mspecperformance

I have to say I am not in favor of dealing with any. It is a colossal waste of time and it gives motorists a false sense of security. When claims get denied, we look like the bad guys. Even if they understand its not our fault, it still puts them in a negative mood which is never good.

Definitely the goal however in big cities your chance of encountering morons driving expensive cars is super high.

Curious to hear some feedback on these guys especially from those who have experience with multiple CRM programs. I am currently enrolled with KuKui which also has a CRM program rolled into their internet marketing. I was with DemandForce for a few months (I DO NOT RECOMMEND THESE IDIOTS). Their program was nice and I feel their CRM was still somewhat more polished than KuKui's althought it seems to be that KuKui is making improvements constantly.

The customers that will generally complain about your price no matter what you do are: #1 The customer that is accustomed with dealing with low end shops. These guys generally don't respect what we do. #2 The forum/internet guy. Can't tell you how much these guys bug the crap out of me. They will go on a forum and read some stupid low price for a certain job and expect everything to be in line with that. Oh yeah they will also tell you how to fix their car. #3 Culturally cheap or negotiate everything customers. No matter what you do these fools will barter you to death. They have to walk away feeling like they won. Now if you have a clean facility, great customer service, quality repairs and timely turn around times then you should only be getting complaints from these 3 types of customers. There are ways of dealing with them (which will still give you white hair and nightmares) OR you can throw them back into the polluted ocean.

Brace yourself and don't take what these warranty jackasses to heart. I'd make it as crystal clear to the customer that there is no guarantee of anything and these companies are about not approving claims since it hurts their bottom line (how else are they suppose to make money!). Also you might want to think about charging an administration fee because between the phone conversations, faxes, waiting for inspectors, more phone conversations, negotiations, etc it can eat a lot of your time. The general customer doesn't understand how the whole system works. These are not face to face businesses nor are they altruistic. I pose this question to my warranty contract customers, "If you pay $3000 for a warranty and expect the warranty company to pay out $4000 worth or work, how do they make money? Does it make sense to you that their goal is to deny your claims?" I usually get either blank faces or the "yeah I know..." responses. Then why did you buy the warranty you dummy!! The genius customer I am dealing with now says to me yesterday, "Why didn't you sharpie the H&R sign so they wouldn't know my springs are aftermarket???" and "I don't care if they won't pay, I want to use the warranty. If they won't pay I'll get another company!" The best was when he said in an agitated voice, "You should have told me that they would deny my claim if I had aftermarket parts on my car!" My response was, "It was your responsibility to read through your policy, I buy and sign for the policy and neglect to understand the warranty would be voided if you installed performance parts, you did." The response I got was, "... Your suppose to give me suggestions! You should have told me to swap out the springs, I would have brought you the old ones!" My reply, "...So just to get this straight, you want me to tell you how to scam the warranty company?" All I heard was dial tone after that Customers that have been dumb enough to get suckered into these warranties are generally going to be #1 Stupid as all hell and/or #2 cheap as all hell.

Some customers are just price shoppers to the core. I took in a No Start 2006 ML350. Jumped the car in front of the line and worked on it the next day. The last shop replaced the fuel pump and still could not fix the car. We traced the problem (after 8 hours of diagnostic) to a bad connector and pin to the fuse box. We recommended to replace the bad connector and pin as well as the fuse box. After speaking to the customer everything was all fine and he was notified the parts will be in on Friday.. This morning I got a call from the same customer with a whole lot of, "my cousin brought the same car to the dealer with the same problem and they charged him XXX," and "I am a first time customer, don't you want to keep me happy???" Nevermind we got the car figured out within a day and did something the last shop could not do but now all of a sudden we are the bad guys because we are charging a fair price for a hard to find electrical problem that another shop couldn't. East Indian customer if that matters to you all. For those in the know, gives a lot of insight!

