William Creek fuel price lowered!

Sounds fair enough!

That's what we charge, sounds a bit cheap to me, maybe we should put the prices up for whingers!

You could have done it yourself, by the side of the road for nothing!

This was about seven years ago. We stayed the night in the hotels donga, bought meals and grog, so it wasn't just money spent on a ten minute tyre repair.

So what you are eluding to is, that because someone can't do something themselves, this gives you the opportunity to charge two hundred and fifty percent more than a reputable tyre shop.

No,

What I'm "eluding" to is you wanted a tyre fixed, you obviously couldn't do it yourself, someone did it for you who is not a "tyre shop", so hasn't got the equipment that a "tyre shop" has, doesn't do anywhere near the volume of tyre repairs that a "tyre shop" does, probably stopped doing a dozen other jobs that needed doing to Help you out! to repair your tyre that you got a puncture in & charged you a reasonable price for it!

Then you bitch about the cost, & the fact that you spent a bit of money in the place!

I think you are well named "Wotacroc" or whoever you are, I suspect a Troll!

So how long did it take to remove the tyre from the rim, prepare it, patch it & refit it to the rim?

Shaker,

It takes me approx. 15-20 minutes to remove, repair & refit a tyre.

That's if it's a "simple" repair, if it's a hard one i.e. can't find the leak, dirty/muddy tyre, damaged rim etc.. then it can take quite a bit longer.

We don't have flash tyre changing machines, most of the work is done by hand, tyre levers, or a tyre change post.

Add to the labor cost the cost of consumables, patches, adhesives, fuel for the compressor, then $50 isn't too much I would think.

Think yourself lucky you weren't at Birdsville, he does very few repairs these days. Just sells new tyres. Smart thinking on his part.

Jeff, I am nowhere near a troll and have been a lurker and contributer on this forum for many, many years. You may call me a whinger, but more than likely one day, which is unfortunate, businesses like yours, could be a thing of the past. Surely you must have noticed that travellers now carry bigger and better fridges for the storage of frozen food and suppies. Bigger and better vehicles with larger storage capacities for both petrol/diesel. You can pick up a slab of grog in the big towns on the way to smaller communities like yours. These changes must be affecting businesses like yours these days. Then there are people like me who would rather travel outside Australia, where you can get more bang for your buck so to speak, and I am not just talking about Asian countries. I just take exception to being taken for a ride simply because some business owner sees an opportunity to squeeze a few exta bucks out of me.
Bear in mind this incident occurred seven years ago, possibly longer, so fifty bucks in those days was worth more than these days.
I don't know if you have been to William Creek, but there is a proper tyre repair bay next to the pub, fitted out with all the mechanical changing equipment.
The owner was far from busy. I asked him to do the repair in the morning after we stayed the night, when he was sitting on the front verandah doing stuff all, well before the pub was open. I wheeled the tyre up to his shed, it took him all of ten minutes to repair and I wheeled it back out and mounted it onto the camper.
Now up to this point I had spent over two hundred dollars on very ordinary accommodation, meals and drinks. It wasn't as though I just walked in off the road and wanted the tyre done straight away.
I expect to pay more at remote locations, as I understand there are transport costs and the like. But I take exception to being gouged simply because a service provider has the ability to.
Just remember the name wotacroc, as I will certainly introduce myself to you should I stop off at Mt Dare sometime in the future.

Jeff, I'm on your side, I reckon $50 was more than fair!
Minimum 1/2 hour charge plus a patch, I wonder what he thinks would have a fair price.

Watacroc,

Troll:"In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as a forum, chat room, or blog, with ..." Yep, sounds like you.


Take your money overseas, then have another whinge when places like the William Creek Hotel aren't there to fix you tyre if you ever decide to travel that way again, maybe you will have learnt to fix one yourself by then.

I look forward to meeting you in person.

David16, Sorry for derailing your thread, but I couldn't let this one pass without comment.

Mods, feel free to delete anything that you consider inappropriate.

Fair enough. I thought this was a forum where people could express their views. And I am more than happy to spend m $$$$$ overseas.

Jeff at Mt Dare is saying he charges $50 at current prices. A discount tyre place next door to my workshop charges $28 for a "combi patch" (R&R the tyre) They have a huge turnover so $50 out in the desert (exept when the bar floods, poor buggers) sounds pretty fair to me. Bob

No problem Jeff :) I know that when i came through Mt Dare a few weeks back and my mate had to get his wheels done by Dave and then had to get a flat fixed at William Creek i couldnt get the $50 out of my pocket quick enough!

Tyre fixing is still $50 at WC, so maybe its too cheap! Same price for 7 years!

I tell you what, i give the guys at Mt Dare and WC credit, the lifestyle is not for everyone, both places run on generator and all water is carted in! Work out the cost of that alone. To Trevors credit he bought the pub in November 2012 an has spent a packet on the infrastructure, this is a major investment and we should be supporting him and the Mt dare boys.

