Joe Marconi

Is anyone using the new tire bags? I just got a sample from NYTECH. Just wondering of anyone has any feedback, good, bad?

It could be, I will check when I get into the office on Monday to see what i paid.

Elite changed their entire site and accoirding to the site, the new price for membership is $79.00. Elite has a lot to offer and is worth checking into. It's a great business source. As I mentioned before, I am a member and know the founder, Bob Cooper, for many years.

What New Health Care Law Means to You

 

Health Care...

This is another example of "Feel Good" legislation. The fact is that someone will have to pay for this. When will the people of this once great land stand up and say, "we have had enough"!

The waste, fruad, phony law suits and political agendas have more to do with what's wrong in this country than anything else.

This administration wants to grow the size of government, and that's goes against the princples of why and how this country was formed:

"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases". Thomas Jefferson

I've had similar problems with techs. Some ... when they do call in late for the 3rd or 4th time... I tell them not to bother coming in at all... but I reserve that for the bad ones. The good techs.. well, I won't assign them work... If you come in late... you get nothing. Eventually they either get the idea or they quit.

 

My worst offenders of this whole thing has always been the interns... I ended up handling them this way.... first off they are usually college or high school students... keep that in mind too. What I do is stand by their work area at exactly the start of the day... IF you are not there ON TIME... then GO HOME... all day. Until you can make it in the real world at the real time... you don't need this job. I'll usually play this game thru their entire internship... then when it's grading time it will show on thier report card.

 

It's worked in the past... hope this helps. Gonzo

At least with interns you stand a chance of making a difference, but when a 35 year old still has an issue with coming in on time, I think its too late.

A few years ago I had a similar problem with repeated warnings. Finally, one morning the guys wife called in to say he was running late and I told her to tell him not to bother. That was that. Fortunately, he was not a really good tech.

I had a similiar story, but this tech was good. I hated to let him go, but life goes on and we survived. It's not that I don't worry about losing a great tech, but if the tech stays, what will that do to my business due to bad morale and hard feelings among the other employees?

Joe, you are right but I don't know what I am going to do now to change a thing. Our U.S. representative has announced he will vote for it although the overwhelming majority of his conservative constituents are againts it. It seems that the Democratic Party cares nothing about the will of the people. Who are they elected to represent anyway? This legislation will place a mandate on small business like ours that will only make it harder to survive and be profitable. Do you think they have any idea how hard it is to make any money?

I think you go it right, they don't care. They want bigger government, not help grow businesses in this country. Their agenda is not in align with the people, I fear we are moving closer and closer to socialism.

Depending upon how valuable the owner thinks this tech is it could either be termination or a weeks suspension with termination to follow if repeat behaviour is encountered.

Have you been in this situation? If so, how did you handle it.

I will post up some pictures and info when I have it. I would love to see info from anyone else that will be holding these to get ideas.

That is a great idea. I will do the same when I hold my next event. Great tip!

Joe, all I have to do is go to work each day and I have new material to write about.... and YES... it really is a true story...

 

I take it you liked the story then.... This story really makes me laugh... it's so typical of the "know-it-all" types out there. Everytime I read it... I can't help but laugh.

 

To bad I didn't charge this trio of automotive excellence for all the oil dry I went thru... LOL

I do like the story, mainly because I can relate to the story. It's like these are my customers, it's the same no matter where you go.

I am planning to run one the end of the month of April to promote a few ideas to my customers as well as just give back to the ones that have been so good to me over the years.

Great, it will do wonders for your business. I believe in holding events, it brings excitement to your business and positive energy that customers and employees feed off of. Good luck!

I got a bad feeling about the health care bill. I think it will pass, and that greatly concerns me. Do we have a health "care" problem in this country? No, we have a health care “cost” problem that’s riddle with so much red tape and years of abuse from a system the breeds waste. My father did not have health care and provided for a family of four boys. My mother did not work, that’s the way things were years ago. What happened? Who told us that the government needs to take care of us, because we can’t?

I am concerned about the rising costs of health care, but I’m more concerned about this movement toward government control.

Did anyone hear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she said we have to pass the bill first to find out what’s in it? Is she kidding? That’s like you tell a customer they need a lot of work on their car, and when they ask what and how much, you answer; just agree to fix the car, then I will tell you how much it will cost and what we did.

Please, everyone get involved; if you think I’m wrong…tell me why.

You could make a 30 minute sit com out of this one. Glad to see that I'm not the only one who gets these knuckle heads. This is a true story, right? I mean, you can't make this stuff up.

This story hasn't gone out yet... You're the first to see it... let me know what ya think of it.

