I get a call from a customer of mine. They have old VFD's that are out of warranty so they need replacement fans from the company I used to work for. I, like all the American engineers, got forced out and replaced by Jeets. And one of the first things the Jeets did was switch suppliers on the fans. These newer fans fucking don't work, with the big issue being their status output relay is really finicky. So to prevent issues, you need to add an extra relay and some wiring.
The last time I made up like 100 of these kits with my new employer, I would say it was around $12 per kit to make. The more you make, the cheaper it is. Common sense. We had to make so many because now, every time you replace a fan, you have to add one of these kits.
My customer, since the VFD's were out of warranty, went to the original supplier, my old employer. They got a quote for four of these kits they need.
$40k. That does not include installation. Even better, they will send you an installation procedure that is in broken English that isn't correct and it actually calls for you to remove a couple of power cells, each weighing around 300lbs each, just so you can remove two 120V wires and replace them with two wires that are exactly the same, except they have different wiring labels on the one end. Their procedure would take like 10 hours per drive to do. In reality, if you know how to fucking read electrical drawings, it's maybe 30 minutes a drive. I trained up a bunch of my young techs to do this, following a simplified procedure with pictures and a fleshed out checklist.
A 50,000 percent markup on parts that anyone can order off of Amazon.
When I told the customer what the kits consisted of, he went ballistic. I got them to agree to pay 12 hours of labor, at $325 an hour, for the installation and testing. "It will take one of my guys two hours to do four VFD's, eight hours for the travel, and I'm afraid the minimum hours I can charge a day is 12"
"How much for the parts?"
"Don't worry about the parts. I'll throw them in for free. Does that sound good to you?"
"Send me a quote asap. And remind me to NEVER call that customer support line ever again"
I called up the customer support line afterward just to try and get a hold of someone who can explain to me this insane markup but getting a functional adult on the phone seems impossible..
This used to be the third largest supplier of medium voltage drives and motors in the world. Now it's imploding. And it's not just my old company. It's every single engineering company above a certain size that is doing this shit.