Civicnoobie

My sister went to see one today at the dealer as her car is under warranty, this is what the tech said to her. All she was doing when she brought her car in was pinpointing what hose under the hood she wanted replaced exactly. Thats it, she didnt say anything more. She was very nice and the tech had a nasty attitude "Ive been doing this for so long, 30 years...dont try to give me advice....if i need advice ill ask" One she heared it, she wanted nothing to do with this ***** anymore.

My sister was pissed and was tempted to walk out then but her car was already hoisted and worried that she was going to be charged for that time (even though its under warranty). She wont be going back to this tech thats forsure. He just lost a good customer.

And get this, my sister wanted 2 things done. The mech refused to do the second. All she wanted was to have her tires filled with more air as it was low. So what does he do after hes done with her? He goes for lunch. It would have taken 2 secs to fill air in the tires. Since this lazy ***** was too lazy, my sister went to the mr lube right after and they did it no problem at no charge. Took them 5mins. Be too lazy, and you lose customers...

What a total *****.

MindBomber

what a loser.

Brian1037

Nobody likes being told what to do especially when they're good at it, but it's no excuse to be a dick

marccayen

I had one like that at the Honda dealership and once and I just backed off and let him to his job.. When the car was ready I inspected it and noticed many things were missed or not done up to par. Then I made him feel like a total douche in front of his work buddy's. (Basicly left and showed back up with my steel toes on and redid the whole job). They're are perks to being a Honda assoc. but when ever you bring your car at a dealership its always a battle with the damn mechs.

montecarlogrrl

And this is why I don't take my car anywhere... Anything I need done, I have done at work. I work for a Buick dealer, but our techs basically work on anything.. and they're not douche bags to their customers.

I took my car to the Honda dealer ONCE. Their service advisors were rude and didn't seem to want to help me, like I was interrupting their social time or something. I just wanted to drop my car off for an oil change. Never been back.

UnderDog

Why does it seem like 95% of all mechanics are total D-bags? I try to do all my own work, so as not to deal with them..Plus, I don't like the thought of entrusting my life and the lives of everyone else I have with me on someone else's work(especially the 'professionals' you find around here)... But, every single time I have ever been to a garage(whether a dealership or not) the mech's have been such A-Holes, that I just want to walk away, and go back to the D.I.Y. route..

With knowledge comes power..With power comes attitude?

MelJ

Some days I wonder why I'm even pursuing this career. Maybe something else in the automotive field will call my name when I graduate. I do all my own work, but the guys I personally take my car to will let me in the bay and show me what's up. I guess leaving that one massive textbook in my car is a perk . I wouldn't take my car to that place anymore. Some people can be total a-holes.

jono237

wow i must be lucky my local honda dealer is awsome and when i call them out on something thats wrong say they broke a plastic clip that holds the o2 connector from hanging (they actually did) they fixed it no charge and wer nice about it. they actually know me by name guess from all the parts ive got there over the years and when it comes to big things that are just time consuming id rather pay them. I like my saturdays! i love doin upgrades myself but maintenance ill leave that to them its not fun for me

MelJ

It's good to develop a decent relationship with them, but some of them leave bad first impressions. One of the guys at Pep Boys didn't put the drums back on my old car and when I went back to them, they told me I was full of it. I told them my parking brake had like 20 clicks. The thing was pointing to the ceiling. They told me I should have asked for a brake adjustment then. I don't tend to get mad, but it pisses me off when someone won't even accept the fact that they have made a mistake. They rolled the car in and the guy was like "Well, looks like our guys forgot to put the drums back on. Derp". Ya think? Back then I knew nothing, but that moment was when basically all the work I could do on my own was taken care of by me.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

someplaces are good. most chain places including dealers have badly paid jobs and high rotation. The good ones move early. the bad opnes are the ones that are there 30 or so years cos they cannot get someplace else.

Civicnoobie, when are you going to try to do it yourself? There's not much meaning on asking stuff online if you don't do it yourself - leave to good pros and shut up...

SpeedDownZone

Are you sure that's the only thing she said our tried to do. Also how she said it might also explain his reaction. I deal with alot of customers that don't know crap about cable, internet, or phones but they seem to think they can tell me how to do my job. I usually agree with them and then continue doing my job the right way.

There is a level of professionalism that he need to maintain and did not. The customers are there pay check. He needs to understand that there are real jerks, picky, ****, and yes sometimes racist people out there but you need to all was try to keep professional about your job.

There are people that you have to say something to tho. I meet this guy who did not want a cable box because one of the C in comcast was fatter than the other one, in other words they where not identical. But yea if she just wanted to show him nicely what she wanted he is an *** and she should have told his superiors.

lowlife9

why have your sister pay for something you could have done for free. or did you offer and she was like hell no your not touching my car lol.

MelJ

You bring up a good point. Either way, I salute you, sir. You have to keep your cool in the worst type of situations. Nothings sucks worse than some idiot telling you how to do your job even when they don't have the slightest idea about what they're talking about.

Kennykid2002

iTrader: (1)

I always act professional and helpful around customers...

I always try to be as understanding and calm as possible,
But the moment you start b***ing at me telling me i dont know what i'm doing,
I'll just gladly throw you the towel and tell you to do it.

