Mechanic Blunders

[joshh]

There was some guys ragging on quick service shops earlier.

Someone mentioned something about the shop not willing to check someones brakes for less then the cost of a brake job. And not price matching tires.

I was the store manager of a high end quick service shop (higher prices, higher quality service, it was a small chain in PA). I was so pushed from district managers to run the shop so that labor and profit numbers met a rather unreasonable goal that I quit. Only to find out that most quick service shops are run like this. While working in conditions like this, it is 100% impossible to give each car the full attention it deserves. If you want quick service, expect less quality overall then a garage that will make you drop off the car for a day and charge more. This should be obvious...

There is no allowances to make up special prices for things such as "checking someone's brakes" because then the liability can be on the shop if a good enough lawyer is had. I once turned down a customer who wanted a plug put in his tire, because I would effectively terminate my position if something were to happen to him, because our insurance did not cover plugs due to their bad reputation. Is it the shops fault for not catching a brake issue that you caused? Even if you wouldn't bring it back on the shop, alot of people in this world would. And if you want them to check the brakes thoroughly enough that they WOULD catch any issues, they would be doing an entire brake job basically and are correct for charging you for it.

Price matching? Since when did they become the expectation? Call the dealer and ask them why they won't price match BMA.

I never accepted neglect of duty or pure lack of caring from employees, but sometimes things happen and you'd be suprised how easy it is to blame it on a tech, when really they followed procedures. There's so many horror stories floating around, and alot of them are one-sided.

And for the record, I never take my car to a quick service shop, because I don't want a rushed tech touching my baby. I can wait the extra few hours at the garage for the mechanic who is being payed more for a better quality job and is allowed to take his time. Then again, I never take my car to a mechanic anymore, because I do all my work myself.

You have the "huge chain store attutude". If Les schab is selling a tire you can get for 75.00 less (per tire) you don't expect them to match the price?? That's just silly. Only the stupid lazy customers buy tires this way with zero research. If people did their research those guys would have to match prices.

ANY normal shop would be more than willing to check your brakes for you for less than the cost of a full brake job. Brakes are not rocket science....... LMAO. A shop will also install SS brake lines as well without costing you a full brake job...and yes they will have to take the chance with failure....that's called business in the mechanics world.
Neither one of your arguements make sense at all.

[JGood]

You have the "huge chain store attutude". If Les schab is selling a tire you can get for 75.00 less (per tire) you don't expect them to match the price?? That's just silly. Only the stupid lazy customers buy tires this way with zero research. If people did their research those guys would have to match prices.

ANY normal shop would be more than willing to check your brakes for you for less than the cost of a full brake job. Brakes are not rocket science....... LMAO. A shop will also install SS brake lines as well without costing you a full brake job...and yes they will have to take the chance with failure....that's called business in the mechanics world.
Neither one of your arguements make sense at all.

Any you have the "I don't know anything about business management attitude". Stores don't normally price match. None that I shop at anyway. I've never dropped a price for a customer, and when you look at the logic behind it, it's obvious why not. When I worked in that shop, we offered a much higher quality service then the competition. Because of this, prices were higher. If we matched everyone else's prices, we would go out of business. We would not be able to afford higher quality techs, better QOS due to better equipment, etc...

You've also never been the at the bad end of a insurance claim with a customer. I have, on more then one occasion. Have you even been blamed for damage due to something out of your control, but an investigation found that since you have done work to a part related to the cause of the damage, you are at fualt? Not a huge deal if you are insured for that work, but if you did a "favor" for a customer and your insurance won't back you up, guess who's paying out of the pocket? Pay out a few times and you'll stop doing favors.

Every shop has different procedures. You can not hammer a shop down that wasn't willing to check your brakes. They are covering their asses because they aren't covered to check brakes most likely. The only way they are covered is if they do a full brake job, so it would have to be documented as one.

My arguments don't make sense? Enlighten me with an intelligent argument from your experience in the business management world. If you are going to reply as a angry customer upset with chain stores because of how it doesn't benefit you, don't bother.

