What I hate about mechanics

[kcobra]

so last night a girl my mom works with car wont start. so she calls a tow truck to find out her battery terminals were corroded and thats why it wouldn't start. total bill for cleaning terminals 95 god f dollars. so anyone else have stories of bad experiances like this?

I'll start when i was 16 and i got my first car they(mechanics)told me i needed a new serp belt total bill was just north of a hundred bucks. for a 25 dollar belt and a 5min install

 

[mcgarvey]

Well it's precisely this kind of complaint that makes mechanics hate customers. When you take a car to the shop, everything gets billed by book time. For example, to diagnose the cause of the no-start, it's one hour of labor, whether it takes 10 mins or 10 hours. Then there's the repair and it's associated labor time. We as mechanics don't make up the labor times, and we usually get screwed by them for the most part. It's not like we make $95 an hour, its more like $15 an hour or so for most of us. The shop keeps the rest. So don't blame it on mechanics, many of us will work 50+ hours in a week just to take home 40. It's the nature of the flat rate pay system.

 

[Tony2005]

so last night a girl my mom works with car wont start. so she calls a tow truck to find out her battery terminals were corroded and thats why it wouldn't start. total bill for cleaning terminals 95 god f dollars. so anyone else have stories of bad experiances like this?

I'll start when i was 16 and i got my first car they(mechanics)told me i needed a new serp belt total bill was just north of a hundred bucks. for a 25 dollar belt and a 5min install

"..when I was 16...." How old are you now? How many years ago was that? Gas was 25 cents a gallon not too long ago. It is $3.00 a gallon now. :shrug:

How much did you expect to pay for the tow truck to come out in the cold, clean the terminals and then drive back? Gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.

It would be free if she diagnosed the problem and cleaned the terminals herself.

 

[beyondloadedSE]

I had a CEL so I went to Advance Auto to see if they would pull the code for me. They wanted to charge me $85 for it and I told them, I'll go to Auto Zone where they do it for free.

 

[rouar]

I had a CEL so I went to Advance Auto to see if they would pull the code for me. They wanted to charge me $85 for it and I told them, I'll go to Auto Zone where they do it for free.

wow! I thought AAP did it for free.

 

[Tony2005]

wow! I thought AAP did it for free.

They should. The cheap code reader they sell is only $40 nowadays.

 

[kcobra]

i am 27 now. and i did a little researching and the price of gas 31 years ago was $.60 a gal. i have no idea when it was $.25 a gal it just amazes me how some shady mechanics will prey on people. from what she told me when he showed her the terminal he made it sound like that it was obvious that was the culprit. i mean 95 to clean the terminals it does not even cost that much to have a new battery installed

 

[eepals]

When you take a car to the shop, everything gets billed by book time. For example, to diagnose the cause of the no-start, it's one hour of labor, whether it takes 10 mins or 10 hours.

You sure, that doesn't sound right.
You mean your shop would allow a custmoer to say "I want another opinion", the customer pays an hour labor and leaves. Your shop just spent for example lets say 2.5 hrs to diagnose a problem? That's no way to run a business.

 

[Tony2005]

...How much did you expect to pay for the tow truck to come out in the cold, clean the terminals and then drive back? Gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.

It would be free if she diagnosed the problem and cleaned the terminals herself.

....it just amazes me how some shady mechanics will prey on people. from what she told me when he showed her the terminal he made it sound like that it was obvious that was the culprit. i mean 95 to clean the terminals it does not even cost that much to have a new battery installed

It just amazes me that people expect the tow truck mechanic to do things for free. He does have to feed his family, a truck and house payment. :shrug:

A dirty (or loose) battery terminal clamp is a very obvious cause of no start condition. That would be the first place I'd look at if I had to deal with a no start condition. He was being honest and helpful in showing her the cause of her no start condition. That way, she could save herself $95 the next time she experiences the same no start condition.

