Dealership Service Center Irresponsive, Recourse?

[K4fxd]

The split was 50/50 $$ dealer & mech,

I worked several jobs that way, really sucked for the wrench because the shop not only got 50% of the labor charge they got a cut of the parts that we worker bee's never saw.

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[SnowFox]

Had same wait for small part.got part numbers found it on line gave it to them issue resolved

That is 100% what I did too! Found same part, had it withen three days. Brought it in, they were shocked, Wondered how I did it. "I ordered it...and that's it" even I was wrong, big deal it was $5 I figured

 

[ORRadtech]

That is 100% what I did too! Found same part, had it withen three days. Brought it in, they were shocked, Wondered how I did it. "I ordered it...and that's it" even I was wrong, big deal it was $5 I figured

I actually had a dealer tell me my headgasket job was waiting on a $30 part that was on backorder. They then told me that another dealer about 20 miles away had the part but my dealer couldn't get it transferred to them. They gave some bs excuse that the other dealer didn't want to give it to them because they "might" need it. After some serious bitching I said I'd just go buy the damn thing. Oddly enough they called me back an hour later and said I could pick up the car the next day...

 

[Buldawg76]

Buldawg76

You're sad why said, I worked heavy line GM dealership, for a short stint fresh out of the Navy.

This will really make you cry. The split was 50/50 $$ dealer & mech, hustle & make a boatload of cash.

Today folks have their heads buried in a cell phone, waiting for the frigging batteries to recharge for the tools

First come first served is an industry-standard & as it should be.

In the independent shop I started at they paid 50/50 on labor to start and then 60 (my pay) /40(shops pay) after you proved yourself, so agree hustle and make money. That was when labor rate was at 28 bucks an hour.

In the three dealers I worked at and any dealer I have ever talked with techs from at least here in the southeast they pay flat rate not 50/50 split. So, there is no way you can ever beat warranty time at flat rate pay. If you are not aware of, what flat rate is you get paid per job at flat rate of time regardless of if you finish the job faster or slower than flat rate time. Example, job pays 2 hours at $15.00 an hour = $30.00 whether you finish in 1 hour or 3 hours. Warranty time is always about 1/3 of customer pay time so you can never beat warranty time. We used to make our living on service work that was customer pay not warranty work but as time progressed service work was phased out with longer and longer service intervals until it was all but eliminated with 100,000 miles intervals. And warranty time got less and less, example short block replacement pays 12 hours, but to do the job properly so you don't have comeback for leaks or incorrect work it takes up to 30 hours time to complete but you still only get 12 hours pay so you just gave 18 hours of your time away for free to the manufacture that could not give a crap about you. If car comes back for same issue you are now working on it for free until you fix it. Wonder why no one wants to fix cars in today's world, all this was also from the late 90s early 2000s time frame and its far worse today.

I remember working on waiters' every day for the first 3-4 hours regardless of what the complaint was in the vehicle so yes first come first serve was the industry standard but not anymore. I cannot even get a service appointment to wait for a .3 tenths of an hour recall anywhere in my local ford dealer area, they want you to leave the car for a day or more. Right now, for a check engine light or any routine appointment is at minimum a 4-6 week wait just to get car into dealer.

So yes, it's very sad for customers that are not able to do their own work for whatever reasons.

Never had cell phones when I worked on cars and only air tools not battery powered tools.

BD

 

[Mike Pfeifer]

Man, I’d kill for 50/50 labor! That would be an incredible raise!

 

[robvas]

1. get job at dealer
2. fix own car
3. get paid for it
4. quit

 

[Mike Pfeifer]

1. get job at dealer
2. fix own car
3. get paid for it
4. quit

Haha that would be nice, and I did do that at my last dealer. The one I’m at now is all about things being on the up and up so not allowed to work on your own car under warranty due to conflict of interest. Which is probably how it should be.

 

[GilmourD]

I don't understand the not charging a customer for something an inexpensive tool was used on. As long as the tool does the job properly what difference does it make to the customer? And if by using the less expensive tool you can charge less for an instrument or service the customer is likely to appreciate that.
It brings to mind the old saying "a poor workman blames the tool". It's not the tool someone cares about, it's the craftsman. Do you really care about the tools used to make a Les Paul or Martin or the fact that were finely crafted? Do you think the owners of a Stratavarious (sp?) care about the tools he used?

It's moreso that if I'm going to be prepared to offer my services I don't want to have to buy a new tool every few customers. Or if the tool isn't ideal and inefficient. Ya know?

I know it's not car stuff, but I'm the enthusiast that knows enough to get in trouble while my brother and father are the certified mechanics, but I know guitars like the back of my hand, so that informs my example here. I wouldn't have offered services to cut the slots in nuts (the part by the tuning keys that guides the strings) because the files that I had to do that were the old version of these, which didn't even have markings showing how wide each cutting surface was. There perfectly fine for me finagling a good setup on one of my own guitars, but the widths aren't ideal for all gauges (thicknesses) of strings or just straight-up too wide if a light gauge of strings is used. I could make it work, but that adds time going back and forth, making a slot wider with a narrower file, etc., whereas getting a proper set of nut files (I recently got the full set of these) allows me to zip through in less than 10 minutes what would've taken 30-45 minutes with the old files.

