Is that reasonable?
This morning I stopped by Clark/Devon Hardware Sore to rent a masonry saw. I think it’s 12″ but it might have been 14″. But that’s not the whole story.
As I walked into the store the owner says across the store, in a strong voice “Can I help you?”, in a way that sounded more like what the he11 are you doing in my store. The clerk knows me, sees me in there a lot, but I’m not usually there right when they open, so the owner doesn’t know me from Adam. And granted, I’m unshaven, t-shirt hanging out, cut-off jeans.. I guess I could have been mistaken for a bum, or maybe some who works.
Anyway, I kidding around said “Oh, me?” He says “Yes sir, what can I do for you?”, a little more politeful this time. So I told him what I need and he points me to the saw. “Oh, a wet saw” I says, and he said “Yep, clean cuts, no dust blowing all over the place..”
We step over to the cash register and I hand him my Visa card and as I’m pulling out my drivers license he says “I need some I.D.” I handed it to him, he types some stuff into his computer, then says “Do you have a credit card? This is a debit card, I can’t use it.
Okay, now here’s the thing. It’s a new debit card because my old one was compromised and I had to have it replaced. I have used the old one to rent tools from them in the past, several times – a Bosch brute, a floor sander, a post hole auger, just to name a few. But he says he can’t accept the debit card.
Long story short, I told him never mind, I’m just going to Home Depot to buy a wet saw. But the thing is, he was going to charge me $62 a day for the saw (reasonable) and $50 a day for the blade. I know they charge for the blade, but $50 a day??? Was he trying to gouge me or is that really what it typically costs?
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Replies
Never heard that.
I have had em measure the blade and charge by the returned condition of wear..so much per .oo1 of gone-ness.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Ditto what Sphere says.Wallyo
most rental places mike the blade before and after and charge by the wear.
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"After the laws of Physics, everything else is opinion"
-Neil deGrasse Tyson
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If Pasta and Antipasta meet is it the end of the Universe???
Yeah, that's how I've always know it. I didn't know they marked the blade, always thought they measure the diameter.
But okay, supposing this particular place does it a little different, they charge by the day. Does $50 a day sound reasonable?
I'm just wondering if I should ever do business with them again.--------------------------------------------------------
Cheap Tools at MyToolbox.netSee some of my work at AWorkOfWood.com
If he has an attitude and is stupid enough to have a flat fee, I'd rent it for the day and cut everything you can think of. Concrete, old engine blocks , large rocks - maybe rent two and have a saw blade fight.
I like your way of thinking.
As it turns out, I would need the saw a second day. At $120 a day overall (62 for the tool, 50 for the blade, plus tax) I figure that's $240 toward the $750 saw I bought. I should thank him. :)--------------------------------------------------------
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Home Depot charges about $45-55 rental for the 14" diamond blades in their gas cutoff saws.JT
...maybe rent two and have a saw blade fight.
That thar is dern funny!
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
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Yep. :D--------------------------------------------------------
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He meant mic'd, not marked, as in measured with a micrometer. Just misspelled.
How do you know you dint mis spell it???:)I was wondering if it might get lost in translation...I wanted to save typing out "measured with a micrometer"and now I have to type a new postI'm wasting electrons by the bucket....
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"After the laws of Physics, everything else is opinion" -Neil deGrasse Tyson
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If Pasta and Antipasta meet is it the end of the Universe???
Edited 5/14/2008 6:51 am ET by MisterT
the last blade we bought was over $500
When I asked why so much he said the blade costs $165, and that it only lasts through 10 or so rentals. I'm thinking maybe some other renters didn't bother using water. The $165 sounds about right, but only 10 uses?--------------------------------------------------------
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If he was going to let you use a 14" blade all day for $50, he is not going to make much money renting that saw. The only accurate way to price blade useage is to measure it before and after use.
It is not uncommon for a 14" blade to be almost totally consumed if you use it heavily all day. I don't know how he could base his charge on what he thinks you might do with the saw during the day.
The way we use those blades, I would gladly pay the $50 to use his blade rather than our own.
Thanks for clarifying, Julian and Bo.
I guess in light of that he wasn't trying to gouge me on the blade. Maybe I'm just bent out of shape because he wouldn't take my debit card (even though they did before). Either way, it's a bummer because they're a really well equiped rental store and I do rent a lot of tools.
Oh well... I'd rather buy 'em and keep 'em anyway. Maybe I could rent them out when I'm not using them. :D--------------------------------------------------------
Cheap Tools at MyToolbox.netSee some of my work at AWorkOfWood.com
FWIW my local rental yard charges $50.00 deposit, then when you return it the compare mic readings and charge accordingly. Deposit is returned if the blade isn't damaged.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
Blade issues aside, WTF was the prob. with using the debit card to secure the rental? Mine functions just like a CC when booking hotel rooms, rental cars, escort services, etc.
This guy did you a favor in the end.
Justification for a $750.00 tool purchase...
Priceless.
The best reward for a job well done is the opportunity to do another.
That is the big issue. Like I said, I've used my debit card there plenty of times. Had I not had to replace it he would have seen at least a dozen rentals on my old debit card number.
