The joys of working at the dealer

[Steven Rorrer]

So I’ve been an “apprentice” for a few months now. Prior experience at 2 chain shops. Approx 1 year professional experience. Few years wrenching on my own stuff.

It’s gotten to the point where it seems like they’re calling all the hourly guys apprentices but are just treating us all as cheap labor to crank out all the free Lof’s and sh*t work that nobody wants to do. I thought the purpose of an apprenticeship was to take on work that the tech you work under has and gives you…..Nope. Any time an apprentice has a lift tied up doing a more labor intensive job they’ll punish the mentor by making them stop their big job to take care of the waiter. Gotta bend over backwards to please the waiters who for the most part are the biggest a$$holes. They’re getting stuff done for free but no that’s a huge inconvenience. And God forbid I get a decent job. Get the car in, get it up on the lift….”hey i need you to take this back outside I got a waiter for you they need this car done ASAP! They’ve got an appointment in 20 minutes GET IT DONE” and then I get yelled at for taking to long on the first car even though they made me stop working on it to take care of the waiter..

Any job I’ve ever been given(suspension, drivability, some minor engine work) I’ve done well and proven that I am just wasting by doing oil changes only. I’m at a point where I pretty much try to avoid going to the dispatcher for work because I know what I’m going to get…or not get. There’s been plenty of times where all the flat rate guys are busy and there’s cars needed to be worked on. But we can’t have them they’re being saved. But then they bitch and get all pissed off seeing us stand around. Even though there’s literally nothing else to do.

From my experience it seems like working for a dealership is as low as you can go in this field. Unless you kiss ass and are the service managers favorite. Those guys have it made. They can have all the comebacks they want and be sub par to some of the other master techs I see that get treated like sh*t.

Sorry for the rant. It’s just super frustrating and painful just forcing myself to go to work everyday at this point. Is there anything to do besides rolling the toolbox out the door? I don’t see any way to fix it if they’re playing games with mine and other tech’s mentors to make damn sure that were doing nothing but low mileage Oil changes for customers giving the death stare through the waiting room window

Topic

[Joshua Eason]

Ah, looks like you have learned the first lesson young one… This job can suck bad sometimes. Life at the dealership for a straight timer when working around a bunch of flat rate techs can be really shitty. I’m sure someone has told you that you have to pay your dues, and you probably think that it’s bullshit. Fact is, it is 100000% true. The first thing you need to do is prove yourself. Snapping off a couple of tune-ups and all is nice, but you have a long hard road ahead. Fact is, for most guys, it is about 3-5 years before they can really perform. And even more before you can be considered a top tech. You should be thankful that you have the opportunity to learn and get paid at the same time. I know it sucks, but life is a bitch. Once you’re on the other side of this experience, you will look back on how it molded you into the tech that you will (hopefully) become. Walking away is not the answer. Stick with it and remember that the dealership cares about the P&L statement and nothing else. Your job is to make the number in the profit column bigger. Nobody owes you a thing.

There’s the tough love portion of the talk. Now, here is the other side. I know it sucks. We all know it sucks. Your service manager knows it sucks. Put your head down and work your ass off, and don’t complain and hopefully you will get noticed. This is a tough world to be in. Not only do you have to fight the constant barrage of needy customers, and overbearing managers, and unhelpful coworkers, but you have to try and learn something. I promise it gets better. Just keep moving forward and get smarter. Get faster. Go home at night and have a cold beer and get up and do it all over again.

Good luck out there man, I hope you take the advice and run with it.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[Bluesnut]

One thing you can count on is that lies and BS will never stop nor will idiotic company policies at car dealers. Take everything you’re told with a grain of salt.
Been there, done that; and then some. :whistle:

[Steven Rorrer]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I didn’t mean to sound like I feel owed something or that I shouldn’t have to pay my dues. I don’t mind the oil changes and tires just so long as it’s not all I do 24/7. I guess a big part of it is at my last job they started throwing new stuff at me and we’re trying to help me advance/learn as much as possible after 2 months. It’s been much longer than that at the dealer and its just not happening I feel stuck in a rut. I finished all the training videos I had available and don’t think I’ll be getting anymore anytime soon.

Guess I was just wondering if I’m wasting my time if there are other places where they might be more likely to recognize potential and throw me a bone once in a while.

[Bluesnut]

I realize that i come across as a bit negative but that’s simply because of the prior track record with dealerships. I’ve worked for 5 over the years and none of them are around anymore. I’ve been promised the moon if I jumped through certain hoops so i was happy to jump due to the financial incentive.
In every single case I was flat out lied to.

At one dealer I had worked my way up to about 33% commission after a couple of years. The dealer told me he’d give me 50% if I became a make specific Master Tech which the car manufacturer insisted upon. After 2 years I had gone to all the required schools and passed my final tests. I then reminded them of the 50% promise and per the usual they reneged on it. This led to my going job hunting.

At another dealer the work situation there was fantastic. I was flagging 65-70 hours in a 40 hour week; every week. I was also not having to kill myself to do it. They decided to make changes and came up with a “team pay plan”. What they decided to do was pool every mechanics hours for the month and divide by the number of mechanics. See the problem with this? This meant the guy who was on time and working hard had to give up part of his check to another guy who was lazy and calling in sick all the time. One guy flags 60 hours, another guy flags 30, so they both get 45.
This of course led to WWIII in the shop and some physical violence when it was learned they put the shop porter on the pay plan and he was contributing zero hours to the pool. In essence, the mechanics were paying the salary of the company man.

The main thing is watch your back, avoid shop politics if at all possible, and adopt a “show me” attitude. Best of luck! 🙂

[Mike]

In order to figure out if you should stick it out where you are, you need to look at a couple of things. Do they need to have a hourly guy like you on hand because it’s too expensive to pay their flat-rate guys to do the work with a terrible ELR (Effective Labor Rate)? If you were to go flat-rate, does the shop have room for both another flat rate tech and to hire a hourly tech for the low-ELR work? If the answer to both of those questions is no, then you will need to move on to advance.

We have two hourly guys in our shop now, one of them pretty much in your position of doing only the boring work and not really being given too much of a chance to prove himself yet. The other guy has been there a year, will go flat rate at some point soon and will be a successful tech. The former guy I feel bad for because if he was to ask himself the two questions I posed to you, he would have to answer no to both. He doesn’t strike me as a guy who will ultimately be successful, but I still feel bad that there is no room anytime soon for him to be anything more than a oil changer, even if he showed the aptitude to grow.

[zero]

That’s exactly why I will never work at a dealer again and am seriously reconsidering my future in the trade.

They either want full line techs that they don’t have to do shit about, or monkeys that work for cheap that they will never promote or improve.

[Jason White]

In this business there is a huge gap between General Service or (Lube/Express) and Technician. You’re either an A Tech or an oil changer basically. There used to be A Techs, B Techs, C Techs, but management doesn’t know how to handle it so it’s either oil changer or master tech because otherwise what ends up happening is the B and C techs eat up all the gravy and leave the headaches to the A Techs but they don’t compensate the A Techs.

I’ll say this about a dealership though. They usually have the equipment, and provide specialty tools. They have the best resources, and access to training. You’re working on mostly one make of vehicle. Also you have lots of people there with lots of experience that can guide you.

What I think you need to do is go into your boss’s office and tell him you want to be thrown into the fire and be a flat rate tech. Just be careful what you wish for.

[Author]

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