How much to mount binding?

hammer said:

A business does not need to take care of those kinds of customers but they really shouldn't put the screws to them either...just drives them further away.

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It costs the brick and mortar store alot more to operate than some internet place. Since you are taking the $ they make on the sale away, they will go out of business if they dont charge a proper amount for their service.

Many online places are drop ship companies were they never even see the product. There is not much overhead when they just sit in a office and dont have any product on hand.

Hawkshot99 said:

It costs the brick and mortar store alot more to operate than some internet place. Since you are taking the $ they make on the sale away, they will go out of business if they dont charge a proper amount for their service.

Many online places are drop ship companies were they never even see the product. There is not much overhead when they just sit in a office and dont have any product on hand.

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I have no issue with the local shop charging a reasonable (note I didn't say proper) amount for their service. The issue I have is when the amount charged is punitive.

I went ahead and paid the $50 for having bindings mounted and adjusted, but I'd say it was a bit overpriced for the level of service (no drilling was required). Wasn't at what I'd call the punitive level though...if a shop wanted more than $50 I would have checked around some more.

I've said it once and I'll say it again. A brick and mortar store can't beat online store on prices, so they need to beat them on service. Too many stores think that you should support them just because they are local. Sorry, but I don't buy into that. If you staff the store with lazy idiots, you aren't getting my business and I won't shed a tear when you close. But if you take the time to educate me and steer me to the best product for my needs, I will gladly pay extra for the service that I received.

VTKilarney said:

I've said it once and I'll say it again. A brick and mortar store can't beat online store on prices, so they need to beat them on service. Too many stores think that you should support them just because they are local. Sorry, but I don't buy into that. If you staff the store with lazy idiots, you aren't getting my business and I won't shed a tear when you close. But if you take the time to educate me and steer me to the best product for my needs, I will gladly pay extra for the service that I received.

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I'll be fine with paying extra for the service as long as it isn't too much of a difference and I feel that it's worth it.

Local stores just have to compete with internet sales, that's a reality. If they can't beat on price then they need to have other ways to make it worthwhile for people to do business with them.

While I'm fine with patronizing local businesses and/or brick and mortar stores I won't do so out of charity. Once I purchased something from a local business for my house, and they messed it up and never told me until the item was installed (hard to tell when I looked at it). All I got was an "oops" afterwards, no offers to reduce the price or fix their mistake (would not have been easy for them to do). Needless to say I have not done business with them again and I have no problem mentioning my experience to others.

hammer said:

I'll be fine with paying extra for the service as long as it isn't too much of a difference and I feel that it's worth it.

Local stores just have to compete with internet sales, that's a reality. If they can't beat on price then they need to have other ways to make it worthwhile for people to do business with them.

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That pretty much sums up how I feel.

I agree entirely that a local shop needs to "do more" to warrent charging more.
I stand very firm that I provide extra service when you walk through the door. I have had several members on here come see me in the shops I have worked. I may not know all my customers names, but I reconize most of their faces, and remember why they were last here, so I can say something like "how are those new ___________skis?"
I take very good care of my customers, but the regulars are definatly going to get that top level service.

Scruffy said:

Here's some candy for you binding DIYers. There's enough toys there to keep ya smiling for a long time, templates and all.

http://www.bindingfreedom.com/

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I've bought lots from them.

Scruffy said:

Pinnacle ?

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Yep!

(I've deal with them in person in the past. So while not a local shop TO ME, it's really not that different from a shop an hour away)

abc said:

Yep!

(I've deal with them in person in the past. So while not a local shop TO ME, it's really not that different from a shop an hour away)

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They're a good shop. I've dealt with them a number of times. Good luck with you're new boards.

Oldest son had a friend who came by tonight needing some skis for the weekend. He ended up with a pair of my old boots & my oldest son's old skis and poles. I will grant this one was an easy one as I only had to remount the nose piece in order to make the boots fit. They were some center mount twin tips that my oldest outgrew. But the kids are going more towards rear/center mount twin tips so I could get away with just remounting the nose a little further back to make them rear/center mounts.

