Killed a con-artist repair shop big time!

Unfortunately, conning people is always going to be a fact of life with these repair shops, especially the independent shops, thats how they make their money, no sell no profits. Yeah, I work in 2 shops, one independent and one a chain operation and you should see the stuff that goes on. I don't agree with it but what can I do, thats the hand that feeds me and pays my commision, if the service advisor says the customer needs whatever then I must do whatever. The best defense against being ripped off is to be knowledgeable or bring someone with knowledge to the shop. Never just drop your car off and have them call you because now they can just say what they want. This I see all the time, car comes in for a brake check, brakes are maybe half worn and now the customer is being sold a brake job. Its not really doing any harm per say, but if you are paying so much for brakes then you should get your moneys worth, I mean if they are going to last a whole year then why change them at 6 months. Of course I've had it done to me in my nieve years and then I've had places try to pull one on me in later years when I knew better. I could literally go on and on about this topic. So my advice, buy a chilton / mitchells book, raed it and get some idea about how your car functions and routine maintenance. Use that knowledge when you go to a shop so you know what they are telling you so that you can decide if a repair or whatever is really needed. Shop around too, get an idea what parts cost and how much to install etc.

Allen
allioop108@aol.com

 

Honest Mechanics

I had to put in my 2 cents here . I understand that there is overhead but shop owners still need to remember that their customers are usually not making a liveable wage themselves . I cannot tell you all how many times I have fixed problems for people that went to a shop to get a battery , starter , timing belt ect only to find that they would be charged 3 weeks pay to get a water pump installed . I do not have a shop and usually trade work for work . My own sister took her mini van to get a fuel pump installed without asking me 600.00 later she was calling me to loan her money . In this day with 2.30 gas and 100,000.00 college tuition the lower end of the classes has a daily struggle . Do they get the only family car fixed and use it to look for a better paying job or just ride the bus and keep making minimum wage . Large companies are now saying a living wage is 9.00 per hour . What a joke . Everyone suffers with this . I see Jack Leg mechanics very busy and good shops begging for work . I believe a honest mechanis that charges a reasonable fee for his labor and a reasonable markup for parts will stay so busy he would either have to turn away business or expand .
John
PS I'll do a starter on most cars in trade for an equal ammount of labor in one of my many honey do's

 

600 for a fuel pump isn't too far out of reach. a few hours labor, and the pumps often push $300-400 before the markup. what is she driving? Almost every GM car that runs SFI, or MPI in the late 90s need a constant 60 PSI to run. and really, that is quite a pump.

100% mark up, and authorized labor rates are the industry standard. you would have to be a fool to charge less.

 

1992 pontiac 3.8

i gotta tell yah this one.my car wouldnt start one morning,no spark 1992 bonneville,replaced 3 coil pack still no spark,replaced module under coil pack,still no spark,ask autozone what else would not give me spark they said probably crank sensor,i changed everything in fleetfarm parking lot except crank sensor,which didnt look to easy.so i get my vehicle towed to shop next to home about 17 miles.this is on a wednesday,crank sensor is laying in car on back seat.shop said they should be able to get to it by friday, i call friday and they put crank sensor in but didnt have time to check everything else on it. guy left for hunting trip wont be back for a week, i told kid i have to have the car how much to put in crank sensor, he said 65.00.paid him car started but ran like crap.i had to have car so i take in to local chevrolet dealer on saturday,they look at it on monday,call me and said the crank sensor is bad,i say what they just put it in,they said it not installed corectly it was rubbing on the crank,they said yiou need special gm tool to install it right. go ahead fix it i say.60.00 for crank sensor and 85.00 labor and runs like a top.i paid 30.00 for crank sensor at autozone and 65.00 labor for local moron to install my sensor which was f%^&^&& UP.i go back to local shop when he gets back from his trip he has a customer in his lobby and i tell him i took my car to dealer and they said you installed crank sensor wrong which i had the part in my hand which was all worn do to rubbing on crank.would not refund my money cause he said I WORKED ON THE CAR THE DEALER WORKED ON THE CAR AND HES NOT REFUNDING ANYTHING.now you tell me is this guy reputable,putting a part on when he doesnt have the proper tools.ASE certified moron i say. i do most of my work myself if i can because 75 percent of time i take it in they dont know any more than i do.my 2 cents Ray
________
Instructions For Vaporite

 

con artist

are you mad at yourself for replacing the coil paks and module needlessly?

