phynny

If you guys have jobs scheduled to a point where 10min makes a difference please show me how. I can't imagine telling my guys their tool buying/having repaired is their problem and to do it on their time.

I charge time involved. I tell the customer it's 1/2 hr min and it is going to take over an hour I'll call and discuss further options. I have NEVER had a case that took over an hour to fish that the customer was surprised at.

OP, you're forgetting the best part of 90% of those. The, "oh I'll bring my own part."

It's funny when I hear guys say I have xxx,xxx on such and such. You know there are people that smoke 3 packs a day and live to 100 years old? That must mean smoking keeps you healthy right? Wolfs head is owned by a company from Florida and it's nothing more than a bath tub blend these days.

 

As this is a technical question I don't think "here say" and personal opinions should be given as facts. Oil is the life blood of a vehicle and is very complex and should be treated as such. Next I'm going to start seeing people say that tranny fluids are all the same...

 

As far as price, you can get a good bulk oil for a little over $10/gallon. If customers are going to complain about a couple bucks for something as important as oil I don't want them as customers anyway.

Didn't realize I needed to spell it all out... A full synthetic will increase fuel mileage, reduce engine wear and the customer only has to see me every 6 months which saves them time and money. Understand?

 

As far as the "bulk" oil, your price will depend on the quantity you will be purchasing. Obviously if you do one oil change a week and joe-shmo does 20, he'll be at a lower price point.

A whole bunch of misguided thoughts on oil here. No 2 oils are the same and they vary GREATLY in their ability to protect your car. We do many oil analysis on many different vehicles and argue end of the day we only sell Brad Penn Full Synthetic. I'm no spokesperson for one brad but this oil proved itself time and time again as our results came back. There are other great oils but their price is higher and the protection we look for in oil for our climate it was an easy choice.

 

Each year vehicles are required to meet more stringent mpg requirements and a lot of this is/was done I part to making these vehicles run hot in order to run efficiently. I have many test tubes of failed oils that have caused catastrophic failures and/or expensive repairs. Oil is our engines life blood and should be treated as such IMHO.

 

I was hesitant to go from a $30 oil change to $70 but honestly we do more now than ever. And since they can legitimately go 6k between oil changes it works out cheaper for the customers. We also make more money off of each oil change.

It's amazing how different all of our areas are.

 

So here's how we work things, I'll give you an example of one of our techs.

 

Guaranteed base salary of $8/hour and $10/hour of every billed hour. On large times jobs IE engines or transmissions he gets a $50 bonus per every $500 in labor. I also will challenge the techs often by way of betting them. Example, a job calls for 4.5 hours and I'll Bet the tech a new battery powered snap-on wratchet that he can't do it in 4 hours. I also don't use Mitchell time, I normally add 40% to the suggested time. This does 2 things;

 

Makes the workplace fun yet challenging and gives the techs a great sense of pride.

 

Gets them the newest and best tools so they can do better and more efficient work. And I get to write it off .

That seems a little low. Not questioning you just curious why so low.(please dont take that offensively)

I'm a 7 year tech/shop owner with 150k in tools but no certifications...i'd hate to think im just worth $8 an hour lol

In my opinion its about the quality of work, and their talents.

I'm very interested however how the 8 base and 10 incentive works. I'd like to implement a similar plan!

 

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Can't compare apples to rice. It's all in what the market will allow. A shop with a labor rate of $70/hour can't pay as much as a $95/hour rate. A town with an average income of 30k vs 50k can't charge the same.

 

So without any further information your comment and this whole topic is as useless as a football bat .

Sounds like a fail.

This is totally area dependent. I pay $8/hour base with $10/hour incentive for a tech with those credentials.

If you believe you can handle t then go for it. Just know that wrenching is by far the easiest job in the shop.

Hahahahaha! It warms my heart to read things like this. Sometimes we get to feeling like we're the only shop that has to deal with these type of people by that's certainly not the case.

 

I recently had a honda civic come to the shop not running right at all. It had 177k and the original timing belt. I explained to the customer that I needed to install a new belt and get the car in time before I could further diagnose it.

 

After installing the belt we found cylinders 2&3 to be very low so I called the customer and spoke to his wife and explained the car needed an engine. She immediately started yelling at me saying "so you want $500 and you didn't fix the car!!." After listening to her for a minute I couldn't stand it and I explained to her that it was not my neglect that caused the engine to fail. I even tried explained to her that you can't do a compression test with the timing not correct.

 

Errrr, idiots

Jeff, these free scans will be gone soon. I know of at least 2 if the major parts distributors that are stopping them. And the free battery, wiper and whatever else they do. Too much liability and kickback when the scan a car, sell a part and it doesn't fix the problem. Batteries are just too hard to get to for them.

Do what works for your business obviously, but Joe, that is not charging for diag. It symantics right? At best your giving half off diag which really suprises me after reading most of your posts on here. The vast majority of the time the problem can be discovered by the handy-dandy scan tool so to me that is diag time. But hey, if it works then carry on .

 

Jeff, we are $80/hour and when someone calls for a "scan", I tell them it will either take 1/2hr or an hour to diag 95% of vehicles we see. If we need more time we call the customer but that is extremely rare and when it does happen the customer almost always knows it's coming because its normally an ongoing problem.

For example, a customer comes in the shop complaining of a noise in the wheel when they turn right. To "diagnose/troubleshoot" a noise like that you would test drive the vehicle. So would you charge for that or no?