[browntown]

office depot, office max, and staples all price match each other. As do Best buy, circuit city, J&R music. Most large box stores do price match. Some advertise it, some make you grab a manager and show em an ad.

Discount tire, at least the one in my town has a white board with several tires and the local prices from all the other shops in town including les schwab. I talked to the manager about it, and suggested that he picked only the tires he had better prices for, and he said if any shop quoted me a better price than his, that he'd price match it. My buddy went in the next day with a quote from sears, and discount tire matched it, plus lowered 10% over sears quote.

Almost every small business I go to will give me a deal too. The scuba shop, the gun shop, the suit shop, the nursery, even NAPA if I get the owner of the franchise on a good day.

Bottom line, if you don't ask for a deal, you probably won't get one. No one will be offended if you ask, hell I got a new golf driver for 10% off by asking. Go to the food court in the mall, and ask if they have a mall employee discount. You'll get one. (Notice I'm not saying to lie and say you are a mall employee -- just ask and they'll assume you are, and give you 15%)

[JGood]

office depot, office max, and staples all price match each other. As do Best buy, circuit city, J&R music. Most large box stores do price match. Some advertise it, some make you grab a manager and show em an ad.

Discount tire, at least the one in my town has a white board with several tires and the local prices from all the other shops in town including les schwab. I talked to the manager about it, and suggested that he picked only the tires he had better prices for, and he said if any shop quoted me a better price than his, that he'd price match it. My buddy went in the next day with a quote from sears, and discount tire matched it, plus lowered 10% over sears quote.

Almost every small business I go to will give me a deal too. The scuba shop, the gun shop, the suit shop, the nursery, even NAPA if I get the owner of the franchise on a good day.

Bottom line, if you don't ask for a deal, you probably won't get one. No one will be offended if you ask, hell I got a new golf driver for 10% off by asking. Go to the food court in the mall, and ask if they have a mall employee discount. You'll get one. (Notice I'm not saying to lie and say you are a mall employee -- just ask and they'll assume you are, and give you 15%)

There's a large difference regarding pricing/discounts depending on if your selling a product or a service.

Yes I agree, when it comes to getting a sale and earning a repeat customer, some places will give you a deal or price match. That was standard practice at my shop, we often gave discounts to earn a sale.

However, we never advertised a price match deal, or performed anything like that. Some business give no discounts to compete with competitors prices because the higher prices reflect a higher level of service, and dropping the prices sometimes defeats that image.

[LINUS]

I would rather spend a few $$ extra and keep my local shops in business personally. Just this week I printed off what Tirerack.com was selling Goodyear GS-D3's for and handed it to the local store manager while I was getting my Toyota tires rotated (MT-R's that they price-matched tirerack.com on as well). He took some time and came up with his best deal, which was $20 over Tirerack. I was fine with that, because his $20 over was with a tire warrenty and TR's price wasn't - and then he remembered there was a $60 rebate going, so end deal I paid $40 less than Tirerack, and got a warrenty. Plus since I bought from him I get free rotation, flat repair, etc.
Moral of the story - print out the best price you find, take it to your local shops and just ask they present their best price. THe attitude with which you present you r information will either work for you or against you as well. Generally you will do O.K., plus you keep the locals in business instead of just Walmart and the internet.

And E30frosh, you are a dick. It will take a lot of good posts for anyone to think anything of you, and the story probably isn't even true. You might have been dealt a bad situation, but you handled it even worse. Who raised you?

[trent]

I must say, JGood is the only one here that understands how the industry works.

Way to go bro!

[91Saleen#15]

I must say, JGood is the only one here that understands how the industry works.

Way to go bro!

Here is how it works sometimes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTJjqr0QbIk

Maybe this one has been posted here before... I saw it somewhere else but it really got to me so I went back and looked it up in case it hasn't been seen here.