I see more and more of these terrible warranties everyday! Its so hard to do business and explain to customers that they practically have gotten scammed. They seemingly don't understand the business of these warranties and how difficult it is to actually get them to pay, how long they will be out of a car while an inspector comes to see the vehicle and what small percentage these crooks are willing to pay. I am so sick and tired of these companies and how they make us, the repairers the bad guys! How do you guys deal with this even after you give your customers all the warnings?? I am in it with this one customer that replaced his wheels and springs with aftermarket parts and is now trying to get the warranty company to pay for his shocks and springs. They are most likely going to deny his claim and I am already bracing myself for the backlash. I am almost at the end of my patience with dealing with these companies and really ready to say we are not dealing with them anymore. Problem is I feel it will turn potential customers away even the ones who have the warranties but understand the items they do and don't cover.

If anyone is looking for a Pass Thru not that I have had first hand experience but I believe NAPA has a promotion for a Bosch VCI on a monthly rental. I believe it is a $149 fee and they provide the pass thru with laptop scanner suite software.

Been with KuKui for about 5 weeks now. Didn't really kick into gear until about 2 weeks ago when the website was finally done. Seeing some results, I was told takes 2-3 months until the website becomes Search Engine Optimized etc etc. Anyone else with any feedback? I am really liking the analytics and I have added a tracking phone number to my facebook page which has worked out well so far. Can't wait to see the results in 2-3 months i'm homing it'll be tremendous.

Customer makes and appointment to swap wheels on a 335i (he has the tires already mounted). Vehicles comes in with the TPMS light flashing and an obvious issue with the system. The new wheels don't even have sensors installed. We ask the customer what he wants to do and inform him that to get the TPMS system working we would have to dismount all 8 tires and see what it is reusable and what isn't. Customer declines as it doesn't fit in his budget (yes drives a 20k+ used car but doesn't have a few hundred bucks to fix properly). We notate this on his RO and let him leave. Was thinking this morning, was this the right course of action? Any way I could be held liable if anything happens say a flat tire and an accident?

I have been thinking about what I'd like to write about for my monthly newsletters. Any suggestions? How many stories/topics?

ncautoshop, you have to expect this from a guy that has been to 3 other shops. They obviously have no loyalty and probably no respect for a professional automotive technician.

Hey thanks Wes! No my shop wasn't featured but I guess that is a great compliment! Those are some random photos I posted on our facebook page. To be honest all I can see is CLUTTER CLUTTER CLUTTER! The photos tab is a great idea, we originally had that and I do have a ton of pictures but I was unsatisfied with the messiness of the shop so I had them take it off for the time being. I do plan on doing some sort of photo shoot so I can have more presentable pictures for the site. I will ask about the address bar.

My Customer rant for the day. I have a rather decent gentleman in this 30's that brings his 1998 528i to us. The first time we saw the vehicle was the beginning of the summer. The car looked like it had been sitting for the better part of a year. The owner told us he had let the car sit for a while but wanted to drive it for the summer and sell it when the summer was over. He brought the car in originally for a coolant leak. We diagnosed the problem to 2 hoses on the throttle body, fixed the problem, pressure tested, bled the cooling system, let sit at idle for an hour, test drove and sent it out. Customer brings the car back a few weeks later with an overheating issue. Seems a little frustrated with the ol' "I brought the car in for an overheating issue and I still have the same problem." We diagnose the problem to a hose on the back of the head that wore out and blew off. I explained to the customer that the overheating was due to a new problem and the previous repairs were not the cause. We performed the same procedure, pressure tested, bled, idle, test, sent it out. Customer again tows the car back a few weeks later again overheating. Now hes a bit more pissed off. Same old BS, "I am still overheating!" After the customer tells me the situation in which he started to overheat (bumper to bumper traffic dead heat of summer, AC on) I told him that it may be the aux fan not functioning properly. After we diagnose the problem it did turn out to be a seized fan. I again explained to the customer that it is a new problem and the previous repairs were holding. I then added that there is no way to tell what else he would need unless he wanted to preemptively replace his whole cooling system (which I do recommend to my customers but this being a 15 year old car he wasn't going to bite). Again we performed the same procedure, this time with the added test of the function of the fan and then we sent the car out. Customer contacts me via facebook to tell me hes overheating again. Tells me that he doesn't want to pay a dime out of pocket because he thinks the fan is not working. I told him that we take care of our customers and if the fan is not working he is covered, just bring the vehicle in and we will get right on it. A month later the customer arrives with the vehicle, this time he drove it in. Left the car with me on a Saturday and told him to wait a few days until next week and we will give him a call. We get to the car and first this is we notice there is a lot of smoke coming from the exhaust and the car is running a little rough. Already know potential headgasket issue. We pressure test the cooling system for good measure to check for leaks, there are none. We test the function of the fan, working perfectly. We trace a problem from the DME to the fan. No activation but signal coming out of DME. We check the fuse, getting power. Trace the problem to a break in the wire underneath the carpet somewhere. Before we go any further I contact the customer. I explain to him the situation but also that even if we fix the fan function issue (which was not our fault) he would still have a HG problem. He understands and wants to know what is going on with the car and authorizes us to pull the head. Customer contacted me yesterday saying he would like to cancel the head check and would like to take the car. Ok no problem. Wants to have the car towed out today, no problem. I explain to him that there is a $60 diag/service fee and if he would like to pay over the phone with CC (which was a gift for the amount of time we spent tracing his wiring issue!). He says no problem, hed like to send the tow truck first and then drop by after work and settle up because he would like to pay in cash. I explain to the customer that we don't allow vehicles to leave out shop without settling the balance. Next i get a somewhat hostile message about how he doesn't appreciate that I am "holding $60" over his head when he had to tow the car back to the shop 3 times. Some customers I want to throw into the river...