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

Call their customer service and complain. Give the techs name

montecarlogrrl

I'm used to working on my old Chevys myself, so I know some stuff about cars. I don't know so much about my Civic, so I like mechanics that will let me look at the car on the lift and explain things. I may have a vague idea of what's going on and then they fill in the blanks and explain why it's happening. I don't try to tell them that they're wrong and I shut up and listen.
Unless of course they did something wrong, then I will not hesitate to let them know it. Like the morons who did my timing belt, water pump & tensioner. They didn't bleed all the air out of the cooling system and they left off a couple of bolts. derrrrrp

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

there are some places that are completely trashy and dont care about any car that comes thru the service bays. unfortunately there is no way to know unless you actually take the car there and find out. sometimes online reviews can help, even if there are a few bad ones its enough to stay away. there are some things you can do to make things go better like always washing your car before bringing it in and cleaning up the interior. there is nothing worse than bringing in a car covered with dirt and junk inside because if you dont care about your own car, why should the mechs.

lowlife9

one time this guy brought in a car to be worked on anf i refused to evan sit in it because he had used syringes laying all over the floor.

MelJ

Some guy in my class said these people brought their car into the detail shop to be cleaned and he found a crack pipe. . I just don't see how some people can drive in filth. A dirty outside is one thing, but come on. The interior you have to deal with since you're IN the damn car. At least make some type of effort.

lowlife9

ive found some crazy **** in rental cars that come in to be serviced bags of weed,crack,pipes,knives,bullets one time a huge *****.

Shift-E

I believe a car is a reflection of the owner. If they treat their car like **** and leave **** in it, it's safe to say that they probably aren't "clean" people themselves.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah thats like a majority of people tho. it shocks me how many people i know are so clean themselves or their house but yet their car is a dumpster.

Brian1037

This describes exactly my ex gf. I don't mean to be derogatory at all here but you should've seen her car and apartment. However, herself, she was the nicest smelling cleanest person ever. She has a kid (not mine...) who's completely trashed the back of her Dodge Caliber. There's spots of dried puke on the baby seat, there's empty fast food bags, fry cartons, burger wrappers and drink cups EVERYWHERE. There's all kinds of garbage laying around in the car. It's literally a mountain and it completely fills the foot wells in the back. Her apartment was pretty bad too, but it's since gotten better. God I hate being in that car and I feel so bad for any mech that ever had to work on it.

pheaton

iTrader: (6)

[vent]
I do it all myself anymore unless it's warranty. Even then, I diagnose and tell them what I want fixed. If they get an "I know what I'm doing" attitude I calmly explain how I've been ripped off by plenty of people and they all knew exactly what they were doing too. If they are still persistent with the attitude I feed it right back, then go over their head. I tend to mention that if they retaliate on my car there will be some consequences. I'm tired of getting ripped of by these d-bags.

All these places seem to care about is money, they don't give a crap about the customer. I understand that businesses need to make money, but overcharging for under-working is just a racket I'm not going to contribute to anymore. Last time I went to Honda I asked if they could adjust the e-brake, rotate the tires, and lube the ball joints. He said, "It'll be $10 for the brake, $10 for the tires, and your ball joints are sealed and don't need lube." Mind you they used to just do this stuff for free as part of their $50 "minor service", but now everything is an up-charge. By the way, d-bag, I replaced my ball joints with non-sealed ones. Why don't you look before being a f*cktard. Not that they even know what a minor service is. . They have it plastered on every single advertisement they mail me, yet when you take go in and ask for a minor service they look at you like you are speaking Swahili or someshit.

Then they hand you this lovely multi-point inspection afterwards that further insults your intelligence. According to this thing I need all of my fluids replaced, although I just did them the month before. This report also says my all of my lights check out ok, when I know I've had a parking light out for like 8 months. So this tells me right off the bat that you didn't check $hit. What the hell am I paying $50 for again? An oil change? I'll do it myself thanks.
[/vent]

pjb3

Going back to the original post, there were mistakes on both sides. If the car is under warranty, you can not just tell them to replace something. For them to be reimbursed, there is usually a testing process they have to complete to document the part needs to be replaced. If I do take a car to a mechanic I almost never tell them what to do. I give them the best description of what the car is doing and let them decide how to fix it. If I tell them to replace a part because I think it is bad and it does not fix the problem, they did what I asked so it is on me. Let them figure it out and if it is not right, it's their problem. You can ask that they notify you of the problem before fixing it and if it doesn't make sense, ask questions.

There is also no excuse for a mechanic that behaves that way. Dealers count on service for a profit and to create repeat customers. Most dealers have customers talk to the service writers not the mechanics and it is the service writers job to keep the customer happy. If an employee is rude let the manager know, you can't expect them to correct a problem if they are not aware of it.

The times that I have been unhappy with the work and the service manager doesn't seem to care, I explain nicely that we can have our conversation in the middle of the showroom with the general manager or owner included. This makes him realize he dosn't want to drag his boss into a problem he can handle.

pheaton

iTrader: (6)

Yes, that is correct. Let me clarify. If it's a manufacturer warranty, it's all them, diagnosis and repair. I won't say anything, I'll let them do it all.

Now, if it's an extended warranty. These are usually limited in what they will cover and usually have a deductible or a maximum limit. I don't want them wasting the warranty on guessing. For instance. On my truck they wanted to do the ball joints and an alignment. Well, the alignment is a waste of money, because they didn't diagnose the bad wheel bearings on it. So I tell them to check the wheel bearings before they do the alignment. Oh those are bad too. Now I'm not wasting my warranty money on 2 alignments. Furthermore, they didn't diagnose the bad CV joints. So they would have to pull the bearing again had I not told them to check those as well.

Matt300

I've had a couple of bad experiences with people understanding what I wanted done to the car, so I feel it's necessary to explain everything I'm seeing/hearing in complete detail and what I think the cause might be.

The tuning shop I take my car to is run by a guy that answers all your questions though. He lets you talk, then addresses your concerns, followed by what he's seen in his experience. Most of us don't mean to tell the mech how to do their job, but we want to make sure we're getting what we want when we're about to part with several hundred dollars. The Honda dealer has never really had my best interests at heart, so I stopped going there a long time ago to find someone who will finally check the damn noise I was talking about!