 

It will probably be edited for length, and may get cut down ... but I kinda like this version. Gonzo

 

 

High in the sky Jeep, the stooge trio

This trio of comic geniuses showed up at the shop one afternoon, the “Talker”, the “Looker”, and the “Nodder”. These three buddies have been working on a CJ for many, many years. Not one of them have any background in mechanics or electrical. But, as usual the “Talker” knew everything. The “Looker” never looked at a thing but performed his task with the greatest level of expertise. He had that 40 foot stare in a 20 foot room, always glancing at something that was not part of the conversation. The ceiling was a common theme, then there is the book rack, the disclaimers on the wall, the usual advertisements on the counter, pretty much anything but not a thing important. I think you could have asked this guy any question about the room, the people in the room, or for that matter probably his own name… I doubt if he could have answered a single question without saying “Huh” before coming up with some sort of ridiculous half wit response. Now the “Nodder”, he was in rare form. There was the quick nod, the slow responsive nod, and ever so popular nod your head so hard that your hair flips up and down, while at the same time maintaining his proper distance from the service counter. His only other function is to observe the “Looker” and “Talker” and confirm that they are doing their part in this trio of humorous delinquents. That only leaves the “Talker”; it’s the classic confrontation at the counter.

“Yes, I’m interesting in finding out if you or anyone here knows how to wire up a CJ from scratch?” he asked.

“Sure, I’ve done lots of them over the years,” I said, quite confidently.

“Well, it only needs a few things done, I just don’t have the time to finish it,” the “Talker” said with his nodding buddy in the back doing his best to stay up with the conversation. The “Looker” on the other hand was busy… you know… “Looking”… at what, I haven’t a clue. At this point I’m starting to wonder about the three of them. Two classic mistakes have already been made.

Number one, “I don’t have time to finish it”, Let me translate that for you… it really means; “I couldn’t figure it out even if the directions were tattooed to the inside of my eyelids”.

Number two, “It only needs a few things” … what that really means is… “You ain’t going to believe how screwed we got this”.

Thus, the quandary of problems that are about to unfold in front of me. The conversation went on with its usual head nods from the “Nodder” and stares into space by the “Looker”. With the never ending … Deeping… hole of unpronounceable automotive terms that the “Talker” was sinking into.

Trying to put an end to all this confusion, without falling into the hole myself, “Where’s the Jeep at?” I asked.

“Oh it’s at our garage,” the “Talker” added, “We’ll have to get it over to you. It doesn’t run right now.”

“Don’t you think you should get it running first,” I asked.

“It’s got a brand new crate motor in it,” the “Looker” jumped into the conversation with his two cents worth of information.

Confused now, I said, “A crate engine, you haven’t hooked up the wires to the engine yet? I guess that’s what you want me to do.”

“No, that’s done,” said the “Talker”, “We finished that up about a year ago. It just needs cleaned up a bit.” The “Nodder” did a hair flip about then… good job, that confirmed it… they’re all nuts.

The “Talker”, the “Nodder”, and the “Looker” all took their turns at the front counter. I use to think I’ve heard it all, and then these three stooges showed up and proved me wrong. Oh yes, this was a several year project, all of which was…. completely done backwards. From what I could piece together, the paint was finished first to a show room luster, while the body was being painted the frame was completely stripped down and powder coated. It took them over a year just to decide on which type of wheels and rims to put on it. Wiring seemed to have come in dead last … or that’s what I thought.

The next day the Jeep showed up on a trailer. Wow, what a superior paint job, all shiny and new. It was a mile high in the air with this huge lift kit installed. There were beautifully chromed engine parts everywhere, all gleaming in the sun. That was about it though. No exhaust system, no coolant, gobs and gobs of wiring strewn all through the engine compartment and undercarriage. Wires were run right through the headers and into the inside of the Jeep. There were no seats, doors, or even a windshield. All the extra wire was wrapped around the steering column or dangled into different cavities. There was no hole for the floor shifter and there was no place to mount the four wheel drive controls. Oh they had everything… in boxes, with assorted nuts and bolts, cables, and wiring. Even the headers will need reworked. The passenger side header was up against that beautifully powder coated frame and, you know, it was more than likely going to burn that pretty paint off. There were no spark plugs, no plug wires, and no throttle cable. It was without a doubt the largest expenditure into a total disaster I have ever seen in my years of business.

The “Talker” was busy explaining his master piece to me while I was busy eyeballing this checkbook gone wild, wanna-be beast of the 4wd world. The more I looked the worst it kept getting. I finally had to put an end to the talkers’ non-stop trip to purgatory.

