i have KF-50XBR800 and TV wouldn't turn on all of sudden. so i contacted sony online to troubleshoot via chat and was told to request service order to local authorized sony in-home repair center. so i did call local repair center for the service.
when technician came over, the bulb went out and had to be replaced. the replacement bulb was XL-2000U model number. after replacing with the new bulb, TV worked fine.
now, question to you experts... i was quoted $371 for the lamp (XL-2000U) plus labor cost. he explained it costs a lot because XBR uses special lamp blah blah blah... i trusted him because of they were platinum ses (sony excellent service).
i later discovered that sony sells the exact same bulb for $199 (both at sonystyle.com and sony direct accessories & parts center).
i called the technician back for a good explanation... he said sony sells for $371 to in-home repair centers...
am i gettin' ripped off here or is he telling me the truth? pls advise. thx a ton!
I don't think it's unusual for service companies to chargs a markup on parts, but that seems excessive. As far as their claim that they pay Sony $371 - that's a bit of a stretch. I would think it's more likely that they get the bulb at a discount, not a premium. If this is an independent contractor that has to pay a referal to Sony for the service call, that could explain the excessive markup.
well after you add shipping cost & tax the bulb cost atleast to my home 221-227 depending shipping time.
Now add the service persons, utlities, insurance, other employees, property taxes, blah blah blah that goes into owning a business. plus the non$$ factors of professional service instead of you ripping the tv appart to install it.(the peace of mind that was done right and that if something is wrong the work is backed or should be)
I guess if you paid $371 total for parts and labor it might make sense, but if you paid that much for the part plus had to pay to have somebody come and install it (not an insignificant amount I bet) you are probably looking at well over $500 for this service call. I would assume that the Service person's overhead would be included in the labor charges and that the markup on the parts would be more of a 'handling charge' - certainly should not be a 85% markup.