A satisfied customer O/T

A little old lady brings in her 98 Sable after a Midas estimate. I have no idea what Midas wanted. The car needs both rotors and pads. "Machine to" is 1.014...her rotors are 1.012. Sorry we can't turn them. You need new ones. She can't believe she needs rotors... I'm a crook preying on little old ladies.

Second customer wants his converter checked on an Audi. I send my guy out and he hears all this noise comming from the motor. My guy says it's in the motor which you can't see because it has all those plastic covers. Sorry we ain't doing Audi engine work.(did you know you need a computer to change the trans fluid and filter? NO DIPSTICK for the trans) The guy's convinced it's a big buck repair.

We put the ladys car outside. I walk out and the Audi guy is telling the little old lady that we are good honest people. So I say thanks...let ME hear your engine noise. He starts it up and it sounds like a spark plug is out. You can't see the SOB's but WTF.

My guy pulls the covers and sure enough a spark plug has backed out. Put it back in and it purrs like a kitten. no charge.

The little old lady will get a third opinnion and probably not come back. The Audi guy sure will.

I know it does'n take a master mechanic to diagnose a missing spark plug, but I get sooooooo tired of the "you aren't going to cheat me" people. It really felt good to help a loyal customer that stood up for us.

This just happened after reading all those Midas posts. Sorry for the rant. The "you're a crook" customers can get you down after a while. I feel better now

 

I hope he tells all his friends what you did for him too.

 

The industry got a bad name by too many preditors,many working on commission.All the decent hardworking mechanics get painted wwith the same brush.

 

those "your a crook" folks are in every line of work... i'm a dentist....they get me down too...but if you really analyze who it is doing the bitching...it goes back to the 2% rule.....2% of the population causes 100% of the problems for everyone else....it's the 2% that wouldn't be happy with anyting.... i say leave them in their misery

 

People are that way for a reason. I used to have a vw mechanic that I trusted (back when I was into vws). Never did me wrong, but a freind (girl) was having trouble with her bug and took it in, he diagnosed a bad tranny. Charged her $50 diagnostic and told her he checked everything. Well the new tranny would be $400 with $300 or so in labor. I asked if I could check it out, and after driving around the block, it felt like the shifter bushing was bad (a big block of rubber that joins the shift rod with the tranny). I pulled the rear seat, popped the little access panel, and there it was, a metal cage with no rubber where there should be. A $20 part and about an hour of time and it was fixed-- tranny shifted nice and tight, felt brand new. I'm NO mechanic by any stretch, and I figured it out in five minutes. I asked and he stood by his story, even after I said I what I did. Kept telling me the tranny is on it's way out, blah, blah, blah. That was about eight or so years ago and the bug is still going-same tranny.

 

im also a satisfied customer of tommy
i will email you some pics of my hotrod will install the e&j lights this weekend on my abone coupe

or maybe i will post them here, do you think people here like to see chopped highboy model a 1930 ford coupes with a flathead and e&j headlights?

 

being friendly to a nonepaying customer is sure not wasted you get a good reputation and he will probally say it to some of his friends, as being a jerk to a nonepaying customer does the oposite.. in the long run it always helps to be friendly,

 

That's the truth I feel like a dentist lots of times. It just gets insulting after a while. We do state inspections too and of course every 10 year old car that comes in here is in perfect shape to the owner.

I do get good feelings when I can help someone on a fixed income save some bucks(after a Midas estimate) and still earn a living for my family.

They finally got there!!! I never knew if you got them or not. Hell yes I want to see a picture.

 

I used to "sneak" a few "freebie" repairs into customers' cars at the Ford dealer, figuring nobody would notice. I just couldn't let simple little things I noticed under the hood or chassis slide like my fellow mechanics did.

I'm not saying I gave away the dealership...but if I noticed the washer fluid bottle being low or empty, or a hose clamp that looked suspect, or something that I could fix quickly without adding it to the invoice, I always did. I just always thought that ANY good mechanic would do that...and after a while, your eye just sort of 'finds' anything that's wrong under a hood automatically!

Well, I was quite surprised when a few sharp customers found their way back to my bay to say things like, "Hey...I'd been meaning to tighten that power steering belt", or "Thanks for topping off the fluids...I'd been putting that off", or something to that effect.

