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Articles, seminars and advertisements for flat rate pricing "systems" and books flood our plumbing and mechanical trades. This results in the distorted perception that the only way to succeed in our trade, is to embrace these methods - or face financial collapse. While most of us know this premise is false, perhaps this paper will provide some input - allowing a more balanced awareness of why flat rate frequently does not work.
- Flat rate does not work - without knowing your costs.
- Flat rate is based upon a scheme that has never been accepted nor taught by any legitimate institution of higher learning such as a college, business school, or equivalent educational setting.
 Flat rate advocates suggest T&M does not work - despite the fact that T&M does and has worked since the industrial revolution over 100 years ago - and continues to do so.
- Flat rate advocates hustle pricing schemes and "seminars" that they make huge profits from - making their motives less than pure.
- Flat rate and written estimates are not the same thing - despite what a handful of mis-informed flat raters claim.
- The attorneys general and the laws of many states consider flat rate to be illegal.
- Everyone with a vested interest in buying, selling and advocating flat rate denies the fact that number six above is so.
- Flat rate does not work because it alone has any "lock" on knowing costs of doing business - despite the fact that most vocal advocates suggest it does.
- One premise (and alleged benefit of flat rate pricing) is the notion that the price of a job can be quoted - before the job is started. Realistically, you cannot know what the problem is - or the solution for that matter - until frequently lengthy and substantial diagnostic routines and test dynamics/data are completed/gathered.
- Since the time and effort required to find the problem of most service calls can vary wildly, and frequently is more time consuming than changing the offending part(s), the suggestion of charging diagnostic fees - is in fact guesswork - not a sound business practice.
 No two jobs are ever alike. The "one size fits all" basis of the flat rate price books does not address this critical issue. Every job is unique and should be billed based upon the actual labor involved - not what some book suggests. Unless of course, the book has magical powers and can predict the unknown.
- Despite the suggestion that profits on materials are not inclusive in the flat rate model, the reason for this aversion is baseless.
- Virtually every successful business knows their costs and overhead of doing business - making every conscious effort to control and reduce them. Flat raters however, suggest these costs simply need to be passed on to the customer.
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