Yes, we do charge a diagnostic testing fee. We must. We knew from the sound of the engine and the way that is was running that it was an engine related problem. We sold a compression test, leak down test and once we determined the cylinder, we went back to the customer to ask for time to remove the valve cover.

 

The customer was actually greatfull at that point, for not just doing a decarb. Many shops fear charging for diag testing. If explained correctly you will not have the a problem. We always give the customer a visual inspection and a road test, with pulling any codes and a consultation before we start, for no charge.

 

Joe I'm confused at your posts. I seems to me that you clearly don't charge for diagnostic time... Could you further elaborate on your reasoning?

I agree. If I feel there is a viable option I will always present it to the customer and let them make the decision. It gains far more trust I find to not dictate but to educate. Such as with brake pads, we can go with compressed cigarette ash like the $99.95 brake place, but you're going to have shorter life, more noise, more dust and lower braking power, or we can go with a premium pad, restore the factory performance and all that other stuff. When faced with options and reasons why the cheaper option is cheaper, not better or of greater value, the customer has to decide how their ability to pay and the value of their life plays into the decision.

.

With that said I absolutely hate the good/better/best scenario because if you use economy or inferior grade parts, it doesn't matter if you explain to the customer the short life-expectancy and poor performance they won't remember the discussion 6 months from now when the part fails. You can put in on the work order, video-tape the discussion, have the customer sign the disclaimer and promise you that they are actually selling the car (haven't we all heard that story before?) you just know you're going to see that car 19 months from now, the 12 month warranted part has failed and the customer is complaining, "But you JUST fixed it!"

 

Yeah, well you were selling it too!

Oh man did you hit the nail on the head. This is exactly why I won't sell or install parts I am not willing to back.

There is a difference between a "mistake" and purposely filling being disrespectful. I would give him one warning and then fire him and make it well known why he was fired. If you don't put te fire out now it will only spread.

Hahahaha awesome

Best tool I've bought in a LONGGGG time

 

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=yes&tool=all&item_ID=648561&group_ID=681035&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

I thought there was a law for that:

http://www.anvari.org/fortune/Laws/275_drews-law-of-professional-practice-the-client-who-pays-you-the-least-complains-the-most.html

Can I get an A-men people!

 

 

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I answer the phone and say, "good afternoon the is Charles at S & M Auto Repair". Then they start their sales pitch and I calming say, "no ablo English" and wait for the confusion to set in and the hang up.

 

 

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You guys nailed it. I really believe there is no such thing as "saving money", in the end someone will pay for it.

 

 

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Thought some might enjoy this story that finally played out yesterday and it goes along with Gonzos most recent article.

 

6 weeks ago I received a phone call where a boyfriend explains to me how his girlfriend ran her 1999 Lexus into a ditch. Since we have worked on his cars in the past we were his first choice. After receiving the vehicle it had bent the front left strut, crushed part of the exhaust almost shut. Upon further inspection we found the fuel tank had a MASSIVE leak. The quote was over 2k for the customer. This included the fuel tank, both struts, tie-rod ends, exhaust repair etc.

 

After speaking to the customer he only wanted to do one strut... He said she (his pregnant girlfriend) would just have to drive it until they could sell it. I could not let it go like that so I offered to let her make payments on the fuel tank, exhaust repair and one strut which is all they would allow me to fix.

 

We completed the repairs and called the customer for pickup. The agreement was she would pay the balance on sept 6th when she got her school money. She had only paid $300 out of the $1400 bill. I get a call a couple I days ago with the customer saying she smells exhaust in the car and another shop told her I didn't repair the exhaust. We agreed she'd bring the car back and we would look at it. While dropping it off she was very rude and said not to call her until it was fixed.

 

So now we have possession f the vehicle and I'm obviously not letting it leave until the balance is paid in full. What really pissed me off is that the car had brand new brakes, rotors, tires and the other strut was replaced!!! Yet I was never paid.... After getting the car on a lift we immediately found the leak and it was 3" from our repair and it had cracked at the hanger. I was so excited to make the phone call =D. After explaining her new issue which was like talking to a wall I asked her if she wanted us to repair it and informed her she had to pay the balance on the vehicle before it could leave. Both her and her boyfriend asked if they could make payments! Are you kidding me?! Did the other shop take payments on your tires?! I said absolutely not and explained that we tried that already and never received payment. Now here is the best part..........

 

They butt dialed the shop phone and for 10 minutes I heard their plans on coming and just taking the car! She didn't like the idea and was saying she didn't want the cops coming to get him again lol. This guy is a body building "meat-head" therefor I had to look into my options. Cops can't do anything until during or after an incident, big help there. I recently broke my left and right index finger and part if my right finger is missing a large piece of skin all the way down to the bone (another story). The guy had told his girlfriend exactly what he was going to due to me and over the years I've learned that 90% of tough guy talk is just talk but there is that 10%. After 30 minutes I finally got my finger to bend and could make an almost fist . Now I feel fine and things will easily go my way if the need arises. As a business owner this is a last resort obviously.

 

As they arrived I had the vehicle in the air and showed them the spot and then welded it for them. I conceited the about not wanting to repair everything I recommended and had the proof (go me!). After speaking to them for a little while I believed not only did I satisfy them but I wouldn't be surprised to see their vehicles back in my shop. Oh yes, I did get paid.

 

The End

 

Great article and it sucks when that situation happens as it did to me yesterday.

 

 

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