 

[kcobra]

so tony you got me thinking i called the shop and asked them how much the cost of cleaning the terminals was 5 bucks a side. and 45 bucks for the truck to come out and she just told me they did a charging system test(supposedly) she maintains they never hooked anything up to the car not even a jump pack. so like i said shady mechanics i mean how can you do a charging system test with out hooking anything up to the battery to check voltage and what not.

 

[Tony2005]

...she just told me they did a charging system test(supposedly) she maintains they never hooked anything up to the car not even a jump pack. so like i said shady mechanics i mean how can you do a charging system test with out hooking anything up to the battery to check voltage and what not.

Unless she knew exactly what was happening, I doubt she saw everything the mechanic did. I have a quick tester that I plug into the cigar lighter which tells me whether I have a bad battery or a bad alternator. Not very accurate but it would be good enough to tell me if I have to open the hood to test the battery and charging system at the battery terminals.

I'm a Professional Engineer. In Arlington, VA, all homeowners who have a stormwater inlet in their yards have to get an annual certification that it works and it is free of debris and what nots. I get a call every now and then from someone wanting that to be done. I tell them to get a Master Plumber to do it as they probably charge about $200 to do that. I charge $500 a pop just because that is the minimum the consulting business charges for something like that. I paid a lot of money to get an engineering education and my company pays a lot to maintain an office, liability insurance, licenses, etc.

And the tow truck operator pays a lot for insurance, gas, licenses, etc.

 

[Big Jim]

so tony you got me thinking i called the shop and asked them how much the cost of cleaning the terminals was 5 bucks a side. and 45 bucks for the truck to come out and she just told me they did a charging system test(supposedly) she maintains they never hooked anything up to the car not even a jump pack. so like i said shady mechanics i mean how can you do a charging system test with out hooking anything up to the battery to check voltage and what not.

If you think you can make a living with thinner margins and charge less to you customers, open your own shop. See how long you can keep the wolves away from your door.

You just can't expect a service call for anything to be less than $100.00. If you do, the sky must be something other than blue in your world.

 

[Y2KSVT]

If you think you can make a living with thinner margins and charge less to you customers, open your own shop. See how long you can keep the wolves away from your door.

You just can't expect a service call for anything to be less than $100.00. If you do, the sky must be something other than blue in your world.

LOL, no joke! The OP should have went out in the 5 degree weather and cleaned the poor girl's battery terminals for $10.00. Then he wouldn't have to complain to a bunch of people that more than likely do their own repairs. :laugh:

Mark

 

[95pgt-t]

anybody's who's never worked in a garage really has no room to talk. as a former asst mgr/service writer of a garage the number of times the mechanic gets screwed over is just amazing. for example,the altenator for a v6 contour/mystique is rated at 4.5 hours in the basically nationally used manual. it took the garage that did mine 7 hours. they wont get paid for that extra 2.5 hours they just lost. sometimes it works for the customer sometimes it doesnt.
as was stated these people have bills and family's too. if you only knew the amount of money a good mechanic will have tied up in tools. a pretty good mac or snap on scanner is going to run upwards of 5-6k+ i've seen them in catalogs for over 10k before.:crazy:

 

[TheMexicanJob]

although not a mechanic, i worked at a dealership as a porter, and the rates vs. labor were 9 out of 10 times screwing the customer to the wall.

Example: the labor to change a taillight on a grand prix said 1.5 hours, deffinatly like 15 minutes, but the dealer, of course, charges the 1.5 hours.

or ball joints and tie rod ends, two things that most garage will say are bad when they are not. Case in point... My friends dad replaced the ball joints on his truck, went to a shop to get an alignment, the shop said they couldn't align it unless they replaced the ball joints because his were bad. yea, they were shot after driving on them for like 10 miles.

this is why i only go to select shops to get work done, all family owned or operated.

 

[DopePope]

im not sure about mechanics in general, but dealerships do tend to screw you. I have several friends who work in different parts of dealerships (mechanic, service writer, etc) who have all told me about how much the dealership screws the customers AND the mechanics... they both lose (i guess). Anyways thats not first hand experience so take it for what its worth. I always take my cars or family cars to a trusted friend/mechanic.