Ive experienced a ton of this before however since moving to my new location and due to I guess looking more "professional" I get less of it. I don't know what runs through people's minds either. I do tell them about the storage fees to get them to move their arses on paying up.

Careful planning and knowing your number is super important. Knowing how much to charge and how to take care of your customers is also equally as important as getting the job done efficiently and correct!

Great story! How did you guys knows she would eat it??? I've had a lot of customers politely refuse food/water/coffee even though i know they probably wanted it LOL. They just dont want to seem greedy somehow...

Very interesting, I purchase heavily from WorldPac. I wonder if this will have any affect on WP.

Thanks guys! I am not too fond of the pics that are up there now, lots of clutter in them I think. Will have new pics up soon but thanks for the kind words! Working on the team bios and gotta snap some pics of the crew.

After some strong consideration and thought I signed up with Kukui 2 weeks ago. I know there has been some discussion about Kukui. I was told it takes them about 3-4 weeks to fully set up a website and then to introduce the shop owner to the "dashboard" or control panel. I guess I can count myself as one of the lucky ones as I have my site up already. check out the site, I haven't filled out a lot of the more specific info such as the About Us page however this is a good starting point. Also I am not too fond of the pictures I had sent in for them to use but I didn't have too much prepared so those will be up for a little while until I can get some of my photographer friends in to snap some pictures. www.mspecperformance.com Let me know what you guys think.

Jeff, I am going to work on some phone scripts to try out. Try to get out the reluctant ones to come in. I always feel if the customer is borderline, I think the difference will be in customer service and showing how different our operation is than practically every other shop.

Been getting a lot of phone calls for price quotes and "check my problem" out. Lots are getting turned off by the initial diag fee. Wondering if I should try Joe's method. I can't help but think these are bottom feeder customers that I am trying to avoid.

When I passed a few auto shops in DR, more of the chain shops/dealer shops they were very nice open air service bays. Very neat and clean I was very surprised. I didn't get to see the local shops but I could imagine what they look like.

Joe, When you say "visual inspection" does that include time on the lift if something needs to be inspected? What if you are required to remove SOME or A LOT of covers, shields, etc to properly visually inspect. Do you charge then or do you still comp. I am intrigued by your process it looks like it would work really well for those on the fence customers that can be good customers. I am just worried about all the wasted time with cheapy price shoppers. One of my pet peeves is I HATE dealing with price shoppers so my initial fee for checking, inspecting, diag usually turns them away. It has been my philosophy for the last few years that giving things away is devaluing your product/service so I always try to throw a price on anything we do as long as there is value and work that has been put forth.