visits and alot of lost money for the shop. If the unit is bought from that place you can almost expect half of the purchase price that it was sold for was profit which is cut into with the installers time and parts needed, as well as in those future visits that could occure. So that is why you can get an alarm so cheap with out install is that guy does nothing more then hand you the unit, and he is done with you. If you mess up the install or the unit goes bad it is pretty much up to you to repair the damage to the alarm(or vehicle)not the guy who sold it to you. He might have only made $20 on it but all he did was order it and hand it to you, you have the liability for install.

So now, for a shop to take over the liability of the install they of course are going to rape you on the install to make up for the possability of future problems, as well as to keep people from showing up at the shop with an alarm they do not carry.

Another common tactic for a shop that simply does not want to do the install because of either product/vehicle/personal taste to price it at a stupid amount that they know the person will not take so that they will not have to do the install.....

A side way around this is that most installers will work out of their garage on days off for a discount rate. The bad part of this is that you better know the guy can do what he says and that you will probably have no install warrenty to speak of. I have done many alarms for friends or friends of friends but I would not touch a 2-way personally for less then $125 in my garage....

 

My shop has done this before as well.

I think we used to charge people $300 to install one of those bulldog systems from Wal-Mart. People would constantly ask to install those, half of the time they would bring it in with their dash apart, and 30 wires sticky out of the brain box.

And are you looking at having a place install this that you didn't buy it from? I was under the impression you bought it and are having the same place install it...

 

I already own a viper security system from my old car, which became wrecked. I did not buy it at this shop, I bought it in Oklahoma a year ago. This shop quoted me just 6-8 hours for labor alone. At a rate of 50$ an hour. The hourly labor rate isnt bad, considering this is california. Its a stick, so they cant do the remote start. Its not a super high end alarm. But still. But I need to get an alarm installed, theft and break ins are common around here.

 

if they are not going to hook up the remote start then I would look at their entry level alarms that include install for around $150 new including new product. Recycling alarms is generally not done often........

 

Actually, Im wrong, its a non remote start model. Its the viper 3000, which has been discontinued. It has the engine kill and 2 way transmitter and all that though. I called them up, they said more likley 4 hours, but the 6-8 was worst case scenario. Apparently they get a lot of people in there with old bad wiring or stereo wiring all over the place. So, I feel better now.

 

if everything goes right, and you have all the parts as well as they have all the parts(and the planets and cosmos align) it should not take more then a couple of hours BUT..........

 

If you take it to Circuit City were I work we charge about $150 for an alarm, keyless entry system. If its r/s alarm keyless then its like $250. Plus if you have a chip in your key you will have to buy a bypass for it. But only if you get the r/s added. They range from $50-150

 

I should have known...