1st ones I did this year, a couple of added notes if you wanna DIY:

- Need to scrape off the ridges on the old holes and new ones before mounting. Need to make sure the bindings sit flush on the ski and the screw holes have ridges on them that have to be scraped/sanded down.
- I used a hot glue gun to seal the old holes. Done that before & its worked good.
- Some soap is your best friend. Made the new holes pretty small/tight so that they would really grab. But with a little soap on the threads of the screws - they seated/cut their threads pretty nicely. Probably should have put in screw sinks/heli-coils for the new mounting holes, but the tight holes & clean mounts I think will be OK.
- Use hand tools when tightening/seating the screws for the binding new mounting locations. Need to "feel" the screws as you tighten and too much risk of stripping the holes if you use drill when tightening the screws.
- Freehanded everything. All tools used are in pics. Cordless drill & some hand tools. Drill press sat in corner.
- About 1 hr start to finish. But that inc'd adjusting the bindings and scrounging up the rest of the stuff.

Skis & beer for mounting work:


Took this one of the bottoms just to prove I didn't drill thru them even though I just used tape on a drill bit as my stop & free handed everything (yes - this is post-work):



My "drill stop" and the beer that gave its life to make these skis happpen:



Happy kid with skis for the weekend - complete with money back guarantee on all work;

Strong work Whitney! !

GF just called a ski shop to ask how much to alter her slide/system bindings to her new boots. They told her $30.

Seems a lot to me, never looked at em', but arent those super-easy to adjust.

BenedictGomez said:

GF just called a ski shop to ask how much to alter her slide/system bindings to her new boots. They told her $30.

Seems a lot to me, never looked at em', but arent those super-easy to adjust.

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The shop will adjust it, but they also will do a full release test on the boot/binding. That is why the labor charge is higher. They must do that per insurance regs.

BenedictGomez said:

GF just called a ski shop to ask how much to alter her slide/system bindings to her new boots. They told her $30.

Seems a lot to me, never looked at em', but arent those super-easy to adjust.

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They're super easy to adjust. I've never pay for re-adjusting binding to a new boot though. It's always done by the shop I bought the boot from, for free.

But on the other hand, $30 isn't too high for any kind of binding adjustment. At least I've never seen anything less than $25.

BenedictGomez said:

GF just called a ski shop to ask how much to alter her slide/system bindings to her new boots. They told her $30.

Seems a lot to me, never looked at em', but arent those super-easy to adjust.

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What's minimum wage these days, ~$10/hr? Hopefully a ski tech is doing a little better than that, maybe $15/hr? The shop has overhead multipliers on that. Probably a bare minimum of x2. So minimum labor rates is at least $30/hr. Which is ridiculously low for any sort of task that involves safety and liability. By the time the guy talks to your GF for a bit of info, fills out the adjustment form, makes the adjustments, fills out the billing receipt, cashes it out, etc he's getting pretty close to an hours worth of labor. And he's accomplishing a task that the customer can't/won't do on her own. So $30 sounds fair and reasonable to me.

Cannonball said:

What's minimum wage these days, ~$10/hr? Hopefully a ski tech is doing a little better than that, maybe $15/hr? The shop has overhead multipliers on that. Probably a bare minimum of x2. So minimum labor rates is at least $30/hr. Which is ridiculously low for any sort of task that involves safety and liability. By the time the guy talks to your GF for a bit of info, fills out the adjustment form, makes the adjustments, fills out the billing receipt, cashes it out, etc he's getting pretty close to an hours worth of labor. And he's accomplishing a task that the customer can't/won't do on her own. So $30 sounds fair and reasonable to me.

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I thought those platform bindings can be adjusted in less than 5 minutes (these are the ones that dont need to be drilled and remounted). Not so?

BenedictGomez said:

GF just called a ski shop to ask how much to alter her slide/system bindings to her new boots. They told her $30.

Seems a lot to me, never looked at em', but arent those super-easy to adjust.

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Depending on the binding it can either be a screw that moves the heel or a tab that can be lifted and then slide the heel. Pretty easy.

I've mounted both my wife's bindings as well as a guy from work recently who got these system bindings on a track.
Very easy---set the Din to what I believed an appropriate level given height/weight/ski ability.

I take my skis to get drilled---got 2 done this past Fall locally for $80 total (bought skis + bindings online)

BenedictGomez said:

I thought those platform bindings can be adjusted in less than 5 minutes (these are the ones that dont need to be drilled and remounted). Not so?

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Very easy to adjust. But they still take time for a functio. Test on top of that as well.
Adjusting a binding is not hard, but it needs to be done right. Over the years I have seen some people give instructions on certain bindings that are just not correct, while thinking its all good.

xwhaler said:

Very easy---set the Din to what I believed an appropriate level given height/weight/ski ability.

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Just curious how you come up with you believe to be a appropriate din #? Are you guessing or using the manufactures adjustment charts?