DUFRESNES

I find it necessary to do it some. It seems that some vendors give good price to gain your business but then raise prices after a time. O'Reilly did that to us. They use to be our first call but now they are typically our most expensive vendor. Currently we are using two vendors primarily.

With our management program, it shows all the prices of the different suppliers as long as you have it programmed to show them.

Obama says that all of us must pay the higer taxes, a result of rasing the debt limit, among other programs that this administration has instituted. The president says it's only fair that we all pay the increase in taxes. FAIR? WE had nothing to do with this mess. WE did not spend money like a drunken sailor. WE had no say so in the billions of tax dollars wasted. NOW WE must pay for it.

 

Today I am mad as hell.....someone out there make sense of this for me!

I hope everybody remembers this when it is time to vote. Have you heard that after the election there will be a 1% on all bank transactions, deposits, checks written and or transfers. They don't want to put this in until after the election. Also there is a 3% tax if you sell your house. This is attached to the health bill, so haven't heard if this one is definite. On a $400K sale, it will be $12,000. Make sure your vote counts this time around.

Ok guys. First of all I love this forum. You have to ask yourself why are Saturdays not working. Is it the Service Advisor? The Owner? Attitude is everything. If you believe it will work, it does. If you don't believe it will work, it will fail. 1st of all everything begins with an oil change. We do a 70 point inspection on all cars. Then we prioritize it for the customer with safety always 1st, then maintenance. Our customers like us to be proactive instead of them breaking down somewhere. Yes, there are customers that won't do anything until it is broke, but this is not the normal. We take appointments only, unless we aren't busy and someone walks in. We have an online appointment scheduling, which works great. If we are too busy, we can close it.

On the subject of adding other profit ceners to auto repair. I am all for it. We have a drive through Espresso. We have propane for barbecues. These are add ons, don't make a lot of profit but round out the picture. We have a gal that mans the Espresso, but she also is a CSR person and has many hats.

I think he explained it pretty well. All of the gravy work is taken to "their mechanic." And if you are making money on oil changes, how? We discount here, discount there and always placate ourselves with "its building business," or "I'm building work for the rest of the week," or "any money is better than no money." Well think about it, if you are only using Saturday to schedule work for the next week, why didn't the customer just call on Friday or Monday? Was Saturday the only day their phone worked? Do you really bill full retail for the labor and make your GP on parts for a simple oil change? Unless Saturday is holding it's own as a contributor to the bottom line, it is a losing proposition. And it serves very well to irritate the employees.

 

I do not promote oil changes because I will not compete on price, not when we have a couple national chain stores preying on the ignorant with an oil change price of $18.95 or $24.95 hoping to get the tires off and bilk the customer for unwarranted brake repairs. I've done second opinion brake inspections several times where the pads were at 30% or more and the national chain told the customer, "Oh you really need to get your brakes done, they're totally worn out." Or a local car dealer that aggressively promotes a $16.95 oil change but then their employees are forced to sell every legitimate and every illegitimate wallet flush the quicki-lube can do. If they don't sell they are fired. So how so you market your full rate oil change and compete? Your GP on the oil change can not possibly meet that of regular repairs. So unless you are big enough to warrant a dedicated lube tech how do you justify a $35 half-hour oil change when other work should be generating at least double the profit?

 

I find with my regular customers oil changes are valuable for you point of keeping them coming in periodically. But the vast majority of my oil changes are not that valuable. I do the oil change and find a legitimate up-sell. They have become conditioned by all the stories of rip-offs, and those shops whose only interest is their bottom line, not the customer's legitimate needs. You all know what I'm referring to, your average R.O. You have to make in on EVERY car, regardless of what the car came in for or what it legitimately needs. They decline the repairs at that time, take my estimate and shop it around, pick the cheapest shop without regard to quality. So in reality I've lost the revenue possibility of the time dedicated to the oil change in hopes of getting work that rarely materializes. It harkens back to the saying, "If you're losing money, you can't make it up with volume."

We also had 2005 GMC Yukon. When it came in it was making a horrible noise, scanned computer and retrieved PO300 random multiple misfires. Live data showed intermittent misfires on 4 & 5 &6 pulled plugs, wires corrosion on the wires, rec: plugs and wires, vehicle was very salt corroded. Engine oil full and proper, oil pressure was good. Engine noise was consistant with RPM and gear change. Best guess was flexplate is cracked. We would have to disassemble to be sure. After repairs it was nice and quite with 2 mounting ears on the bell housing cracked and broken due to rust and may have previous work, no codes and none pending. He stopped by about a month later. It was making some noises. We suggested he take it to our Trasmission shop, we use. He did and the owner called us and said the the flex plate was broken again. He did the repair and we paid him. When I went and picked up the flex plate to turn into for a defective part, it was a disaster cracked all over and broken. No one here had ever seen anything like it except for racing or reving up and dropping it into gear. The transmission shop said they could not find anything we had done improperly. He said there had been an updated one from the dealer. I feel it is going to happen again, don't know.

