Pick-N-Pull is a butt rape.

It's really the bottom line that matters. If they asked $41 for the bar, would you have complained?

Now, let's talk about some really stupid charges. A car dealer, selling a new $40,000 car, will tack on a $179 'inventory fee'. I always tell them that is part of their overhead...so why don't they also have a tacked on fee for their electric bill and their property taxes?

Best of all....the criminals who run the likes of UPS and FedEx...when gas went up, all of a sudden a 'fuel surcharge' was tacked on to cover the added cost of fuel. Well, OK. So why did the charge stay there went gas dropped to all-time lows?

No, it is not the bottom line for me.
Anything unexpected that gets tacked on afterwards feels shitty.
Like when a buddy asks a favor....you do it and then get "Oh while you're here, can you help me move the couch and mow my lawn"?

yeah, but didn't you know going in they were gonna tack it on? Or was it your first time there?

I've been going there for years. I was around to see the beginning of self serve yards in the Sacramento area.
It has changed a bit over the years though.
For several years, they charged tax on cores but didn't refund the tax when you brought the POS back. That is illegal. They stopped doing that. I fully understand a core charge for something that has a reasonable expectation of being rebuilt. Engines, transmissions, alternators, starter, etc. Charging a core for a piece of steel is a money grab.
I am just tired of people taking advantage of others. We are already over-taxed and over regulated.
Some guys are passive and don't mind it when others walk all over them.
That isn't me.

Kern Dog said:

I've been going there for years. I was around to see the beginning of self serve yards in the Sacramento area.
It has changed a bit over the years though.
For several years, they charged tax on cores but didn't refund the tax when you brought the POS back. That is illegal. They stopped doing that. I fully understand a core charge for something that has a reasonable expectation of being rebuilt. Engines, transmissions, alternators, starter, etc. Charging a core for a piece of steel is a money grab.
I am just tired of people taking advantage of others. We are already over-taxed and over regulated.
Some guys are passive and don't mind it when others walk all over them.
That isn't me.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately you will never know just how much they bend people over.... It's actually the small increments in a business like this that makes the owners extremely wealthy. I like the all inclusive price myself with anything. But in today's world that's a hard target. We just went through this with a Vendor. A price was agreed upon for service work over the phone that was all inclusive. But when we starting looking at the agreement on paper there were additional monies required that was not discussed. My big boss said keep your word or find something else to do. They opted to honor the verbal agreement.... Sad world today. On that note let me go pet my Dog!

JW

cojohnso said:

But you are cheap. Because $41.50 is cheap. Owning a scrap yard has become very expensive. Primarily because of property tax due to the size. But also environmental penalties many now have to pay due to ground contamination a scrap yard creates. Unfortunately I don't see this trend getting better for the future. I have pulled my share of parts. (And yes, there is something cool about a scrap yard and discoveries.) And just dumping the contents of the radiator I wanted right there on the ground. It turns out? That practice has accumulative environmental consequences?

We had a newer scrap yard attempt to strip its wrecks in a more responsible manner. Clean, test and sell parts from the shelf as used parts. Then scrap remains there on premise. Thus lowering insurance by not having public wandering their grounds. They are no longer in business.

Click to expand...

We have a local place, that is in a old Lowes building, everything is on cement, cars everywhere.
All parts guaranteed, but no going inside, you go to the counter, tell them what you need, and your part is brought out.
More expensive yes, but they have the part, or will have it the next day.

I did not see this view in the thread.
Some were more than I wanted to read.
But would it be fair to say maybe the real issue is spending time and effort removing a part and THEN finding out it is more than advertised?

Is that putting the real problem succinctly without getting into the weeds of "cores" and "scrap"?

I've never had to pay any fees (or taxes) with any junkyard I've ever been to in my area. Usually everything is a cash deal. Even the classic car junkyard filled with 7,000 cars from the 40's thru the 70's ... is always cash (and expensive).

The bigger problem is when you think you are going to get a good deal on say a late model car part and they pull up on their computer "Well the dealership will charge you $512.13 for a new part. So we want $500. And thanks for taking it off our wreck and bringing it to the office so we can list it on Ebay for $250".
or
"We don't give a **** about selling you a part for $25, we run 3,000 wrecked cars through the shredder every year and make $2,000,000 off the scrap".

And just remember if you need a late model spare tire, they are now made out of solid Gold and not rubber, steel or aluminum anymore.

I just noticed the other day that my local LazyKQ added an "inventory fee".

No such thing as "Out The Door' anymore and you can thank the car dealers for that. Cheap gets attention!

