Advice on Situation

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Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Take the alternator back and get a refund. If that cant be accomplished, than eat the cost and learn from the mistake. And then stop "diagnosing" car problems and doing free work for people. After being burned too many times, I now do ZERO free work for any body. Its so easy to just say sorry, dont work on anybodies car but my own from now on.


+1 on this. People can't operate a car for near zero cost. Sounds like a lot of that Camrys maintenance has been neglected.

Critic you are a stand up guy, but some times you need to put your foot down and say no to people.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
No good deed goes unpunished.your out an alternator,labor,transmission fluid etc


I agree. Plus it's very difficult to diagnose noises and on an older car like that you often don't hear them if you have the radio on anyway. I ignore such nuisance noises.
 
Eat the loss and accept the fact you made a mistake.

Even ASE 'Master Certified' mechanics make mistakes.
 
Originally Posted By: Mr Nice

Even ASE 'Master Certified' mechanics make mistakes.


And around here try and charge for it.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Her alternator was tested as bad, so I say she should pay anyways. Nice of you to do favor for them.
if so then yes. Car has been neglected and it's catching up to them
 
You're near me in California & I know how great Autozone is also. You should've said nothing or checked it when you were doing the waterpump to be sure. They trusted you & Autozone, don't be an Autozone
 
They needed an alternator. You saved them labor, and you also saved them the towbill when the car died in the dead of winter or on a 100deg day.

You and I both know that when a car comes in with 3 separate problems, they can be impossible to distinguish. It's not our fault if the car is neglected, abused, or poorly designed/manufactured.

The sales side of the auto repair business is tough, and it's tougher if you're friends with the customer. Notice how the most successful sales types are stereotypically heartless?
 
Bottom line...

OP swapped part without proper troubleshooting and he has to eat the cost. 100% of the responsibility fall on him for listening to idiots at Auto Zone.


When I repaired medical equipment a part can cost $3-4000 easy and if technician misdiagnosed the problem and repair, we could not tell hospital Oops we goofed up.
 
The question is, do you feel that these people will become loyal customers of yours? If yes. Then eating some of the cost now in order to build a relationship would make sense. If not, the I would fully charge for the alternator or put the old one in since you're doing free labor anyhow.
 
I think a take away is to learn if someone does not have money with 200k car fix the emergency stuff but leave the gentle whines as an old car. When the whine moves to crunch they can decide to pay to fix or sort themselves.

It's all about reading your customer. Not everyone views a car as BITOGer who over pampers and addresses it all.

Good luck!
 
I wish you were my friend. I'd gladly pay for most all of those services you performed. Sounds like they were all needed. You saved those guys a bunch of money down the road imo. And they should understand that. A 200K mile alternator? It's not like that is going to live forever. Worst case, they should probably pay for everything but the alt.... and maybe split that alternator cost with you. If they had any common sense they should be thanking you....and eventually paying you, even if it takes them a year.

Though, if the trans fails in the next year or less, that's gonna be a real sticky issue. Good luck.
 
Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Eat the loss and accept the fact you made a mistake.

Even ASE 'Master Certified' mechanics make mistakes.


The only person I know of who didn't make a mistake died almost 2000 years ago so I guess I have plenty of company in the making mistakes dept.
I don't do free work, if someone tells me this or that is bad and they want me to change it I tell them its on you if this isn't the problem your going to pay for it. If you want me to diagnosis it, source the parts and stand behind it you have to pay more. It happens all the time and it took me a long time to get a handle on it. I use to be a good guy like Critic.
lol.gif

You have to ice cold about it, friends and family (especially family) will take a major dump all over you as quick as look at you, sad but true.

49.gif
 
You guys just don't get it. Re-read the original post. Figure out why you think it is a guy who owns the car. All of the pronouns used are gender neutral or "the owner" is used where he/she would have been used.

We all know how fair sex has an effect in this type of situations.

Quote:
Critic's problem is not technical but interpersonal.
You bet! A damsel in distress type of situation.
 
How you handle this is entirely up to you and your conscience, but in all honesty, I've been burned the hardest by work that I've done for free for friends and relatives. It seems like the better (and cheaper) the deal someone gets, the more they will expect you to be their sugar daddy and welfare-giver for life. I've got two acquaintances right now who are humping on my leg trying to get some automotive work done and I'm going to have a no-win situation no matter what I decide. Neither of these people are in dire straits, but they want minor work done to their vehicles because "they can't afford anybody else". They are in a situation where they could take out some revenge on me if I say no and they will to try pull the "while you are there, could you fix the xxx and how long will you warranty this?" if I say yes.
This is why I really only do non-paying work on "immediately family" vehicles.
 
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