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Take the test drive. If the pro mechanic does not then, in essence, the customer does. Sometimes the test drive needs to be done for 40 or more miles and then solicit the customer to help you with that (as long as a reoccurring issue will probably not result in stranding the customer some where). To some degree you have to know your customer as to whether the customer should be the one doing the test drive.
Behind the property at my dealership, there is a development that we are encouraged to take vehicles for test drives. It makes a lot of sense that if management wants us to prevent comebacks, then they need to encourage an activity, such as a test drive, that is going to greatly reduce the likelihood, right?
This guy, probably didn’t take the vehicle out for a test drive. This type of thing really burns my biscuits.
I found a transmission issue yesterday on one of our customers vehicles through a simple test drive.
I gotta tell you, I was extremely surprized that the tech who pulled it in to our bay didn’t notice it (and the customer didn’t report it).[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=144570]This guy, probably didn’t take the vehicle out for a test drive. This type of thing really burns my biscuits.
VERY sad, horrible thing that has happened: A life lost.
There is a lot of responsibility we accept as Automotive Technicians. If one cant hack it, maybe one should choose a different career path?I have to test drive my cars. I can’t ever get a car put back together without a fight anymore. Something is pretty much guaranteed to go wrong in a big way or a ridiculous string of little things before I close the hood. It’s been murder on my productivity, but I don’t save anything by letting a customer come back a second time for the same repair. If I can get a car done and returned to a customer in one try, I usually only look like an asshole to the boss for taking too long. (I’ve at least been lucky enough, in most cases, not to keep a customer waiting past a promise time.) Cut that corner, now I look like an asshole to the customer and I look like an asshole to the boss a second time. So really, there’s potential for me to be a four time asshole per car.
I find more and more that I have to just test drive every car I meet before the repairs too. It’s just in for a headlight you say? Only topping off the window wash? I don’t care; it’s getting a test drive. Communication is just a tragic joke with people. The customer never tells the service writer the whole story or even the right story, and then the service writer might only give me half of that because that was the best he could do with what he was told. Case in point: Customer makes a request to inspect the serpentine belt for squealing. Customer says the squealing is coming from the passenger side front of the car. That squeal never happened. Couldn’t force it to happen under any circumstance so I went for that test drive. When I return to the shop, I ask my service writer if the customer said anything about the wheel bearing with the low pitched growl on the driver’s side. He calls the customer and she says she’d like us to look at that too and that’s why she actually brought the car in the first place.
Eric; I want to change my screen name to Four_Time_Asshole. Can I do that please? Pretty please with a Fairmont parts car on top?
[quote=”brokemechanic3000″ post=144612]Sad indeed , but a lot can happen to a vehicle in two months.[/quote]
Agreed.
Assuming the Vermont DMV’s evidence against Jalbert is solid, how did they decide that the brake lines weren’t adequate the two months prior? They didn’t look either. Plenty of technicians have seen miles upon miles of rusted brake lines that customers have refused to repair and then we see those same rusted lines come back with subsequent oil changes or other repairs and those brake lines are somehow still intact a year later. They’ve also seen brake lines that didn’t look so bad and the pinhole formed in the retaining bracket or up over the gas tank where you weren’t going to see it coming. I’m not trying to pick a side, but I’d love to see those lines for myself some time reasonably close to the time the crash or the inspection happened.
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