Bartering services

[sofadoc]

I had a gynocologist come in my shop today with 2 propositions.
He needed his waiting, and exam room furniture recovered, and offered to trade services.
I thanked him, and told him that my vaginal situation was all squared away right now. He assured me that the offer would be transferable to any member of the household, such as the lovely Mrs. Sofadoc.
I've been married to this woman long enough to know that the notion of swapping couch repair for crotch repair would have little or no appeal to her.
Anyway, I wasn't too keen on doing 3 or 4 thousand dollars worth of upholstery work only to have him do a couple of pap smears, and call us even. I declined.
So he moved on to proposition 2.
He also owns a funeral home that is in dire need of a decore update. In exchange for recovering 24 10ft. pews, I get a free funeral.
I tried to pin him down on what the current going rate is for a basic funeral.
I never really got a straight answer. Then he asked me the same question regarding the upholstery job. I gave him the same polite "non-answer".
I've never been a big fan of bartering large jobs. It seems like somebody gets the short end of the stick.
Anyway, how do I know that guy will still own that funeral home when the time comes for me to redeem my coupon?
Do you guys ever swap large jobs? Does it work out well for both parties?

[Mike]

VeI've nit swapped work but I did sell a trailor a d generator to a guy who rebuilt my outboard for me

[byhammerandhand]

I'm guessing this guy is fishing for a good deal with someone who might be unaware of his costs.  Smells bad to me.

I don't know about your state, but I attended an informational session at our church a number of years ago regarding pre-planned funerals.  Here (Ohio) if you pre-pay a funeral it must be deposited in escrow with an organization for this purpose.  This creates a contract that is transferrable (you can transfer to another funeral home).  If you have a similar law in your state, this guy may or may not be upping the money into the escrow account.

http://www.swickbussachamberlin.com/Frequent-Questions.html

[Steve at Silverstone Fabrics]

Barter is what makes America great.

I successfully traded upholstery work for two sets of braces.........that was over 15 years ago, my daughters teeth still look great, I am betting the waiting rooms do not.

Several years back I quoted a job at Charlotte Motor Speedway (Bruton Smith and "Humpy" Wheeler) and they wanted to exchange my work for a membership to the Speedway Club.

We asked a few questions and this is what the "fine" print looked like:

• We would exchange all of our work and materials for the membership
  The membership did not include any tickets to any event
  The memberships allowed us to spend money at the track
  
  We turned them down.........but they did find another upholstery company to do "business" with.
  
  I guess the bottom line is........there are good trades (where both sides benefit) and then there are trades with "Slick Willie's that hope you are dumber than you look. Steve
  

[kodydog]

Rarely do I barter. Everybody seems to think their services are worth $40 an hour and mine is $5. I did once barter a fireplace insert for a sofa redo. I think we came out even. We recently sold a chair and after she gave us the cash she said she had fabric for sale. Sceptically we went to look at it and it turned out to be some nice stuff. We ended up giving her all her money back. That's the way I'd rather do it.

[Mojo]

I know Humpy from my NASCAR days working as a marketing consultant and I can promise you Humpy never comes out of any deal on the short end. :) Him and Bruton Smith ( owner of Bristol and a handful of other tracks ) are ruthless bandits. This is the part of NASCAR I do not miss. I do miss the drivers, owners and crew members. We had a lot of fun together.

Speaking of Gynecologists I accompanied my wife to her appointment a couple months ago and went in the room with her. She had to have a pelvic done and wanted me in the room with her since it was a male Doctor. He was a real nice guy with a great personality so when he got down there and positioned the light to see and do the pelvic I asked him if he could do me a favor  and he said Sure. I said " if you see a watch and a ring can you grab it for me. I lost it somewhere there the other night ".

Needless to say my wife said that she hopes I enjoyed that visit because it is the last one I will ever make with her. What is funny is the Doc got done and looked at me and said " Got some bad news for you. I didn't find the watch or the ring. Sorry ". My wife rolled her eyes and made some comment about " men ".

In regards to funerals, I served my apprenticeship as a mortician back when I was a youngun. I then worked part time for my former father in law for 14 years. I can tell you it is not cheap to die these days. A funeral is going to cost you anywhere from 3 to 10 grand. Every thing offered to you comes at a cost. Embalming, rental for the chapel for the service. rental of the Chapel for visitation, the family car, hearse, pallbearer car, casket, vault, opening of the grave, closing of the grave and headstone. There are charges for each one.

If anyone is looking for a cheap way in getting to their grave then ask for a direct cremation, one day of visitation and then services the next day and have your family handle taking the ashes to the grave as well as the graveside services. Funeral directors hate this approach because they make doodly squat. Their money is in embalming, selling caskets ( a HUGE mark up ), vaults
( another HUGE mark up ) and headstones another big markup item along with the BS rentals of cars and chapels.

