When I worked as a mechanic, I found that customers always thought the shops were owned by same person. That is they would come in with cars after spending several $100's at other shops that did not fix problem. Then they would come to our shop and want us to it fixed for free since they already spent all this money at other shops.
I always thought the way to have a repair shop was to do it on a membership basis. That is you have to be a member to get your car worked on at my repair shop. The only way to become a member was to be recommended by another member or bring in a receipt where you had already paid someone to fix your car and it was not fixed. Once you were a member you bring your car in and you get a "free" rental car while your car is being worked on. These rental cars are cars that the shop has for sale. You rent the cars with credit card, for insurance purposes, but when you pay for your bill the rental charge is refunded. The idea is that if you bring in your Honda Civic for repair you get a Honda Accord as rental, that is the rental is always a step up from what you drive. Thus customer is mad at their car already and now driving a nicer one which happens to be for sale! Additionally customers often have problems bring cars in as they need cars to go to work, thus rental cars make sense. Now if you are member and you complain about the bill, well the first thing I do is discount the bill and ask you not to come back. If you decided latter you want to rejoin, then you have to pay the discounted amount plus a rejoining fee, just for being stupid. The whole idea is to make taking the car to shop painless as possible for the customer and get customers who appreciate the fact that you actually will fix their cars and not swap parts all day. Of course I would never open a repair shop, as that I dislike dealing with people. However I would join one of these shops. Right now I do all my own work on cars because I can not find a shop I would trust. I actually took my car to get an alignment once, they charge me for the alignment and told me I had a bad tie rod end. I was mad, as that now I had to replace tie rod and then pay for alignment again. Not to mention the hassle of dropping off car for service. Needless to say they never got my money again. My shop would be called "I Just Want it Fixed!" Trampas -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Donald Snook Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [MBZ] Mechanic Malpractice (and stupid customers) was ReplacementEngine Compression Dave Brodbeck wrote: "I don't know, I've seen mechanics "easter-egging" for a problem by replacing random parts, and billing the customer for each one. I've also seen plenty of cars with repairs that should have gotten the mechanic accused of "malpractice." ;)" I wish there was such a thing as mechanic malpractice. Maybe they would be more conscientious. When I was a service manager at an Oldsmobile and Honda Dealership, it was amazing what people would pay a shadetree mechanic before coming to the dealership. We were the highest rated GM dealership in the Midwest and one of the top 25 Honda dealers in the country (in terms of customer satisfaction). I remember a pretty nice older Honda that came into the Honda shop running like crap. They couldn't keep it running, it was stalling and intermittently surging. They had gone to a local shadetree and he told them it needed a fuel pump. He got them one form the junkyard and that didn't fix it. Then he told them it was an alternator, that didn't fix it. Then he told them it was a computer for $1500. They had already spent hundreds of dollars trying to fix the problem. They came over to the shop. We figured out what the problem was, it needed a distributor cap and rotor. The rotor was shot. They raised holy hell when we charged them 1 hour to diagnose the problem ($58) and .3 to replace the cap and rotor (plus parts). It was amazing that they could be so pissed at us, when we figured out the problem and charged them an appropriate amount. IIRC they had spent about $1000 with the previous guy. I also remember a lady who came in with an fairly new Chevy Corsica. It had 60,XXX miles on it. Someone suggested to her that she have the coolant flushed and filled and quoted a price of $59.95 (I know it's a little steep, but it was a dealership). Anyway, she went crazy and said that was outrageous. She got her oil change and left. A week later she arrived with her car on the tow truck. She had tried to change her coolant herself. But rather than draining anything she bought two gallons of coolant and poured them directly in the oil fill. She said she drove around really hard trying to make sure the new coolant did a good job cleaning everything out. Well, we started it and you can imagine what it sounded like. (I can't believe it wasn't hyrdolocked). The engine was absolute toast. $4000 dollars later she got her back with a new crate engine. She even tried to get the chevy dealer to cover it under warranty. Donald H. Snook McDonald, Tinker, Skaer, Quinn & Herrington, P.A. 300 West Douglas P.O. Box 207 Wichita, Kansas 67201 0207 Tel. (316) 263-5851 This confidential message may be subject to the attorney-client privilege or protected by the attorney work-product doctrine. If you have recieved this message in error, please delete it and notify me. _______________________________________ http://www.striplin.net For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://striplin.net/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_striplin.net -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.14.19/231 - Release Date: 1/16/2006
