Patrickrocks

For jobs over $1,000 we add a 10% contingency on estimate. We explain to the customer what it’s for (additional labor for broken bolts, old brittle clips, a seal that was not put on estimate, etc) and that if it’s not needed, it comes off the bill. We use some of the contingency 20% of the time. If we sell it up front, the customer is usually resigned to the fact that the repair will cost the higher amount and when the job goes smoothly and we don’t need it, we tell them it’s less, and they are ticked pink. i am also wary of putting up warning signs and the vibe they give off. just my 2 cents

Sorry- we don't use co2, we use nitrogen!! Works awesome

We have a dedicated parts vendor entrance with a shelf for deliveries and one for returns. All vendors have been put on notice that unless there is a purchase order on their delivery ticket, we don't pay for the part. Like jfuhrmad said above, it doesn't take long for them to catch on. You might want to meet with your reps for the vendors and let them know what you are doing. We find there is a lot of turnover in the stores and they have to be reminded every few months. We order 90% of our parts electronically through our point of sale software It is set up so that any part that is ordered is either assigned to a work order or, in the case of a wrong part, it gets put into the return portion of our software. I look at the parts waiting to be returned report every Thursday and go over it with the shop manager and find out why certain parts have not been returned that week. usually, it's because we are so busy he just hasn't had time to print up the the return slip. We print our own return tickets so that the new steering rack you are sending back doesn't get recorded as a core instead because the driver was lazy and didn't open the box.

We bought a dual machine a few months back. We have been seeing older cars (2013 Dodge Dart!) with the 1234. Because fo the cost of the refrigerant, we began using co2 to check for leaks. It has worked well. My advice? If you can get a deal on one, buy it. You will need it very soon if not already

Sounds a lot like our shop. We have weekly management meetings and that item seems to jump on the agenda when it gets crazy busy like it is now. What eased the pain a bit for us is building a fleet of loaner cars so that if you have to keep a car overnight, the client isn't without a vehicle. We have 4 techs and try to limit car count to 16 per day. While that helps, we always have "sleepovers" (cars that don't get finished and sleepover until the next day). Yesterday we had 8 sleepovers to add to our 16 that were coming in today. I feel your pain. Very often that 45 minute oil service turns into a 6 hour $1,500 repair order and we didn't have the 45 minutes to do the oil service!! I like Newport5's suggestion of looking at deferred work when someone makes an appointment. I am going to have our front counter staff start to try to presell that def work so we have a better handle on the hours sold. I hate to push people out a week.