“Why don’t you take this over and have the exhaust taken care of,” I interrupted him with a sudden jolt back to the planet, “Once you have that done, you could fill up the coolant system, look for leaks and maybe even put some plugs in it and see if it starts.”

I was surprised at his response… he said, “That would be great, and then I’ll get it back to you to finish the wiring.” I was actually hoping he wouldn’t remember that part. But, I’ve done crazier rewires in the past… it’s just another day at the office for me.

Weeks later the Jeep showed up again. This time it had a complete exhaust system installed, however they never moved the header away from the frame. Not only was it poorly put in, but the mufflers were right on top of the fuel pump lines and the electric fuel pump. All of which now will need moved to a better location. I didn’t think this job was going to ever be finished.

My years of experience in this business made me think to keep asking questions to these guys and see how far their wallet was going to stretch. Something told me there was more to this story than… “I don’t have the time”, and “It only needs a few things done”.

I had the phone number to the “Nodder”, I’ll call him.

“How, far do you want me to go?” I asked.

“I think he just wants a rough idea as to how much it will cost, but I think they want you to get it started too.” The “Nodder” told me.

“Ok then, I’ll rough it in, get it started and then write up an estimate,” I said.

“Sounds, good to me,” our friend the “Nodder” answered. I’m sure he was up to his usual head bobbing by now and was working his way to a full hair flip.

As I rigged up some jumper wires to the fuel pump, temporally of course, it was just enough to get voltage to the right spots. Then hot wire the coil and starter. I guess, it’s time to turn it over and see if it will start. A couple of cranks on the starter and huge plumes of fire belched out of the glistening chrome carburetor. Would it start? Not a chance, they had the distributor in 180 degrees off. Pull it out, turn it around and start over again. Oops, just noticed… they forgot the coolant. I filled the chromed out radiator with coolant… it leaked all over the engine. There were gaskets that weren’t sealing and hose clamps that weren’t tight. Another delay, another mess and, more expense just to see if this thing would start. Finally, the leaks were holding… sort of, at least enough to proceed.

Back to trying to solve the actual problem for the day… will the engine run. After priming the carburetor and a couple of turns of the starter motor the gleaming 4wd beast sprang to life… spewing oil everywhere! ! What now?!?!? There was no oil pressure switch in the engine block. Holy engines of chrome! ! Shut it off and put something in the hole. One more try … vroom! It starts and it runs, hey, and it even sounds pretty good. But the water leaks started showing up again. Seems they didn’t use any sealant on any of the water gaskets. This job is never going to end. It’s starting to sound like that old saying; “Stop counting the alligators when all you’re supposed to do is drain the swamp.” Enough alligator counting, I’m stopping! Here and now, I’ll try to make some sense out of the rest of this wiring disaster.

Now this next part of this story shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Not one of the three stooges ever talked to the other one as to what I was supposed to do. The only thing they agreed on was that the “Nodder” would take the phone calls and relay the info. I think poor old “Nodder” just nodded his way into being the escape goat. He doesn’t have a clue, he never did. Well, for that matter, neither do the other two dim wits.

A week or so later with the car resting in the shop, the three dunder heads showed up with a trailer. Now it was my turn to be wrong.

 

Number one, It was mutually understood between the trio, that they knew it all, and I knew nothing.

Number two, I was too expensive and was going to take too long to finish the job. Geez, how much time did they think I needed? I’m sure I could have done the job within a couple of years… maybe sooner. I’m so confused.

The last word on this one was that they were going to finish it themselves. My question was… when? I’ll be old and gray before these knuckleheads ever figure it out. But I’m a sucker for an old three stooges classic; I’ll sit back and watch this episode unfold. It might be a pretty good story whenever this Jeep comes out of the upper atmosphere and back to planet earth. Ynuk, Ynuk, Ynuk.

When I read your comment I was laughing so hard the wife came by just see what was so funny.

 

It would be different if the manufacturers would put a campaign together where they took their products to the repair shops and gave us the chance to listen to their technical side of the whole thing first. Instead of sending all their propaganda out to the naive general public... who... seems to believe what they see on TV or the news. But a perfect world it isn't.... maybe we should make our own infomercials.... LOL

 

Thanx for the laugh Joe... that was truly funny... Just to see the wifes reaction was priceless.

I had a feeling you would enjoy that!

If they ask for it I'll get it, if they ask my opinion of a certian oil they'll get that too.

I will almost always tell them to check their owners manual for the proper oil and not go by the latest TV commercial they just watched. Gonzo

Gonzo, you mean TV and Consumer reports could be wrong?

