alfredauto

My tech thought I was nuts a few weeks ago because I entertained a guy who looked like he was a little out there. The wood blocks holding up his car made us cringe. Anyway I sold him a couple used tires (carry-out) for like $5 each after some tough negotiating. Time wasted - maybe, or maybe not. He came back in yesterday and brought his friend with him. I was preparing myself for another counseling session when his friend pulled out a wad of cash and bought a car I had for sale. If I had sent this guy packing I'd be a lot poorer today. Moral of the story is you really never know who you are dealing with. All customers are potentially good customers. Honestly I can count on one hand the customers I had to fire, they beat me until I quit them. The rest turned out OK. The cheapest coupon clippers don't usually come to me anyway because I don't offer any coupons.

Amen brother. This is a current issue with the snow, we clean the floor 10 minutes later its a sandy slushy mess. The workflow suffers when we are working in a mud puddle.

We had a warranty the other day I was studying, the customer paid some dealer $2100 for the diamond plan. "Maximum lifetime payment not to exceed $1500" was in the fine print. These should be illegal.

I ran out of waste oil to burn so I'm tempted to offer a $9.99 10 minute oil change. Offer good until my tank is full. :-)

Too funny! I had my first flat a couple weeks ago in my driveway on a lot car I drove home (my truck which i normally drive has 10 plys they don't go flat too often) I was swearing as I put the spare on. Then I go to work and change 40 tires no problem :-) lol

I offer loaner cars in a pinch. I'll loan them a car on the dealer plate to test drive for the day. It makes their life easier, my life easier, and the seed is planted in case they like my car better. My dealer insurance covers test drives which is not the same as a rental car but serves the same purpose. I used to loan people my spare personal car until I woke up and understood the liability of that is crazy. I have to tell them "NO SMOKING" you'd be surprised...

Using an appt calender is something we've always used. Customers appreciate we can't just get them in any time and call ahead for appointments, its just the way it is. I try to book about 50% per day and leave the other 50% of time open for upsells or quick fixes like headlights or emergency tires. We never sit still, when I booked 100% of time we ended up behind or working to midnight.

When a job calls for more than 3 hours or is difficult I explain that we will have it done tomorrow due to parts or whatever, it greatly reduces the stress. The last thing I want is a customer waiting for new brake lines and it takes 5 hours of time where we can't do anything else because the customer is hawkeyeing me.

Some are impossible where the "technician" on the phone questions everything. Others just fax a cc# and thats it. Our labor rate is below the national average so it usually goes Smooth.

Even on rwd, the front wheels do most of the stopping so all four is always the safest bet. We don't ever deny a 2 tire sale though, sometimes that's all the $ they have.

I give out 2 prices if i have to, the first is based on OE or premium parts. If they are on the way out the door I offer a lower priced option. I make it clear I can do the work for close to the same price as the cheap guy by using the same cheap parts and cut corners on the caliper service etc, but I prefer not to because it makes for a hack job. Most of the time they choose the first higher price. This past month has been tough for us so I'm trying hard to not send anything away. I assume the other shops are slow too by the discounts. Sometimes the people simply lie about the price they got.

I'm still not paid what I'm worth but at least nobody yells at me for being late.

If you shoo away the waiters you will lose some tire business, You can thank the tire chain giants for that. Walmart promotes instant gratification, same with most of the others. Tires have become a commodity. If you can't do them right now the competition will, the product is the same. Auto Service is not the same as tires. People will gladly drop off their car to get it fixed right because they can't get that everywhere, not so much with a set of hoops.

I use a large desk calender and a pencil. Works perfect no glitches.

Profit is what matters most.

I don't have a brake lathe, sold it years ago. It just didn't make sense in NY with the rust. In my neighborhood If a rotor even looks machinable its a miracle. We scrap 2 or 3 tons a month of rotors and bearings and not one do I say "that could have been fixed" - they are junk from the factory, lot rot before they even get a mile on them, and the replacements are just as bad. The only exception might be high end euro rotors, like the big S class drilled rotors, I'll send those out to be machined.

For o2 heater to set we keep the car overnight. Evap we can run in the bay 50% of the time. Normal drive cycle takes about 30 minutes. It tunes us in to what else is wrong with the car too. We only do this on diags. We are a 2 person shop, it gets crazy trust me. Tires, alignment, suspension we test drive about 5 miles but our shop is on the highway so its quick. We do state inspections too so it's not unheard of for someone to leave their car a couple days to get it to pass, its pretty much the norm.

