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Car Repair Ripoffs on the Early Show

xrac

By xrac
in Customer Experience & Reviews

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lvroth Rookie

lvroth

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Did any of you catch this? It was aired on 4-14-2010.

 

The Early Show Video - Car Repair Rip-Offs - CBS.com

 

 

I just watched this video. Every day we work on overcoming an image given to us by unethical repair facilities and/or bad reporting by the media. Yes, there are repair shops that will and do take advantage of their customers, however I have to ask myself, was this reporting being done in a consequential manner? In others words, the end justifies the means. Did the reporter have a particular outcome in mind for his reporting?

We make sure that our recommendations meet 3 criteria; good for the customer, good for the car, and good for the company. Run your business with integrity and don't get caught up with the naysayers!

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ROBK Apprentice

ROBK

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If AutoMD estimates the repair to cost $180 and I quote them $220 does that make me somehow and unscrupulous businessmen? I don't think so but that is what they are insinuating. If only one estimate was less than AutoMd's estimate maybe AutoMD was too low. Who says AutoMD estimate is correct. They certainly don't know my pricing structure or overhead costs.

 

By the way, Ivroth it is good to hear from you! :D

 

Out of curiosity I just played around with the automd site. According to them if a consumer does a front disk brake job themselves the parts should cost $27.65... If done at a repair shop the parts cost should be $32.63 :rolleyes:

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ROBK Apprentice

ROBK

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Is it me or does AutoMD have an agenda I am not aware of? How can the price of job, any job, be the same where ever you go. AND, "why" does it have to be the same??? Do you get the same price for a steak dinner at every resturant around the country. Are there not different levels of service, parts and economic standards of living?

 

Who sets these prices? I seem to remember that we live in the USA... the land of the free, the land of free enterpirse!! We all do remember this once great country, right?

 

I think we should voice our opinions on AutoMD and tell them how we feel.

 

I have said this a million times...we are the hardest working people in any industry and we deserve to make a decent income. I am not going to be dictated by some online service that tells me what I should charge or how much I can make on a job. NEVER!

 

Sorry, this really upsets me....

 

 

I find it disturbing as well. Kind of the same way I feel about the parts stores offering free "diagnostics". I spent a good few minutes on the automd site looking up stuff at random. I found many of the quotes were not to far off but many of them were... especially in the parts category. Across the board even on the prices that weren't to far off they were all skewed on the low side and that would be using cheap parts. A shop installing quality branded parts is going to be paying as much or more for the stuff as that website is saying is the retail price to the customer.

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lvroth Rookie

lvroth

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It seems that AutoMD could care less about the repair shops:

 

 

 

Beware your 'armed' customers - AutoPro Workshop Blog post - Where Professionals Gather for Better Business

 

 

Who are these people from AutoMD and what are their qualifications? Negotiate a price? Every shop has different operating expenses which in turn will affect how a job is priced out. What would a customer think if we lowered our price because they said they could get it done cheaper at another facility. I think THAT would make us look like we were trying to take advantage of them.

I'm with Joe, this burns me up!

 

Vickie Roth

Roth's Auto Repair, Inc.

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Gonzo Grand Master

Gonzo

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Vickie, this does burn me up! Negotiate a price??? How about negotiating a price the next time you go to the Movies, tell the girl at the window, "Hey, Robin Hood at Lowes Theatre is only 11 bucks, can you match it”? I mean, PLEASE, this is ridiculous and we as professionals must not stand for this.

As soon as that type of customer stops treating me as a professional... I stop treating them like a customer.

I'm posting a new story today with similar topic, a light hearted look at it of course.

 

Oh, and I don't negotiate... negotiations is a compromise of two different parties.... the original negotiation was that I would fix your car for "X" amount of dollars... enough said .... negotiations are over.

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DewayneP Contributor

DewayneP

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Wow is all I can say. They are only accounting for an 18% markup on their parts supplier's prices. That's crazy. What happens when that cheap part craps out and I have to remove it for the customer, they have to pack it up and ship it back (paying for shipping), then we both have to wait for the replacement to come in? The whole show segment and autoMD website are created to make shops look bad, that's all there is to it. It also looks like a front for the AutoMD website's parts supplier. Why don't they give you different supplier choices and their prices? How about a dealer price listed for the OEM part for comparison? I noticed on the show how they glossed over the good shops and only pointed out the "bad" ones. Like Gonzo said in his latest writeup, do we ask for a better price at any other retail establishment? Nope. There is price-matching that is done at retail establishments but that requires the customer to do some legwork first and not just on the internet and it also has to be for the "same exact product and must be in-stock ". I think, as a shop owner, you have to do what is right for the customer and your shop. If you are fair in your pricing and provide quality work then the "shop around" customer isn't the customer you want as they will always be "shopping around".

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

    • Joe Marconi
      Want to End Your Technician Shortage? Focus on Retention!
      By Joe Marconi in Joe's Blog
         5 comments
      I recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
      Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
      Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
      Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
      Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”

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