Vehicles & Servicing Mobile Motorcycle Mechanic

What I did not know at the time, but learned subsequently, is that he works for Kymco. So, he presumably does have a salary and was doing this job on the side.

It's been interesting reading the debate about whether P500 is fair for his time or not. My view is, having learned much of P350 per day salaries for office workers and low grade construction workers (which I personally find to be degrading by the way), P500 for a maximum of two hours of his time including the travelling, plus a bit of fuel, is OK. He suggested that and I didn't attempt to barter him down.

He happens to now be doing some other work on the bike for me at the Kymco workshop and I'll be making sure that he's seen right.

 

I am not suggesting that is what he should be earning, only that as a sense of gratitude pay him a bit more to make his life a little more bearable. Most Filipinos would appreciate it. Might make you feel a bit better about yourself at the same time!

 

A relative has used the specialist services of a plumber/water system expert (he actually is!) and he charges 800 for 'a job' - done after he finishes work in his day job. Two jobs were done, one longer than the other, but the labour fee was still 800 for each. When I was told what he had done I would have happily given him 800. There is a balance (somewhere!) between not distorting the local market (and not causing resentment that foreigners are pushing up tradesmen's prices) and feeling satisfied that, in comparison to the costs in our own countries, we got a bargain. With London garages now charging about P15,000 per hour (equivalent) for labour, we are never likely to be paying anywhere near those figures.

Another way to look at it is x pesos for the job and a little bit on top to help people who have much less than we do. If that evening the worker's family eats a chicken instead of fish heads then isn't that a good thing?

 

Read the rest of it!

 

If you ask a motorcycle shop they can send a mechanic to your residence. Time is of no value in the Philippines. When they say 11:00am, expect them to be there at 1:00 or 2:00pm. “It’s up to you” is most common request for pay. You will hear it a lot for services - not goods or merchandise.

 

And that's a game. I know people in the antiques trade in the West - if you ask them to buy an item they will reply "What do you want for it?" (even though they already know its value) and depend on the seller being ignorant. If the item is worth about $1000 and the seller says $800, they will pass and keep trying to push the price down - if the seller has no idea (and I have seen many examples of that) and says "Would you give me $5" they will agree but seem reluctant! At the end they either get it for about the price they were originally willing to pay or for very much less.

The method here for services usually plays the same game - so best to start reasonably low and wait for them to push it up.

This is where this Forum is of use, by expats letting others know the general price they are paying for services of different types.

 

The guy I used was spot-on time both times he came out though. I was impressed as I'm pretty a**l about timekeeping (which is a cause of much frustration living here).

 

Living in the Ph as a foreigner and expecting Filipinos being sharp on time, trust me, you are in the wrong country, though there are always exceptional to the rules.