On 11/9/2010 2:48 PM, Larry Colen wrote:
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.
You'd think someone would teach them not to pee on their hands...:-)
A bit of human interest(?)
Comments?
Jack
http://photolightimages.com/aspupload/detail.asp?ID=542
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Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est
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