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It’s true about the alignment causing abnormal tire wear, which iwll in turn cause a vibration, but fixing the alignment will not cure the vibration, although many customers seem to think it will. I try and explain it to the few customers that ask, but none of them seem to listen to me. Sometimes getting information out of people is like pulling teeth. It also seem slike, occasionally, even the sales-people at my shop are out to sabotage my ability to do my work.
For example, work order states (I’m typing this verbatim): “Customer heres nioes” There is also a hand-written note in the corner indicatiing that the customer is waiting, rather than dropping their car off. I take their car for a test drive and I don’t hear any abnormal noises. I go back up front and ask the salesman exactly what kind of noise the customer was complaining about and when the noise occurred. Salesman said he couldn’t remember and that I should just go ask the customer, as he was the only one in the waiting room at the time. I get the customers attention and ask what their complaint was, and he points at his ear and says “I’m deaf” I wish I was making that up. I apologized and went back into the shop. I gave their car a look-over, didn’t find anything wrong with it and sent them on their way.
Probably one of the easiest, an dsilliest fixes I’ve ver had to do was way back in the early days of my automotive career. Customer brings in a brand new Chevy Aveo, complaining about a wierd noise when going around a corner. The car had just over 100 miles on it. I take it for a test drive down some curvy roads, and sure enough, it makes a noise going around corners. It sounds to me like there’s something sliding around in the trunk. I get back to the shop, open the trunk and there is a cardboard box in there, filled with a gallon of coolant, a couple quarts of oil, a bottle or two of fix-a-flat, and several other automotive chemicals. The box isn’t held down with anything other than it’s own weight, so it’s free to slide back and forth, causing the noise. I removed the box from the trunk and placed it on the passenger seat, and wrote my findings on the work order.
As for the deaf guy, maybe his wife told him there was a noise and to get it fixed? I am borderline deaf and I don’t “hear” any noises until my wife tells me about it. So YES, I wish you were making up that story because being deaf is not fun.
I’ve had some more silly customers over the past several days. Trying to avoid writing a novel, I’ll give the quick and dirty versions. Anything noted as being said by the customer was just what was written on the work order when I picked it up.
2010 Dodge Grand Caravan, towed in with a no-start condition. Customer said they were driving across an intersection and the van just died and wouldn’t restart. It had no fuel pressure, but I could hear the pump running and nothing was wet underneath to indicate a leak. I lowered the tank a little so I could pull the pump out and check for a possibly torn hose inside, only to find that the tank was bone dry. Fixed that problem with 5 gallons of gas. I found out from the service manager that the customer would just wait until the little light on the dash would come on, but since the dash was now covered in Post-It notes and photographs, I guess they must have not seen it.
2003 Dodge Grand Caravan, repeat customer, shopping list of problems with this van. They want to know what the clunking sound is when they go over bumps. Strut mounts are knocking in the front, the struts are leaking, it’s got 2 broken motor mounts, the passenger side window doesn’t work, I forget what else is wrong with this van, but it’s well past being on it’s last legs. I overheard the customer say to the service manager that they were tired of how unreliable this van had been and that they were going to replace it with a Volkswagen Routan. I had to bite my tongue and go back out into the shop when I heard that. The VW Routan is built by Chrysler, and it’s nothing more than a Chrysler Town and Country with a VW badge on it.
2000 Ford Explorer Sport Trac, in for an engine diagnostic because “Costumer thinks it might the fule pump”. I had to ask the salesman who spoke with the customer exactly what they meant. It turns out that the check engine light keeps coming on, and the customer thought that the fuel pump was the culprit. It’s got a nasty vacuum leak right behind the throttle body, replacement parts have been ordered but had not arrived as of the time I left work today.
Quoted From hondaslave1342:
@3sheets…..i hope you get your answers to your problem…your replys were longer than a SAT exam…did you get it all out? done venting? feel beeter?,,,maybe you might check out http://www.dr.phil.com….man it was painful to the optic nerve to read your book….good luck with the business at hand
I really dislike posts like this. You did not have to read his posts nor have to comment.
@3SheetsDiesel – That deaf guy story made me laugh, not at the deaf guy per se but at the situation at hand.
I really enjoy your posts as it gives us all an insight into trouble shooting vehicle issues.
Quoted From dreamer2355:
@3SheetsDiesel – That deaf guy story made me laugh, not at the deaf guy per se but at the situation at hand.I really enjoy your posts as it gives us all an insight into trouble shooting vehicle issues.
Yes, As a deaf guy I find this amusing. Ha ha ha….. But at least my brain isn’t so whacked that I continously work at a job that one hates so much.
It really burns my biscuit to see some jackass bad mouthing his customers. No offense sir, but that’s horse shit! Your whole mentality is going to foster the continued belief that we are ALL con artists who are trying to take advantage of a customer. I’m getting ready to graduate Tech school and start working, and it scares the hell out of me that I could end up with you for a mentor, or have you in my shop.
The fact of the matter is, when it comes to their car, most customers don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. They have more important things to learn about, such as their own career. It is our DUTY to give them our best efforts at trying to explain to them why they are spending their hard earned money.
