phynny

The most important tool is a great mechanic that is an ace at electrical troubleshooting.

Can you say "bath salts"?

So most large chains offer some form of credit and I'm sure it would increase sales so it's time to see whats out there. Anyone do this, if so, who do you use and what are your thoughts?

Great question.. I have never had mine looked at and never thought about it. Anyone got any input?

We do have a weapon at work.

We said we would help a high school friend by accepting payments for a HG on their envoy. It was going to be 1200 and they would put 800 down. Turned out they needed an engine and out of 3100 they put 500 down... I asked the husband 4-5 times to thing of what he can pay and let me know and I also needed at least half down. The wife ended up just showing up with no money and no idea what I had told her husband... Like a sucker I have her the car. The car recently stopped on her and she called me complaint that with her "new engine" it should never break down and wanted to know what i was going to do about it... Being an envoy and being that EVERY time I see the car it's fuel light is on. Can you say GM fuel pump? Anyway it's getting towed in tomorrow and I do not plan on letting it leave unless paid in full. Thoughts?

I know for us it's darned near a 50/50 with parts and labor

I pay my guys a fairly low salary then they get a percentage of labor. IE, 300/week and say 20% of the 80$/hour they complete. It seems to keep them motivated but at the same time they feel save knowing even is we would have a slow week they get paid.

Pay them well and do some profit sharing and they'll stay.

Tires tires tires, I do dread tires and pricing but there is money to be made. Like Joe said, concentrate on what you guarantee and not being the lowest price. For instance, we only do full synthetic oil changes so if you buy tires from us we will rotate your tires every oil change .

I recently made 5k due to a customers unwillingness to be honest, I shall explain. So we get a call from some college kid who says his car is looting smoke out of the exhaust and wants to know what's wrong. I tell him I won't diagnose over the phone but he can have it towed over. As it arrives the tow truck driver starts the car to move it and it just completely plots smoke from the exhaust. I call the owner and try to get him to tell me the events leading up to the issue and be swears be did nothing to the car, it just has no power and smokes like a chimney. We went round and round and he finally convinced me. He then tells me he needs a car and h doesn't have much money. He explains he has another car that just needs miner work so I offer to trade him the "blown up" car for labor to help him out. We often keep a car around to fill with scrap as I'm sure most of you do. Anyway, we fix his other car and something just kept bugging me about his story so I pull the car into the shop after work to just take a look. I pull the dipstick and find it is 3-4 quarts over filled so I drained the oil and got it to its proper level. Remember how he said it also lost power?, well guess what, the tranny was 3-4 quarts low... So here's what I believe happened; genius 1 and 2 decided they were going to change their own oil to save a buck and drained the oil which was actually the trans fluid, after that they refilled the oil which was actually the oil and there you go... If they would've told me the truth it would have been a cheap fix for them. Instead, they lied and lied and I sold the car for 5k with having almost nothin invested.

I consider myself a very laid back person but this absolutely infuriated me. I could just imagine the lawsuit and my employees and their families suffering for these guys ignorance.

So we did an exhaust on a truck a year ago and he recently broke a hanger, he calls us and we schedule him so we can just weld it up for him. So we go out to move the truck inside and it won't start... After some troubleshooting we find that the starter is completely burned up. I call the customer and tell him it's going to be $300 for the repair and he says he's going to call his dad and get back to me. A couple hours later I hear banging outside and 2 guys are working on the truck which is on a steep hill and one is underneath and one in front of it! They leave before I get out there. I call the customer and tell him that this is completely unacceptable and he tells me I need to speak to his dad and uncle. I told him its not my problem and to ensure that they do not come back to work on it and he agrees. About an hour later I hear banging again and when I go out they are installing it!! I told them to stop immediately and asked what they were thinking pulling a starter on my property on a steep him and the truck doesn't even have an e-brake. I can't even tell you how mad I was so I told hem to take the truck and NEVER come back. The uncle tells me I have to warranty the work and fix the exhaust! At that point I lost it and told hem to get off my property and never come back and there is no warranty after a stunt like that. The uncle who has only seen me from the shoulders up starts yelling and cursing and starts to get out of the truck to fight me! The guy is mid 50's, 5'8 and weighs a max of 140lbs... I couldn't believe it and I was honestly happy that he was going to try something (I was infuriated, if these idiots would have gotten killed I would've lost everything). So as the guy gets out he sees me across the truck and jumps back in (I'm 6'2 220lbs and was a boxer from 16 - 29, I'm 34 now). So these morons jump in the vehicles and burned tires out of my lot. Just when I think I've seen it all some new level of stupidity rears its ugly head.

I suppose the real question is what constitutes an auto shop owner? I have seen so very many mobile mechanics and/or back-yard mechanics come and go and for the most part the customers suffer. If all you have is a truck and some tools what kind of customer service and warranties do you offer? What keeps you going when you don't feel like getting up or doing work? For those that have a shop and 14k scanners and a lot of infrastructure we HAVE to ensure we keep our customers happy and our names good. I personally joined this site to get insight from other shop owners that understand what we go through daily not to listen to how it's a better business practice to give parts at cost... I care deeply about my employees, their wife's and kids so when I get undercut by someone who does this as a hobby or doesn't understand how to run a business it bothers e as I'm sure you can tell. I always see different owners talking about how we need to standardize this industry and I completely agree. So it begs the question, how can we work toward that if the opinions or "arguments" as some have suggested can't be worked through?

Lol Gonzo! That must be a state law and a horrible one at that.

Why again are you here as you clearly do not run a business. A name on a truck doesn't make you a repair shop and you just want to debate your so called reasoning for making ignorant business decisions. You trade your time for money, that is not a business, it's a job.

So while your out "doing the world a favor" and "not trying to make money" you're okay with cutting fellow mechanics down by under charging them? Makes sense to me, or maybe not.

I thought that happened to me today! Except he paid 2k of a 4200 bill for a jasper motor and install. I was leaving anyway and I followed him and he didn't go "test drive" it as he stated. HMO believe he saw me and returned to the shop to pay...

Thanks a lot, ours is set up almost identically

*Cough* BS Survey *Cough* I agree with Jeff. Heck, I had all my techs work until 11pm last night finishing up a couple vehicles for customers.

If you wouldn't mind sharing that would be fantastic. My email is [email protected]

Thanks, ill explore it more tomorrow.

We use Mitchell and I find myself constantly changing the prices that it spits out even though I set up the pricing matrix... Anyone willing to share how they split it up and what figures they use? I want to give a fair price but I also don't want to short myself,

Anyone know if there is a program for scheduled maintenance? I'd to sell more but I have no way of cost effectively finding out what each manufacterer recommends. We currenty use Mitchell and I have yet to find anything in the program that can help me out.

Just wow, I learn so much about different thought processes. I believe there is no difference between a restaurant meet and our parts. Do you not spend time finding the right parts? Do not order the parts? Do you not make sure the part is correct and not damaged? Do you not warranty the part? Also how is it not ripping people off to double their labor on say a timing belt when 90% of the job is labor? You say you lose customers because of your high labor?, I've never lost a customer due to parts markup. How can I warranty an item I don't mark up? Just makes zero sense to me. All in all man, if your customers question your markup that much maybe you have the wrong customers.