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Thanks for the information, personally, I would rather the technician tell me of potential problems sooner rather than later as it will save me money in the long run, if it means that the technician gets an up sell, then win win. The only consideration is that there are people who could take you for a ride but that can happen with anything. As you stated, you can goggle anything these days and find out!! 🙂
Thanks again banana:
Recommendations Eric, not up-sells. Unwarranted fluid flushes at Jiffy Lube is what people think about when they hear up-sells.
It would be nice if more mechanics where honest and did this. I went in for a timing belt service on my honda civic at 90k miles at the dealer. They changed the belt only and did not recommend anything else. Well at 145k miles, the water pump failed, and I had to have this replaced, but this time they recommended timing belt replacement. I was charged all over again for a service that could have been prevented. Then I had a rear main oil seal repaired on my civic, but they did not replace the transmission gasket. Needless to say, the transmission started leaking. I took at back in and they replaced the transmission gasket. I was thankful they did it for free. I took my chevy s10 to have the intake manifold gaskets replaced. I wanted to have them replace the valve cover gaskets since they were leaking a little bit and would be dis-assembling everything anyway. I figured it wouldn’t be too much extra to have these replaced, but they insisted it would be over $100 extra to have this done. It wasn’t worth it to me so I didn’t have it done.
Ya, I agree with SpawnedX, Maybe a title something like; I found this while serving your car….but the title caught my eye and made me watch the video…. which was very good.
[quote=”mckrishes” post=104427]It would be nice if more mechanics where honest and did this. I went in for a timing belt service on my honda civic at 90k miles at the dealer. They changed the belt only and did not recommend anything else. Well at 145k miles, the water pump failed, and I had to have this replaced, but this time they recommended timing belt replacement. I was charged all over again for a service that could have been prevented. Then I had a rear main oil seal repaired on my civic, but they did not replace the transmission gasket. Needless to say, the transmission started leaking. I took at back in and they replaced the transmission gasket. I was thankful they did it for free. I took my chevy s10 to have the intake manifold gaskets replaced. I wanted to have them replace the valve cover gaskets since they were leaking a little bit and would be dis-assembling everything anyway. I figured it wouldn’t be too much extra to have these replaced, but they insisted it would be over $100 extra to have this done. It wasn’t worth it to me so I didn’t have it done.[/quote]
100 extra for rocker cover gaskets when they are already taking the lower intake manifold off the engine, god you must be joking i can replace those things on they fly on my car with the LIM already off and the gaskets are what 12 bucks and the engine in my cars transverse mounted!
i have had good experiences with up sells though i really didn’t work professionally as a mechanic too fix other peoples cars when we did my school at MCTI it was much like a shop and one of the things i would do when i had the vehicle on the lift for a tire rotation and balance which took but a couple of seconds anyhow i would have a look at the brakes and a quick look at the wheel bearings and sometimes i would find that a car had need of pad replacement or wheel bearings.
i would personally myself prefer if my shop was working on my car if they would tell me if they see something wrong, if they find it, i truly believe if they want too fix it they have the right too… i like too give my mechanics business when i can though i enjoy working on my car myself, i just don’t see it as fair too a GOOD TECHNICIAN when he or she is honest with me and up front and finds a issue too say “no i will fix it myself.” no for being kind and polite too me and notifying me of a issue you have found you get my business and that is how it works, that is if you have earned my trust, but if you haven’t i will say no thanks ill take care of it later!
I don’t really get bothered by the ones who say they will fix it themselves. It’s the ones who accuse me of lying either directly or indirectly with comments like “it’s fine.” It’s not fine, if it was fine, we would t be discussing it.
Many people seem to have taken exception to the title of this video over the message within it. I’ll admit that I was trying to appeal to a ‘wide’ audience with the title on this one. I was also paying tribute to one of my favorite movies. Perhaps on some level it was a poor choice of words but the fact that many pointed out that oversight says to me that my viewers are sharp, clear minded individuals that know their opinions well. I respect that.
BTW anyone that hasn’t seen Glen Gary Glen Ross should in my opinion. It really is a fantastic movie.
gotta make money as a tech somehow, if upsell is one of the ways to do it, as long as you do it right i see no issue with it.
If I go to a shop and request a service, I don’t mind if the technician offers me additional services. But if I go in to have my intake manifold gaskets replaced and you suggest that it would be a good idea to have the valve cover gaskets replaced (since it would be easy to get to and everything was broken down anyway) at least give me some kind of discount on the service. They were gonna charge me full price on the valve cover job like it was the only job they were doing. Quick and easy job for the technician while charging me full price. I could understand if it was the only job they were doing, but it wasn’t.
This is a quite timely topic for me.
I don’t mind if the tech suggests something because it’s obvious they looked at it and found an issue or potential issue.
The one I don’t like is the service adviser just looking at your mileage and putting out the scare tactics on your vehicle exploding if you don’t do these services now.
Case in point. I took the spouse’s VW in to the dealer yesterday to get a sensor replaced (the infamous P2431 code for the secondary air injection system pressure sensor for you VW 2.5L owners). VW had extended the warranty on this sensor and had an upgrade kit covered under the same warranty extension. Otherwise, it was a 10 minute job to do it myself. When I dropped it off, the service adviser had a list of about 10 things that absolutely needed to be done. I told him I had done all of those within the last 5000 miles, he was insistent that only dealer service could accurately service my car (really, only a dealer can change my plugs?). I think this guy was a new adviser and was working to get services scheduled, but still. Unfortunately, I’ve run into this at other dealers (Nissan most recently when my truck was in for a recall).
So I don’t mind the additional services suggestion, but just look at it or ask me if I’ve done it already before suggesting them.
I have learned from this video how to approach the up-sell for my job (Lube Tech) even before I have officially started. And because of the responses posted here, I have a heads up with regard to how a customer might respond to my recommendations, etc. Seeing both sides (tech and customer) should be a good thing?
Thank you 🙂
What Eric is talking about on this video is not “Up-selling”.
It is merely advising a customer to have something done that needs to be done now or very soon or advising a customer that he can save labor costs by replacing an item that will need renewing at a later date in any event while it is accessible for another or related essential repair.
Up-selling is offering a service or product that is unnecessary but may be nice to have.
For example:
Up-selling on car servicing:
Whilst a car is in for an oil change, trying to sell a brake fluid change as well when one was carried out only 12 months ago on the vehicle. Nice to have but not necessary for another year or 18 months.Up-selling on car buying:
Trying to sell a buyer a more expensive model than he came in to buy or trying to sell ancillary products with the car such as window tinting, fabric protection, paint protection etc.
I know of some auto repair service businesses in one particular repair specialty that try up-selling on nice to haves on nearly every customer that drives in the door. Some people are alive to it because word gets around but others no doubt get caught out.
I will admit that the title of this video might leave a negative impression. Not exactly my intent. As some have pointed out, it was more of an attempt to put words to what I would consider good customer service. Behind the counter it’s often referred to as ‘up sell’, on the other side of the counter I think it would be considered ‘recommended services’.
Thanks to everyone for their input.
Yes, everyone should see Glengarry Glen Ross, it’s a great movie. Probably not underrated anymore because of the Internet, but in that sweet spot of the late 90s, pre-Internet, it was HIGHLY underrated.
I wonder if this is a regional thing (within the US?).
When I hear the term ‘up-sell’, my brain immediately attaches a negative connotation, but I am not sure why. I think of the dealerships selling mileage interval service packages that go far above and beyond what the SAME manufacturers recommend out of the factory.
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