Jonathan Ganther

We use Weaver Platinum Professional pads sold by Carquest which is now Advance Auto. They come with hardware and we have very few comebacks on them. If we do another axle on a repeat customers car we always check to see how the pads life is. I can't be 100% here but it looks like the pads last anywhere from 60-70k miles. Often we have clients who call complaining of squeaking after getting their brakes serviced at BMW, we replace the stock pad with the PMD or PXD whichever is the stock material and have satisfied customers!

Yes we do anywhere from 240-300 brake jobs a month. We don't ask every singles customer where they found us but most say Yelp.

We love Yelp Pay Per Click. It brings us 1,000 additional page views a month and we probably convert 15% of those. I'd say almost half our customer base comes from Yelp each month. A lot of people view our site and click Yelp though. So hard to tell if they find us somewhere else first and then Yelp. Advertising with Yelp was the best decision I've made since opening BTG.

I don't know I'm stumped. I've had leaking boosters where the pedal would travel far with no resistance but then I would always have pressure at the end and the car would stop.

Intermittent above 40mph. I thought booster after being told that the problem occurred only at a certain speed, I thought the booster might be the problem causing it. With the pedal to the floor there is absolutely no pressure, doesn't brake, doesn't matter how hard you press that thing. I haven't run into a booster that's gone out and then provides absolutely no brakes. Maybe this is just a first.

Kinda going crazy here. Got a call about the brake pedal going to the floor on a 94 Civic. After talking with the customer it sounds like a Master, were sure to check for any leaks on wheel cylinders, caliper, lines and hoses. We can't replicate the problem, we drive it do everything but take it on the highway. Customer's friend who's a "tech" talks to me after we can't replicate it and tells me to put a master on. We don't and tell the customer we'll have to come back out and try to replicate it again. Customer calls back three days later, Master Cylinder got replaced by someone else brakes felt good and then when getting on the highway the same problem occurred. So I send one of my guys out again to check it out. I think maybe a defect reman got put on or whoever installed it didn't bleed it right. We bring a MC with us this time, tech can't replicate it and I really don't want to throw parts at this thing but I told him to try our MC and see if you have the same issue. Sure enough same issue. There are no leaks the loss of pressure only happens when the car is braking at over 40mph, I know this sounds crazy but its truly what is happening. The proportioning valve looks like it was replaced as it is all stripped up with paint pen. I only mention this because I'm at a loss, I can't figure this thing out and neither can my techs. Brakes feel great when driving bellow 40mph at 40mph and over loss of pressure.

posted this in the wrong area

Great thank you for the testimonal. On another note we run Yelp! ads and have landed a good amount of clients through it. Over 1,000 views a month more off the ads and we probably get a phone call 20% of the time. Check our Yelp! page out... http://www.yelp.com/biz/brakes-to-go-mobile-brake-repair-austin-2?sort_by=date_desc

How successful has this been? Every time I get a bunch of ads in the mail I just toss them, hard for me to believe this works. How much do they charge you and how do they bill? Per house or a region?

We are about to overhaul the site but I thought I would post it anyway. I read Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, the book is huge but man did it help. We come up organically number #1 for brake repair in Austin underneath Yelp!. http://www.brakestogo.net/

This guy is someone that reads on the forum all day long, thinks he knows what he needs and is a fricking nightmare of a client. Barf.

That's exactly what I've been telling them. "Our insurance won't allow us to install customer parts for liability reason's but let me give you a quote with our parts anyway" I appreciate the input. Nice to hear of a brake shop dealing with the exact same issue.

Thanks for the input. I think the biggest fear I have is that when I quote them what the fair labor is on the repair they'll go spout off on some review site about how expensive we are. I like the review sites because they provide me with new clientele constantly but the sites also have me tip toeing around aggressive, cheap customers. Customers don't understand, they think your just making X amount of dollars off them. So I'm hesitant to quote someone labor on replacing pads and rotors. They've gotten the parts for $75 at AutoZone and think "how hard could it be it's just brakes, probably cost me like $60 buck". And I agree with you, the way parts stores market themselves now along with DIY videos everyone thinks they're mechanic. It sure does make the sales parts of the job more difficult.

Hey guys I'm new to the forum and have already seen how resourceful this site will be. I'm 30 years old and have worked at several shops as tech. I did enough side work to feel secure enough with starting my own business. I opened Brake To Go in December of 2013. We are mobile brake shop that now has 4 technicians doing anywhere from 10-20 brake jobs a day. Yelp! has been a big help to us as we have over 125 five star Yelp! reviews. Thank you in advance any advice I receive. I look forward to talking with y'all more.