As it happens, I do charge a flat rate to the trade, and most of the
stores
that I deal with do similarly to the customer who brings the item in, the
actual amount being dependant on what exactly the item is. My flat rate
includes parts to a value of 5GBP, which covers general transistors,
diodes,
resistors etc. If the cost of parts (or occasionally labour) is going to
exceed that, I contact the store which took it in, and give them a quote.
Sometimes, knowing the customer, or based on indications of what he said
he
was prepared to pay when the job was booked in, the store owner can give
me
a go-ahead there and then. Sometimes, they have to contact the customer to
get a go ahead. In general, it's a good system, and everyone pretty much
knows where they stand from the outset. From my point of view, it allows a
degree of 'some ya win, some ya lose' flexibility to be automatically
built
into jobs from any particular store. However, I don't treat it as a
catch-all that can be applied absolutely rigidly to all jobs. Yes, I am
prepared to lose sometimes against making at others, but it still has to
be
based around a basic one hour figure, if the losses are not to exceed the
gains. There are very few 'stock faults' these days, which means that more
and more, every fault has to be 'chased down' which takes you on average,
ever closer to that one hour figure, and not making a reasonable profit
overall.

For that reason, if no other, I will continue to charge in the way that I
always have. It has never caused me a problem in the past, and I don't
envisage that it will in the future. There will always be people who do
not
approve of a particular business practice or pricing regime, but as long
as
it is leagal, and the majority don't have a problem with it, then any
issues
that the minority might have, I see as their problem, not mine. Anyway,
none
of this debate, interesting as it is, gets me any closer to resolving the
primary problem, so no more, please ....


Agreed. But I think it was a valid point. And (though it probably doesn't
matter to you what I think), it seems to me that you /are/ running your
business in a fair and ethical manner.

As to the original problem... I come back to the suggestion of having a
dentist X-ray one side of the cabinet. Other than heating the back in the
hope that peeling off the covering will reveal recessed screws, I don't see
any other way -- short of a service manual -- of finding out just what keeps
it together.

I'll stick with my belief that it slides/snaps into place. Press on the
back, then slide it down. As Sherlock would likely say, you've pretty much
eliminated just about everything else.