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I read the book over the weekend. My favorite story was the one with the two Lincolns who wanted you to make the great swap. After reading your book I think I could write one very similar but maybe with not as much flair. Do you think any of those people migrated to Indiana? I swear that I have dealt with some of them. You may find it of interest that I am passing the book on to my Army Ranger service manager to read. His wife is also an avid quilter. She had taken their master bedroom and made it into a sewing room. She has a $14,000 quilting machine and a bunch of other fancy machines and it is only a hobby.

What is oovoo?

American capitalism gone with a whimper American capitalism gone with a whimper - Pravda.Ru

Got it today in good shape. I will probably read some of it this weekend. Thanks!

Why is the general public so resistant to paying diagnostic time? If one goes to the doctor you wind up paying for xrays, cat scans, MRI's, lab work, etc. All of that is diagnostic and is not cheap.

Are the beads just for truck tires or can they be used on passenger tires (especially low profile)?

He didn't really react one way or another which may have been that he was totally suprised at what I did. He never said another word. I have a feeling that he is a bully who is use to bullying people around. If I know anything internal he was probably kicking himself because now he had spent all of this time and trouble, had a fair price, from people he trusted, and now he has to start over. He probably wishes he had keep his mouth shut and he probably has a new respect for our shop. He sees that we are not hard up for business. If he goes to the wrong shop he will find this an expensive lesson.

Tire dealers denounce health care bill http://www.moderntiredealer.com/News/Story/2010/03/Dealers-sound-off-on-health-care-bill.aspx

I had an interesting experience yesterday, a customer who wanted to short cut a repair (pad slap a vehicle instead of replacing the rotors) which we agreed to do. In our brake package pricing we include machining rotors. We never charge more to machine rotors as a part of pad replacement but we never charge less if we do not machine the rotors. The brake service I had quoted to this man also included a substantial discount under a promotion we have going. He then began to argue that we should charge him less because we were not machining the rotors and I explained to him why it was the same. Finally he relented and said go ahead and do it but he added "I will not be back." I just told him we didn't have to do anything and turned around and told the shop to just back it out which we did. He would have been the type of customer coming back in seeking a refund or with a complaint and would have wanted to use the baseball bat technique on him. Fortunately, we have a lot of great customers who do not mind paying a fair price for a repair and I do not have to put up with that type of customer.

You have two separate issues to face the first is bookkeeping/accounting. At various times I have done my accounting/bookeeping as follows: 1)Paid everything by check and keep a ledger of money received. Turned it over to an accountant/tax preparer at the end of the year. 2)Did it myself using Quick Books. Turned it over to an accountant/tax preparer at the end of the year. 3)Hired an outside accountant to do month profit lose statements and they did taxes at end of the year. This is about it as far as options are concerned other than being a do it yourselfer and doing your own taxes. Ofcourse, you could resort to the shoe box method (throw it all in a shoe box and take it to someone to sort out at the end of the year). I have not done my own taxes since I set up a corporation in 1993. I did do my own taxes for years before that. What you do depends upon what you can afford, what you know, what you want to do, and how much time you have to do it. Do keep in mind that it is much easier to secure bank loans with information prepared by an accountant. The second issue is payroll and tax filings. The tax filings will include Federal 941 (withholdings) and 940 (unemployment) and state filings: sales tax, withholding taxes, unemployment taxes, local taxes, and perhaps tire fees. Payroll and the tax filings I have handled various ways: 1)Did them all myself calculating them with excel spread sheets and writing all checks. 2)Hired outside bookkeeper to prepare all the above. 3)Entering all payroll information and using on-line service to process payroll and pay taxes. If you will go to bi-weekly payroll you can do the internet one through netpaysolutions.com for about $75 per month. I am currently using our bank (Regions Bank) which offers an on-line payroll/tax service with a little more work involved but it only costs me $40 per month. The thing to keep in mind is the more stuff like this you take onto youself the less time you have to devote to either the things you enjoy or things you are really good out. Working 12 hours in the shop and then coming home and doing bookkeeping is a forumla for burnout. If you shop around you can probably get someone who will do everything you need for somewhere between $250-$300 per month if you won't monthly account and payroll. At least I can in this market. Like I said you can get payroll for about $75 per month.

