Seems like this has been the topic of discussion at dinner many nights around here. We've owned our family business over 25 years and I struggle more with this than any other issue at work, basically MY day is diagnosing, test driving w/customers, figuring out noises yada yada yada basically for free just so I can set my techs up with parts replacement the rest of the day, sad but true. My adage is always 'if we are not putting parts in cars, we are not making money!' And so it is in our very blue collar community, now if I pull codes and know it needs smoking or much further diag time then I will def get a set amount for said time and because of the time I have already put into their car, usually there is no resistance. I can't help but constantly go back to licensing, and yes ASE has done a formidable job but let's face it when their light is on or it's misfiring it's always 'how much' not 'are you ASE certified?'.... I've just made peace with it all