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What we explain to people is that if we try to align it under those conditions they are throwing their money away. AS soon as the suspect part moves the alignment is no good. We do not want to waste their money.

A guy called this week wanting the price on a thermostat installation. I ask him why a thermostat and he said he had no heat. I then asked him if he had check the radiator (not the overflow bottle). He said no. I asked him if he had check the two heater hoses where they enter the firewall to see if one was cold and one was hot. The answer was no. I figures there was only a 5%-10% chance this guy needed a thermostat and I wasn't going to price it out.

Good question? We spend a lot of time doing pre-alignment inpsections that we are not currently getting paid for. I have considered charging an inspection fee.

How will the lawsuit Ford has against them going to affect them? My head tech says avoid them due to the lawsuit.

I have done the pickup within the general area of the shop, one mike or so. Not as effective as one might think.

That is a great video. Thanks for posting it.

I have limited experience with Sprinters. Frustrating to work on if you don't work on Mercedes. Problem with the turn signal switch turned into headache. The fleet stuff we do is national account work set up through franchisor. Everything is discounted 10-20% depending upon company. Good work but paperwork is something of a headache.

Thanks!

It would be great to see all of the folks on ASO sing that with Gonzo leading. Wouldn't that give us all a laugh. Just the thought makes me smile.

Very generous of you do do this and I appreciate it very much.

I have a guy who has opened up a shop up the street from me who is advertising brake pads and rotors installed for $129.95. If he buys a decent quality pad and rotors he will probably have a minimum of $90 in it and if cheap ones at least $70. This means he has his tools, overhead, insurance, and labor priced at $39.95-$59.95. He is a guy who probably knows how to work on cars but not how to run a business. I have found that if you buy customers you get what you pay for. This guy does not realize that that type of pricing creates a business model that cannot be sustained. The one man shop works himself to death being paid much less than what I pay my techs. I lost a job for a long term customer to another shop a few months ago because the other shop is real cheap on labor. That was months ago and I had forgotten about it until today when that truck appeared in the shop with a running problem and the other shop had given up on it after messing with it for months. In 30 minutes my lead tech knew what was wrong with it. Now I personaly know the other shop owner and he is a great guy. However, when your price yourself as cheap as he is you cannot afford to hire higher skilled techs and this owner is like me as he never was a tech. He has 2-3 parts changers working for him but they cannot handle anything beyond basic stuff. This wasn't a difficult problem to solve if you have any driveability background. My point is you can't worry about being the cheap guy in town and have the tools, training, and people needed to face up to the modern shop work. This was a 93 Dodge Dakota that stumped this shop couldn't handle whereas our shop is moving into working on BMW's, Mercedes, Jaguar, etc. We currently have a Subaru 2.5T boxer engine tore down as I write this doing a headgasket. This is common stuff to some of shops but our shop started as a muffler and brake franchise but had to get into full service to survive.

You need to collect this form from them. http://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/offices/exciseTax/salesanduse/Documents/ExemptionCertificate.pdf

Real nice website.

My people thought the class was good and well worth attending. No pressure to do additiional things with Elite. I dislike the pressure from ATI.

Since I have a partner who lives out of town I tell cold callers that ask for the owner that we have an absentee owner who does not allow me to give out their phone number. That usually causes them to hang up.

That is ridiculous and would be a deal breaker for me.

How long ago did you install the heater? Can you prove that this is not the one you installed? Did the customer give you and opportunity to fix the problem?

I like your name and logo.

I do not like price boards either. I think they create more questions than they answer. The person who needs 0w20 full synthetic oil is the person who wants the $29.95 oil change. We use to have a price board that said starting at say $29.95 on mufflers. You had to then explain why there was not a $29.95 muffler for their car. It just created headaches and wasted time. My life is much better without it.

Good looking website.

Did the customer request this? If a customer thinks someone else is paying the bill they will sometimes ask for the sun, the moon, and the stars. Many of the dealers do not sell repair parts for certian harnesses and their solution is to sell the whole harness. This could be one of those situations. How much money are we looking at here?

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for posting. You site needs a lot of work to be up to speed but hey you are moving in the right direction.

I like you gallery pictures. Show nice, neat, well organized and equipped shop. Variety of car makes also is good. I give your brother thumbs up.

We use a commission structure with a base guarantee. The most I have ever guaranteed anyone in a week is $900. The tech cannot make less than the guarantee but has no ceiling on what they can make.