Charging for a PDI??
We completely missed this in our negotiations, but our customer quote worksheet lists these "options" Clean for delivery $0 PDI $1300 New owner school $0 I expect expect them to clean for deli...
Forum Discussion
Well, here's another point of view for whatever it's worth.
30+ years ago, I spent a 8-9 months working for an RV dealership in their Pre-Delivery Dept. It was just me and another guy, but our job was to get the sold units ready for the customer after the sale. We looked for and fixed major defects, installed the house batteries, leak checked the water and LP systems, installed extras the customers had purchased like awnings, AC's and such, and generally tried to make sure everything worked so the salesman wouldn't look like a fool when the customer came to pick up their new RV.
Did they charge the customer for the time needed to prep the unit and get it ready for the customer? I never saw the sales invoices, but I have to believe they did, whether it was a line-item on the invoice or was just buried in the fluff of the bottom line. When you buy a new car, you get charged for a lot of things like this. Dealer prep, shipping cost, they even charge you for filling out all those forms they have you fill out.
My point is, I seriously doubt what they're charging you $1300 for is the privilege of walking though the unit looking for loose trim, crooked wallpaper, and sawdust in the cabinets. What are you getting for the $1300? That's what you should be asking. I know the two of us spent several hours on each unit getting them ready for delivery, and we weren't working for free. Whether you see the cost of the pre-delivery labor as a line item on your sales invoice, or it's just factored into the amount of profit they are going to make, it's part of the overhead, and the customers pay for it one way or another.
There's always the used market, where everything is "as is".
:):)
30+ years ago, I spent a 8-9 months working for an RV dealership in their Pre-Delivery Dept. It was just me and another guy, but our job was to get the sold units ready for the customer after the sale. We looked for and fixed major defects, installed the house batteries, leak checked the water and LP systems, installed extras the customers had purchased like awnings, AC's and such, and generally tried to make sure everything worked so the salesman wouldn't look like a fool when the customer came to pick up their new RV.
Did they charge the customer for the time needed to prep the unit and get it ready for the customer? I never saw the sales invoices, but I have to believe they did, whether it was a line-item on the invoice or was just buried in the fluff of the bottom line. When you buy a new car, you get charged for a lot of things like this. Dealer prep, shipping cost, they even charge you for filling out all those forms they have you fill out.
My point is, I seriously doubt what they're charging you $1300 for is the privilege of walking though the unit looking for loose trim, crooked wallpaper, and sawdust in the cabinets. What are you getting for the $1300? That's what you should be asking. I know the two of us spent several hours on each unit getting them ready for delivery, and we weren't working for free. Whether you see the cost of the pre-delivery labor as a line item on your sales invoice, or it's just factored into the amount of profit they are going to make, it's part of the overhead, and the customers pay for it one way or another.
There's always the used market, where everything is "as is".
:):)
