I would agree with electricmanscott. To put comercial devices in most homes would be a waist of money. If you marked up the two switches say 2.0 it would be:

$0.50 switch x 2.0 = $1.00 Charge
$4.50 switch x 2.0 = $9.00 Charge

As you found it may be difficult to get the $$$ for the comercial grade. As I understand it you did not mark it up anything and still lost a customer. Only a few $$ mark-up lost to give away a great switch at your cost might seem like it does not matter. At the end of the year look at the differance:

No MU every $1,000 in material you spend will bring you $950 with a 5% material loss.

MU 2.0 every $1,000 in material you spend will make you $1,900 with a 5% material loss.

I'm not saying it's a $900 profit cause you still have OH. I think a 5% material loss is on the low side. A MU of 2 may not be right for you or everything you sell but for small doller service call things it's not out of line.

Having inventory of the $0.50 switches is much cheaper also.

Try looking at it from another point of view. If you called a carpenter to put new interior doors in your home. For the door handles instead of using the $10 ones he used $50 comercial ones. With or with out a MU would you call himm back? The carpenter is only tring to do the best work.

Also it comes back to the job is broken down labor and materials then that caused problems. Sometimes it makes people happy if you put down free switch or what ever small and just charge more.

Long time ago I worked at an auto dealer. They would allways have problems with labor and materials seperate. One time the US post office figgured out on every oil change they were charged for 5 quarts of oil and not just "oil change" when the trucks took less than 5. They wanted a refund for every oil change on all the trucks for years past. No credit and the account was lost. Or a customer that was charged $4 each spark plug instead of $xx for a tune up swore he would never buy a new car there again. Auto shops have some of the same problems.

If you think a few cheaper swiches are going to wear out in the next few years than just figure on warrenting them. It does build customer relations and possibly lead to other work while your there.

Tom




[This message has been edited by Active 1 (edited 11-24-2004).]