Are There Any Honest Mechanics?

[lethalwithasupra]

Ok so all this " honest mechanic " crap ... sorry if it's too full of *itself* or long paragraphs ...

Customer comes in and asks what the dashlights on his van mean. Fuel, handbrake and altenator lights are on while it's runing. They had been comming on and off for a couple of days now, no other problems with the vehicle ( such as overheating from a missing fan belt ). Same-day service sort of thing cos he's a tourist and in a hurry. So I get the job of taking his van appart, the guy hangs out for a bit ( here the boss is fixing his 230V radio for free cos the guy seems cool. Couple other perks to getting his van fixed here. We're like that, multi-skilled and good guys ). Guy takes off on foot somewhere for the day. I take his altenator appart and notice the nice burnt diodes ( someone must've put the leads backwards when it was jump started for them all to go like that ). I take off in the work van to finish off a small mammoth job I started a couple days ago and my boss fixes the altenator and puts it beside the van. At the end of the day the guy comes back and I'm pulled off yet another job ( which was yet another walk-in, but a really good customer ) to put his alt back on. A very busy day or it would have been ready ages ago.

Stupid me doesn't put the belt on right and it flies off the pulley, gets crimped but not broken. Yea don't laugh too hard plz, I ain't happy with it. We can't find another belt for it same day, so we put the buggered belt back on temporary and ask him to come back tomorrow and appologise for all this *yet again*. He has to stay in town overnight. Next day he gets a new belt on URGENT delivery by nine the following am, supplied and fitted free of charge and with a another big fat appology.


Now here's the bit that slotts me off. He comes back, after telling me all is fine ( fuck I hate ppl who can't just say " this isn't good " ), he asks and asks to talk to my boss who was away on a callout. Apparently and you have to look at this from his " point of view " but, and he's " no mechanic, " but it seemed to him that my buggering his v-belt and the alt being buggered had the same symptoms. Therefore the alt was never faulty and the belt had smiply fallen off. And that was the only problem. Apparently I had missed the fact when I took the belt off to get the alt off .... And the boss also missed it when he did the diagnosis work. Right ...

Boss comes back in and tells me this arsehole told him *I* suggested the belt was the only thing wrong. Fucking retard. So I go and talk to him while the boss is hunting through the scrap for this guy's old rectifier and regulator, just to show the guy how visibly damaged they were. I end up explaining to him several times that both *his* fault and the one I caused had similar symptoms, but the guy just isn't listening. Keeps falling back to this stupid line " you have to look at this from my point of view, I'm no mechanic but it seems to me that ... " gist is that the altenator was fine, he isn't disputing that we put new parts in, or accusing us of ripping him off. Just wants to settle on the price, or he'll go get a second opinon and go to the cops if we have ripped him off. Single minded argumenting. Fuck the guy was pissing me off by the time the boss came back out to show him the old bits and point out that if he really wanted to rip the guy off he wouldn't have done a few other jobs for him for free or even taken the alt off the car cos that just took up time. If we really wanted to rip him off we're smart enough to do it well. plus the symptoms were different ( firstly the alt light only came on with the engine running, the other two lights were always on. With the belt being broken all lights were always on ).


Didn't come here intending to post this ... just saw the post and wondered if I'd gotten an answer for the AFM/TPS Q then got to thinking on how sometimes you're not actually being ripped off when you are. Or you're actually trying to rip off by accusing people of ripping you off. No acusations there, I'm just getting really angsty about people who want the earth but wont buy it.

Supratech's advice is good advice.
I'll add
6)only get your car worked on by a tradesman you think you can trust, and don't try to haggle, barter or browbeat after the damn job's done under quote. After all, half of the exchange is how we trust you. Give and take, or there's just no point helping you.

[suprra_girl]

i had a similar thing happen

a 2.8l turbo deisel van came in to get his exhaust leak fixed

exhaust leak was coming from the manifold

we spend about 2 hours removing manifold + turbo etc and find that the exhaust has been leaking for quite some time and blew holes in the gasket and started blowing holes in the manifold surface, also the manifold had been welded before trying to fix another hole (which started cracking)
we quoted him a mere $400nzd/300usd? to get the manifold machined flat again and new gasket and labour inclusive

we actually took the manifold & turbo up to show him what was wrong so he would understand

we then got it machined and all back together and now the exhaust leak is quiet as a mouse (cept for some engine noise which was there the whole time just couldn't hear it clearly due to the exhaust leak)

he pays for the job and takes his van away

the next day he comes down and says....

customer: i can't find the parts you put on, i lifted the passengers (left side of car) seat and everything, you didn't replace anything you just took my money and spent it on something else and didn't touch my car
that thing you showed me had way too many holes for my van and that turbo is way too big for my van

me: um, your van is quiet isn't it (i didn't say... umm your td03 or whatever is on mitsubishi delica vans is wayyyyyyyyyyyy too small for my car LOL)

customer: that doesn't matter you charged me way to much to fix fak all

me: now if you look under your drivers seat you will find that your manifold has been tank cleaned and welded

customer: no you haven't been under there, nothings moved

me: look, we did the job, your van no longer has an exhaust leak which you can clearly hear

customer: rant rant rant keeps going on about how we ripped him off

me: yea whatever dude, we did the job now please stop harassing us


that was about 6 months ago now... and gee, his van is still quiet as a mouse haha
we even told him to go to another mechanic and get them to check it, dunno if he ever did
told him he could ring the reconditioner shop we got it machined at and he said no i won't because he'll be a friend of yours and just tell me whatever you want him to

just one more example of a pig headed customer

[scruffboy]

O.K., it seems like you guys know what you are talking about and have been around, so tell me how I should handle a situation like this. I take my car in for major work (new water pump, clutch plate, clutch pump, etc) and I am given a written estimate. The work gets done in a timely fashion but they say they found something else and fixed that. Show's me the worn part and it looks legit, but adds rather large sum to bill. Shouldn't they have called me to O.K the work? What if I didn't have that kind of money on me? I told them to please call next time before doing extra work (politely) but they seem pissed. I even thanked them before for the nice job, just asked for a little professional courtesy in future. Am I wrong here?

Scruff.

[suprra_girl]

absolutely not
they should have phoned you if they were going to replace any other parts not already agreed to

more than likely they probly saw that you wouldn't kick up a fuss if they added something so they took advantage of that

have you paid them yet? (if no....) and...
have you got your car back? (if yes...)

pay em $20 a week LOL

that should annoy them suffiently

[lethalwithasupra]

You had a written qoute for a very specific list of jobs. That should have been all they did. Should have called you and asked permission. And they shouldn't get pissed at you asking to be told, that just totally lacks professionalism.

If you don't have the money and really don't feel like paying it you could try to " settle " on a moderate price. They could also offer to remove it and reinstall the old one at no charge ... But if you really did need the repair it's prolly not worth an argument, just make sure they don't keep doing crap like that.


Tradesperson/Customer Relationship;
You are their cash cow. If they milk you barren they starve later on. If they don't milk you enough you bloat. If they milk you gently both you and they profit.