Covid 19 not stopping mechanic arrogance.

70bigblockdodge

Old Man with a Hat
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Avonmore Pa.
Well, took the truck down to get a spring pivot pin replaced. It broke, never in ally years trucking have I ever heard of this. I thought that it had shifted over and I knocked it back in, but it is too short. So I explain all of this too service manager/supervisor. Sure bring it by we'll have a look.
Take it today and mechanic walks down pit under truck and while still looking at his phone says "hanger is junk they are a lot of hours to change, pin is too short, you have a mess here"
I told him to please get out of the pit and open door.
"Why"
Because you made my desicion to trade the truck, thanks.
Now the back pedal. Do they teach this BS in mechanic school?
Now it is heating up, "open the door please".
Manager steps in, "let us take a look at it and see if we can just get a pin in and get you going"
Sure, WTF can I do the only other shop that is decent for suspension work is over a hour away.
I told the manager, if you can put a pin in just do that, if not put it back outside and call me it's getting traded, he agreed.
Shop is dead, lot is empty, and this MF wrench turner is going lay the $5000 bill blues on me?
Now I know that the hole is not to egg shaped enough not clamp the pin from trying to knock it back in.
WTF are they teaching these kids in tech school? How to put the customer on their heels within the first 2 min, and let's set them up for the big bill in 30 seconds.
I understand it's a thanksless job, but WTF.
 
Well, took the truck down to get a spring pivot pin replaced. It broke, never in ally years trucking have I ever heard of this. I thought that it had shifted over and I knocked it back in, but it is too short. So I explain all of this too service manager/supervisor. Sure bring it by we'll have a look.
Take it today and mechanic walks down pit under truck and while still looking at his phone says "hanger is junk they are a lot of hours to change, pin is too short, you have a mess here"
I told him to please get out of the pit and open door.
"Why"
Because you made my desicion to trade the truck, thanks.
Now the back pedal. Do they teach this BS in mechanic school?
Now it is heating up, "open the door please".
Manager steps in, "let us take a look at it and see if we can just get a pin in and get you going"
Sure, WTF can I do the only other shop that is decent for suspension work is over a hour away.
I told the manager, if you can put a pin in just do that, if not put it back outside and call me it's getting traded, he agreed.
Shop is dead, lot is empty, and this MF wrench turner is going lay the $5000 bill blues on me?
Now I know that the hole is not to egg shaped enough not clamp the pin from trying to knock it back in.
WTF are they teaching these kids in tech school? How to put the customer on their heels within the first 2 min, and let's set them up for the big bill in 30 seconds.
I understand it's a thanksless job, but WTF.
So did you just get a new pin, or new truck?
 
Waiting on new pin to buy time for truck prices to fall then I think the old girl is on to other pastures.
 
There is a difference nowadays between "parts installer" and a real "mechanic"
I am a service advisor in a 16 bay shop..I had seen the difference first hand.
We have a very low turnover rate-- but in the past I had seen staff come and go
The"parts installers" do not last.
 
There is a difference nowadays between "parts installer" and a real "mechanic"
I am a service advisor in a 16 bay shop..I had seen the difference first hand.
We have a very low turnover rate-- but in the past I had seen staff come and go
The"parts installers" do not last.
It just kind of shocked me with the slow down in work to get the attitude. I miss my old shop already, but I'm glad they retired with some time to enjoy it.
 
Take it today and mechanic walks down pit under truck and while still looking at his phone says "hanger is junk they are a lot of hours to change, pin is too short, you have a mess here"
I told him to please get out of the pit and open door.
"Why"

Did you call them out for making decisions about what's needed while not even looking at the job, but at their dam phone? I would've made a big stink about that! That's why I do my own work whenever I can! Good Luck
 
Being a mechanic myself I find it very disheartening to hear stories like this. I personally would never do anything like this to people. If I felt that the job required more I would have the customer come in and explain it to them then let them make an informed decision. Part of the problem is how mechanics get paid some are on flat rate others on a bonus system where they get paid to up sell. Flat rate mechanics only get paid when they are working so when it’s slow they try to find more work. Both systems in my opinion breed contempt for the job and as a result you get crap like this happening.
I also believe good mechanics can make good money without doing this as I always did extremely well throughout career.
 
I can tell you a story.... Pull up a pew and listen to me preach for a bit....

My current work place is a flat rate structure, there are 4 of us licensed techs here... 3 of us are honest.

For whatever reason I was given the title and duties of shop Foreman, which I don't mind, as it is I do 80% of what that job entails anyway.

Part of it became the meetings with the service manager and store owner to "plan and evaluate" for better customer service and satisfaction with higher rate of retention.

So I started tracking the tech's, myself included, I was watching for flagged hours per pay cycle and cross referencing it with comebacks or flagged W/O's. I quickly noticed a pattern.

Our top tech had a nearly perfect comeback history, it worked out to less than 0.05%. Right behind him was myself with less than 1%, followed closely by our oldest tech who was around 5%, and finally our other tech who had a whopping 28% comeback rate.

So I wanted to know why. Why was it that the two highest grossing techs based on flagged hours had the lowest comeback rate.

I quickly found that technician 14 was working dishonestly, he was selling unnecessary work and the comebacks were because he had missed the issue in the first place.

I talked to the service manager and owner and we began a "charge back" policy on comebacks, if you want someone's behaviour to change, you hit them where it hurts, the pocket book. Now every comeback is charged back against the flagged hours and is paid to the tech who fixes it.

Comebacks dramatically reduced.

Where was I going with this? Not every tech is a mechanic and vise versa, not every one is honest on either side of that fence and unfortunetly, sometimes the work environment is to blame.

