What's wrong with you!,,,,,,,,people?

I simply don't get it. How did it ever get to the point where we ask a professional for some service to be done, and have the expectation or audacity to think it's going to be free. 
It was last Friday, late in the afternoon. I don't know what your Fridays are like, but mine are very busy.
We usually don't schedule any work on this day and use it to catch up on the jobs from earlier in the week. Frequently we will work until 6 or even longer in order to accommodate all the clients that had to have their vehicles done before the weekend.
So it's last Friday around 3 P.M. and someone shows up at our door. They told us they had their vehicle somewhere else and they messed up everything with their brakes. They broke one wheel stud and now the vehicle is making some loud noises as it moves forward. It's impossible to ignore and not to notice. 
They asked if we would remove the wheel, the caliper and pads, the brake rotor and possibly the wheel hub and bearing assembly all  in order to inspect and correct the problem someone else had caused. 
A few minutes before, we had just joked in the office that the next person to take another vehicle that day would be "Shot for their crime".
I should have just said "we can't do it today" but instead I said "We'll be glad to help you, the quote to inspect and or repair is sixty five dollars".
A very indignant lady replied "You're going to charge me just to look at the car?!"
Nothing gets my blood pressure higher than someone who wouldn't work one minute of their life for free, but expects other to do. It took a lot for me to keep my mouth shut. 
They proceeded to make a few phone calls, (prior to that, they used our free wi-fi to find the other places)  and found someone who "wouldn't charge them just to look at the car".
I have to say I was happy to see them go. I certainly wouldn't go to any of your places of business and ask you to do something and not pay for it. 
I continue to write about patience, there is a reason for it. You can't be an auto repair business owner if you don't have an immense amount of patience. But it has its limits!

"FREE DIAGNOSIS"

It seems to me that on a daily basis, I get a client who at whatever age, they still believe in the tooth fairy. How do I know that you ask?

It's about people thinking that other people, not themselves, will work for free.

On a really busy day, with all the bays full and all the technicians working as efficiently as possible, a client proceeded to educate me on the merits of "free diagnosis"

 You see he said, other shops don't charge for diagnosis, if I have the work done they recommend, they will waive "diagnostic fees" and you should do the same. Maybe then you will be more successful!
Mind you, this is the same guy who bought a new BMW and told me they had given him free oil changes for the length of the warranty. I tried to explain then, he merely had prepaid for those oil changes. He didn't believe me then either.

But that really got me going!  I proceeded to explain that the most important thing about a successful repair is the diagnostic work. I explained that you can do the best work on a missed diagnosis and the ensuing result is going to be a failure, always. You can't fix an engine misfire by having diagnosed it as failed suspension shocks

Backtrack to the beginning of this exchange.

2006 "Corvette" comes in with a mysterious intermittent squeek, It only happens at slow speed of 15-25 mph and the vehicle has to be under some kind of load. Difficult at best to try and recreate in the shop, you also need two people in the vehicle as one drives and the other tries to locate the ever so faint source of the noise.

It took about 3 man hours to find the source, it turned out to be coming from the drive line area. We explained we would have to remove it for further inspection. Gave him a quote to inspect and he agreed.

Once we removed the components and inspected, we gave him a quote for all the necessary parts and the labor to fix. He agreed again. That's when all the problems begun!

-you are not going to charge me for the testing time are you? After all, you get to do the work and you are still charging me for that. Besides, I saw how somebody else had a similar problem on you tube, if you had started with that, you wouldn't have spent so much time.

Sir, if I had started with that, as you say, and then ask you to pay me for 10 hours of work to remove the transmission for further access, based on a you tube video, do you think you'd be willing to do that?

-No! I'd want to be sure that if I was to spend that money, the problem would be in the area you pointed. I certainty wouldn't want to spend all that money on a guess, do you think I'm nuts?

Bite my tong,,,,,, silence,,,,

We now have two diagnostic choices, and they are:

1) The you tube way, no charge to test, goes documented as "owner request"
No shop responsibility if it does not produce the results the owner intended.

2) We test and it's a separate line item from the repair. We guaranty the correctness of  answer.

So! which one will it be this time Sir?

