Killed a con-artist repair shop big time!

My daughter-in-law took their brand new Expedtion to a Jiffy Lube to get the first oil change and grease job. Because my son was to busy and this is her truck she goes there with (4) kids in tow......(she's not to car savey).

After they slick her over with all the "Premium Car Care Service" mumbo-jumbo, the bill comes to over $150 large. Later, when she shows my son the bill he goes balistic and calls the shop for a price adjustment from the manager...he gets wise with my son and tells him...."YOU AINT GETTIN' NUTTIN" !!! Wrong person to tell that to.

He and his brother go down to Jiffy Lube....park around the corner....and in front of a full wating room and all the workers, walk in, pick the manager up off the floor and threaten to throw him through a plate glass window.

A "FULL" refund was cheerfully given...only took about 15 seconds and they were gone!

TUFBUICK

 

While i don't know about walking in to a shop and turning red, or you "shop owneres turning me out he door when i question the price....

think about this... $180from her Whatever money from a warranty company=big $$ for starter

$64x2(markup-normal)=$128 plus say the above $72 for an hour of changing a starter and looking around for other issues that may be related.that's $200. so your saying you would only see $20 from the warranty company? serious question.

 

What kind of test is that!

I'm sure that plumbers, carpenters and electricians also get labeled as crooks. All it takes it getting burned a few times by people who don't know what they are doing, or even having to deal with people who do know what they are doing but don't have the necessary people skills.

 

starter

i wanna say that any mechanic who sells customers work thats not needed is indeed a snake in the grass. they give the honest mechanics a bad rep.

 

shop defense

rob,i am not saying i would show you the door for questioning the price ou: if you came in and asked in a civil manner to explain the estimate,i would gladly do so.but to walk in the door totally unanounced,i have no clue who you are since i had been dealing with someone else,and start calling me names,yes i would.as far as the warranty deal,the shop owner has to wait for the money,sometimes for 30-45 days.that is another hidden behind the scenes fact the guy has to deal with.i really doubt darryls gal will get the warranty co. to pay anything,since the job wasnt done by an authorized shop.so now you have $99.00 out of pocket,instead of $80.00,if the warrenty wont pay.i agree the list price was out of line,BUT,how did he come up with it?chances are thats what the warehouse told him"list"was.also,darryl might have put his buddys job in jeopardy,because he sold darryl the starter for cost.that should have been done afterhours,out the back door,not in front of the shop owner.the owner cant be too pleased about that,and might go to another supplier,so bumper to bumper then looses all the shops buisness.telling someone they are high on an estimate usually makes them take another look,and a deal is made.patting yourself on the back for blowing up at the guy,without hearing how the estimate was established,well...i just dont understand the additude there.

 

$64 was regular retail price of the item. My buddy Al is the manager of the bumper-to-bumper.

I would like a little clarification of this as well.....

Is it common practice in the repair industry to mark up a part 200%?
The warranty company says 100% is the standard.....

Was the shop owner doing me a favor by following me out the door, and re-quoting his over inflated price? Did he magically gain insight that it was infact a 1 hour job after I said I should call the BBB?

Oh, and John-
I know exactly what the overhead is on a shop, and if my mechanic had not been off work for the holidays, I would have had her bring it to my shop for the repair.

My brother is currently employed as a top chef at one of Louisville's finest restaurants, but prior to that, he was a Toyota trained and certified technitian, and did tht job for 4 years. He tested the battery at auto-zone and replaced both battery cables...... The only reason he did not replace the starter is because she had the warranty, so it seemed pointless for him to do it.

And if you go back and re-read my original post, I never said one cross word to the shop manager untill he followed me outside, and "suddenly" realized it was his error.

Oh, and one thing I left out of the story,
They said she would have to pay the full amount, and the waranty company would re-imburse her for the repair.

The jerk was a snake in the grass plain and simple.
The waranty company says 100% is industry standard, he wanted 200%.
The book says 1 hour, he wanted 2, and the actual repair was done in 20 minutes.
He followed us outside to "re-quote" his price, and "admit his mistake" only after I called him on his BS estimate.

 

starter

darryl, when you go into a restaurant do you ask the manager who he buys his steaks from? do you ask him what the mark-up on his soup is? or how much he pays for his potatoes? i think not. if you didnt want the job done why didnt you just tell him no? call the bbb? come on!

 

BBB = Big Bad Boattail..... o No: ???

Anyway,

Many moons ago I was in a situation like Darryl was in, and I drove one of the shops forklifts through a big window on the side of the shop.

The shop manager was too scared to call the police

No money refund, but it sure was a lot of fun :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

Every shop in the world doubles the price of parts, which is a 100% mark up. I bet you ten to 1 that they charged her the dealer price for the starter (with their mark up) and were going to use the cheapo part. Hence the huge mark up.

Also as an industry standard is the labor rates. Every car made is completly torn down at the factory and time is recorded for each part. I mean every part on the car. These times are figured using every step possible. ( step one: disconnect battery, step two..) Most of these steps can be skipped, after all I doubt any body really disconnects the battery when changing a dist. cap. These times ussually reflect enough time to diagnose the problem as well. For a starter job, the dealer would recomend testing every wire, looking for corosion, making sure the starter is actually the problem. This does take time. Really, nobody really does this, only when the new starter doesn't crank either. So, it may call for an hour labor, but an average guy can do it in 10 minutes.

Being a mechanic is a thankless job. Everybody assumes that we are scum bag crooks. ITs a whole mentality. Its a service and RETAIL business. With out a mark up on parts, labor rates would be 150 an hour. And whoever said the customer diagnose is never right, hit the nail right on the head.

