Biff Tannon

Before and after repairs and some customers will still try to blame you For the ever since. Usually it is six months down the road but they are just bringing it up now. In this case I never accept Responsibility for creating a problem I know I did not create. Instead I urge them to let me take a look at it during the appointment and find out what may have arised. Usually after more questioning they admit hitting something or taking it to another shop for related repairs. It is offensive when they insinuate you Messed their car up even when you know they're lying.....yes customers lie and it sucks but you Just have to stick to your guns and be adamant you will find the problem but also let them know it will cost some diagnosis time. That one time that you forget to mention and note a noise or strange vibration during a test drive is the one that will most Likely get blamed in you in the future. Don't just discuss it with the customer, document it. I had a guy blame me for a brake noise after we discussed it prior to repairs . It was a fluid sloshing noise in the brake line that reverberated under the car When you stepped on the brake pedal hard. The customer and I discussed it prior to repairs but I did not document it and have him sign an affidavit...lol. After I did the brake job the noise was still there and the customer blatantly denied our discussion about it, denied he told me it was doing it for quite some time and insisted I caused it. I was mortified but I ended up getting his brake controller replaced under warranty at the dealership since it was covered for ten years due to an ungodly amount of customer Complaints of this issue. Needless to say I refused to do any further work for that guy and I told him so after everything was all said and done . He never even thanked me for taking care of his problem that he blatantly lied to me about. Wanna know the kicker? He is a police officer, high up in rank too. Nice guy huh?

The dreaded "ever since" customers huh. Man I've had my share. You Can make all the notes you want and test drive the car before And after

Elon. I have my Reasons for not taking credit cards. Too many to discuss in this thread.

I noticed the repair pal webinar link. Does Anyone here get business by being "certified" with repair pal here? Does is bring you any business and what does it cost/ require to get your name on their page?

I've seen so many repairs such as this especially from certain install shops in Atlanta that seem to screw up more cars than they actually fix yet they are one of the busiest shops out there just because they exists. I can only Imagine how many heated discussions take place by irate customers there given the complaints we see from this one shop in particular. Customers sometimes get bored when I ask so many questions while trying to collect information about the gremlins and recent repairs or customizations. They sometimes have the attitude that they just don't care about the details, don't want bothered with questions and just want it fixed. This usually means calling up the shop that did it and dealing with even more stonewalling, denial and attitude. Yes people don't know what we have to go through to fix these things and a little help up front goes a long way.

Shop every year and let them know what you currently have. The last guy that looked at my policy to shop a competitive price told me the quote my current provider have me could not be beat and to just stay with them. This honesty went a long way with me and I used him for all my personal insurance.

Also many of my job inquiries come from total strangers asking for a price quote for A Specific job. I try to reply immediately because people are impatient and texters Like instant responses. The thing I don't like is giving quotes like this without being able to feel the person out or to explain diffences in super cheap brakes as opposed to Original equipment. By feeling them out I mean is their car neglected and do they just want the cheapest crap possible on their junker or do they care about their car and want some good quality parts out on it.

Yes I text customers Personal phones with reminders, promotions when things are slow for me and it seems to work very well. I've been doing it for a couple years and it seems to work better than cold call voicemail. People Love To text, they love the attention and in this Facebook world I can see the attraction. I Am not A Facebook person at all for marketing because too many opinions on a public forum can open the door for negativity but my customers love texting and I think it's an excellent marketing tool that's instant, personal and begs of a response wether they need service or not. It's also simple and informal for people on the fly. I, being a mobile mechanic, get my majority of customer inquiries and service schedule questions by text as opposed to phone calls as my business is ran from my cell phone. I am small and very very personal. I have a deep relationship with my customers and texting is very personal. I think it's the best way to communicate for smaller, one man operations such as mine. I can see how a Larger, busier shop may find it annoying and burdensome to be texting customers Back and forth bit for me it's a God send when I get a text on Monday morning from an established customer that needs an immediate service when I have nothing on the schedule for that day. I found it's the best way to relay messages such as "Mrs Williams , your vehicle was due for front brake pads and rotors tldisring the last service three months ago, would you like me to schedule a time to get them replaced this month?" People absolutely love it?

I was browsing YouTube for scissor lifts and saw a pretty nice one made in the UK but I forget the name at the moment. It was probably the most beefy scissor lift I had seen yet, probably pretty pricey but it really looked like a sturdy/safe lift.

Looking at full rise scizzor lift for my garage. Will mostly be working on passenger cars and light to mid size SUV's. Anyone have experience with one in their shop and if so what do you like or dislike about it? I don't mind paying more for a good quality one and I don't want Chinese crap with unrealistic safety or weight ratings.

One of the issues I have ran into is the cheap maintenance packages offered by some of the highlife dealerships. their once comprehensive service packages used to be very expensive but now they have dropped their price substantially and only do a bare minimum service for the low advertised price and all other items that used to be standard are additional cost. This is a ploy to get the customer in the shop then hit them with all the additional items. I am having a hard time with this because my customers still expect the full package yet complain that the dealer wants so much less for this service. I then have to explain the whole racket to them and tell the that I am still $100 less than the dealer if they were to replace all the items I still replace standard. For some reason it is working for them better than it is for me so I guess I will have to offer the same thing and just up sell, up sell, up sell, but one big problem will come from this I know and that is the fact that most customers will opt for the basic cheap package because of price and their engine performance will suffer. It is really getting harder to compete with "cheap" now days and I am getting so sick of customers skipping their major services and calling me to ask " How much for an oil change?".

I am a mobile mechanic currently with safeco, but my local agent quit using them because their prices went up substantially.

Torque wheels to spec before and after test drive.