According to the site, the regular membership price is $79 a year.

It could be, I will check when I get into the office on Monday to see what i paid.

I got a call the other day from a fellow shop owner who was frustrated over his tech arriving late just about every day. He said that this is his best tech and will actually stay late if needed to finish the work. He has tried to talk to the tech, but nothing helps. He does not want to fire the tech but does not know how to solve the problem. This shop owner has two other techs that do arrive on time each day.

Here’s my opinion; this tech will eventually destroy shop morale and affect sales. You can’t have two sets of rules. And, not matter how much this shop owner says that the tech will work late, I will bet that he is killing productivity. I would use the three strike rule. Tell the tech that he no longer can arrive late. Give him a written letter that states that the company will no longer tolerate lateness. From this point on, he job will be terminating after the third consecutive lateness. That’s it, great tech or no great tech…gone!

Agree, disagree, not sure? Let me know how you feel.

Is anyone having a Car Care event? I have not done one in a few years, but I can tell you that from experience that it is a great way to promote your business and help promote the independent auto industry. If you need more information on how to run a Car Care Event here’s a link:

Host an Event | Welcome to CarCare.org

This is a reminder that ASE registration deadline is March 31. Make sure your techs are signed up, and don’t forget your service advisors. ASE certification is important to our industry and vital to raising our level of professionalism.

We don't promote any particular brand either. With the high buck cars we get in for service, the customers like us to use factory recommended brands, Mobil1 for the Porsches & Benz and Castrol Syntec for the BMWs & VW/Audis.

We don't promote any particular brand either. We will use a certain brand if the customer requests it. We Stock Mobil 1 and Castrol but have access to most other brands.

Sounds like a good idea! What does their program cost?

I'm not sure, I am home today. i think around $150 for the year. You get a monthly newsletter, a quarterly CD and access to the site. Seminars and other training material is extra.

I saw this company in my Mitchell1 information and was wondering if anyone has any experience with them?

 

Elite

Yes, I have been a member of Elite for about 10 years. I know the founder Bob Cooper personally. He's a great guy and his company has a lot to offer to the auto industry. I wish he would do seminars in my part of the country. The seminars I have been to and the home study courses are great. Elite has helped me in my business and was instrumental in receiving my AMI Graduate Degree.

I would urge anyone to take a look at his company for business management help. If you contact Elite, please tell them that Joe Marconi from AutoShopOwner.com (Bob Cooper may know me better from my shop name, Osceola Garage) endorses their company.

As a matter of fact I think I will contact him myself and maybe get him involved in ASO (AutoShopOwner.com)

Joe Marconi

Thanx Joe, I'm glad you like the story. The sad part of the story is that we... the shop keepers of the country... have all seen this..... and if someone is reading this now... and hasn't experienced it... you will.. don't worry...

 

And to add to the "don't back down" Without a doubt... I will not back down. Here's my thoughts on this subject. Draw the line in the sand... stand on that line... If you have done your job correctly and you know your right... then stand there... take the abusive name calling. Because in the long run that type of customer isn't coming back to your establishment anytime soon. More than likely they'll end up at the next shop and try the same thing again.

 

People, money, and their cars are never a good combination... throw in the dork with a wrench who also sounds convincing.... You've got the makings of disaster soup... and when that pot boils.... holy wrenches... what a mess. It's a part of the job... it's the part of the job that no one tells you about when you open the doors to your repair shop.... you find this out the hard way... experience.

 

Lastly, yes I'm very confident of what I do,what I know. Without that, I don't think you or I could have lasted as long in private business.

 

Thanx again for all your comments and replies.... Gonzo

We need more Gonzos in this business. Shop owners and techs that will not cave and do the right thing. It would be a better world.

I am curious as to who the warranty company is. We have found some of the extended warranty companies great to work for (AUL, GM, and GE come to mind) others are o.k. (Toyota) and some are almost worthless. Sounds like this is one of those companies. We had a company send an adjuster out to look at a fuel pump problem. How is that for worthless???? The customer was without their care for 4 days waiting. That has been my experience is it similar to yours?

The comapny is called; The Warranty Group". It's the first time I have dealt with this customer.

This is the first time we have ever seen a head gasket problem in a Honda Odyssey too, and my machine shop also says this is rare. I think those loose head bolts was just a fluke incident.

Joe, our technicians are our life blood. They work hard and help us be successful. We owe it to them to try to look out for them and be as fair and honest with them as possible.

I think you need to be shop owner to truly understand who we really are. Agree?

We are a rare breed.