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Joe, I had a similar situation yesterday but not with a tech but a service writer. I think in my situation the customer was more of a problem than my employee but both were probably wrong. Probably a 60-40 spread but you still have to deal with both parties.

Craig, I for one am glad that you are on this forum. While we may not be enthusiastic about your venture from your posts I can see that you are one of the good guys and I think whatever you bring to the table will be well thought out and well crafted to do the best job possible. Who knows I may want to give it a try once you have the beta back up. It might be a means of gaining a few good long time customers. If I were a consumer here is where I could find the service useful. A price on a potential repair would give me an indicator of what I might be facing costwise and a shops pricing matrix. Then I could look at online reviews to see who seems to be the reputable. This would be useful to me if I were new to an area or if I were traveling and encounter problems. You have provided us with a lot of good information about your product which is a growing trend we all deal with. I think you will find that the shop owners attitude is shaped by our experiences. We have all had to deal with the Autozone free diagnosis and the ignorance of the public about the meaning of codes. The general public's knowledge and attitude make it difficult for our shops to bill for the amount of time we have to spend determining what is actually wrong with their vehicles. Every few days we get calls from someone wanting us to hook up the machine and tell them everything that is wrong with their cars. That makes us all less than enthusiastic about this type of thing.

Was he from Washington and connected with the White House's foreign policy? Maybe he helped write the Affordable Care Act? HAPPY BIRTHDAY GONZO!

Bob, I feel for you. Some of what you are dealing with is young and stupid. Two years ago I had a young guy I was paying too much leave for more money elsewhere. That gig lasted less than 6 months and he has had a couple of jobs since then. This week he was begging me to hire him back.

I also congratulate you on your ability to display grace and an even temper in your responses to our posts which are less than an enthusiastic reception.

Craig, I wish you well as you try to make a buck and there is nothing wrong with that. However, my general thoughts about Repair Pal, AutoMD, and similar business models is that as a general rule it is not good for the repair industry. IT will lead to an even more impersonal and less people oriented business. You may have success as a certain type of person is attracted to this. However, I think I can accurately say that that person would be not be any of our A list customers.

Here is a quote of a question asked on line: How would you like to be the guy giving him a price for the next guess he has as to what the problem is? Most likely it was an intake problem that is an expensive to repair. My oldest brother spent some money with code reading and chasing this very issue. He lives about two hours away and I do not work on his stuff. He came to visit me and had an engine light on his van. When I explained the intake problem we had seen on dozens of these vehicles which at that time was a $1200 repair he went home and traded the van off.

You must be very lucky. I have literally seen people spend a few hundred dollars based on going to Autozone having a code pulled and replacing the part indicated by the code chasing a problem that it never fixed. We had a customer who told us what he had replaced before he came to us. I calculated about $450 in parts not counting his time and gasoline burned picking up parts. He was chasing a misfire. We fixed the hole in the vacuum tubing for $50.00. That was his problem all along.

I doubt if you will find much enthusiasm here for your project. The consumer who uses your service and picks the lowest price will be disappointed 75% of the time.

It never ceases to amaze me the people who buy Mercedes, Beemers, Infinitis, Cadillacs, etc. that are somewhat long in the tooth probably for the status who have no means whatsoever to afford the expensive and often frequent repairs these cars require.

GPM! My biggest accomplishment in 2014 was getting all bills current, buying and paying for a Hunter Hawkeye Alignment Machine (no rack), and having a little left offer.

Sounds tough! Keep us posted and let us know if it gets too tough and I mean it. PM me if you need to talk.

Tough break in more ways than one. How are you managing financially???? Jeff, have you managed to have someone keep the shop open?

I have had some of the same stuff out of the local O'reilly. I wound up contacting their national account rep for our franchise. But mostly I wound't use a parts store that doesn't give me wholesale pricing. If I work on this guy's car again I would go light on part markup and bump up the labor.

Good to have you on the forum!

Our busiest time of the year is when income tax checks come in. Slowest is November-January.

I like that "shotgunner". Hadn't heard that before but I have known some.

We have always charged one price but am considering up charging for these.

If I were to use a.menu board it would display services only no pricing.

I am a Packers fan and gave been since Lombardi. If the not the Packers then INDY or Denver because of Manning.

It is also tough here. I get my best results from referrals, walk ins, and Craigslist.

Sounds to me like a contractor that has gotten burned and learned to put everything in writing. We use to do mechanical/environmental contracting and there were a few times that a contract saved us with a dispute with a subcontractor.

Here is a question for all of the shops who do alignments. Do you charges more for alignments in the following situations or how do you charge? 1. Vehicles requiring electronic steering angle resets? 2. Pickup trucks with lift kits and oversize tires? 3. European Cars: Mercedes, BMW, VW, Audi, and Volvo? 4. 3/4-1 TON TRUCKS (we cannot do dual wheels or larger longer vehicles. Some quad cabs will not fit on our rack. They are too long. 5. Vehicle more than 20 years old? (Frozen bolts???).

Wonderful story! No doubt ASO is a great place.