Just add up the cost of the crap some of us carry and accessories added to our vehicle for that ''just in case'' moment etc and we whinge about paying $10 extra for a puncture or 20c lt extra for fuel (mind you thats $16 an 80 lt tank extra or $64 per 2000 kms)

Seriously!!!

jeez, I've dropped the ball then, at $45, might be time for a price rise here :-)
Wotacroc, you say people are avoiding stopping at these businesses more and more, and yes, happens here too.. we also have people pull up and make sandwiches in our nice shady verandah area, use the amenities, top up water, all without setting foot inside the shop.
We also have people set up camp, outside the campground gates, under the security lights for comfort, and bugger off before opening..
Yet if the doors were to close, and this place be torn down, where would the freeloaders be then?
Complaining that there is nowhere to stop, whinging that there is nobody out here to help them when they need it.
Luckily, not ALL travellers are like you, but yes, there is an increasing number of your kind.
If you feel you are being gouged, that is because you have zero idea of the costs involved in operating in these remote places.
Just fuel delivery alone attracts several thousand dollars in freight costs, and that's just the tip of the iceberg, everything costs a lot more here, everything.
But, we love being here, and meeting the great people that take the time to stop and camp or for a feed or top up the tanks.
Enjoy your OS travels mate.
Cheers
Al

Al, at least you are prepared to give some examples of your arguement and not just resorting to call someone a troll.

You might like to know what I did before retirement. I owned a 24 hour, 7 day a week service station/convenience store, that pumped out well over 100,000 litres of fuel each and every week of the year. Believe it or not, we concentrated more on the convenience and fast food side of the business. I worked longer hours than you can imagine. I would never have had time to tool around on a computer after hours, let alone during the day. Unlike yourself, I had an array of close nearby competition. The only way I could survive was to provide fair and reasonable prices. And you are right, I don't know exactly the operating costs are in a remote location, but I do understand the fuel/food/goods transportation cost side of things. However, you seem to have the benefit of being a sole trader with no competition, but in a remote area.

What people seem to be forgetting, is the price I paid was fifty dollars seven odd years ago. At a rough guess that may have equated to sixty to perhaps seventy dollars in todays money..who knows. Apparently that fifty dollar rate hasn't changed in all these years. Your rate of forty five sounds reasonable by todays standards and I would expect to pay that.

You're right about people not understanding the costs involved in running a business, however, most of the people who are abusing your facilities are probably retired, and more than likely of the self funded variety, watching their dollars. I don't abuse facilities, I pay my way, but like a lot of people, I don't like to see businesses or individuals putting their hand in my pocket, simply because they have me over a barrel.

l travel Australia, but not a great deal these days. However, I do make a point of buying any provisions at a local town and generally stay in caravan parks. However, it just gets harder and harder to want to travel our great country, when overseas travel is much cheaper.

I just came back from my fourth USA trip over in the USA. As a country, it is perhaps on a par or even better in diversity than here. While recently doing Route 66, I could stay at very decent hotels, that included breakfast with free wi-fi, for under one hundred dollars a night. Throw in decent meals for well under twenty dollars and well, compare that with here.

I am not saying that it's right, I am just giving an example of what people like you are up against. You have the benefit of enjoying what you do and more power to you.

Who gives a toss what the price of fuel is in these places. So it adds it bit more to your fuel bill, what about $40 for 150L and it's not as if you're driving through every bloody day of the week. If you can afford to get there you can afford the extra few dollars.
You know it's going to be dearer so just accept it and stop complaining.
Jo (:

All
I would just to say that when ever I travel to out back towns like William Creek and MT Dare as part of my trip planning I allow for the extra cost of fuel and the likes. I am also quite happy to spend some cash in these places and hopefully help the owners to keep open and to survive. You never know one day one could break down and need assistance and with out these places it will be a long wait for the RAA/RACQ.

I have a policy of never drive past a diesel pump in the Outback.
Every little bit helps the business, plus we generally find something to buy when we are there & we get to meet some wonderful people.

Blimey, all this happened over seven years ago!
I'd be getting out a bit more often and looking for something else to provide entertainment.

I'd be grateful for someone to fix a tyre, back when I were lad, we used to have to fix out own. We couldn't even find anyone to pay to fix them for us ;)

Wotacroc.

Are you serious? You enter your posts on a forum which is designed to be helpful and add your veiled threats:

"Just remember the name wotacroc, as I will certainly introduce myself to you should I stop off at Mt Dare sometime in the future."

I only wish I was the person who created "Exploroz". You would be off the list........

Personally I feel very priveleged to be able to travel across a beautiful country and have people and businesses like Mount Dare and William Creek who will not only put down whatever they are doing to help but charge a reasonable fee to do it. $50 is cheap to fix a tyre in the outback if you compare the cost of a tow from there to the city.

Likewise, what would you rather do pay $70 a carton ($3 a stubbie) for beer in a beautiful place like William Creek or stand in a nightclub in the city and pay $9 a stubby.

Stop whinging mate and get on with enjoying yourself before life rushes past you!!!!!!!!!

Veiled threat??? Are you really serious? You are reading way too much into this thread. At no stage have I threatened anyone. All that I implied is that I would be happy to call into his pub and introduce myself as wotacroc.