Flat Rate? Since when?

I get a kick out of all the shops that say they use flat rate pricing, and act like it is something that has been invented just recently.  I wonder why we can’t just say it the way it is said everywhere else.  Ever heard over the loud speaker in the grocery story “I need a flat rate price at register 3?” or have you ever heard a waitress in your favorite restaurant say “Today’s special is a Flat Rate $5.99”

Is it any wonder then that our customers find it a little odd or start wondering about our honesty when we use the term “Flat Rate” to describe how they will be charged for our services?

 I know, we should insist that more business start pricing things on a time and material basis.  Restaurant menus would become a real treat, we could actually find out if it cost more to have corn or peas with our meal, stakes would be priced by the pound, there would be a charge for every napkin that we used, and do you think we would get a refund for the silverware or the glass that we “returned unused”?  And of course there would be a change for every 15 minutes we occupied the table.  And we could really get a cheap meal, if we could show up with our own raw steak, and only have to pay to have it cooked.  That brings up another question, shouldn’t a rare steak be cheaper than a well done one.

If we liked to haggle, we could take the final bill up the register and complain that we were over charged for the table because the waitress took an extra 10 minute to complete the bill after we were ‘really done’.  That would be great because then plumbers and prostitute wouldn’t be the only ones the charged by the hour.

I’m real tired of hearing that the only shops that don’t gouge the public are time and material shops, where the customer pays for what they use.  What that really says is that ‘we don’t know enough about what we are doing to know what our services cost’.  Think about this the next time you order a hamburger for lunch, would you think you go a fair deal for the meal if your favorite fast food establishment could not tell you how much your food was going to cost until they cooked it, wrapped it, put it in a sack and then when they got all your order there on that bright red tray they looked up at you and said “OK now let figure out how much you owe us”?