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So, I’m new to the forums kinda. I’m a tech which is why I’m confiding in my peers lol.
I recently came across an unusual situation in my shop where a new kid opened his mouth on the topic of the day, fishbowlers… Aka the people who watch your every move while working on their car.
New kid said he didn’t mind people watching. I said your crazy( alittle less polite than that).
I was wondering what your thoughts were on watchers? I hate them, with a passion, but that’s just me.
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I hate them too. Just let me do my job please.
You know who I hate the worst? Those guys that come in with a problem I spend time diagnosing it and then they go home and do the work themselves.
I had a customer last week that came in with a Toyota 4 runner making a clunk in the front end. He said he took it to another shop but wanted a second opinion and then told me that he wasn’t going to tell me what the other shop said. I drove it 50 feet and new that the caliper spring was either missing or broken. I brought it back pulled a wheel and found the broken spring. I replaced the spring and charged him an hour for diagnostics and the repair. When he asked me what it was I told him I wasn’t going to tell him just that it was fixed. He was a good sport about and responded with a Touché remark before sliding his credit card.I have had a lot of experience with this. When i worked for pep-boys I was at a bay with 2 windows into the waiting room. Needless to say I felt like i was in a literal fish bowl. Not only would I have the customer watching me but, other customers as well. They would follow me out to the service writer desk when it was their car and I was asked many times what i was doing by customers. I would normally talk over their head after about 2 weeks i just started saying my job and walk back into the shop.
Then when I started to do work on big rigs i was moved to a fleet location to do warranty work on all their fleet vehicles all the time. Needless to say it was a big fleet. I would often have drivers lingering watching me and asking me questions. This gets very frustrating very fast for me. The main reason I am not here to teach and they are slowing me down. The other thing is it increases the chance of mistakes due to the constant interruptions. I don’t mind going over what i did generally but, as I am doing it or when the person does not understand mechanics at all I often do not like to do it. This did work both ways though because generally i could get a lot more information from the driver and narrow down the diag very very quickly and also some you could tell knew what they were talking about and then i listened and checked what they said first. This also greatly cut down on diagnostic time.
Then there is my best friend he has been learning mechanics through me. As I fix his Acura NSX i explain everything and he asks questions and I explain. This can be annoying when I have limited time and I am trying to just get the car back on the road. I do not mind doing this with him because he is actually mechanically inclined, has common sense, and the ability to troubleshoot.
With me working on Big Rigs you tend to have a lot more people coming to their vehicle to get stuff because this is literally their home for at least 5 days out of the week if not 7 days a week 45+ weeks a year. This makes for very interesting things when it comes to what is in the truck and also how connected they are with their vehicle and how they will become greatly concerned when things are being worked on and where you need to go in the vehicle. I have had one driver come back to a truck 20 times in 4 hrs. This I would say is the worst version of this. They try to tell you that you cannot go into things you need to go into to fix the vehicle ie cabinets, shelves, under the bunk, etc. They also will just get into the vehicle regardless of where you are. I had one start it up while i was under the truck. I had one start it up when my hand was literally 2 inches from the fan blades. Had another start it up with coolant lines disconnected and another with oil filter out and another with oil lines disconnect. Had them do it with the air cleaner off and nearly sucked some of my tools into the intake cause the filter was off. Had them climb up into the vehicle while i was running diagnostic tests and bump the computer and interrupt the test some of which take hours cause you now have to have the vehicle cool down again. I have had them do the same while i was programming and yelled at them to get out. Had them slip on tools i had on steps and try to yell at me. I also have had plenty of piss bombs/jugs and other nasty things all over the truck and somtimes those jugs/things leak all over.
See when you are in a big rig shop the shop is very very big and it is normally hard to keep track of people because of its size and the fact that the foremans/service writers are normally so busy they do not have time to police the customers. Sometimes you can refuse work because of piss and other bodily fluids. Other times because it is a big fleet or a major customer you just have to “suck it up buttercup”.
I have written elsewhere that our shop is something different in so many ways. To begin with no one locks their toolbox. The guys are a really good and cohesive bunch that help each other.
