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Update: found a 1987 alarm install price sheet in an old panel box in Dayton, and the numbers floored me
Was doing a panel swap on a house in Dayton last week and pulled the old can off the wall, and taped inside the back was a yellowed price sheet from 1987. The company was charging $1,895 for a basic 3 door, 1 motion setup with a keypad, and that was before they even ran the wire. I ran the numbers and with inflation that's close to 5 grand in today's money, and I did basically the same job last month for $650 plus parts. The sheet also listed a monthly monitoring rate of $19.95, which sounds cheap until you figure out it's about $55 now. What really got me was the line for "extra siren, add $85," because I throw one in for free on most jobs just to close the deal. Made me wonder if we gave away the whole trade over the last 35 years or if the old timers were just charging what the work was actually worth. Any of you guys ever find old paperwork like that, and did it mess with your head about pricing too?
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rowanr8816d ago
Honestly the free siren thing is probably the whole story right there. Somewhere along the way everybody decided to give stuff away just to win the job, and now customers expect it, so nobody can charge for it anymore. That $85 add on back then was straight profit and the old guys knew it, we just forgot how to say no lol.
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