But I can get it cheaper online !

But I can get it cheaper online !

By Mike Gambino

  “I can get it on Amazon for $50 and you’re charging how much?

Well, these days this is a problem that all professional home improvement service providers , no matter the industry must face from time to time, both on the sales side and on the service side, because people do know they can buy some certain system components, LED lamps, cable or whatever,  something online can be purchased by them for a less expensive cost. But if a homeowner ever brings this up with me, “How can you charge $….. for this part? I can go online and get it for $….,” or whatever here is what I have to say and what you must realize.

The reality is you can buy every component you need for that car out there in your garage. You can go online and buy every single component you need to build that car from scratch. But the reality is it’s not the individual components that defines the quality of the car, it’s the expertise of the assembly, the engineering, everything that goes into it.

the same is true of your professionally designed and installed Custom low voltage LED landscape Lighting system.

So I would just ask you to consider, when you look at the price of that part online, that that doesn’t include the price of someone procuring that part beforehand and having it in their truck and bringing it to your project; it certainly doesn’t include the training and experience I have over the 30 years of my career; it doesn’t include workers compensation insurance; it doesn’t include unemployment insurance, all the things we have to pay here to employ people; it doesn’t include the cost of inventory, I’ve carried that part in my truck every single day for the day it’s needed so your system downtime is minimized, the cost to operate the truck and the ever increasing costs to operate a business etc.

So there’s just a variety of factors – you’re not just buying the part, you’re buying my 30 years’ experience, you’re buying my company’s guarantee that the part is the right one for the system and it’s going to work properly and if something is missing when we open the box it’s not your problem to run all over town to make it work it’s ours — many companies like ours have a guarantee that if you buy it from us and a part fails in the first year, we’ll replace it free. So you’re not going to have that guarantee if you buy it on your own. You’re not going to have the assurance it’s done properly. And the reality is, what I’ve found is that when a part fails, there’s another part causing it to fail, or there’s another part about to fail after this one. With my expertise I’m going to be able to diagnose this system, those situations and those problems, and I’m going to know exactly what’s going on. Because odds are it’s more than just the replacement of that individual part that is going on here.

Often times the part, may appear the same, but in actuality is not and turns out to be an aftermarket part and not an original equipment manufactured part that doesn’t work the same or built of the same quality construction.

So the reality is that you’re buying a lot more than just that one individual part for $50.

Also you need to understand that if we sold parts without a markup for the same cost that you can buy for yourself online or in a discount home improvement store we would not be around the next time you would need us because we could not afford to stay in business. We make our profit by charging more for labor and materials than what we pay for them. This should come as no surprise to most, however time and again the I could buy it cheaper objection come up and we must deal with it.

Still not convinced- Well then I respectfully say then do what you have to do. But don’t be surprised if your system doesn’t perform the same just as your car wouldn’t when you bring your Mercedes to the Ford dealer for service.

This landscape lighting blog is published by Mike Gambino of Gambino landscape lighting inc. all rights reserved. Mike is a professional landscape lighting system designer/ builder and has been designing, installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems for more than 29 years. Mike resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 2 sons. To visit his website go to www.Gambinolighting.com . To inquire about hiring Mike please click here .

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