Good reading, Larry and all too true. All those diagnoses now require high tech and high cost diagnostic equipment. It's the old familiar story of a few causing suspicion to be cast on all. Additionally, most of us feel completely helpless and vulnerable in an auto shop. Suspicion and doubt are our only defense. ;)
Jack --- On Tue, 11/9/10, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Larry Colen <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: PESO: My Auto Guy > To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]> > Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 12:48 PM > > On Nov 9, 2010, at 12:08 PM, Jack Davis wrote: > > > As I sat in this area waiting for my car, I got the > feeling these signs were YELLING at me and were intended to > intimidate. I think he's dealt with the public just a little > too long. :( > > I had the camera and flash in the car, so with the > owner's permission took a couple shots. He thought it was > funny when I told him what I intended to do with the shot. > Actually a good guy. > > Well, I didn't get yelled at and surprisingly my > "repair" was free. Tried to force a @20 on him, but was no > use. They put a new bolt and nut on the starter of my wife's > 240SX. I wonder if it's possible they feel guilty about some > past charges. Nah, auto mechanics with a conscience? Right! > > I would not want to try to make a living as a > mechanic. I've got several friends that have, and it's > a rough business. > > First of all, they need to pay their employees whether they > have work or not. If they don't have enough mechanics, > then repairs take too long, and they lose business. If they > have too many, then they sit around idle, costing money and > not making any. > > Then, there is the difficulty of diagnosing modern > cars. It used to be that diagnosis was the easy part > of car repair, now it can take two days to track down a > corroded wire connection, so it costs them $400 to find out > that they need to spend 1 minute to clean a wire connection, > and people still expect diagnostics to be free. > > Then, there is the question of whether you pay them to > repair what is wrong, or to make sure that the car doesn't > break down on you someplace. Meanwhile the BAR runs > sting operations to nail "unscrupulous" mechanics who > recommend repairs that "don't need to be done". I've > heard cases of someone bringing a car in, claiming that they > don't know how old the belts are, then the mechanic getting > find thousands of dollars for replacing "nearly new" belts. > > Yes, there are crooked auto repair places out there, but > it's a really rough industry to be in. > > What's the difference between a surgeon and an auto > mechanic? > > The surgeon washes his hands *after* he pees. > > > > > > > A bit of human interest(?) > > > > Comments? > > > > Jack > > > > http://photolightimages.com/aspupload/detail.asp?ID=542 > > > > -- > Larry Colen [email protected] > sent from i4est > > > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link > directly above and follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
