lmcca

Be careful with AutoVitals. They have a 1 year contract that you can not get out of. So if you don't like it or find a bigger better deal your are locked.

I used them since January and then I discovered Bolt On Technologies last month. I still have to pay AutoVitals. I think it is a crappy thing to do to people.

You should do your homework before buying such a thing. It is not unusual to come across this, we use one called Fasttrak and it was a year long. We have surpassed it and are continuing but it was no big deal. There is allot of setup and training that goes into some of these things and to have a customer by it then dump it a month later is not cost effective and does not give it a chance.

But, back on point, we have a paging system as part of our phone system and they also have a phone out in the bay to intercom call the front. Our techs are not allowed to come up front every time they want to say something, this wastes allot of time and makes productivity go down. The are required to send a message via fasttrak, google hangouts, email or call on phone.

more importantly, training. It would have prevented it.

It was a used axle assembly. Meaning, it was used. Parts wear over time, thus becoming used. When a used part is, pardon the pun, used then there is a much higher chance of failure than one that is new or rebuilt. Therefor, only a 6 month warranty was given because they felt that the potential for problems with this used axle is greatly increased after another 6 months of use on a used axle.

He got 16 months on an axle that was used. Sorry, they only warrantied it for that 6 month period.

Ford cant see what happened to that axle 16 months prior, that guy is telling you a story or the stealer is trying to make you look bad.

So, did you charge him more than the axle could be rebuilt for?

https://www.motorcraftservice.com/Home/Index

they will tell you everything you need to know.

yeah, you arent going to like doing it yourself. if you cant afford that, you are doing something else wrong. just sayin.

If you have the car she still has to pay to get it back. Just because they do a charge back doesnt mean a mechanics lien cant be filed on it, and now it must be paid in cash. Signed authorization will be your savior, hope you have it. The text show nothing about authorizing work.

we had a shop across from us do it........for a few months, i think you get screwed doing it.

They have been doing it for years. Although i dont agree with it for obvious reasons, its not a problem for us. We get 1 to 2 a week and once we explain it properly and politely we usually are diagnosing the problem.

 

I have yet to see this be the case.

Same here also, Was offering an Base LOF at 14.99, Had a handful of things, Nobody buying. Oh and they all asked your gonna top off my fluids and rotate my tires right? HA

the idea of the cheap lof price is to get them in the door. Once they are there it is your responsibility to keep them as customers, not the oil change price. There is a catch to everything and some are not going to be the customers you want. but others will be.

its 98% that the tech left them loose.

how come no other wheel lugs are loose due to corrosion, aluminum wheels etc?

You need to watch your techs when they do this to find out the issue. We too had this happened and i watched the same tech do the next one, now he didnt leave that one loose too but what this guy did was he placed a wheel on the car then just spun the lug nuts on by hand. Then he went to the next wheel and did the same thing and on to the next. So, most likely our guy got distracted and left one of those not tightened thinking he had already tightened that one. Customer drives and they start to loosen.

Now we watch them randomly to ensure they dont do this, we actually have a policy that states that you tighten the wheel before going on to the next wheel, he just forgot or just didnt want to do it that way.

anyway, good luck.

on another note, it can produce good customers and this may benefit fresh startups with few customers....

we used to have a cheap lof price, got rid of the customers we didnt want, was a good move and we will never go back to it.

wow, we are AAA in Texas, will look for this and post if we see it. Thats bs.

yeah, lack of response to outcome will discourage people from helping, just sayin

yuck, you would have to manually input EVERYTHING, no online parts importing, no labor importing etc. It may work for small shops but i see a major hinder to larger volume shops, and thats just those two things.

How do you handle tech's with side jobs ? He's my best tech, but he think's he run's the show. I want to allow as much freedom as possible but it's getting out of control. I don't want to be brutal with him but am not going to tolerate this kind of aboardance. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

so how did you handle this? all good?

@ Immca..mad...nuttin to be mad about. And I do read/follow Elon. Have spoken to him personally as a matter of fact. Like I said I tried RP w/o success. Overpriced with no guarentees. I tend to be on the high side also. I feel tho that these type of sites "degrade" the proffessionalism (?) of our trade. Oh and I checked out your web site...couldn't find the estimator anywhere?

lol, its on the home page

yeah, just work with the customer towards a resolution, if one cannot be made, charge for what you have done and move on. They DID give approval so its not your fault for starting the repairs, parts are not an issue as they can be returned. It mainly sounds like he he second thoughts and got an estimate from someplace else and chose to let them do the repairs?

old post guys, someone was just asking the outcome.

Well said all, leave the emotions out of it, it only makes it much worse.

you actually let him do side work in your shop? are you insane? We have nor will ever allow that. What they do on their own time away from shop is fine as long as they arent soliciting our customers.

1. yeah, rather than look around the shop hoping to find some busy work, work on getting busier. Social media is great. Send out emails with specials, you should be collecting them. Call a local sign company and get some banners for the drive by people. Go thru some prior RO's for declined work or maintenance and call some customers.

2. Training for the techs.

good luck.

Welcome to the forum, one other rule of thumb for forums is to not type in all caps, all caps is like your yelling at us

Anyway, welcome!

I was speaking with a shop owner the other day about an issue he is having with technician comebacks. After a series of questions, the reason for the comebacks became clear.

 

At the start of the year he implemented a very aggressive growth strategy, putting a lot of emphasis on quotas, sales and labor production. The strategy also included increased bonuses for the service advisor and techs for hitting certain goals.

 

Now, at its core, this is not a bad strategy. However, the focus was on quotas,sales, profit and production. What was lacking was a process to ensure that quality was maintained, and basing sale decisions on what is in the best interest of the customer.

 

A focus on quotas instead of service quality, is a recipe for eventual failure. For example: Instead of setting a quota to sell 5 batteries this week and 10 sets of wiper blades, create a process that your technicians will test all batteries and inspect all wiper blades. This strategy will achieve the same results while maintaining a focus on quality and integrity.

 

The bottom line is we all need goals. But we also need to maintain quality. So, when setting your goals, include a quality control process to cut down on mistakes before the customer gets his car back. Put emphasis on customer service and integrity. Celebrate positive customer reviews. And lastly, base all service and repair recommendations on what is in the best interest of the customer.

i stole your post and emailed to my guys, hope you don't mind, it was well said.

So Imcca you are willing to go to the low end of the quote if that is what the customer wants? As I said it wasn,t the estimate guide that drove me away from Repair Pal. And going off half cocked at the others in here dont warrant much respect. We all have our business models. If you want to cater to bottomers be my guest! Repair Pal DID NOT fulfill all they advertised!

You mad bro?

we actually are closer to the high end and have NO problem with discussing it with the customer. We show them why we are there and why we provide better service. Come out of the woods and read Elons post, especially the part in bold, just because you don't like it doesn't mean it wont work.