Meeting people as a mechanic.

[tkblkcobra]

I worked outside sales for Dick Smith wholesale. (sold to O'Reilly) I had this transmission shop on Beltline. They had purchased rebuilt loaded calipers and pads. They had me come out to do a warranty on 2 of those that were defective. I looked at them and they looked about 10 years old. He had bought the same units 2 months before.The pads were down to the back plates. Since he had bought these two months ago, we gave him credit. I'm sure this flake owner was working on a fleet of trucks that were all the same make and model. It was a good brand like Wagner, not a spray and pray. Shady as they come.

[stephen4785]

Hey all my mechanic friends. If you have a customer bring a truck in that wont start and you asked him if he checked the inertia switch and was told yes but when the truck came in you still check the switch and see its tripped. You press it and the truck now runs. Do you still charge the 1 hour diagnostics?

Nope. But apparently Ill never be rich.

[Gasser64]

Sux2bu.

Is it packed full o guts?

[gearjammer351]

Depends on if you want him to pay when he comes back.

Charge him whatever your shop minimum is (half hour, 1hr, etc) and tell him it was his inertia switch and show it to him and explain to him how it works. If he gets pissy about how easy it was to fix, tell him that it wasn't so easy because you checked a bunch of different stuff after he told you it wasn't the inertia switch.

He'll realize that you know your shit because you actually told him over the phone for free what the problem was. But he'll also appreciate that you value your time and the health of your business and he won't expect something for nothing in the future, just good quick diag and repair and fair rates.

I admire your optimistic view of your fellow humans and customers.

I don't share it, but I admire it.

[BP]

... something I don't like about eating something called "gut pack"...

It's fantastic and dirt cheap. You get around a 1/4 pound of brisket, sausage, some beans, fritos, jalapenos, onions and pickles along with a slice of bread for $6.50.

Vitek's in Waco. It's a very popular item at Baylor football tailgates. It's far from being the best BBQ in the world but it's cheap and very convenient.

[SMKR]

It's fantastic and dirt cheap. You get around a 1/4 pound of brisket, sausage, some beans, fritos, jalapenos, onions and pickles along with a slice of bread for $6.50.

Vitek's in Waco. It's a very popular item at Baylor football tailgates. It's far from being the best BBQ in the world but it's cheap and very convenient.

Yep, ate their for lunch today off Franklin, love their drive thru....

[Hobie]

Wow, the last thing I would be a cheapskate over would be a vehicle that screws itself into the air, particularly when my life is the one depending on those air-screws.

Love this thread!

You'd think that the stupidity would be not as prevelant in the aviation world. Not the case.

In addition to my full time job, I maintain a few helicopters on the side for some extra $$. I had one customer in paticular that would do everything he could to get out of doing any type of maintenance. He used to keep his helicopter in his front yard in Southlake. Some of you may have seen it while driving down 1709.

He brought it in for somthing small, but upon inspection it turned out to have a LARGE oil leak. It was close to its annual inspection, so I talked him into leaving with me to do the inspection, and fix the oil leak. This in itself was no small task, he flew that thing EVERYWHERE.
As I started the inspection, I climbed up to have a look at the main rotor blades. I wish I had kept the pictures, there was so much hail damage the blades looked like golf balls! On this helicopter, there is a limit to how big the dents can be. I picked one of the larger ones to measure and sure enough, the blades were not airworthy. Turned out, that the tailboom was also destined for the scrapyard due to the hail damage.
When I called him to deliver the news, he said "yeah, it was outside during that last hail storm. I didn't think the hail would hurt it". He had been flying it around for a couple months, not even knowing that the blades were damaged, much less not even airworthy. So much for doing preflight inspections.
This led to months worth of conversations, trying to convince me that the bleades did not need to be replaced, and that I should just sign them off and let him be on his way. I finally told him that if he didn't want to fix it, I'd be happy to roll it out for him to pick up, but it would not be signed off.
Ultimately, he claimed it on his insurance and we fixed it. I charged him accordingly, including storage fees for the months I had to endure while he tried to find a way out of fixing it.

