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Dear concerned car owner,
Do you like to take your car in for
repairs? Do you ever feel like you were cheated or
taken advantage of by the shop or their mechanics? Do you know it
could be what you are saying to the repair shop that could be costing
you more? Most auto repair shops are run by honest hard-working people but in
some circumstances you may bring out the dark side at some
shops.
For instance, never tell the shop how much
you are willing to spend without first getting an explanation of what
you are going to have done. When you give the shop a spending
limit they may have a tendency to do as little as possible but
will manage to spend up to your limit. For example, a woman came into my
shop and told me she had $500 to spend. She did not start off her conversation
with "hello", or can you fix my car, all she said was how much money she
wanted to give me.
Now granted, it is nice to have people
come into the shop and actually like to pay their bills, but this lady
gave me a spending limit before she told me what she wanted to have
fixed. She thought she had transmission trouble and
assumed that it would cost her a
fortune to repair. While on a test drive with her I concluded that
the problem was not transmission-related, but that the car probably needed a
tune up or something along those lines.
But
wait, this person wanted to give me $500! If I was not an honest
shop owner, I would have remained quiet on the test drive and taken the money
that she was willing to pay. Lets say that I told this customer that I
could fix her car because I am a nice guy and since she
only had $500 to spend I would try to help her out as much
as I could. In reality, the actual repairs needed would have only
cost $200.
Because this customer thought she
had expensive transmission trouble, she would probably be happy
with a bill for $350 and she will also think the shop did her a favor.
Her first mistake was to diagnose the problem herself. I wonder if she goes to
her dentist and tells her which tooth to pull or if she thinks it is time for
another root canal? You take your car to the repair shop to have someone else
diagnose and repair your car; so let them do their job. Her second mistake was
to tell the shop how much she was willing to spend.
Most of the mechanics and service writers
that I know of work on commission, and in the example above, an additional
$150 would sure be a nice tip. I see this happen all the time and it
is so easy to prevent. Sometimes it is better to simply describe the
symptoms to the service writer, remain quiet about your budget dollars
and let the shop diagnose the problem with your car and how much it will
cost to repair.
If the problem you are having with your
car will require a test drive for the mechanic or service writer to hear make
sure you ride in the car with them at the time you drop off your car for
repairs. If they cant hear
it or feel it they cant fix it, and you will probably just get
frustrated and discouraged by them not being able to repair the problem you
want them to fix. Have you been
over-paying your mechanic?
Click on the link above to go to the
site.
Sincerely,

Austin C Davis
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