The second successful category is the unknowing successful. Your car breaks without warning. You don’t know what it needs to fix it, and don’t care. You just pay someone to make the problem go away. This category leaves the owner uncertain if the repairs were actually needed, and he or she is not ever happy about it. They don’t get involved in the repair enough to find out the root cause of the breakdown in the first place. Most people are this type of car owner. And because of this, most people don’t have a good feeling about their car repairs. They never know what they don’t know about the repair. And what’s worse, because they never know, they don’t do anything to prevent it. If they did, most of their car problems would never happen. These people are the ones who don’t believe in preventative maintenance. They orchestrate their own car problems.
The third and forth categories are the knowing and unknowing unsuccessful. Third, the knowing unsuccessful, is an easy one. These are the people who take their car to be repaired and go away with the same problem, only their wallet has been lightened in the process. They know they got screwed, but they don’t go back anyway. They let their feet do the talking and bounce from shop to shop until someone puts them out of their misery and fixes their car. Forth, there’s the unknowing unsuccessful, the worst of all. That’s what this Mechanic’s Nightmare is all about. These are the people who are screwed, and never know it. Or, by the time they realize it, it’s too late to do anything about it. This is the place where Mr. Rip U. Off works. This is the category that gives the auto repair industry a black eye. This is the type of repair shop reported on the 6 O-clock TV News sting operation advisory alert.
When the National Association of Attorneys General did a study to try and find the root cause of why so many people get ripped off on their car repairs, the results were not surprising. But they were disappointing to the scandal-seeking news media. To their chagrin, it turned out that mechanics aren’t so dishonest after all. In fact, the study didn’t find they were any more dishonest than any other trade, such as doctors or lawyers. But here’s the big surprise. They found that most of the time, greater than eight out of ten, the problem was a simple communication breakdown. But this isn’t the kind of fodder that makes it on the news. Ripoffs are something everyone wants to hear about. Honesty doesn’t pull in TV audiences. So, the study and its findings has sadly fallen on deaf ears. Or rather, it was a non-story. No one ran it. People want to hear about unsuccessful repairs that happen to the knowing. People want to commiserate with those who have suffered. They want to wallow in their suffering, and seek out and consume their tales of woe. In due course, and in keeping with that vein, I’m going to tell you stories, too.
These stories fit all four of the scenarios listed above. Both successful and unsuccessful, knowing and unknowing. To start with, let me say that my experience has born out the findings. I personally know that auto mechanics are among the most honest and hardest-working of all trades. My bros’ have gotten a bad rap, that’s for sure! Enough said, so let’s get on with the story. Lets begin by talking about noises. Noises are freaky. To some people a howl is a moan. To some a moan is a creak. And so on. Some noises are even imaginary. And some are made up.
This first story falls in the category of successful for the unknowing. There was a service writer who was employed at a Mercedes dealership in a major city where I worked. His name was Ralphie, and he liked to make up noises. Especially ball joint noises. He’d take a customer’s car for a test drive and come back claiming he heard the lower ball joint knocking. Kinda’ a Clunk on Bumps noise. No matter how hard I tried, I never could hear it. But let me tell you, that dude sold a whole bunch of lower ball joint replacements! Man, he could really get rich folks by the ball joints! And little did they care. They were unknowing. And their cars were important, so they would just say, How long's it going to take? Or. When can I have my car back? They didn’t give a hoot about the dollar amount. It was probably just a business expense anyway. They’d have to use the Jaguar. What an inconvenience! Ralphie wasn’t malicious or anything. In fact, he was a down-right nice guy. He just wanted to fatten up his paycheck a bit when things were slow. The owner didn’t know. He was from the unknowing group. The tech who did the replacement didn’t know. He was just doing what he was told. The whole process was seamless. No one was the wiser. That’s how it always is with a successful repair and the unknowing owner. Kind of like a quiet bloodletting. Then there’s the unsuccessful and knowing.
The story goes like this: The guy walks in to the local dealer with his car problem. The service writer greets him as he drives up and begins to take down all the important information. Then he gets around to asking the guy why he’s decided to pay a visit to this fine establishment. And does he need a ride to work? The guy says, "Yeah. You see, I’ve got this clunk-on-bumps problem. Sometimes, when going over a bump, I hear this noise. Like a clunk or something. Maybe a knock. Or is it tap? I dunno. But it’s freaky. And I don’t like it. Maybe you could check it out, huh?" The adviser, who’s already checked the odometer reading and knows the car is no longer in warranty, figures this as a no-brainer. He thinks, Let’s see. Lots of miles on the ticker. Don’t have to worry about the warranty. The most likely suspect would be shocks! It’s gonna’ need a set of shocks. He thinks this is a safe bet, and the owner will go for it because it’s not a big ticket item. An easy sell. And maybe we can find more things once we get it in the shop. So he writes on the repair order, Replace shocks. Then he tells the guy he’s gonna’ need a set of shocks, and to sign right here. So the guy thinks this is the right thing to do, and he signs his life away. Then, he gets the car back, pays the bill, and is driving home. He hears the clunk on the first bump he comes across, and he realizes he was taken.
