stam- you are right that you (as the assigned tech for the account) shouldn't have to think about either situation, but you also shouldn't be penalized for what the customer wants/needs. It's the salesman's job to set up the account and find out what the needs are for the account. All's I was saying was that there 2 ways to repair issues sometimes. If management wants parts replaced rather than repaired, and they were signing my paychecks, than replacement parts would be what I'd installing.

Being self-employed, I have to answer directly to the customer & learned this lesson the hard way early on in my career. I never thought of a parts/labor ratio, I just take the direction the individual customer wants me to take.