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Paul is a good guy but he is hard to get off the phone with.

Amen! Amen! I lost a car off a relatively new Rotary lift that was built 4 times better than the Chinese stuff. I certainly do not want to risk it the Chinese stuff.

The restriction you have a very smart business. I would add that we ask for Drivers license numbers, birthdays, and work numbers for checks from people we do not know. Returned check were pretty common 15 years ago but now I only have 2-3 a year that I have any trouble collecting. A returned check is just another cost of doing business like credit card fees is the way I look at it. Imagine my suprise when I collected about $1,000 last year on a returned check that was about 8 years old. Some checks we send through the local prosecutors office and some we use our attorney that does collections.

Alex, thanks for getting back up and going. At least Simon and I had a chat!

The scam is they promise you cost saving to entice you to sign up. Then the fee creep starts by adding new fees and costs until you are actually paying more than you were before. In my book these are predatory tactics and if not a scam at least dishonest. They rely on the customers inability to understand and monitor the statements they send out. This happened to me plus no customer service to help me with a terminal problem. When I canceled I was hit with a $300 cancellation fee that was not agreed to. This particular company was hit with so many complaints that the Indiana Attorney General went after them. About 3 years later I got some of my money back.

I would have been sure to also add "and don't ever come back"!

What a jerk.

Detroit Bankcard & Payment Co Phone: (248) 939-8000 Paul Braden. If you speak to Paul mention that Frank from Car-x referred you.

Be wary about what you are promised and what they tell you. Ask for the name of 2-3 businesses that have been using them for more than 1 year. Talk them and see what they say and what their actual costs are. I have had great rates like that promised, signed up and then got baited and switched. They were outright crooks. Currently I am paying about 1.7% total costs no contract and no equipment costs.

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. 'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.' 'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.' A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?' Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation. The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because: 1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic; 2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else; 3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and 4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it. (THIS GETS BETTER!) The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('el computador'), because: 1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on; 2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves; 3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and 4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model. The women won. Send this to all the smart women you know .....and all the men that have a sense of humor.

I just joined BNI and I think the return will be a no brainer. However, Imhqve the time to invest in it.

I am not a computer guy and have never built a website. With that in mind here are my thoughts. It doesn't need to be too complicated. It needs to load fast and be easy to navigate. You should have a phone number, address, and some kind of directional map available on the first page. Customers should have the ability to book an appointment. Print needs to be large enough to be easily read. Car-x has given us the capability for customers to book appointments on line. We get on average 4-8 such appointments every month. About 60% of these are first time customers.

Around here they use to pay but now they charge since the price of oil dropped. We get our oil disposed for free by Safety Kleen as a national account courtesy of Monro. GLYECO will pick up antifreeze for free if you purchase antifreeze through them. I do not know if they are in your part of the country.

We add $2.00 on to oil changes but our costs are not high. We can drain oil filters and throw them in the trash. Plus we currently get rid of used oil and antifreeze at no cost.

I have experienced fee creep with every process I have ever used except my current processor.

I would have never have guess that this business would be so severely impacted by weather. The first pretty day after a bunch of bad days is usually slow and the first bad day after a bunch if pretty day's is usually slow.

Welcome! There is a lot of great information here that will be useful but not specific information on body shop operation. We are mostly general repair.

Hope I haven't already posted this: "Hello?""Hi, honey, this is daddy," ... "Is your mommy near the phone?""No, daddy. She's upstairs in the bedroom with Uncle Frank,"After a brief pause, daddy says, "But you haven't got an Uncle Frank, honey!""Oh yes I do, and he's upstairs in the bedroom with mommy, right now!""Uh, Okay, then...here's what I want you to do. Put down the phone, run upstairs and knock on the bedroom door and shout to mommy and Uncle Frank that daddy's car's just pulled up outside the house." "Okay, daddy!"A few minutes later, the little girl comes back to the phone. "Well, I did what you said, daddy.""And what happened?" he asks."Well, mommy got all scared, jumped out of bed with no clothes on and ran around screaming, then she tripped over the rug and went flying out the front window and now she's all dead.""Oh my God!!! And what about your Uncle Frank?""He jumped out of bed with no clothes on too and he was all scared and he jumped out the back window into the swimming pool... but he must have forgot that last week you took out all the water to clean it, so he hit the bottom of the swimming pool and now he's all real dead too."***long pause***Then daddy says, "Swimming pool??? Is this 328-9874?"

We aare doing the same thing. Serve pro except for the Euro and then Castrol or Mobile One but mostly Castro.

My cost of goods are similar. My cost for Dexos full synthetic is about $1.82 a quart currently in bulk.

Are you using Castro European formulation?

I agree and would throw in intelligence.

Your costs of goods are high.

But here is the sad thing, the five best only have a shot. Truthfully from technical school graduates I have known I think only about 5% have a chance of becoming a really good technician. Last year I burned through 5 of these guys. They either quit or got fired and the longest tenure was about 5 months. All had technical school and some experience. Just growing up on a farm and working with my hands I had better knowledge and skill then these guys did and I have no claim to ever having been a technican.

A man brings his best buddy home for dinner unannounced at 5:30 after work. His wife begins screaming at him and his friend just sits and listens in. "My hair & make-up are not done, the house is a mess, the dishes are not done, I'm still in my pajamas and I can't be bothered with cooking tonight! What the hell did you bring him home for?" "Because he's thinking of getting married."