We had a 2005 GMC Yukon in the other day for a bucking problem under a load, particularly up hills. It felt like a misfire, but the engine had all the power in the world. Our initial thoughts were problems with a coil, plugs, wires, injectors, etc. But a scan of the computer showed no codes and the data looked normal. In fact, when the bucking occurred, the O2 sensors and fuel trim looked normal too. We checked fuel pressure and induced propane while the bucking occurred to rule out a lean condition, but the bucking did not change.

 

When you applied the brake while cruising the bucking would get a little worse, but with the vehicle stopped, you could not duplicate the bucking by applying the brake and applying the gas.

 

We road tested the truck again. When the bucking started we put the truck in Full Time 4X4 and the bucking stopped. Could it be something in the driveline? After driving the vehicle we could not get the truck to buck again, in or out of 4X4. The fluid in the transfer looked like mud and we suggested we replace it, which we did.

 

Has anyone ever seen or heard of something like this? Remember, even though the bucking felt like a misfire, the engine did not seem to falter. And, all data looked normal with no codes.

Where have you all found to be the best resource for hiring new techs? I've found the "want ad" to be very ineffective, bringing in the....less than qualified...Our business relationships tend to be hesitant to recommend potentials.

Suprised in this economy that we aren't seeing more walk ins too....any thoughts?

Dwayne

Our European Technician came and said he was taking the summer off to work on his house and go Opal mining. Go figure. I put an ad in Craigs List and in our State Employment office. We pay more than anyone in our area and better benefits. I had 3 people call, the first one sounded great, made an appointment, called and cancelled, made another appointment, cancelled and made another and never called or showed up. The 2nd one called, he lived over 30 miles one way from us and wasn't really qualified. The 3rd one called and said he had been out of the field for 7 years, would I send him to school to catch up. We have had several dealerships close in the area, where are those techs? Unemployment is still way up, one of the highest states. We are having a record month, but losing a tech the 15th and our shop foreman is going on vacation. We have tried some of the automotive agencies in the past, but after paying their fee, haven't had any better luck. Any more suggestions?

No, sorry, never heard of them.

When I was studying all the management products. I concluded with the help of others that if you had one shop RO Writer was the best overall for everything, but if you had multiple shops, Vast was the best. Not sure this answers the question. If anybody has questions about RO Writer, they can call me 503-646-2940.

As with most of my stories... YES it is the same where ever you go... I just bring it to light by writing about it in my column. One of these days I'll tell the story of "Tito" the forgetful customer --- (His car sat outside for over a year before he finally came to get it) I like yours about "what time to ya close" good one Joe.

 

Great comments guys... always good to know I'm not the only one. LOL Gonzo

After 42 years, I can tell you stories also not enough time today. We don't have accounts receivable. They have to pay for their car before they can drive it away. It used to be a real problem because we couldn't leave them outside at night. In a 5 bay shop will little parking, we need them picked up as soon as possible. We used to put one in the air and another under, if we had to keep them over night. Finally, somebody said why don't you build a fence? DUH?? Why didn't I thing of that now we can park about 8+ cars in parking spots and then vertically to them. No one could get them out. At least then we can work around it.

Definitely a scam. When I was a federal employee (over 35 years ago) anybody who would take the government credit card could work on your vehicle.

Thanks again

Be cautious on this stuff. I think there are some scams operating under the idea of helping securing GSA contracts.

Thanks, After reading his email, there is a charge of $7500.00 and 195.00 monthly. I cancelled the upcoming interview. I put it also on another forum and got an answer that your local, state or city would be much better than the federal.

I just received a call from a Federal GSA Schedule Representative asking us if we would be interested. Anybody know anything about this? I do know you have to sign a 5 year contract.

Need some good info on which scanner is best for scanning and testing for Volvos. We have an auto enginenuity, Gennesis 2 different one, Interro, Vag and a Bosch for different modules. Having problems especially with Volvos. Please share and thank you.

Before we went with RO Writer, did a study. This is what I found out for my circumstances. Pace is the best if you have multiple shops and ROW if you have only 1 shop. Both of these are expensive. After 2 years, with ROW have most of it down. They have training sessions all the time on the internet. If you are interested in talking about the schedule give me a call at 503-646-2940. When you make the estimate, if you have the tech on it and the work it will put it on the schedule with a color for that tech and the amount of time needed. Not sure what al you need on it. It seems to flow good if people do their job and post it correctly.