 

by law here in ontario, the customer has the right to see his removed parts.
another change that is rearing its ugly head at the local car dealers, is that when the they make a repair they will not tell u exactly what the root cause of the problem was, especially if no replacement parts were required.

 

nope not mad at all for replacing the module and coil packs,cost me about 220.00 and i know there good for another 100,000 miles,car had 120,000 miles on it already so it was just a matter of time before they went.prevenative maintence i guess,rather replace them by myself than have some jerk at a automotive shop change them and charge me double for the parts and 2 to 3 hours labor to put them in when i changed them in fleetfarm parking lot in about half hour.see yah Ray
________
Wellbutrin Injury Lawyer

 

Store bought repairs

I've had the worst luck with repairs done AT THE DEALER.

I've had the best luck with repairs done by a capable non-chain affiliated local mechanic.

I've had pretty good luck with repairs I've done myself. I can tackle most normal maintenance and repair jobs. Troubleshooting is more difficult on newer cars, I haven't invested in scan tools etc. Often, time is not available so I have to farm work out. I always start with the same local guys that have done my work for the last 20 years. I have friends who do custom exhaust systems, engine rebuilding, alignment, body work, etc. I recommend developing relationships and trading with the same shops every time. I'll pay these guys what they ask because I've worked with them long enough to develop trust. Some repairs are expensive, but it's worth it to get the job done right.

In my experience, my local Chrysler and VW dealers seem to have been uniformly dishonest, unscrupulous, and overpriced. Ford and GM are certainly overpriced and at times their honesty has been suspect. Owning a dealer franchise seems to be a license to steal through the service department in my area.

 

For Pete's sake! The guy is a crook, was being dishonest, and Darryl called him on it. Good for you, Darryl - I'd report him to whoever you think matters, just like you'd post vendor feedback here.

The rest of this thread, with its hollering about "we're not all crooks", "shop overhead", etc, is just plain silly, and smacks of some folks looking for an argument. Nobody said all mechanics were crooked, we all understand how labor rates and shop overhead are business expenses, and that many customers don't really have a clue about their cars, so can we all relax?

Me, I'm gonna go change the air in my tires, it's time to get the summer air swapped out of there... :laugh:

 

Now that you mention it...

Aw Geez , with all the "Katrina"thingy I forgot to change mine before I left Dallas. I hope I didn't hurt the tires!!!! :error:

 

so a mechanic charges 85 bucks an hour and a warranty covers 75 and hour. and the mechanic is taking twice as long as it should to fix the car so he's gettin double to start with and still wants the extra ten? i say let him sit there on his ass and make zero if he wants to be that greedy. :spank: :blast:

 

I had an '89 F150 straigh 6 300. It started running real rough at low rpm, almost stalling out. If you punch it, it was like the secondaries opening up and it would take off and run good for a while. Obviously there were no secondaries so I didn't know what was wrong. Was it a bad mass air flow sensor, bad injectors, computer, fuel pump? I was a little down on cash so I drove it that way for almost a year getting 8 m.p.g. I moved back to Wisconsin where I knew a mechanic my family trusted, I limped it over to his shop and dropped it off. When I got home there was a message to come pick it up. The mechanic had diagnosed the problem and fixed it in 10 minutes, he sprayed down the mass air sensor that was dirty with some cleaner and it ran fine, got 19.7 m.p.g. after that. He didn't charge me a penny. He could have told me the wiring harness was frayed and 2 injectors were bad and there was a bad vacuum signal to the computer due to a gasket leak, total bill $685.39 and I would have paid it and been happy my truck was back again. But he was honest so I bought him a 6 pack of his favorite beer and called it even. That mechanic is retired now and I hope I can find another like him. He didn't retire rich but you can't take it with you so what's the diff?
Point of the story, find a competant mechanic who is trustworthy, give him all your business and refer everyone you meet to him so he can make a living.
Take care, Peace out brother.

 

I'm not one of those guys though. (pal) :TU: (Something tells me you didn't really mean that) :laugh:

I'm all for capitalism. Problem is, sometimes you never know how shitty a shop is till you've been ripped off by it. I guess it's like anything else.

It's true that a lot of mechanics have undue bad raps just because of the bad rep they get from the places that bend you over and clean your plumbing. Kind of like lawyers. :eek2: (I know I'm gonna take heat for that one) ou:

 

The guys an idiot

I think the shop manager is an idiot. I don't think the bad stories prove that all or even most mechanics are crooked, but I don't doubt he is.

Here's where he made a mistake: The best way to build a successful business is with repeat customers. End of story. You can try to screw people on each job and you'll make a bit more in the short term. If he'd treated her right and done the work he might've had a customer that would return again and again.

