xrac

That's what retirement can do to you!

Man I had never even considered this. Fortunately by the time this comes full circle I’ll be retired.

Joe I think it will definitely impact. We have a house rented in Destin Florida in four weeks. I am trying to figure out what to drive to Florida instead of my gas guzzling Lexus GX460. I have to drive some thing. The house rental is paid and can’t be canceled. Should I take my wife’s convertible or our granddaughter’s Lexus ES350? Just thinking out loud.

What a brilliant idea. That is a fantastic video but Larry you looked younger.

As Joe says welcome to the forum. It sounds like what you are doing is pretty much what we do. We offer Synchrony to people with credit and Snap Finance to people without credit.

I tried Tekmetric but found it too difficult to master. Shop Boss seems easier. Also Shop Boss was built by a master tech. The same company that now owns Omnique also owns Shop Boss!

Have to be breathing and show up. Seriously the shortage of help had me hire people I didn’t want just to stay open. Fortunately that is currently behind us and I have good people.

Currently use Omnique but wanting to change to Shop Boss due to superior scheduler and DVI capabilities.

Joe, I agree but the plus side is there is plenty of engine work out there. Lots of timing chains and engine swaps. Some of the younger customers do not have a clue as to why they should not trust the car to tell them what it needs.

I don’t think the club shoppers are the best demographic for us.

When Costco came to town I was approached about it and was going to try it but drug my feet too long and someone beat me to to it. They will not sign you up within a certain distance of a participating shop. I had my doubts that it would be worth it because you have to discount 15% on everything including dealer parts. It also cost $1200 a year to signup. Might be more now.

I know that when we opened 23 years ago price was a large factor but does not seem to be today.

I think also we are seeing the passing of the baby boomers. Boomers were taught to be tighter with a dollar by their depression era parents. The younger generation is pretty free with money.

I have only had two people ask what our labor rate is the last three months. All people want to know is how much and how soon.

About three months ago I did a $25/hour increase. I don't even think about it today. The price is now what it is and I will probably do another increase soon.

Here's my answers: 1. Definitely 2. Most likely 3. I am working on it

Business was good last year and had been strong so far this year.

Joe, my issue is I don't have enough bays!

Would you believe that yesterday someone I consider to be an A technician that I tried hard to hire a year ago came in looking for a job. Unfortunately, I don't think I can afford to add him currently. He is probably a better technician than three of my current guys but they are all good, hard working guys who are gaining experience everyday.

Hopefully you will not think this is unethical but desperate times require desperate measures. For weeks I haven’t been getting any decent responses to my advertisements. Recently I noticed a competitor with a large ad on Facebook with several comments posted. I read through the commments and found one that looked like it might be from a real technician. I sent the individual a friend request and he friended me. I told him if he was a real technician we would pay him more than X dollars and had a job for him. That started a conversation that lasted about three weeks. Two weeks ago we interviewed him finally and he started to work last Monday. So far he has done a good job and we are glad to have him.

We are glad to have you here!

My First Day Driving1 (1).mp4

This is such a frustrating business not only do we have to deal with customers who may not understand anything but competitors who love to cut our throats. This week I got a 1 star review because we were 3 times the price of some unnamed shop (or shade tree guy) on a repair. Of course, we don't know what was done or not done or what quality parts were used or what skill the guy working on it had. We had quoted pads, rotors, and calipers front and rear on a rust bucket with 200,000 miles that the owner wanted to pad slap. Who knows someone else may have pads slapped it bad mouthing us all the way and the car may still have noise, pullsation, and a caliper still sticking and the owner is happy as a clam as he drove away with the radio turned up thinking it is fixed. No consideration at all that we looked at it at no charge to him. I also got a 3 star review from a phone shopper because she was able to take the car to the ghetto and save $60. Is that enough rant for today? Joe, be glad you are out of this rat race.

A few months back a guy called us about a Ford F-250 superduty. He had put an engine in it and didn't have the time to finish putting everything back. He wanted us to finish it and it didn't sound like there was a whole lot to do. We never made any promises and told him we would have to look at it. He got it towed in and we found that instead of removing the cab and doing the engine the proper way he had removed the front end and the engine through the front. The bumper, grill condenser, radiator, etc. were all off. 2/3rds of the engine compartment were in the bed of the truck. We told him it would be at least $5,000 to put it all back together. He freaked out and had it towed off. Didn't hurt our feelings one bit. Boy he saved himself a lot of money by being a DIY.

If we would listen to our wives more it would keep us out of a lot of trouble. Soon to be married 49 years and I have learned that the hard way.