For example: Say a car comes into your shop on Monday and long story short, you have to flush the brake system due to water contamination. Fine. The customer pays, and leaves happy.
9 months later, the same car comes back with that all-too-familiar brake squeak. Now the customer is pissed because they just bought a fluid flush that they barely understood at the time, and they want to know why they need pads now. So you explain it to them. They don’t understand. You try a different approach. Nothing. What you have to realize is that, you can explain things to the customer all day long (and choke on Flat-Rape pay while doing so), but you can’t understand it for them. If you can’t convince the customer of the benefits from this or that particular service, you should smile, get it in writing that they refuse the service, and wish them a pleasant day.
You don’t have to be an asshole because the customer is an “idiot”, or a “know it all”. Obviously, they are showing confidence and trust in you, your abilities, your shop, and our profession as a whole. I think they showed us that when they brought their malfunctioning vehicle into the shop. The least you can do is be courteous and professional during your interaction with the customer and STOP giving the rest of us a bad name.
Pricks like you REALLY chap my ass and rub me the wrong way!
Now that my angry rant is over and done with: How may I (try to) assist you today?
Warmest wishes,
Jason
Quoted From Chevypower:
It really burns my biscuit to see some jackass bad mouthing his customers. No offense sir, but that’s horse shit! Your whole mentality is going to foster the continued belief that we are ALL con artists who are trying to take advantage of a customer. I’m getting ready to graduate Tech school and start working, and it scares the hell out of me that I could end up with you for a mentor, or have you in my shop.
The fact of the matter is, when it comes to their car, most customers don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. They have more important things to learn about, such as their own career. It is our DUTY to give them our best efforts at trying to explain to them why they are spending their hard earned money.
For example: Say a car comes into your shop on Monday and long story short, you have to flush the brake system due to water contamination. Fine. The customer pays, and leaves happy.
9 months later, the same car comes back with that all-too-familiar brake squeak. Now the customer is pissed because they just bought a fluid flush that they barely understood at the time, and they want to know why they need pads now. So you explain it to them. They don’t understand. You try a different approach. Nothing. What you have to realize is that, you can explain things to the customer all day long (and choke on Flat-Rape pay while doing so), but you can’t understand it for them. If you can’t convince the customer of the benefits from this or that particular service, you should smile, get it in writing that they refuse the service, and wish them a pleasant day.
You don’t have to be an asshole because the customer is an “idiot”, or a “know it all”. Obviously, they are showing confidence and trust in you, your abilities, your shop, and our profession as a whole. I think they showed us that when they brought their malfunctioning vehicle into the shop. The least you can do is be courteous and professional during your interaction with the customer and STOP giving the rest of us a bad name.
Pricks like you REALLY chap my ass and rub me the wrong way!
Now that my angry rant is over and done with: How may I (try to) assist you today?
Warmest wishes,
Jason
You are going to struggle in a shop environment.
SPAWNEDX its obvious who is struggling here and hates their job and people who aren’t genetically perfect.
Quoted From twiggy02919:
SPAWNEDX its obvious who is struggling here and hates their job and people who aren’t genetically perfect.
I don’t know any mechanics who hate working on cars, that’s their job, educating customers on automotive repair is not their job, that’s for teachers at schools. I also don’t know any mechanic who has a problem explaining why something has to be fixed. If you aren’t genetically perfect, than you shouldn’t walk into a shop and think you know it all when you get an answer you don’t like. If you knew better than the mechanic, you wouldn’t be there to begin with.
I wonder if you tell the doctor how to do his job too, probably explains the horrible condition of most Americans health.
If you think I’m going come in your shop and kiss your ring and bow to the Almighty mechanic- not happening
Quoted From twiggy02919:
If you think I’m going come in your shop and kiss your ring and bow to the Almighty mechanic- not happening
Good.
Here’s a video I found that will shed a little insight on this subject:
Really twiggy? A baby crying? If you think that we’re just a bunch of whiners here, so be it. You’re wrong, but I’ll let you have your illusion. I am curious though, do you turn a wrench for a living? I’m not trying to call you out or anything, I’m genuinely curious. Do you spend all day bent over the fender of an ancient Mustang trying to replace a header gasket that has all the belt driven accessories attached on the header side of the engine on home-made brackets that don’t give you enough clearance to get to any of the fasteners along the underside of the header? Have you ever spent a hour trying to figure out exactly what the customer meant when they said “The car feels funky” but wouldn’t actually tell you what was wrong with it? Have you ever needed to remove the interior from the rear of a Camry Solara only to have all of the plastic trim break while you’re trying to remove it because it’s so brittle? Have you ever bent over backward to make a customer happy only to have them complain to the corporate office that you didn’t make them happy enough so that you have to refund their money out of YOUR paycheck? Not the store’s money, the money that you would use to put food on the table.
Put yourself in my shoes for a while, then come back and tell me I’m a whiner. I dare you.
We could trade jobs and then you would find out you don’t have it so bad.
Life is tough mostly because of how people treat each other. I get it. But that’s the way it is.
Not everyone is mean. There are decent people out there. Eric is one of them and I can tell that you are too otherwise it wouldn’t bother you so.
Just hang in there and good luck on your career.
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