I suppose we are different when it comes to fishbowlers as well. The odd thing about that is that there seems to be no policy preventing anyone from coming into the shop. A friend of mine came from Tennessee to Texas to spend the weekend and arrived about two hours before closing time on a Friday. My boss welcomed him into the shop and rolled out the red carpet for him. I know a number of people in the community and they come back in the shop to say hello when they come in for whatever reason. My new lady friend, a good looking, classy, professional, dressed to the nines lady wants to stop by. I have told her that I get dirty and she says she doesn’t care. I expect that she will be led to me in the shop by one of the advisers with no hesitation.
All that openness and I haven’t seen anyone hover at all over any tech in the shop. Go figure.
it doesnt bother me at all… I work as a computer tech most of the time they just want to know how it works and what your doing…. so I take like 5 mins to explain it to them and then they are done… sometimes they will give you more details of what the problem is when your talking to them… I just work while I talk…. and if I need to do something I just tell them to hold on a sec I need to lison to it…
I just never under stud why it bother people myself… they are not stoping you from working you can still do what your doing while you talk….
if your nevise that they are watching you… think most shops have camra’s watching you your full shift…. watching your every move so how diffrent is it…
maybe you all can explain to me why it bothers you because I just never uderstud it…I just like to work on my own by myself. I do not like to talk while I work either. I am the type of person that works as fast as they can and don’t like distractions. if I am teaching someone something that is different I take the time for in depth explanations but when I am on the flat rate clock don’t bother me.
The bays I have been working in for the last 3 months are near the guys bathroom and the tire changing room. A lot of traffic throughout the day.
I like to be left clean alone while working as I can’t concentrate when some gabby mouth customer is constantly in the way or yapping non-stop.
There was an incident with a customer once who went to the service manager over something I allegedly did. She was in an upstairs waiting room which had plate glass overlooking the shop area. She had brought her Subaru in for an alignment and I could see her standing there watching as I brought the car in.
The alignment rack was on on end of the shop and near a protruding addition which housed the service manager’s office. This mean that it took a little yo-yoing to get the car onto the rack due to cramped quarters.
The cement was smooth and Subaru has Zero-scrub steering geometry. This means that the front wheels scream like a banshee when turned sharply even if the car is barely moving.So I have the car on the rack and next thing I know the service manager comes out and confronts me about “burning the tires off of that lady’s car”.
This led to some argumentative back and forth with the idiot in charge who had no clue.
I finally said come with me. Now look at the cement around this rack. Do you see even one tiny bit of black mark anywhere? No? Good, go straighten that bimbo out.The tires on those cars would howl like mad even when pushing a non-running car into the shop and making a turn into a stall.
My main issue with people asking questions when I am working is I am trying to keep my train of thought. I get easily side tracked and having someone talk to me very easily has my mind wonder. I did IT when I was doing IT i could do that as it is mostly a mental thing and you are not trying to manipulate things with your body, balance on tires etc, and think about any of the other possibilities all at the same time as talking to someone. My other issue is if I explain something most people do not understand and then i have to explain it as simply as possible and then they still don’t get it so i have to move to analogies and all of that takes time to think about instead of me diagnosing.
As for literally being able to see me work my problems are:
If I use short cuts some of them are not safe, it saves time that the customer then argues they do not want to pay, I may be bending things and they will think I am breaking them, I may do stuff they would think is damaging their vehicle which is not, they may see me using a micro torch, torch, etc and think I am going to burn their vehicle down, I may do stuff that is against what they told the service writer to actually fix their problem, etc All of those I have had customers yell at me for none of which did damage to them, the vehicle, or me.
I have had customers try to do what I have done and hurt themselves and claim it is my fault or the companies fault. I have done things in an order as required for warranty that wastes countless hours because I have to have recorded snapshots of tests in order for parts to get covered and get chewed out for wasting their time and money. I have gotten yelled at for eating a snack or grabbing a drink while the vehicle is going through diagnostic tests that do not require me to be at the vehicle. If I have to go and help another tech they get mad because they are getting charged the time that I am helping the other tech. When doing a/c work I am not at the vehicle when I set it for automatic vacuum, dye/oil injection and charging yet we charge for that time.
