Am I being unreasonable?

[eljefino]

Imagine if you went through your weekend with your wife demanding the trash be at the dump by 9 and the bathroom painted by 11:30 and the gutters cleaned by 2pm in that order.

Nuts to that.

Fast, cheap, quality. Pick any two.

Aviate, navigate, communicate. Guess what comes last.

 

[HerrStig]

So take it to the dealer next time, and PAY. I'm just an amateur mechanic but I've had plenty of small jobs turn into two hour adventures, and I get out the shop manual and plan the repair ahead of time, right down to what tools I need. Still, things go wrong.

 

[Dr_Who]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Imagine if you went through your weekend with your wife demanding the trash be at the dump by 9 and the bathroom painted by 11:30 and the gutters cleaned by 2pm in that order.

Nuts to that.

Fast, cheap, quality. Pick any two.

Aviate, navigate, communicate. Guess what comes last.



Bottom line if you are paying average or more expensive repair rates you should expect them to have a minute to communicate. It takes less time then picking your nose after all. No excuses should be accepted.

 

[Silk]

Originally Posted By: Dr_Who

The shop still should have communicated to the customer as to when the car might be done.


Other way round - if he wants it at a certain time, he needs to tell the shop what time he'd like to pick it up, otherwise it's there all day.

 

[Dr_Who]

Originally Posted By: Silk
Originally Posted By: Dr_Who

The shop still should have communicated to the customer as to when the car might be done.


Other way round - if he wants it at a certain time, he needs to tell the shop what time he'd like to pick it up, otherwise it's there all day.


He's a regular customer, I don't see why the owner couldn't have just told him that it would likely be all day.
How hard is that? They know him and he has always picked up his car early, no customer service? LOL

 

[Silk]

I have regular customers too, if they don't tell me what time they want the vehicle, it's here all day as far as I am concerned. Sometimes they will ring and say '' can I have it by ...?'' and then I prioritise them for that time, which means often someone else is bumped down the list.

 

[dishdude]

I would expect it to be done by the close of business unless promised otherwise.

 

[SeaJay]

I get almost all of my repairs done at the same shop over the past several decades. Drop it off in the morning. If it is something relatively simple and not overly expensive, they'll take care of it sometime that day, and I will stop by in the early evening after the mechanics have left to pay and take her home. I have no idea if they fixed it early in the day, or at the end. Doesn't matter to me.

If it is something more difficult and expensive that I need to know about, they call to let me know and to let me know if it will be done that day, or perhaps in another day or two in which case they'll call me when its done.

I'd rather they fix it when they have the capacity to do it right, rather than rushing the job to meet some deadline that I want it done by.

 

[supton]

That's why you pay more at the dealer--they have people who's job is to manage jobs and people--but they don't actually do "work". Costs money to have someone like that. Costs money to have someone man the phones.

It's one of the reasons why I wanted to have N+1 vehicles. I can drop it off at a shop and not have for a few days. [But then... I wonder just doing the work on my own time.]

That said, sometimes I do wish the garage that I've been using would return calls. They didn't this last time so they're missing out on some work (albeit very low paying).

 

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted By: supton
That's why you pay more at the dealer--they have people who's job is to manage jobs and people--but they don't actually do "work". Costs money to have someone like that. Costs money to have someone man the phones.

It's one of the reasons why I wanted to have N+1 vehicles. I can drop it off at a shop and not have for a few days. [But then... I wonder just doing the work on my own time.]

That said, sometimes I do wish the garage that I've been using would return calls. They didn't this last time so they're missing out on some work (albeit very low paying).


My guy is a one man show at $65/hr. I drop car off and typically does not start till 3-4pm so sometimes of parts needed 50/50 It will get done. If I call for appointment he returns call within a few days as normal practice. He cannot constantly answer phone as he is a talker but also cannot get world done.

On the flip side my wife appeared with no power steering with 3 kidsin his lot. He replaced belt in 15 mins in lot and charged her a total of $40. I presume someone got delayed so I understand it.

 

[supton]

I let my guy have a week to return the call, then called yesterday (no answer).

 

[PandaBear]

I may be the odd one that think it is unreasonable to expect immediate turn around. At least when I drop a car off at a mechanic I'd tell him to take his time but do it right.

If it is a shop that you have build a relationship for a while already, I'd not let this break that tie and switch shop. They need to make money and keep the lights on, and if it is just a tire patching and they get that working first, that's not unreasonable for them to work on that first.

This is especially true with a one man shop instead of a formal business with admins and service writer.

 

[Dr_Who]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear


This is especially true with a one man shop instead of a formal business with admins and service writer.


I think most of us understand that difference, I'm generally speaking of a formal business where you have several techs and perhaps the wife or owner handles the service writing position. If they have a go between like that I see NO reason why that business can't communicate with the customer in a reasonable time frame.

A shop I recently went to for the first time, which was four techs, an owner and wife who do the SW position had my car ALL day after I made an appointment, and never bothered to call me back during the day to let me know about the fact that they were supposedly back logged and couldn't do a possible wheel bearing diagnosis check that day. I call near closing they tell me they couldn't get to it, I tell them why don't I just reschedule for another week, they say we'll get on it now (less than an hour before they close) I show up and find that nobody is working on it and the tech proceeds to waste my time for 30 minutes shooting the breeze while he could have been working on the job. I again ask him why don't I just bring the car back sometime in the next 7-10 days and you can take care of it then, no problem for me you can take care of your "back log". I get a vague answer and that is the end of that, they just lost my business.