[AT] ATIS members

[jtchall at nc.rr.com]

Ken, excellent advice! The only thing I think you missed was to save all the 
old parts. Rarely does the customer want them, but it shows you have nothing 
to hide.

The worst thing we have run into lately is folks wanting to know exactly 
what it is going to cost to repair something. Kind of hard to do on bigger 
and older equipment.  We are pretty much doing what a friend of mine does, 
give an estimate to find out what's wrong. If they don't want to fix it, 
then it can leave in boxes or be winched in pieces onto a roll back.

About the worst we ever got burned on a 2 cycle unit was a Weed-Eater 
trimmer. Would run right, not too old. Putin a carb kit, cleaned the filter, 
still wouldn't run right. Ordered a new carb. Ran a little better, still not 
perfect. Ordered a piston ring, very simple to change actually. Finally it 
ran decent. There was a ridiculous amount of labor on our end as well as 3 
trips for parts. We only charged for the parts and the customer was happy. 
We strongly suggested that next time he buy an Echo trimmer!

John Hall