Like I said, I'm flat rate, currently I'm sitting at work on the tailgate of my pickup watching the clock tick, I kicked a job out this morning as a freebie because I couldn't duplicate the complaint.

Nick
 
Did you call them out for making decisions about what's needed while not even looking at the job, but at their dam phone? I would've made a big stink about that! That's why I do my own work whenever I can! Good Luck
He was standing in the pit under the truck looking at his phone. I built the truck, it uses a air charge cooler which a 85 Pete never had and added a complete electronic engine to a truck that was built before this existed, so yeah doing my own work is normal.
Being a mechanic myself I find it very disheartening to hear stories like this. I personally would never do anything like this to people. If I felt that the job required more I would have the customer come in and explain it to them then let them make an informed decision. Part of the problem is how mechanics get paid some are on flat rate others on a bonus system where they get paid to up sell. Flat rate mechanics only get paid when they are working so when it’s slow they try to find more work. Both systems in my opinion breed contempt for the job and as a result you get crap like this happening.
I also believe good mechanics can make good money without doing this as I always did extremely well throughout career.
Guy is just a dick period. Looks like it will be a 2+ hour ride for my wife next time suspension work needs done.
 
There is a difference nowadays between "parts installer" and a real "mechanic"
I am a service advisor in a 16 bay shop..I had seen the difference first hand.
We have a very low turnover rate-- but in the past I had seen staff come and go
The"parts installers" do not last.
Nowadays???? I thought this has been an issue since Henry made car number two. LoL!!!
 
I don't know how this relates to trucks, but from a few of the guys I know, they sometimes error on side of caution and replace everything rather than risk comebacks or liability. The customer pays for it, is quite used to it, doesn't care... Doesn't know better.

A couple examples... All on brake work... We were visiting my oldest step son and he got a call from his shop. Replace the brakes all the way around... $1000 for his Ford truck. The truck wasn't that old, but he said "Yep, just do whatever it needs". If it had been me, I would have been asking "How think are the pads etc."... Of course, I would have been jacking the truck up and doing the job myself for a couple hundred if it were my truck... He never questioned it, in fact, got annoyed with me and gave me a "what do you know" look.

I was having some warranty work done on my wife's car. They called and said the front brakes needed to be "replaced". First words out of my mouth were "Did I tell you to take the wheels off and check the brakes?" Next were "How thick are the pads?". Couldn't answer either question so I told them to button it back up. I looked at it and they were about 50%. She drove another year and a half before we needed to replace the brakes.

My step daughter needed front brakes done... I suggested an old friend who I knew wouldn't screw her. He looked at the rear brakes, told her they are fine for now, but maybe another 10K miles they would need to be replaced. So... She knocks a pad off a couple months later. Probably cheap pads (bought it used etc.) and we all know, stuff just happens. She drove it until the caliper over extended and locked up. So whose fault? My friend's according to her. He should have just replaced everything and charged her. Of course, she really couldn't afford it, but that was that.

I had the van towed home, took it apart and fixed it for about a quarter of what a shop would charge. I talked to her about not "letting things go", but she still has it in her mind that my friend should have looked in his crystal ball and known the pad was going to fall off. She started listening to me though. She won't go back to my friend, but at least she's found an honest shop near her now.

Keep in mind these are my step kids I'm talking about here... They were adults before I married their Mom, so they never got the "work on it to get to work the next day, hold the light" experience that my own kids did. My own kids... Nothing gets by them. They'll fix it themselves most of the time.
 
Hey Dave,

You can drive through the People's Republic of Maryland without stopping at weigh stations. The governor closed all of the weigh stations and I haven't seen any of the roadside Nazi checkpoints in awhile either.
 
Hey Dave,

You can drive through the People's Republic of Maryland without stopping at weigh stations. The governor closed all of the weigh stations and I haven't seen any of the roadside Nazi checkpoints in awhile either.
Probably a little out of his way though.
 
Now that it is fixed, my company wanted me to take it back and get it reinspected, why. Some dingbat at corporate is sitting at home telling me to return to a place and have more social contact with Typhoid Mary that wigged me out the first round.
Me talking to my office "okay I"ll call corporate and tell them they can stick it up their ***." "No Dave let us see what we can do."
20 minutes later I'm off safety hold.

WTF everyone has the dumb!
 
Now that it is fixed, my company wanted me to take it back and get it reinspected, why. Some dingbat at corporate is sitting at home telling me to return to a place and have more social contact with Typhoid Mary that wigged me out the first round.
Me talking to my office "okay I"ll call corporate and tell them they can stick it up their ***." "No Dave let us see what we can do."
20 minutes later I'm off safety hold.

WTF everyone has the dumb!
Good to see that you have fully recovered.:lol:
 
currently I'm sitting at work on the tailgate of my pickup watching the clock tick

I am currently fully paid to stay at home... ( because of the virus. )

( But i can't do nothing of this time... eveything is closed, and we are in quarantine )
 
Seriously, my image of you in a truck other than your Pete would be sad in a way.
I don't know how you can drive that thing sitting on the floor but it's definitely you. :lol:
 
I always thought I was a Peterbilt man until I drove my first KW. Now I have no interest in another Pete. I have driven a bunch of newer Pete's when my my Orange truck and my 85 broke (different times). Once the dashboard went round and flat, also the vent windows went away, mirrors moved out to the cowl/windshield frame I have no use for them. I've got some feelers out for a RS 402 housing I can pull the rear cover off for my Orange truck and I may just start piecing it back together. At least it has common parts with any 379 from 88-07 and no damn Rockwell rears.
That was my first real truck so I might as well retire with it.
I'm a glutton for punishment.
 
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