So, I'm sure you could imagine that I wouldn't be like "HEY! I'll put a new nut on your guitar!" and then grumble for 45 minutes trying to get it right when the right tool, which will also last through more jobs than I'll ever have, will allow me to zip through it.

 

[GilmourD]

It's funny seeing the people posting on Facebook "who do brakes" and the people who jump to do a pad swap for $30

They're the same kind of people that roll up to you in a gas station saying "Hey! You got 20 minutes? I can fix that dent in your bumper real quick for $100!" but they're in a minivan that looks like it's been through war and sounds like a broken lawnmower... Why haven't they fixed their own as an example of their work?

 

[GilmourD]

Haha that would be nice, and I did do that at my last dealer. The one I’m at now is all about things being on the up and up so not allowed to work on your own car under warranty due to conflict of interest. Which is probably how it should be.

After 20+ years in retail and retail adjacent you learn that the vast majority of "shrink" (theft, damage, and "lost" product) is "internal" (aka, employees). That's why I find it hilarious that Target and Walmart lock up stuff. Sure, a statistically significant amount of shrink is customers, but guaranteed things will start disappearing again once somebody gets daring.

My point there is that you're right that people shouldn't be working on their own cars because at some point parts will disappear from stock and end up in their cars. It may not even be malicious, really, but rather "Oh, shiz... I need this part. I'll pay for it later." and then they never do.

 

[Millarduck]

Can't they swap out the transmission. "Exchange the core" so to speak. Honda had some auto transmission issues in the early '00's with 2nd gear. They just swapped out transmissions with "new" rebuilt. Our '02 Odyssey was fine, but threw a code and transmission was replaced same day. Had a 5-speed 2012 Jeep, same thing- swapped transmission in a day. My Jeep had 2 rebuilds and failures within 2 months before they gave up and replaced it. Rebuilds took 3-4 days. I assume Ford is having the dealer do a rebuild of the transmission.

 

[Buldawg76]

Haha that would be nice, and I did do that at my last dealer. The one I’m at now is all about things being on the up and up so not allowed to work on your own car under warranty due to conflict of interest. Which is probably how it should be.

Every dealer I worked at I was able to fix my own cars on my time or weekends. I had one car that was still in the 3/36 warranty period and did my own work on it with no issue from the dealer or manufacture but that was in the mid 90s also. It was part of the sale agreement between me and the dealer principal since I would absolutely not allow any other tech to touch my cars period.

I had one dealer that right up front told me I could not work on personal vehicles in their shop for any reason, needless to say the interview end right then. I have been an ASE master tech since 1977 until 2015 and that is my certifications not the dealers or manufactures since I paid for every test/recert every 5 years so it was their loss not mine. I also never allowed them to display my credentials in their dealer without appropriate compensation for doing so. only one dealer agreed to compensation.

BD

 

[Mike Pfeifer]

Every dealer I worked at I was able to fix my own cars on my time or weekends. I had one car that was still in the 3/36 warranty period and did my own work on it with no issue from the dealer or manufacture but that was in the mid 90s also. It was part of the sale agreement between me and the dealer principal since I would absolutely not allow any other tech to touch my cars period.

I had one dealer that right up front told me I could not work on personal vehicles in their shop for any reason, needless to say the interview end right then. I have been an ASE master tech since 1977 until 2015 and that is my certifications not the dealers or manufactures since I paid for every test/recert every 5 years so it was their loss not mine. I also never allowed them to display my credentials in their dealer without appropriate compensation for doing so. only one dealer agreed to compensation.

BD

Yeah, they have no problem with me working on my own cars, outside of business hours. I should have been clearer, if I owned a car that was getting warranty work, I would not be allowed to work on it for the warranty work. The idea is to prevent made up problems getting “fixed” or parts not being installed on cars. Manufacturer warranty audits can be incredibly expensive, especially if something is not “just a mistake”.

 

[Buldawg76]

Yeah, they have no problem with me working on my own cars, outside of business hours. I should have been clearer, if I owned a car that was getting warranty work, I would not be allowed to work on it for the warranty work. The idea is to prevent made up problems getting “fixed” or parts not being installed on cars. Manufacturer warranty audits can be incredibly expensive, especially if something is not “just a mistake”.

I agree that there is a lot of theft/made up issues with doing your own warranty work with some techs indeed, but as I stated I absolutely will not allow any other tech to work on my cars except for 2 that I worked side by side with for years and trusted their work. We had the same ethic of treating every car like it was our own car.

I can say that I passed up on several good deals on cars for the simple fact that I would not be allowed to work on it under warranty. Also, as I stated if that was the dealer's stance on warranty work then they did not employ me per my decision. I never had any issue with finding a dealer willing to allow me to work on my own cars under warranty. I never made up work or tried to get something for free. I was busy enough with customer work to not have time for scamming warranty work.

I always had a very strong customer base that were loyal to the point that they would ask for me only to work on their cars even if it meant they had to wait for me to become available.

Thats one reason I got out of the repair business years ago.

BD

 

[K4fxd]

I worked a stint in a parts dept. All warrantied parts were sent back to the manufacturer. Pretty hard to scam them.

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