I agree, the guy is a wanker. He should be reported. I would never do that, and I go by the books. And, I have yet to find myself in this type of situation.

 

I don't get it. o No:

As a customer, I had problems in the past that dealers couldn't figure out until I pointed them in the right direction as to what I thought the problem might be. I mean, I was not equipped, nor did I know how to do the job, but I knew what "area" the problem was in. They finally listened to me and I was right, and they were wrong. So the theory that the customer's diagnosis is never right, is...well...wrong. :Smarty:

 

This thread makes me chuckle...

I bought a six pack of Bud Light for $4.29 at the store....

I bought six Bud Lights at the local hang out and paid $9.00 plus a $3.00 tip. I should punch that bar tender out. That is crazy!

And get this...I go down to the Budwieser brewery and find out it only costs about $1.00 to make a keg of the stuff. When will it end I ask you????

It's great to be in a business that gets bashed all the time. :TU:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The preverbial badass know-it-all that walks into my shop with chest puffed out, gets deflated REAL quick. We are not human puching bags. Don't like the price? Walk. It's OK for us to be higher priced. It's OK for you to not do business with us. It ain't OK for you be an ass.

Now, lying to a customer...that is not cool. But it's so funny how the story gets twisted sometimes...on both ends.

 

Nice job Darryl!

Here is my opinion on how a mechanic should run his shop:

1) Charge to diagnose the problem (often a time-consuming process)

2) Charge to fix the problem- parts and labor- parts at retail, and actual (not book) labor at a true rate which includes a realistic amount for overhead (WAY more than $45!)

3) If the problem is not fixed, the customer should not pay for #1 or #2

On the other hand, if a customer walks into a shop and says "my car needs a starter" and that doesn't fix the problem, the shop should still be able to charge full price for the parts & labor. The shop would only be responsible if they also do the diagnosis.

This is fair for all parties: Customers do not pay for incompetent work / diagnosis (and hence the bad mechanics go out of business), customers do not pay for work that they don't need, and the mechanic gets to charge for their time, effort & overhead (including a profit)... Also, since some jobs take more time than others (maybe due to corrosion or other parts that break along the way) the customer is paying for actual time. If a mechanic has to dig through a trunk for twenty minutes to put back the spare tire, they should be allowed to charge for that time.

Also, I don't see how a shop could possibly cover costs at $45 per hour! Not by the time they pay for the shop, their tools (which are expensive nowadays with all the computer crap), and a labor wage where an experienced mechanic can support his family.

 

Ok, 98% of the time the customer is wrong. happy pal? :error: ou:

The worst kind of customer is the guy who used to fix his own stuff in the 70s, and that gives him a vast knowledge of new cars. This guy ussually wants to see his old parts, and second guesses everything. HE remembers when wheel bearings were 4 bucks, not a couple of hundred for a hub assembly. If I had a dollar everytime some old man told me "cars used to be so simple" I'd be one rich mudder trucker.

 

Yeah, well that old man is right. I may not be an old man, but from working on older cars and working on a few newer cars, neither is exactly easy but the older cars are always easier to work on. I don't really care who rebels against my words, but I know what's easy and what's not. :Smarty: You yourself have probably worked on some new/and old cars, and probably a whole lot more than I have. Try swapping in a motor in a newer car, and tell me how easy it is

Oh, and one more thing. If a customer is always 98 percent of the time wrong, then does that make the sellers/or workforce 100 percent right? ou: You do know that you yourself are a customer too, right?

Regards,

 

BBB = Big Bad Boattail..... o No: ???

true, true.

however, here in the United States the initials "BBB" are more commonly used to refer to the 'Better Business Bureau': http://www.bbb.org/ the BBB functions as a kind of self-policing .org for retailers.

 

Its not hard pulling a motor in a new car. as a matter of fact I just R&R a 3.8 from a 99 windstar. really easy. Just had to drop the sub frame. took about an hour to have the frame down and about 30 minutes to remove the motor.

And yes, cars used to be simple, I agree. The point is its really annoying to hear 7 times a day like I've never heard it before :boring:

 

. This guy ussually wants to see his old parts, me "cars used to be so simple"

What's wrong with seeing the old part? If you are honest what's the problem. Besides I like to see how ,why and where a part failed. As for an explanation, I also like to learn something in life. So I will want to know the doo-hickey rubbed on the thing-a-mabob (shoulda changed it last month when I was told to-) then it overheated the frim-fram and caused this failure right here (pointing at burnt crap). "Geez, thanks alot sir I woulda just made this job a lot more expensive if I tried it" I'll send the wife's car in next week, It's actin funny"

AND Older cars WERE easier to work on. That's why I will prob. never own a new one again and Brandy is going to get a nice Buick driver when I start workin' again.

 

well, when you have and some old fart who insists on seeing his worn out brake shoes, or leaky wheel cylinders becuase he didn't think he needed them is annoying.

and read my posts, I said it was really annoying to hear that a million times a day. I never said it wasn't true. And really, its not much harder. hell, these new cars even tell you what the problem is.

 

con artist

i often show customers their old parts,they have a right to see what they spend their hard earned money on.

 

bbb

the BBB is a joke.all you have to do to be a member in good standing is send in your dues,thats it!if you have numerous complaints against your biz,the only way anyone knows is if you call them and ask about the specific biz.they still take your money and send you a plauqe to hang on the wall.totally useless company,i doubt if he was too worried about the threat to turn him in.