[joshh]

Any you have the "I don't know anything about business management attitude". Stores don't normally price match. None that I shop at anyway. I've never dropped a price for a customer, and when you look at the logic behind it, it's obvious why not. When I worked in that shop, we offered a much higher quality service then the competition. Because of this, prices were higher. If we matched everyone else's prices, we would go out of business. We would not be able to afford higher quality techs, better QOS due to better equipment, etc...

You've also never been the at the bad end of a insurance claim with a customer. I have, on more then one occasion. Have you even been blamed for damage due to something out of your control, but an investigation found that since you have done work to a part related to the cause of the damage, you are at fualt? Not a huge deal if you are insured for that work, but if you did a "favor" for a customer and your insurance won't back you up, guess who's paying out of the pocket? Pay out a few times and you'll stop doing favors.

Every shop has different procedures. You can not hammer a shop down that wasn't willing to check your brakes. They are covering their asses because they aren't covered to check brakes most likely. The only way they are covered is if they do a full brake job, so it would have to be documented as one.

My arguments don't make sense? Enlighten me with an intelligent argument from your experience in the business management world. If you are going to reply as a angry customer upset with chain stores because of how it doesn't benefit you, don't bother.

Oh so now you're changing the arguement?? We're talking about matching TIRE prices not prices on anything. And liability is part of the game. I never asked them for a "favor"...what ass did you pull that from anyways? Another way to change the point? Lets try focusing on the point you're challenging me about for a minute eh.
I own my own company, do you??

[JGood]

Oh so now you're changing the arguement?? We're talking about matching TIRE prices not prices on anything.

And I repeat, it cannot be expected for a business to lower the prices. A local shop charges double what tirerack.com does, and will not lower prices, but is regarded as one of the best in terms of doing it right the first time and backing up their work, so some people are willing to pay the extra price. Up front cost isn't everything.

And liability is part of the game.

And I repeat, you've never been liable for a major claim. If you were you wouldn't be posting on here. These claims, when injury, or the potential for injury was reached, (not unusual in the case of tires) can get into the hundereds of thousands of dollars. I've yet to see one successful business leader consider liability "part of the game". That is poor risk management and irresponsible business management.

I never asked them for a "favor"...what ass did you pull that from anyways? Another way to change the point? Lets try focusing on the point you're challenging me about for a minute eh.

I pulled it out of this ass:

First....DO NOT bring your car to Les Schab. They are a rip off and will not even do small things for you. They charge you for the whole job. 7 years ago when I was still learning about doing some of these jobs, they wouldn't even check my 71 Ford brakes to make sure everything was correctly done.

Anything outside of the standard operating procedure for a chain corporation is a favor from the manager/tech and he risks his own job. Like I've said, been there, done that.

I own my own company, do you??

Yes, I do. Although I'm sure neither of our's are anything near the scale of the companies involved in this argument, so lets try to stay on topic, eh?


Oh, and calm down a little, it's just a message board.

[JGood]

Here is how it works sometimes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTJjqr0QbIk

Maybe this one has been posted here before... I saw it somewhere else but it really got to me so I went back and looked it up in case it hasn't been seen here.

Unfortunatly yes, Jiffy Lube ecspecially. At my last job anyone found to be doing anything like that was immediatly let go. I never saw the point in doing that shit, ecspecially if your not getting commission. That video gave the whole industry a bad rep when it was released though, and made running a legit business hard for a while. Customers would constantly ask to see old parts, watch what's happeneing, etc... Very difficult to do when your goals require the customers car to be in a bay for no more then 12 minutes.

[joshh]

And I repeat, it cannot be expected for a business to lower the prices. A local shop charges double what tirerack.com does, and will not lower prices, but is regarded as one of the best in terms of doing it right the first time and backing up their work, so some people are willing to pay the extra price. Up front cost isn't everything.

And again....I love how you change the agruement back and forth to further your weak arguement. You keep changing from "local" shops to large chains. Yet Tire rack matches prices and so does Discount tire...or maybe you think they are far to small...lol. Les Shwab is far from a small chain. And try remembering we are talking about match TIRE prices...okey dokey.