Also, like yours, my debit card also works as a credit card. When I use it at the little grocery store by my home, or the little hardware store, they treat it as a credit card. He could have rented me the saw and decided not to. I'm guessing by his bellowing "Can I help you" from across the store that he decided this as soon as I walked in. Not sure what he would have done if I had an American Express card. I guess that would have brought me up to his high social standards.
I was thinking about it last night when I went to bed. I'm still going to have to rent tools and I'm not going to drag my customer to the rental store every time I need something. I really prefer to give my business to the locals but it looks like my rentals are going to come from... dare I say it??
HOME DEPOT!!!
Fact is, they are almost as well stocked as Clark/Devon (named for Clark St. and Devon Ave. in case anybody wondered).
As for the cost of the blade, I think he threw in the $50 a day special for me. They are a very professional outfit and I'm sure they measure the blade and charge the person who used it for how much they used it.
I've already done about half the cutting I need yesterday and the blade on my new Ridgid wet saw barely shows any wear at all.
Yep, they lost some good business. --------------------------------------------------------
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I don't think the $50 is what bothered you so much as his attitude. He might have been having a bad day or business is down.
BUT, that's no excuse. We've recently moved to a town that is part tourist town, part college town and some of the retail business's have taken customer relations to a new level. And it is nice to be treated well. And I do notice.
So if he can't treat you with respect and some courtesy I say go elsewhere. He's in the wrong business.
Clark/Devon is generally a pretty friendly store, like a small town store. I don't think he was having a bad day but just took an attitude toward me in particular. If I was shaved and my shirt tucked in, I'm sure none of this would have occured. In all fairness, I guess I could us some grooming at time. But that's no excuse. When he saw I'm a legitimate person, he should have let the attitude go. He chose not to. His loss, my gain.
The good thing is, I still need the saw a second day, so that about $240 I would have had to spend that went instead toward the tile saw, which I need anyway. --------------------------------------------------------
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I don't know. I recently moved from a small town and the local lumber yard is almost always empty and there is an ad in the paper for a yard person continuously.
There is an old guy in there that manages the place that treats people badly I think. I think he's just not a very nice guy. I'm surprised the place is still open.
The place I would go all the time was the local Ace hardware. They had some characters in there but I won them over eventually.
I don't think he was having a bad day but just took an attitude toward me in particular. If I was shaved and my shirt tucked in, I'm sure none of this would have occured.
LOL. In our local United Rental franchise, if you look too neat they figure you don't know dogsquat...and they tack on all the extra charges they can think of.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
You can buy a nice Chinese 12" or 14" diamond segment blade on e-bay any day of the week for $30-50. The 12" I bought cut all the concrete, brick and block I needed to do for my entire project and has enough wear left to do it over again 10 times.
Local rental place charges a flat fee for the saw along with a huge deposit that is refunded when you return the saw. They take the blade out, measure the blade diameter with a mic before and after it's returned then pro-rate the blade charge based on the cost of a new blade.
The initial deposit would have been $250, which is reasonable. But it was clear that I'm being charged $50 a day for the blade no matter how much (or little) I use it. He was trying to gouge me on the blade, I have no doubt about that. He thought I was some ignorant schmuck and tried to stick it to me. And the reason he insisted on an actual credit card is because he saw there is not quite enough in my bank account to cover the loss if I damaged it beyond repair, or didn't return it. I was stigmatized! :D--------------------------------------------------------
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He could NOT have saw that you only had so much coin in your Acct.
It works like this, the card reader phone in ONLY can verify that the acct is valid, nothing else. Thats why you can either be charged for an overdraft, or declined but ONLY when an actual charge is applied. There is no other acct info available to him.
I had a very lengthy tiff with my bank about that..believe me.
This is why when you swipe a debit/credit card at the pay at the pump gas, it'll shut you down at 75.00$ or what ever they designate, if you pay inside, you can get as much as you want, and if you don't have enough in acct, you'll get a bank charge. And if you forgot the coffee anf sammichs, and ring that up separate, you will get ANOTHER bank fee.
Then you merrily go an buy a box of nails, and you get ANOTHER bank fee.
All this can happen when you just left said bank and deposited 1,ooo.oo of a 2,oooo.oo$ Check.
Most trans actions of debit credit won't show up till 00:00 AM, and if you went overdraft yesterday, without filling the hole back up, the computers will decline you today. And if the bank charges negated your "hole filling" deposit that day, you are still unaware that you are running on empty.
Due to my bank's foibles and greed, I now ( if I am cutting it that close) CASH said check, and deposit the cash, it is viable immediatly then, vs waiting for the second bank to pay out on the transaction. Of course, if that check you cashed is rubber, yer hosed.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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Okay, I'm sure you're right about all that. Still, he wouldn't accept my new debit card when I used my old one several times. Basically, he decided I'm not good enough for his business.
I gotta go and finish that patio now, and then cut some tiles for a bathroom floor. Then I might cut some random rocks in half to see what's inside. It's nice having my own 10" wet saw, that I don't have to return ASAP or it will cost me $120 a day. :D--------------------------------------------------------
Cheap Tools at MyToolbox.netSee some of my work at AWorkOfWood.com
To take this another step, (I just rented from depot the other day) I opened the tool rental with a cc and paid by debit. Had I opeded the deposit with my debit the guy behind the counter said it could take 2-3 days for depot to return the deposit. That could hurt. Using a cc saved that hassel.
John