You want it fast and you want it cheap and dont care what it looks like as long as it smokes then you will be happy with their work. You want factory or better quality and don't care how long it takes or costs then georged and maybe a few others is probably your only options. I just want something in the middle and that seems to be just about as rare as georged at least in my searches.
What you describe has been the case for a while and is getting worse, peteguy. I posted something on this board a couple years ago that tried to explain some of the reasons why.
I'd link to it, but the older threads get here the harder they are to find, so here is a copy from my own computer's files (with a few small edits):
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In the pipe repair world, the output of repair shops has long been viewed as a consumer commodity in the same way as tires, toasters, or cameras. When buying those items, the only difference is who sells them to you and for how much. The quality of the same make & model item is the same at all retail outlets.
In the artisan pipe making world the output of carvers is unique, though, and each piece is considered individually and priced accordingly.
While the second case is fitting and economically sustainable, the first is not.
There are several reasons why carvers outnumber repairmen by fifty (or more) to one in our hobby, among them being the extensive equipment and inventory requirements. While a carver needs only what's required to create pipes that fulfill a chosen aesthetic, a full-service repairman needs the tools and materials to replicate the work of ALL carvers and brands, both new and old (some go back a century or more), and in every style.
Another reason is the stress of working on someone else's property. It is enormous. There are no "do-overs". Tossing a project into the fireplace when serious mistake is made is not an option.
But the main reason is the commodity pricing structure, especially when it comes to replacement stems. No matter the quality or price of the original pipe, there's an expectation that a new stem for it should cost a fixed, nominal amount.
What pipe repairmen do however, is not the same as being a retailer of tires, toasters, or cameras. They sell labor, not merchandise.
In fact, it's not even equivalent labor. Most pipe makers agree that the stem often takes as much time to shape---sometimes more---than the rest of the pipe. In addition, shaping a replacement stem after the stummel is complete and its shape cannot be further modified requires the stem to be made "in a vacuum" to fit that stummel exactly. Doing that adds to the difficulty considerably and takes additional time. Then, the labor/time demand is (often) increased still again by requiring the replacement to exactly match the original in all dimensions. (The original maker didn't have to follow any pattern or meet any particular set of dimensions... whatever simply "looked right" became the finished product.) Such dimension matching is both unforgiving and tedious.
For the record, and to be 100% clear, I am emphatically NOT criticizing or trying to minimize what "whole" pipe makers do in any way---being truly good at it is insanely difficult and requires having ALL of MANY uncommon skills rolled into a single person. I know any number of them personally, and respect what they do---and am occasionally in awe of what they do---more every day. That their work and business model is more linear and streamlined isn't something they are responsible for creating, it's simply how things are.
It's the combination of those three main things---high financial barrier to entry, the stress of working on other people's property, and the laborious, unforgiving nature of matching the work of others as opposed to creating it in the first place---that keeps people from entering the repair field (or staying with it for long when they do).
Entire articles have been written about this situation before by highly qualified people, btw. Here's a good one:
http://talbertpipes.blogspot.com/201...pe-repair.html
So, what's my point with all this? It is to take a swing at raising awareness, and thereby, eventually, make the specialty field of pipe repair more attractive to newcomers by encouraging them to adopt a tradesman model of business instead of a fixed-price commodity one. In short, price their work according to time spent instead of by simplified task categories. That's how it has always been for other tradesmen, from plumbers to machinists to welders. Try getting a fixed-price/categorical quote from one of those guys for clearing a blocked drain, machining an antique motorcycle engine part from billet, or repairing a cracked flange on an oil pipeline. Their pricing is, and has always been, based on labor and (when applicable) materials.
I think that such an approach would not only help to attract more repairmen, but, over the long term, would benefit their customers. First, since there would be more of them, turnaround times would improve. Second, because the quality of workman ship varies, after a while skill would correspond with cost. Demand would make it so.
Why would such correspondence be a Good Thing when shopping? Consider the following photos. Four replacement stems are shown (each in top and side view), with their REDONE (by a different shop) replacement next to them. All eight were sold for very nearly the same price to the same person.
The "I'm unhappy, so will try this again!" situation came about because he figured that since replacement stems cost essentially the same regardless of the shop which supplied them---there's that commodity thing, again---he might as well go with the geographically closest one to save on shipping time and postage. Had that closest & quickest shop not been able to "hide in the commodity pricing bushes," he might have wondered why shops charged different rates, done some digging, and been spared having to buy a second set of replacements before being satisfied.
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