True! I have been told that the more heavily promoted the product the poorer the quality.

More Cars Likely to Run on Part Worn Tires Part Worn Tires...

That is more expensive than what I pay for Mobil One. By taking advantage of part store promotions and by picking it up by the gallon at Wal-Mart occasionally I keep my cost per quart on Mobile 1 at somewhere between $4.80 to $5.75 per quart. When we use synthetic we tend to price it around $7.50 per quart. What makes Amsoil attractive to you?

As an Amsoil dealer what does 5-W-30 Synthetic cost you and what do your price it to your customer at if you don't mind me asking?

Joe this sounds like the same program or one very similar.

Maybe because they are offered by a new startup type business. This is thru O'Reilly which seems to be a strong company. Go to the Certified website and type in your zip code and you can see if the shops offering this in your area. There are 31 shops on this program within 20 miles of your shop. They also offer a road hazard warranty on new tire sales that is good nationwide. It costs you 5% of the tire price or a minimum of $5.50 per tire. CARRoadHazard.com -Certified Auto Repair Centers Road Hazard Program

What kind of cost to use these?

Certified Auto Repair Centers - Guest I have mentioned this before but I wanted to expanded upon it a little. We participate in the Certfied Auto Repair program that was offered to us through O'Reilly Auto Parts. To participate in this program is $50 per month or it is free if you buy more than $2,500 of parts per month. Through it you can offer your customers a nationwide warranty on your repairs. If you belong and work is done at your shop and there is a problem with the repair Certified will pay up to the cost of the original repair. How it works is you have the customer call Certified and they will direct the customer to the nearest participating shop. If there are none in the area they will let the customer pick a shop. Recently, we had this experience. A lady from Maryland with a Subaru broke a front axle on the interstate. We think she was spinning on the ice and hit a dry patch. It was towed into our shop on a Saturday morning. Miracle of miracles in our smaller market we found a new axle on a Saturday and got her fixed and on here way. About two weeks later I got a call from the woman that she was back in Maryland and having the "same problem". Isn't it amazing that the car comes in on a tow truck and won't move and she is driving it but now has the [b]"same problem". [/b] What she had was noise. Before the days of our participation in this program I would have told her to find a shop and have it checked and then have the shop call us. If there was a problem with the part I would then see if I could get the vendor to ship them a part or whatever I had to do and pay the shop to replace the defective part. This was a hassle and could get expensive. I would send the customer to a Car-x if there was one in the area (none in Maryland) and then I would reimburse the shop for the work they did. The Car-x shops all treat each other very fair. Because I participate in Certified Auto Repair all I had to do was give the lady the Certified Auto Repair phone number., tell her to call the number, ask them where to take the vehicle, and that they would cover things up to the cost of the original repair if the problem was with the work we had done. That was it and was the only thing I had to do. A few weeks later I got a letter from Certified telling me that they had taken care of the warranty and how much they had paid out. That was all that I had to do. Evidently we had gotten a new (not reman) defective axle. Certified is a way for a small shop to inexpensively offer a nation wide warranty.

Here is a website for Fleets Plus: Home I have never heard of them but we have done a lot of fleet services (we call them national accounts) because Car-x was established as a preferred vendor which also involves a fleet discount of usually 10-20%. It maybe something worthwhile and maybe not. It probably depends upon where you are located and how much fleet traffic there is as far as the fleets that they use.

This should be good news for all of us: AFTERMARKET INSIGHT Issue 212: Record High Age Smashed For Domestic Cars

Here is a similar story: Victims of fatal U.S. Highway 65 van rollover award $33 million | Auto Accident | JusticeNewsFlash Release

Refund? How About a Bat to the Head? Refund... Here is a different approach to customer service. I haven't tried this once yet but there has been a time or two I might have been tempted.

What New Health Care Law Means to You Health Care...

A few years ago I had a similar problem with repeated warnings. Finally, one morning the guy's 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. It had to be done because it was leading my other employees to believe there was no accountability.