With direct cremation you eliminate the embalming charges, one day of visitation, the cost of a casket and the cost of a vault. It is quite the racket and they make big money of people dying.

One other thing I would like to suggest. Go down to your local funeral home and make pre-arrangements. This costs nothing ( thought they will try and get you to pre-pay ). Have them draw up your directives for your family and then they place it on file. get a copy yourself and place that with your will. When you die the funeral home follows your orders and this eliminates the family having to make hard decisions during a time when they are suffering terribly.

As a veteran of over 500 funerals I can attest to the fact that leaving these decisions to your loved ones is NOT a nice thing to do. It causes undue stress, in some cases causes fights among the kids/relatives and is something that can all be avoided if you take one hour and do it all yourself.

Just a suggestion.

Chris

Chris

[gene]

A doc who owns a funeral home? Wow. He can get paid for burrying his mistakes!

I have never bartered with my business. I've been asked to consider it twice, but both times they were looking for free labor and fabric in exchange for some of their crap.

You know what's sad about getting old? This would be a great place to share my favorite gyno joke, but I can't remember any.

gene

[sofadoc]

So the guy who's offering to trade me a free funeral would have to put money into a pre-paid funeral escrow account? Right? If that's the case, wouldn't he be just as well off to just pay me for my upholstery job?
Or is he just giving me "store credit" at HIS funeral home?
24 10ft. pews is about 75 yards  of fabric (assuming 1 width will do seat, inside and outside backs). Plus labor and foam. All this for a promise of a paid funeral that may, or may not be there when I need it. I think I'll pass.
For all I care, they can shoot my nude body out of a cannon. :D

[lamx]

25 years ago, I belonged to a barter club in Virginia. Trades were not one-on-one, you received "credits" to spend with other club members. I only bartered on small jobs to be safe but my wife and daughters got their hair done, dental services, pizza and other services. It wasn't perfect, many of the services I wanted were not available - car repair, carpentry, and other necessities but if I could find a similar club, I would do it again. The clubs where I live now have things I would never use, like photography, nail design, and dog-sitting. The downside to the Virginia club was that it was local. When I moved out of state, I had almost 1000 credits that were worthless.

Ed

[mike802]

I don't mind bartering if it is a fair trade, but I have turned down more opportunities than I have taken people up on.  I once had a pizza shop ask to take out pizza in trade for upholstering a sofa.  I like pizza, but every Friday night for the next 120 weeks didn't sound appealing. >:(

[sofadoc]

I did a little asking around today.
That guy is neither a doctor, nor a funeral home owner. I realize now that he never really said he was. He chose his words carefully. He's just a "go-between" trying sub out some jobs through bartering.
It's tough to barter when one side is providing goods and services, and the other side is providing less tangible items. I mean, what does a funeral cost?
Easy, it cost whatever they say it does.
What does an upholstery job cost? Add up the materials and labor, and you have a REAL answer.

[bobbin]

I love barter.  And use it often.  However, I tend to barter for smaller things and with people I know and respect.  The key to it is to know the value of your skill/service and to be honest with the person with whom you're going to barter. 

The last barter involved sharpening the cutters for a button making set up.  He sharpened the round cutters and I replaced the zipper in one of his hunting jackets. We both knew how much time was involved and I knew how much the zipper I already had on hand cost.  Win, win. 

I recall the words of an esteemed professor from business school:  "in a good deal both parties benefit".  Sometimes one party benefits more than another, but if you are perpetually seeing a benefit and the other party is perpetually losing, you are a poor businessman.  A good businessman never takes undue advantage.  Doing so will undoubtedly bite you in the ass, usually when you least expect it. 

[gene]

bobbin: One of Stephen Covey's 7 habits of highly successful people is to seek Win/Win in negotiations.

sofadoc: How does a go between for bartering make money? The idea of bartering is that there is no money involved. How does the go between get paid for his work?

gene

[sofadoc]

sofadoc: How does a go between for bartering make money? The idea of bartering is that there is no money involved. How does the go between get paid for his work?

Not sure, but I think he's just getting a commission for arranging the services bartered. So in this particular case, the funeral home would pay him a "finder's fee" for securing the swap of services. I'm surprised that there isn't a website devoted exclusively to this (or is there?). It all sounds fishy.

[gene]

So I call byhammerandhand today and tell him that I have 20 metal snaps that I need to install on tie backs for seat cushion covers that I made.

I ask him if he wants to barter: If he loans me his flange and die, then I will let him install the snaps for me. He just laughed. I guess he thought in my naivete about bartering that I was giving too much away? Anyway, he didn't have the tools so it was a moot point.

I kind of like this bartering idea.

gene