bigdonstang

Sad but true. See it all the time. I've had a Mercedes owner call me a fraud and a Geo owner call me a savior all in the same day. Geo metro bill=$600. Mercedes estimate=$150. Go figure.

I keep ours scrap in a few 55 gallon drums then sort it out and break it down every couple of months on a slow day. We break down radiators, water pumps and thermostat among other things so we can get top dollar. The guys seam to enjoy it I think because it's a good stress relief smashing things with hammers and cutting open crap with out worrying about damage unlike the normal day to day routine. Usually get around $300.

We do it from time to time with mixed results. Pro's...getting the hangers made is cheap. Con's... It takes two people and about 10 hours of non-stop walking to get a couple thousand out. I find that I can usually get somebody to walk with me once, after that they will never help again. Even if you offer top pay.

We also stock the anco 31s. Good blade for the price. We get the 31s for $3.00 and the OE series for $6.00.

Cool feature. Thanks!!

We have seen a few of those so called warranties and it's always a bad experience. They haggle about price and question every repair. The only reason I even do business with them is to help the customer.

If a customer comes in with a CEL and asks me to "hook that machine up to there car and see exactly what wrong with it" I will pause, take a deep breath, try not to laugh and then go into detail the process of diagnostic work. I explain to them that there is a 1 hr minimum ($65) and in most cases we can have the problem pinpointed within 2 hrs. But in rare cases it could go higher such as when parts need to be removed to gain access to the components that needs testing. I was once one of the free diagnosteers in the beginning stages of my shop but soon learned that exploring cars for free was a fruitless adventure with no reward. I had a very smart man tell me that if a customer is not willing to dish out 65 to 130 bucks to figure out what's wrong with the car then they ain't serious about getting the thing fixed in the first place. Things have worked out pretty well since I adopted this policy and more often then not I make the sell on diagnostic work. It's all about presentation I guess.

Good point Joe. I've got some customers "hooked" on dirt cheap oil changes as the result of a promotion we ran. I thought it would be a good way to get new customers in the door and have a chance to look there vehicle over. The bad thing is they would come in and it would be hard to sell them on something as basic as a much needed air filter, belt or even a tire rotation. Then it gets worse. Next time they show up expecting to get that same rock bottom price on an oil change and then act like you're committing highway robbery when they get the standard price. Meanwhile the customers car is falling apart at the seams, you haven't seen them since the last discount oil change, none of the recommended repairs have been done and the oil is about ten billions miles overdue. I mean I try to help these people but when they can't even scrape ten bucks together when I offer a rotation and balance what do you do? How do you offer value to someone who can't even afford to pay attention?

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