And I repeat, you've never been liable for a major claim. If you were you wouldn't be posting on here. These claims, when injury, or the potential for injury was reached, (not unusual in the case of tires) can get into the hundereds of thousands of dollars. I've yet to see one successful business leader consider liability "part of the game". That is poor risk management and irresponsible business management.

Claim or no claim a shop doesn't change it's costs based on one claim. Plus the whole basis of your arguement is false but you continue to ignore the fact that ANY shop has to take the liability no matter what every day no matter what the cost of the job is. Just take the pill and swallow it. You have no point.

I pulled it out of this ass:

And you did pull it oput of your ass because you can't seem to keep this on topic.....do I need to remind you of what YOUR point WAS.....LMAO. I love argueing with people who feel they have a point yet logic counters it very easily.

Anything outside of the standard operating procedure for a chain corporation is a favor from the manager/tech and he risks his own job. Like I've said, been there, done that.

And here you go again changing the whole point of your arguement to fit your need for being right.
That is that companies policy....but as I've now tried to pound into your thick skull, MANY MANY other shops will do this work and like I've said before the cost of the job does not change the liability the shop takes. Sorry, that's a fact.

Yes, I do. Although I'm sure neither of our's are anything near the scale of the companies involved in this argument, so lets try to stay on topic, eh?

Oh of course....now it's the scale of the company. We are obviously to small to see why these bigger shops charge what they do....what you'r not just taking about the large ones....wait...I can't tell...you keep jumping from one to the other....
Ah yet you're the one jogging back and forth between "mom and pop" stores and these big chains...yet the Tire rack and Discount do match prices. It's tough trying to follow you around an arguement, specially when yours has failed.

Oh, and calm down a little, it's just a message board.

Ah another lame ass attemp to try gaining the control you lost in this thread. Weak I might add. Very weak.
Now do us all a favor and try sticking with one arguement so people can try following. :tsk:

[kommissar]

Personally, I cannot believe you two have gone on for so long like this.

[91Saleen#15]

Unfortunatly yes, Jiffy Lube ecspecially. At my last job anyone found to be doing anything like that was immediatly let go. I never saw the point in doing that shit, ecspecially if your not getting commission. That video gave the whole industry a bad rep when it was released though, and made running a legit business hard for a while. Customers would constantly ask to see old parts, watch what's happeneing, etc... Very difficult to do when your goals require the customers car to be in a bay for no more then 12 minutes.

In a way, they sort of set up Jiffy Lube. If you don't know grand cherokees, you might not realize that you can't change the filter without dropping the tank, and I think you might even have to change the whole fuel pump assembly. 'Definitely beyond the scope of a 12 minute service. After they figure out that they can't do it, I guess they couldn't resist the temptation to tell the customer that it was done rather than admit that they couldn't do it.

[JGood]

...

I couldn't really follow your last post...

But, I'm done, so I will leave you with my original point:

You cannot bash a company for not price matching, or creating services and prices they have never before offered ("brake checks").

Well, I guess you can, but alot of businesses will not do that stuff, and that was my point. It shouldn't be the basis for bashing them.

I'm not trying to be a dick, so chill out. I enjoy "arguments" when they are calm, I just threw all of my experience out there hoping to learn something, or help someone else learn. I'm just trying to carry on a useful debate. Without debate the world would suck.

It's all good on my side....:up:

[JGood]

In a way, they sort of set up Jiffy Lube. If you don't know grand cherokees, you might not realize that you can't change the filter without dropping the tank, and I think you might even have to change the whole fuel pump assembly. 'Definitely beyond the scope of a 12 minute service. After they figure out that they can't do it, I guess they couldn't resist the temptation to tell the customer that it was done rather than admit that they couldn't do it.

And your last sentence is where the problem with Jiffy Lube and other stores is. Yeah, they did set them up, but they failed to be a decent business by admitting they were unable to complete the work, and compensating the customer in some way for lost time if needed.

Such a shame...