I have 4.hours clocked for reading this thread LOL

I would be happy they refunded some of your money and be done with that dealer a few hundered for a dealer to do anything is quite normal but I do think that was a bit high

 

Does sound like you were overcharged. On the other hand, if all these problems were that easy to solve why is ANY ONE going to a dealer? The easiest problems to solve are the ones that have already been solved.Everything looks smaller in the rear view mirror. My 2 cents.

 

Dealer and shop labor for diagnostics should be free and when stumped they should just read the internet for the answer.

 

I respectfully do not agree. The Internet provides lots of imformation. The problem is that a great deal of that information is B.S. There is no liability for bad advice on the Net. Unless the source is known to you or can be verified ,caution in the best approach. The Dealer does have accountability for what they say or do. He has a permanent location with fixed expences. The Internet Expert has no down side to B.S. advice. No disrespect intended to anyone but wouldn't it be more productive to see the Service Manager to see if a refund is fair?

 

I think he was jokeing

And I completey agree with your statment

 

**** man! I wish my company charged/paid a flat rate for my work. It kinda sucks... I do my work faster than anyone else, but as soon as my boss sees that I'm done, I get to go home w/o pay or have extra work piled up on me. And everyone else who sucks at working or likes to play grab *** gets paid an hour or more for something that should only take 10 minutes.

 

I think you are right. I've owned an Investment Co. for 30 yr's. You should see some of the stuff people want to invest in because they saw it on the Internet. (sorry about the hijack)

 

I agree, if you work faster, more effectively, do better work, you should make more money. But, you make more money by getting more customers, because you charge less than the next guy for a given job. And you get more jobs done per day, because you work faster.

If ya'll get paid the same, for a given job, guess what happens? Nobody works harder, because it doesn't matter if you do the job fast or slow. Nobody innovates. You just collaborate with other shops to set price controls. Everyone does a crap job, because you don't have to do better. Now you have communism.

 

Time to start your own auto service. Get some buddies, hand out personal cards to the customers. Start doing work on the side, build a reputation. then take the Dealer's lunch and EAT IT!

 

Well, they quoted me "about 300", and then the real bill was 480. That's a big difference. I ended up paying about 300.

 

Oh, $24/hr is a pretty darn good income for messing with cars all day. That's what I started at with a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering, and the #1 aerospace company in the world. After 10 years, I'm now at $50, but many days I'd gladly take the pay cut to have a job fixing cars. Sounds like fun to me.

 

I dont honestly expect any mechanic to see the consumer side of this argument.

I have friends that are mechs and I've been paid peice rate many times in the past as well. To say you deserve the money is ridiculous. We all think we deserve top dollar for our experience.

The fact of the matter is that your experience is what keeps you employed and customers coming to you. Raping someone for it is unjust no matter how you slice it. And shop rates are collaberated. Look around they are all within $15 of each other and none are under $79/hr TO have an hourly shop rate is a lie when your charging flat rate to the customers. Dealers and their mechanics are as bad a drain on humanity as lawyers are. Honesty is not the first thing that comes to your minds when you talk to a customer and you know it. Your thinking how can I make enough of this job to buy a new boat.
I know. I worked at a dealer before as a service advisor. I know the whole routine. I got a bonus each month on hrs sold. Dealers are a RIP OFF!!

 

Yesterday I sent a customer to a Costco to buy their tires because I felt 263 bucks for a Michelin tire was a ripoff. They had them installed for 170 a tire. Yeah the service Manager wasnt pleased with me. However, the guy is coming back to me because I was honest. We did his 45k service and took the time to research a better price for him too on those tires when I didnt have to.