I don't know if it is right or not. Our Techs have their radios going all the time. They don't talk to customers, usually. If we have to take a customer back to see something on their car, the techs are really good about turning down or off their radios. If it makes them happy and work better, I don't care. The cell phones, texting, craigs list, facebook etc do drive me crazy. We try to control it, but I don't see how you can control it 100%.

I guess I fall under the category of "Old Timer" now... My shop radio has never been shut off since I opened my shop some 28 years ago. Several years ago the one channel went out so I wired all the speakers to the same channel. But, it's on all the time in the background.

 

Why? I don't know, it's just is...........

I think you have done a great job with the auto shop forum. It iis the best one I have seen or been a part of. Most forums have very little knowledge or participation. Great Job Guys!!!

We had been open for years on Saturday. Then someone said we should close and you will make as much money as if you were open. Wrong. Twice we have tried being closed on Saturday. 1st the customers complained bitterly. Then we opened again. Then we weren't doing much, so we closed again. I kept saying Saturdays used to be profitable. So back to the drawing board. I think we have the solution now. We had 4 tech 1 Service writer, 1 marketer, i girl friday (we also have a drive thru espresso) and my self. This is how we are doing it now and it has become very profitable and also jobs sold on Saturday can be finished on Monday.

One of our techs wanted to be a Service writer and tech. So he is a helper, tech and SW on Saturdays only. Then we hired a part time master tech to work Sat and Monday. He fills in for vacations etc. I didn't think we would get any applicants for part time, but you would be surprised. We had several really good applicants.

FYI we pay 1/2 hour for an oil change with a 70 point inspection, wash window and vac. We don't have the complaints from the techs now on doing oil changes. If they pull the work from the inspection, they get the job when sold.

IT has taken a lot of on and off to get it to work smoothly. As a owner, I don't work Saturdays. You need to be with your family especially if you have small kids. Mine are all grown, now I want this time for me. Hire great people, pay good and it will work.

I evaluated MaxxTraxx, I found it lacking in many categories and simply not refined enough to run an even moderately busy shop. Work management and work flow is poorly designed and almost every feature I asked about was "in development" R.O. Writer seems like a very capable program. It is significantly more expensive than most everything else available. It also has some shortfalls specifically in the schedule, though it is very usable it has some basic design flaws that are surprising based on how well refined the rest of the software is. R.O. Writer's integration with Activant is flawless and by far the best out of any we've evaluated to date.

We also use ROW with Smartecap and smartejob. We had it configured with our suppliers. We order and export it right to the work order. It works really well. It also keeps tracks invoices. When it is time to pay your invoices and you are missing some, you can go to the supplier, print the invoice and check it for the purchase order. It saves a lot of time. Instead of calling the supplier and asking for the missing invoice, to pay your bills etc. I think it is how well it is set up for your individual needs. For us it saves a ton to time compared to our old program.

We don't sell a lot of tires. We sold $24,000 plus last year. Just wondering how everybody else is handling wheel weights and the tape ones. We charge a mount and balance additional.

Thanks Joe, I agree. Car count was up, very few slower days. We were up 12%. I thought we were up more, until I did the figures. Balancing the car count just right is a real art. If someone ever figures it out, we will all be rich. LOL.

I agree 110%. We send a nice letter with 2 movie tickets to them for referring other customers to us. As a new customer, they already trust you because of their friend who told them about us. This seems to work really well. Our average work order is over $1000 per referral. We also send rebate checks to our best clients. We divide it into 3 groups, so it lasts for several months.

I talked to several people in our office, maybe different in Oregon; but they all agreed so far. They wouldn't be happy. As long as you ask them 1st, it would be ok. People take their cars very serious.

We use RO Writer (ROW). It does everything from all the estimates, work orders, marketing, letters, A/R, A/P, many reports. It then transfers by the way of accounting link to Quick Books. So you have your P&L, Balance Sheet and payroll. It is a complete package.

I signed up with TABS auto Biz one year ago this month. We have owned this business for 15 years and have been "rock & chisel" all along. I think I learned about TABS from someone on this sight and I couldn't live without it. I call the TABS office anytime I have a question and/or suggestion, which can be weekly, they are awesome. Very helpful and can log in on my computer to look at what I am having trouble with or trying to create. For a start up fee, and $70.85 a month, it has made me a lot of money. You will not regret connecting with them. If you do, mention our name.