Man you can cut the tension with a knife in here.. I get taxes and fees are annoying but wouldn’t it be a good idea to just ask about those fees before hand? I ran a starter and alternator shop for 20 years and one of the things that bugged me the most is when a customer drops off an alternator and says.. rebuild this and call me when it's ready.. so I do and they ask.. how much do I owe you.. and I say $120.. then they say.. what the hell? I coulda bought one online for $79.00!! Well guess what.. you should have asked me how much it was gonna cost before I spent 3 hours rebuilding it!! I'm in a shop with lights and heat on. You think I'm making loot on this thing? Look the bottom line is restoring these old cars is not a low budget hobby anymore folks.. just ask questions before making your decisions instead of assuming things are like the good old days!

Wow, when I read the original post three pages ago, I thought I was in a Chevy forum! You seem to have summed it up in your own words. "I am just tired of people taking advantage of others. We are already over-taxed and over regulated.". That being said, the government that took advantage of everyone by over taxing and over regulating all of us, would make companies that want to stay in business turnaround and attempt to generate that money from somewhere else to offset their losses. I am a salvage yard owner in a family business of 46 years and I do remember the first time I ran to another yard to get something I didn't have and had to pay those bs core charges for a door, a fender, etc. I shook my head, laughed it off and that was that. I never thought someone would be complaining about it on a Mopar forum, that's what fb and twitter are for! Throughout this entire feed, a good amount of you guys got the picture, and several others didn't. The fees that yards have to absorb from utilities, government regulations, the city, insurance companies, State fees and so many more, are so exuberant that it's not surprising why so many yards are closing. And as for sales tax, you're in one of the 46 states that has to pay it, so why that was mentioned I'll never understand. Being a Mopar man all my life I'm very happy that these yards do exist, and if there's ever anything in one that can be used on a Chrysler, that's icing on the cake. Also, I remember in the 80s when thievery was at its highest, customers were jumping the fence stealing muncies and hemi four speeds, and in one case a complete engine right over the gate. I spent many a nights with my dad waiting all night in the yard to catch some perpetrators and strangle them, but was never lucky enough. That being said, there are many reasons why yards, make that smaller mom-and-pop yards, would want to add some fees to try to offset so many of our losses. The corporate yards are actually ones that you could possibly call "whores", but for small yards, at least in my case, I actually do care about the people and I've always been fair with all of my customers. Except for the Chrysler parts, those I never sold and always kept for myself!

You can see that I don't post much here (don't even have an A-body at the moment), but I happened across this post, and wanted to add my observations.

I haven't been to a yard in about 4 years. There was a yard near where I used to live in Maine, before I moved to NY, and I used to stop by pretty regularly. It was a family yard, been around forever, was well-managed, they turned over their stock and kept the yard reasonably clean. They guy liked me because I'd go in and buy weird stuff off his old wrecks. Prior to that, I've been to plenty of yards, since I was a little kid in the sixties. My grandfather was good friends with the owner of a local yard back in the day, and that guy's son lived down out block when I was a kid, and his grandson and my brother were friends. When I was in college, I spent an enjoyable summer working at a junkyard that replaced that guy's yard (only set two cars on fire!). So, I'm not new to junkyards, I know how they work, and I've seen a few.

I've never heard of the charges that you guys are talking about.

I've occasionally paid sales tax at a yard, if I didn't have cash and had to use a card, or if I wanted a receipt for the tax deduction or for a guarantee, but nobody has even suggested a "core charge," or an "environmental charge," or an "inventory charge," or any other BS charges.

Any yard I've ever been to where you pull the parts yourself, I've always walked into the office, dropped my tools in the corner, asked if they've got any "year/make/model" back there with a good "x" on it, then if they said, "Yup. There's four out that way a ways," I'd ask about what they think they'd want for that "x," and they'd tell me, "About 15-20 bucks, depending on how it looks," and I'd go back and pull it off.

If I'd ever gone in, asked about availability and price, marched out through the mud and the bugs, lay down in a puddle, pulled the part off, then dragged it back and they told me a different price than the one they started with, I'd have explained to them exactly where and how far to shove it and never come back.

I'm with the posters here who say you tell someone a price and you stick to that price. If you need to add in enough for increased overhead, then you quote a higher price. You don't add on extra charges later, at least not if you want your customers to come back.

- Eric

Sounds like government is behind it. The other thread was just saying parts are a PITA. I guess we shouldn't complain, but yeah I fear they will phase out the old car thing when they are ready, and the only ones that will buy our cars when we are done will be low ballers here that sell them to rich guys over seas. My part picking days were the 90s, and back then you could find a Mopar A or B body if you looked hard enough. Anything Mopar is grabbed up now in my area. Its getting to be where I would buy a good A body 4 door if I came across one. And usually i dont have time of day for 4 door cars

Don't go buy an alternator or water pump at the parts jobber and not expect a ofe charge.
Recycling is recycling even at a salvage yard.