Well, not that it was done intentionally. He was taken because of the problem that the Attorneys General study talked about. The actual problem was communication. If the mechanic was told to diagnose a problem with clunk on bumps, instead of being told to replace the shocks, he might have had a fighting chance that his problem would have been corrected. Instead, the guy’s car repair was unsuccessful, and he certainly knows about it. Communication problems just like this are primarily responsible for the bad image of the mechanic. In reality, there was no ill will, malice, or evil intent. The repair was unsuccessful because of the system, not because of any one individual. Sure, the service advisor didn’t have to sell the man a set of shocks. Sure. But shocks are a common cause for that type of complaint at that mileage. What you’d call a sure bet. And of course, the owner could have insisted that the tech be paid some diagnostic time to drive the car and witness the problem before beginning any repairs. And finally, sure, the tech could have insisted on being paid some diagnostic time in order to verify the problem.
But none of that happened. Why? Get real. This is the real world out here, and everyone is too busy. That’s why. Okay, OK. Maybe the man did need shocks. But the problem was the mechanic didn’t make the diagnosis. The wise-ass service advisor did. Not. Maybe if the mechanic was given a chance to check it out before the service advisor went and messed things up by suggesting shocks.
But, then I can see the service advisor’s point of view, too. He wants to get the guy to commit to a dollar amount for something. Maybe it’s not going to be a set of shocks that fixes this car. Maybe it’s upper shock mounts, or even a ball joint. Whatever. So he’s just trying to usher the guy on his way out the door as fast as possible so he can get on to the next customer who’s been standing there next to his car and patiently waiting in the service aisle. He assumes that the mechanic will know what’s causing the clunk and will report back to him. He assumes. Now we all know about assume. Right? The mechanic is already up to his ass with alligators nipping at him. His IN box is over brimming with work. And then there are the jobs he didn’t get to yesterday. Parts have come in for jobs he opened up last week which he’s getting grief for not having finished. And to make his day complete, he’s already got a ten-o’clock headache!
So, he cranks the work out as fast as he can, and by early afternoon starts looking for some gravy work so he can slide. He’s been saving the RO with Replace front shocks, the one that started out as a clunk on bump complaint. The tech pulls his copy of the RO, which has by now already had the parts listed and tallied on it. He walks over and picks up the shocks that await him at the parts counter. Once he’s finished installing the shocks, using his fancy pneumatic on-the-car installer tool, he parks the car and knocks off for the day. He’s feeling good because he beat the flat rate by more than half! Easy money, a quick in and out. Now I ask you, did that mechanic rip off the customer? Did the guy's car really need those shocks? Should the tech check the car for the complaint? Should he have questioned the service advisor? It may seem odd, but the answer to all four questions is no. First, and I’m sure you knew this was coming, the car certainly didn’t need shocks. Second, the tech isn’t paid to check a problem. Unless he’s instructed to do so, he ain’t gonna.
Why should he? He’s not in the habit of giving away his time free. Right? When you go and see a doctor, he doesn’t just hand out pills free without charging for his diagnosis. He may even decide to run some additional lab tests on you. Not only do you pay the doctor to look at you, but you pay some other doctor to look at your lab tests and to make a diagnosis based on those tests. And you wind up getting billed from the first doctor who examined you, from the lab for the tests, and from the doctor who looked at the test results. Have you heard people complain about rising health care costs? So, bringing this all back home to the mechanic here in this story, he didn’t get paid to check the car first.
The car owner trusted the advice of the service advisor, as in this case, replace the shocks. This was assumed to be his problem. It had a high likelihood. So, the answer is most certainly NO. The tech shouldn’t be made to give away his hard-earned time to freely check the car first. Not unless he’s told to do so, and given some diagnostic time. But in this case, that didn’t happen. He was given an RO that simply told him to replace the shocks. Then, should the tech question the service writer? Not. Why should he? It’s not in his job description. He doesn’t have time. If he just minds his P’s and Q’s, he’s free and clear of any flack that might come his way if the customer bitches. After all, he wasn’t paid to check out the car in the first place and to see if it needed shocks. Hell, he’s not psychic enough to read the customer’s mind and to figure out why he asked for shocks in the first place. One of my favorite rip-off stories concerns a shop owner whose shop is located in the Nation’s Capital. This shop owner keeps a customer black list. No kidding. He actually has a list with the names of people who’s cars are banned. And if the customer happens to come back, he or she is told to vacate the premises immediately or the police will be called.
To be continued next week! If you like these stories post on the mailing list so I know to keep them going!