In my experience fish bowls and allowing customers in the shop just creates more issues. Not to mention it is very unsafe because in most cases that glass is not safety glass. A socket off a 3/4 gun can go right through that and hit a customer. You can have hydraulics blow and cut through the glass and the customer. You have pressurized tanks which can explode. You can have a lift fail and put a vehicle right through the window.
So ya that is why I don’t like windows or customers in the shop.
The only time my vehicle goes to the shop is when there’s something I can’t do wether I don’t have the tools or don’t know how so I enjoy watching how a real mechanic does his job.
Then again I can imagine most people can’t sit and watch patiently and quietly while someone is working or are watching for something they don’t like.
If you don’t like something you should’ve done it yourself.It’s rude to tell a professional they’re doing something wrong; they’re the professional not you.
I worked at a shop where they allowed customers to come in the shop all they wanted. Most of them were very nice and never gave me a problem. One was a WWI vet. (Yes, World War 1) He called it “The Great War”. What that man had seen in his life, I can’t imagine. Very interesting guy. He came back from that war to find Alcohol illegal, so he made extra money running running whiskey on the back roads. His wounds from the first war made him unable to enlinst for the second. Anyways, needless to say, him and those like him are all gone today. If you know any WWII vets, talk to them, they have seen so much and they won’t be around much longer. Anyways, there were a few that were not pleasant. I was younger and a general service guy at a Goodyear so they thought they could “teach me” things and most of is was just BS. Some were rude a-holes that got in the way. Anyone tells me to do something a certain way, I tell them to do it.
Generally it’s not good practice to let the customers have so much interaction with the shop. Even viewing, just makes for more questions than answers and gives a complainer more ammo to complain.
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Many years ago at a dealer where I worked a customer had their car in for a repair for which we did not have the parts. They agreed to leave the car all week and the parts were ordered. These people were casual friends of the dealership owner.
They asked about getting some personal things out of the glove box and the owner walked them through the shop to their car. While there, the husband asked me a few misc. questions about the repair and then escorted out of the shop by the dealership owner.On Friday they came in, picked up the car without question, and left. Apparently happy.
About 3 months later my boss gets a letter from a lawyer stating that the wife of the couple had “had tripped over a negligently laid air hose and was now suffering some back pain and headaches”.
Of course this NEVER happened but it cost my boss a fair sized chunk of money t make the problem go away.
A good reason why customers should never be allowed into a shop. From the above example you can see that it’s not even safe to escort them.
What fucking douche bags.
I hope your dealership owner knew some other owners in the area and all of them refuse to work on these peoples car now.To many people now a days looking out only for themselves.
Just curious. How do you “negligently lay” an air hose. It is on the floor or on the reel. Anyone with an IQ above 20 sees the hose and steps over it.
Different types of Fishbowlers.
1. Life story tellers. Be it of the car, or of themselves.
2. Judgemental quiet hovering grumpy pants.
3. Mr. I want to learn what you are doing so I can do it myself later.
4. Mr. 500 questions.
5. Mr I can do it better, or I could of just done that myself.
6. Mr. Why didn’t you look at this or that first? I would of done this or that first.
7. Mr. Do you think you could fix this for me? I know I did not include it, but surely you would not mind fixing it for free for me.
8. Mr Mafia, I had this one, he bought cars for every member of his family. He would always oversee them being worked on with a couple thugs. Because he was such a valued customer, we all would get a heads up warning that he was coming like an hour or so before he showed up. He would stand back far enough, but always a serious scowl on his face.
I could go on and on and on. Rude people, I do not care for. As a rule, the shops I worked for would not allow customers beyond the service write up area. Painted lines telling them not to cross due to insurance or safety reasons.
9. The worse. Your spouse. Who does not understand a thing and why I need shop supplies. Or why I cannot just fix the broken part. However I had her pull a waterpump on her Jeep, and several other repairs. She questions less now. 🙂
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