However, when my boss overheard me tell a guy that tighteneing a loose belt is just part of my job, he told me to make sure stuff like that got onto the bill next time! I understand the dealership wanting to turn a profit, but I think you gain more by displaying a little courtesy to your customers...even if they never know about it!

As you can guess, I no longer wrench for a living...nobody wants to hire good mechanics, they just want speedy parts replacers with a creative knack for padding the bill! I don't work that way!

Good to know that there ARE a few decent shops around, though!!

 

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I know it does'n take a master mechanic to diagnose a missing spark plug, but I get sooooooo tired of the "you aren't going to cheat me" people.

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Doing the right thing (while not very common these days) is always the BEST policy.


Have you ever noticed how the rule bending, shady acting low life types seem to have a bunch of problems? Sure they " get over " on some folks in the short run but in the overall everyday life of things.......they are loosers.

 

oh yeah i got them way back, maybe i should have mailed you and said so must have forgot, will use them as is as the patina on the coupe is just matching the headlights,
was going on my pickup first but will use em on my coupe instead

www.camsnappers.com/rod.jpg there is the body of the coupe
but a much nicer chassi than it got on the picture, will take some photos on sunday...

 

You done good Tommy.

Word of mouth goes a long way and when someone recommends a shop or store it makes a bigger impression than most think.

The thread concerning honest shops a while back had a large amount of muffler shops recommended.
That's true in my own case.
I think because these guys are closer to the customer in most cases and especially so because they're not the guy way in the back of the shop with a service manager for a go-between.

Where I came from and where I am now, it's the muffler shops that have the best reps.
In fact, the local one, whose owner has gotten to be a friend - I've been going in there for quite a while - specializes in hot rods and people come from small valley towns up to 25 miles away for installs on their cars.
Makes for an interesting place to visit.
There's always something interesting there.

Yesterday I dropped in, he was doing a rear wheel bearing on a cherry 63 Suburban and had a primered & running pair of sedans sitting out front.
A 2 dr A and a 4 dr 34.
He's such a good guy he lets the hot rod locals park their cars out front and sell them.

2nd best places to deal with for me are the for-real parts stores and the bearing house, farm supply and the machine shop/metal sales/neat stuff place (all one outfit).

In any event, it's a good thing when you hear people saying good things about you or your work.
Your work whether your own hot rod or your 'real' work....

 

Fat Hack, what you said hit home with me. I took my Suburban to the Chevy dealership because I replaced the alternator and then I could not unlock the security system on my radio with the code in my owner's manual. I spoke to the service writer and this little punk said, "Yeah, it will take half an hour just to take your radio out and then we have to contact GM about the code using your radio's serial number." A tech was there listening and told me to follow him, another service writer followed us out the door to the parking lot and says, "So are we going to write this one up?" The tech gave him a "fuck off" look and reprogrammed my radio in about a minute. He told me that the radios have a general code that unlocks them (0230) and tells me to have a nice day. I won't go back to that dealership because they are crooks, but if that tech does side work, I will search him out on stuff I can't handle.

 

Honesty & integrity results in loyalty & respect from the people who can spot it. Personally, I don't see how the shady operators ever manage to feel good about themselves.

 

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Honesty & integrity results in loyalty & respect from the people who can spot it. Personally, I don't see how the shady operators ever manage to feel good about themselves.

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....THAT'S why "Unkl Ian" is pissed about losing his job! Tommy...you can never go wrong doing right. Even if it isn't appreciated, YOU have the satisfaction of knowing just who YOU are! Hang in there.......

 

I didn't make this post to get any atta-boys. thanks anyway. There are more honest people from all walks of life than there are crooks. The crooks get all the press. Like a dentist it gets depressing.

It happened right after reading all the rip off posts. I wanted to speak up for the honest shops. There are a lot of 'em. You shouldn't get commended for doing what's right.

Don't think I'm all that altruistic...I could have fairly charged him 50 bucks to fix his problem, but I'll get way more than my 50 back in word of mouth advertizing. This post wasn't meant to blow my own horn. I hope it didn't come off that way.