“How much” to,

I get asked this question so many times a day, I wish there was a single answer to the question.

How much to do ” head gaskets” ? How much to replace the engine, how much to replace my brakes, how much to do the struts, how much to do a ” timing belt” etc. etc. etc.  You get the idea.

Some shops may choose to quote the lowest possible price to get the vehicle in, figuring they will add all the other necessary items once the vehicle is in the shop, the work being done and the client has little choice.

Some will give you a more realistic price and not compromise their integrity,

Realize that if you ask, “how much to replace the head gaskets”? what you get is the price to replace the head gaskets and just that. Nothing else.

Let’s use the example of a 2002 Cadillac SDV with the North star engine.

The initial cost to answer the question on the phone is $2090 in labor and $665 for a head gasket set,  Total price of $2755 and that could conceivable be the quoted price over the phone. But now, let’s look at the actual price, the one you would get once the job is half way done and you have little choice.

Add $500 for machine shop work (necessary to assure no damage to heads)

Add $380 worth of radiator, thermostat and cooling system hoses

Add spark plugs $100

Add cooling system clean and flush  $165

Add Head new head bolts $180

Add head bolt inserts along with the work to retrofit (necessary on about 90% of the instances this job is done)  $800

Suggest new radiator since most head gaskets blow due to overheat $525

So now, imagine you get a quote of $2755 and a day or two later you are asked to spend another $2650  at a time when there is no going back.

So back to the original question, would you rather get the realistic price or the “come in to the shop” price?

Let’s take it one step further.

 You make the phone call to Shop 1 and the quote is $2755 ,then you call another shop and the quote is $5400  but they explain to you that it is a realistic out the door price. So, which shop is going to get your business, shop 1 or shop 2?

Best auto repair shop in Ventura,,,,,Lee L.

Here we go again, revisiting Yelp!

No, my beef is not with the posts, nor with unruly clients, competitors or former employees trying to
get even.
This time, is the policy Yelp has of allowing posts to go public without publishing the name of the writer.
In one short sentence, it Stinks!
Last year I bought a one page ad in the local paper, I was fighting the place next door from opening up, and I needed to expose the true intentions of the nature of their business.
As you may imagine, a one page ad is not cheap. At the bottom of the ad, I wanted to close with the caption "Concerned citizens of Ventura." as I did not want to use my own name (for security reasons).

I spent 8 hours negotiating with the newspaper publisher about that closing. They would not do it unless the ad was posted with the name of the writer, or those who paid for it. They would not accept some made up name, such as the one I had come up with.
As a result, I have come to respect that position a great deal. If an accusation is to be made, it should have the full name of the accuser.
Yelp just won a fight in court about the content of their posts. The allegation was that Yelp was creating fictitious accounts in order to post bad reviews to increase their popularity or ranking.
Because they post user content on the internet, they are not liable for it.

We need to change the laws and force all internet companies to have truth in posting. I don't know if people realize how much a bad review will hurt a business. I have a feeling people may be a lot more careful with their words if the world knew their name.

For the record, I'm a huge fan of the first amendment. I also feel we should live by the consequences of our words.

Sincerely,

ITIP    "internet truth in posting"

Two out of three ain't bad

Two out of three ain't bad!

With all due credit to the songwriter, Meatloaf.
I personally believe he wrote the song about the auto repair industry. I happen to think we were the inspiration for that mega hit.

The song was probably written or created around the late 70's.  Back in those days, two out of three was not bad!  Most people were satisfied with that. They came in to a repair shop and we offered them three choices, of those choices they could only pick from two: quality, speed, price.
It was perfectly acceptable to leave finger prints all over the place as a sign that a *"mechanic"* had been there, that was the proof. For some *"repair shops"* to wash the vehicle, it was unheard of.
Fortunately, we no longer live in the 70's. Gone are the days of three month warranties and polyester bell bottoms . Today, that has been replaced by the standard 24 month nationwide warranty, and a car wash at the end. This  includes *"Diesels"*as well.

If Meatloaf were to write the song today, it would have to be titled "Anything but three out of three is bad" as the consumer wont stand for anything else.
#mechanic,#repairshop,#diesel