[LaserSVT]

There are times I just want to go to other shops and punch them in the face.
Customer comes in yesterday with a beat to crap 02 Monte Carlo. Fuel pressure regulator is leaking like crazy. I notice both torque mounts are bent at a 15* angle to the passenger side. I see the passenger engine mount is gone and now the engine is burning a hole through the surge tank because the pulleys are rubbing it. I point this issue out to the customer. They only want the regulator fixed. Fine.

They just called me up because the car lost power steering this morning. They went to Jesse Britts Automotive (a place I hate and have been first hand ripped off there) and they told him that the power steering rack is leaking and the car needs to go back to where the FPR was done because we messed up the steering rack replacing the FPR. WTF? How fucking stupid can you be? They then went on to tell the customer that they would have been cheaper....... by $3.

So out of curiosity I called them from my friends phone to get a quote on a Malibu with the same engine for an FPR replacement. They quoted me DOUBLE what I charged my customer.

Jesse Britts is one of the worst shops I have ever seen. They tried to take me for an extra $80 to align my truck stating there were camber pins that needed to be removed. My truck does not have those pins. When I asked them to show me the pins the mechanic could not and just walked away. After they finished the truck it pulled worse than it did when I brought it in. When I went back the next day the were closed for lunch so I waited. I watched the ass hat that was working on my truck sneak out of the building, go to his car and start smoking meth. I assume it was meth. Was a glass pipe with a large globe on the end and he was using a small torch.
When he noticed me in my truck he threw it on his floor and acted like he was playing with paper work. Dumb ass.

[black50]

they show a 4.7 out of 5. 390 reviews

[LaserSVT]

They have a lot of turnaround and are very busy. I have delt with Jessie before and didn't have an issue. My understanding from one of my customers is the tech they had that did my alignment is no longer there. Maybe that was all of my issue, just the one guy. The dude writing my ticket was relaying what the tech said.
Still, the 96 Silverado does not have pins in the camber discs to lock them. Even if it did, $80 to knock them out? Also you have to purchase a warranty. I look at my experience and the experience other customers have told me about and I just no longer want anything to do with that shop. But to tell a customer that the shop that did the fuel pressure regulator is the reason why the power steering rack leaks..... good grief. I suppose I also bent the torque arms, yanked out the lower motor mount and the holes in the radiator reservoir are because the FPR was done wrong. LOL

[LaserSVT]

I mean I am used to a customer thinking strange stuff like that because they don't know any better. I have replaced a headlight bulb before and asked the very next day "What did you do wrong? My brakes are now squeeling. You put the light in wrong?" or "Remember you fixed my brake light switch last year? Well this morning my window wont roll down. What did you do?"

But when a 4.7 star shop says something like that.........

[Baron Von Crowder]

Dude, we fixed a power steering leak for a guy and when we fired it up, it piston slapped like an old chevy. It was a couple qts low on oil. We changed it, and when telling him about the oil consumption, he asked if it needed a new fuel cap.

[Gasser64]

I mean I am used to a customer thinking strange stuff like that because they don't know any better. I have replaced a headlight bulb before and asked the very next day "What did you do wrong? My brakes are now squeeling. You put the light in wrong?" or "Remember you fixed my brake light switch last year? Well this morning my window wont roll down. What did you do?"

Sounds like they're trying to use some kind of piss poor negotiating tactic

[appelingogt]

Had an Obambam supporter come in w/2012 F-150 that barley got rear-ended...body shop replaced tailgate & bumper...needed some paint somewhere I dunno...he picked it up this morning and came back after lunch wanting to know how the guys in the body shop made his chrome bubble up on LF gay ass faggot donks...GM told him after 30 minutes of arguing to get fucked and don't come back...

[Nash B.]

Dude, we fixed a power steering leak for a guy and when we fired it up, it piston slapped like an old chevy. It was a couple qts low on oil. We changed it, and when telling him about the oil consumption, he asked if it needed a new fuel cap.

Well, did it?