I am so sure every business and company is 100% honest, so I guess I can't rip onto anyone on here for their job and honesty. I wonder how many people are Govt workers and talk about dealers being dishonest

 

Yes Brian I think u paid little too much for that repair. Whats with all the blame on the Tech? We dont make the price thats up to the Service writer. We dia the problem 1 hour if we find the problem we tell our writer who ever wrote the ticket and they make up the est. Some writer grid the repair to bring up there hours per RO. The reason people bring there cars to dealer because where not backyard mech and we know what where doing. I didnt go to school and get all my ASE's to make 8 an hour. If people feel that dealers are ripoffs dont take it to us and fix it yourself.

 

Your sir are a stand up kind of guy. I guess I shouldnt convict EVERYONE at a dealer. Its unfair to people like yourself who put the customer first.

There are good guy mechanics and managers at dealerships. Its just finding those few and far between "good and honest guys" thats so difficult.

I've worked cutomer service for a number of years in a few different industries. I've been at the very bottom where you try and do the least for the most ( car dealership) and at the top ( Computer Server Support) where the service contract requires you to do the very most to resolve a situation no matter the cost. 4hr resolve in most cases with fines accrued after 1hr of downtime.

 

Your full of ****. The service writers bill for what the mechanic tells him. The service writer in no way tells the mechanic I'm only paying you x amount now go do the job.

You went to school to learn how to do your job so you could have a job. It has nothing to do with your rate of pay. Most people coming out of school have exactly 0 experience and arent worth crap until they learn how the real world works. You didnt start off at the same rate as someone who had been in that shop for 5 years. Your full of ****.

 

If you all notice: I never once complain about the shop rate, just the way the customer is billed.

The argument for school and experience is moot in my view. Your rate of pay is covered in the $89/hr the dealer charges. Going to school or having experience doesnt give you the right to lie and overcharge. It gives you the right to set your hourly rate at $95/hr. (what I pay).

 

Now I cant say for every dealership because I am speaking just from mine.

Some places probably do that and who is to say the writer didnt add some time here and there? I have seen it done. It's not that hard to do and afterall the tech isnt communicating to the customer we Writers are. I look up what the Labor calls for and if the book is wrong or somethings not right, I consult with my Tech. If I think it's BS and he is taking them to the cleaners we have a talk. We charge 1 hour for all scantool time. However if it is a loose gas cap then I wont charge for the full diag. I also have a way to compensate a tech for diag where it wont charge the customer(mainly the Hybrids).

I left my last job(smaller repair shop) because they were ripping the customer off, doing anything to get the customer if it means fvcking over a tech, and my Service Manager was an idiot and made promises he couldnt keep and I was the one the customer yelled at(as he was gone for the day) and I had to unfuck the problem.

Being trained, having experience, educated and certified sure does dictate your pay. Otherwise, Master and Expert Techs would be making 8 bucks an hour right along with the Lube Techs. When you come out of school, they are NOT certified and that is why they arent paid alot. Yeah, they might have a few ASE's but that sometimes means nothing to us. We rather you be certified on what we work on. Guess what Techs get more certs in? It's not ASE's. More time and money is invested in our Techs to be Toyota trained and Toyota certified, more so than general automotive knowledge. Once you start getting Factory Certs and experience, then your pay goes up. I can't say for Ford or GM, but thats how Toyota works. Experience goes a long way, but having the papers that state otherwise gives the $.

All in all experience does help a bit, but in a dealership working on that brand and having the certs to prove it goes a long way. However our techs do make decent money but the customer isnt paying out the *** either. Alignments are 69 bucks but the tech gets paid 2 hours for that, which would be 161 bucks if it was flat rate.

 

Thats a great price for alignment!! Sounds you have a decent Dealer there and you care about your job and people. If there were more like that dealers wouldnt have such a bad rap. Congrats!

 

haha funny you should mention that about dealers, i took my car to Tom Oates chevy back in the day cause they have a well known race mechanic there and i wasnt yet familiar with any speed shops in the area. I wanted him to install a guage pod and 2 guages he tried to charge me i think it was $1100 or maybe it was $800 i know it was something insane lol. i just laughed for hours before i called the manager then i laughed at manager for awhile and he lowered the price...a lot lol