Got one back today, didn't follow my own rule. I put an O2 sensor in because the old one was obviously broken. No need for verification, too time consuming I thought and unnecessary. Easy job. Yup I had an hour today though to work on it free when it came back. Had a separate issue but bottom line is the light came back on because I failed to fix every cause of the original cel complaint. In the customers eyes its got the same problem, which is the light on the dash. I'm guilty of stopping when I found a problem, not all the problems.

First timers I take extra time getting all the info, repeat customers I just verify the phone #, but its 100% verbal and I type while I talk. All the comments and symptoms I type in so the mechanic has the same info as me, less confusion.

Amazon. Fcp euro, pelican parts, Bavarian motorsports. No discounts vs Joe public but still 75% cheaper than the dealer. I've been putting $39 amazon CV axles in my w210 and w211 Benzes for years with no problems. Knock on wood.

I contributed to burning a 86 dodge omni. Carb cleaner was used to check vacuum leak. Doh! I was at a shop with 12 fire extinguishers, 11 had steel wire instead of pull pins. 11 out of 11 were dead. Maybe that's why they were wired shut... By the time someone found a good one the car was shoved out into the parking lot with 20' flames. Another time my buddy was welding up a rotted out jeep, whatever was inside on the carpet was extremely flammable. That was on a lift so it was a panic attack until we hosed it out.I'm hoping there's no more for me.

Common problem is the tps wiring shorts against the rear valve cover stud. Its not obvious but you should be able to study the harness and see the problem.

Yes, if required. Mostly we use OE fluid for the transfer cases and diffs. There are some exceptions, Mercedes hydraulic oil for the suspension is $35/liter I charge extra for it. One ton diesels need more fluids, some of the European charcoal filters are $$$, nobody has objected yet. Mostly we do Silverado 1500's, honda crv's and Subaru's which I based the package price on. I stock the fluids for those, they are not too expensive. The guy with an AMG or M5 understands his car doesn't apply to any package price deals.

I offer a 4x4 service for $500. Involves changing all the fluids and all filters. 2wd is $400. 60% of the time they get new brakes and tires. The good thing is a customer who's willing to spend $500 on this service cares about preventative maintenance and is a good customer to have

I like 2 lifts per tech, it keeps them going while waiting for parts. Renting one bay might be tricky, I doubt it will work out good for you.

We have a plan to keep preventable comebacks at a ZERO percent. #1 verify the complaint. Most important step. #2 make repair including the root cause of the problem, #3 verify the complaint is 100% resolved via extensive test drive. If I'm not absolutely sure the problem is solved the car stays until we can verify we fixed it. "Do it right, do it twice. Three times sometimes" is our motto. An example would be a press in bearing, if it's not perfectly smooth we do it again. Sure, good enough will get the customer out the door for a few months but they will come back displeased when it fails at the most inopportune time. OBDII codes get verified with the readiness monitor setting. Anything else is an educated guess. It takes more time to do it this way but it's better than tying up a bay with nonproductive work.

That said we do get some comebacks due to defective parts, that's a warranty issue not a comeback. I had guys who couldn't make a repair stick, they don't work for me anymore. We are all human, I don't worry too much about minor come backs we just take care of it and away they go. Carelessness is not tolerated.

I can say without a doubt every comeback we have had that was our fault was because I let the customer rush us and we skipped a step outlined above.

I'm in the same situation. My tech goes home for lunch, when he started coming back 5 minutes late I didn't say anything. Then it became 10, then 20. Finally I put my foot down and he was surprised and got defensive on me. Its my fault because I let it go for so long. To be honest I didn't really pay attention until he was taking an hour and a half. He knows he's not going to get fired so I'm going to change his monthly bonus to be dependent on punctuality.

I'm in the same boat. It seems like the front door is connected to the phone and the street; as soon as a customer walks in the phone rings. Someone wants free air at the same time, then sure enough a family will want to test drive a used car, then a guy will want to look at tread designs of every tire in stock. All at the same time. Then the parts guy shows up along with a solicitor. I dont have any hair left to pull out. Then an hour will go by with no calls no walk ins. My wife helps out when she can, it makes a big difference for someone to be permanently attached to the phone. We get at least 20-30 calls a day, most are status updates, tire prices and appointment scheduling - all things a secretary can handle easily.