 

[mattsBLK99cSVT]

yea at our dealership we charge how many hours it will take to do the job, if the mechanic finishes a 2 hour job in a half hour he gets paid for those 2 hours and he'll now be starting on something else getting paid, while still getting paid for the other job that he just completed, some times it takes longer to do the job so you can also lose out on money

 

[JesusFreak]

here is the way I see it. I havev a very good friend who is an awesome mechanic. He specialized in Cadillac. Cadillac's are known for certain issues that he dealt with alot while at the Cadillac dealership. The book would tell him that it was worth 7.5 hours, something he had to pull the dash to fix, I can ask him again to be sure... the point is that he got the system down pat, and could complete the job in 3.5 hours!

No just because it takes him 3.5 hours to do it, why should he be punished for being an excellent mechanic and being able to get the job done quicker. You are more then welcome to find a mechanic who takes longer to do it, and charge you the same thing, thats the customers perogative.

Anyone in any service and sales industry can tell you that jsut because customers feel its unfair, doesnt make it unfair. I have customers asking me for discounts and free stuff all the time where I work, and I politely reply, why should I pay for your stuff. I have a family, mortgage yada yada yada!

I think the mechanic in this incident, being it was a service call, should have just charged her a flat service call rate of 95 bucks, and not tried to hide that cost in other things, jsut tell her, you needed me, I came, its 95 bucks, otherwise, wait in the cold car that wont start for another tech!

One last note, dealerships and mechanics can only screw you if you allow yourself to be screwed. If your car is broken, and you can't fix it yourself, pay the mechanic to diagnose, and if you don't like his diagnosis, take it somewhere else. You have a broken car, they can fix it, and it costs money, simple as that!

 

[ronssvt]

"One last note, dealerships and mechanics can only screw you if you allow yourself to be screwed. If your car is broken, and you can't fix it yourself, pay the mechanic to diagnose, and if you don't like his diagnosis, take it somewhere else. You have a broken car, they can fix it, and it costs money, simple as that!"

Very good point! Its kinda like when you sell a car, its only worth what someone else will pay for it.

My opinion varies between different shops and different dealers, some good experiences and some just plain rubbish. Let me give you guys an example of both.

One of my best shops that I used to go to was one owned and operated but one mechanic. Of course now he is out of business probably because he didn't charge enough which screwed him owner.

However, the worst experiences I have had was with belle tire. I brought my car in there to get 4 new tires and an allingment. As if that wasn't enough for those greedy assholes, they call me up in the middle of the job and tell me my innner tie rods are loose so to replace 2 of them with labor was an extra 260 bucks on top of the 500 dollar bill we had for said tires and allingment. So, knowing that other shops have done this bull on me before I decide to take it to a trusted well known allingment shop, and what do you know, they didn't say anything about the tie rods and did the allingment just fine!

 

[wa2tuff]

I found one mechanic at the (SVT authorized) Ford dealership I go to who I trust. No one else is allowed to touch my car and no one else does. They respect me and I respect them. It's not that he's the only one there that is capable, but he's the one I have experience with. I've actually been going to this dealership (since 1986) long before I bought my first Contour and have always found them to be straight up. The mechanic is just as picky as I am and really knows his stuff. He has found and corrected mistakes created by the original Ford dealership I bought the car from. They've also actually done work for me at reduced or no charge. I bought a Cavalier for one of my daughters from another (found out later) shady dealer that my dealership later bought and they fixed over $500 worth of my complaints for zero dollars from me. When I find someone worthwhile, I stick with them. That's why I also have a body shop that will paint my Mirko for $40 or my grille ring and eyebrows for $40. Ask around, talk to people you trust, be nosy. Either that, get screwed, or find a new mechanic. Remember the definition of insanity (or stupidity) is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.
It seems like one of these threads pops up from time to time. We all know some dealers are great and others are not. It's up to the buyer to beware (as long as that's possible) and choose accordingly.