What would you rather have an extra hundred bucks and someone who tells their friends to avoid the shop, or a customer that brings you thousands of dollars over several years and refers her friends?

It's always better to lose a bit on a job and gain a customer than to overcome a bad reputation.

Profitable shops get that way by EARNING a good reputation, which develops repeat customers and referals.

John

 

Preach brother!!!!! :TU:

 

Just take care of customers, they will pay (and be back)

Guys,

All shop shave to do is take care of customers. We'll gladly pay their rates if they do that.

Case is point:

Took the co. car to get brakes and alignment, as I didn't have the time to do the brakes. SPECIFICALLY mentioned alignment (and tire rotation) while they were at it. No, prob. Fair quote. Two hours. FOUR hours later, they get the brakes done. I ask about how much longer it will take for the alignment. Oh, you'll have to wait, we have three other cars ahead of you (I was the first car at the shop, first one on the list for work.) Ok, what about tire rotation? We did it. They didn't, because I had a marked tire.

Anyways, call to customer service line yielded absolutely no help. So, I take it to another shop just down the street. Explain the situation, need alignment and rotation, quickly. Is an hour quick enough? Yeah, if it gets done in one hour. 37 minutes later they call me-- car is ready. Total charge $10. I told them the quote was $50 for the alignment. Their response: "Yeah, but when we checked it it was only out slightly--quick adjustment and a shim and we were done. But, we had to charge you something."

No problem. Been going back there ever since-- even for things I like to do and have time to do...I figure their $40 investment in me has paid them back over $1000 in repeat and referral business...

 

Along the same line.......

Wife took her car into dealer with automatic transmission problem. Dealer diagnosed as faulty transmission controller and said part would cost over $900 plus 1 hour to install. Dealer also told her one turn signal not working and she needed a new turn signal switch, $150 for the part plus labor to install. She paid the for diagnosis and brought the car home so we could consider our options.

I checked the turn signal problem and found one bulb was burned out, replaced it and all was well, cost about $1.

Made us suspect dealer diagnosis on the transmission. Picked up a used transmission controller for $20, switched it in about 15 minutes, made no difference. OK, this problem goes beyond my capabilities.

Took vehicle to an independent mechanic with a reputation for his diagnostic skills. He traced the problem to the wiring harness and repaired it, 2 hours labor and it's been fine since.

Is the dealer service department incompetent, dishonest, or had a bad day??? We've got our opinion (all 3!) and they will never see our car again and they will never sell us a car again. Meanwhile I refer friends to the independent mechanic who treated us right.

John

 

A good, honest mechanic / doctor / lawyer / carpenter / whatever is worth their weight in gold. Literally.

The other ones aren't worth the rope it'd take to hang them.

 

That would have pissed me off, nailhead. I would have gone back and made a big stink in front of all the customers just as a warning to them. My boss did something similar to me. One time I brought my fathers truck in for some work. He told us he changed a certain part but we kept having the same problem. Took car elsewhere, turns out part was never changed. I also bought a battery which died on me prematurely. My boss denied ever carrying that brand of battery. Its bad enough when the screw customers, worse when the screw there own employees.

Allen
allioop108@aol.com

 

Dirty shops

That shop owner deserved what he got.
Before I get jumped all over by the shop owners here, let me explain why.
I've turned wrenches in a # of shops over the years and managed another. This isn't about the honest shop owners like you out there. I've had so many customers come in after being violated by other shops out there. It isn't in question whther a shop should be able to charge a probitable shop rate and make a profit off parts. The guy got busted being a crook and followed him out to try to salvage whatever sale he could, not to be honest.
I have had a couple of my own experiences with a couple of these type of shop owners too. A friend needed a fuel pump which they wanted like $400 for - that's what they asked and that's fair. But because she was a single woman going in they soaked her for $600 in other crap they told her she needed (change every damn fluid and other crap) and told her she needed new plugs and wires soon or her car would die beacuse they were origional. Not very long before this I had changed most of the fluids at work and had put on new MSD wires and cap and plugs. Iwas out of town and she didn't want to bother me with her Jimmy anymore and didn't know what I had already done to it. Before I get jumped on that the shop didn't know what had been done, they should be able to tell if a fluid has 80,000 miles on it and know that MSD parts didn't come on it from the factory!
I have more examples if needed.
The point is mechanics have an often unfair bad wrap to overcome because the reality is that the industry does have a large percentage of snakes! :blast: