Does the monthly dipping also account for any “shrink” from the techs working on their own cars or side jobs when the shop is closed for the day?
Indy shop observation
- Thread starter barkingspider
- Start date
I'm guessing $2 wholesale is 'bout what they paid.
They allow for a bit of shrink, but when it gets excessive they crack down on the techs.
As for the cost, oil is kinda like tires, there isn't much markup at all.
I wonder what happens with the partial half quarts of oil that don't get dumped into each customer's car. Techs could get a free gallon easily every week if not more.
It might even out. The biggest area for shrink really is r134a. Do an engine job on a vehicle that has a 32oz capacity, but they only recover 20oz. Never bother to tell parts and when we do catch it the service writers loses their mind because it wasn't on the estimate or they crossed it off the original estimate.
Yes I think that's harder to account for. And the price of r134a makes it a big issue.
Looks like they put 5W-30 in most cars that come in for oil changes no matter what they spec 
I'd bet that 90% of customers don't ask nor care. If they did, their oil change bill is going to get real expensive ! I think many shops will run to the closest parts shop (or Walmart) and buy X x 1-quart bottles. Most brand-name oils in 1-quart packaging will run $5-10 each.
Dexos is just a recommendation, not a requirement.
I HATE freon. Especially the R-1234yf. "I don't know what happened, tank's empty, must be so and so's fault cause he used it last."
A few times I have seen some, now former, techs pull their truck in after 5 and hook it up to the machine. This was after they talked openly on the back counter about their AC not working. Then when they get an invoice for 32-48oz or so of R134a they start complaining. I offered to walk them over to the security cameras PC if they really wanted to fight it. Fortunately the problem ones got shuffled out about a year ago and we no longer have to deal with them.
If people didn't abuse things, maybe, just maybe, offering the freon to employees at cost could be a benefit of working there.
If they said they were going to it ahead of time they would get it at employee pricing which per our owner is cost+10%. But when they try to hide it, they get hit at full pop.
Theft isn't our issue with freon as much as carelessness and equipment problems.
We did have a tool theft incident not too long ago though. We hired a new oil changer who was a little sketchy, and annoyed the hell out of me and the other guy on the shop counter. Like on a Saturday I'd put the oil and filter on the counter with the RO written with permanent marker all over everything and he'd still open the window to ask me if this is the oil for the RO written all over it. And he priced tires on every car he saw. Anyway, one day he tells our career oil changer that he broke his fancy Autel TPMS tool by running over it in a car. He said it was so smashed that he just threw it in the trash and it's gone. You don't mess with career oil changer's stuff, so it was a crisis and word spread quickly. Another tech said he saw sketchy new guy at a pawn shop not a mile down the road at lunch. The shop foreman went down there, saw the TPMS tool with career oil changer's initials carved in it, and got it back. Sketchy new guy got fired and got a warrant. He had also been digging through one of our maintenance trucks that was parked in the service lot, and had bragged about committing burglaries to a lot porter. Bye bye...don't need that here.
We did have a tool theft incident not too long ago though. We hired a new oil changer who was a little sketchy, and annoyed the hell out of me and the other guy on the shop counter. Like on a Saturday I'd put the oil and filter on the counter with the RO written with permanent marker all over everything and he'd still open the window to ask me if this is the oil for the RO written all over it. And he priced tires on every car he saw. Anyway, one day he tells our career oil changer that he broke his fancy Autel TPMS tool by running over it in a car. He said it was so smashed that he just threw it in the trash and it's gone. You don't mess with career oil changer's stuff, so it was a crisis and word spread quickly. Another tech said he saw sketchy new guy at a pawn shop not a mile down the road at lunch. The shop foreman went down there, saw the TPMS tool with career oil changer's initials carved in it, and got it back. Sketchy new guy got fired and got a warrant. He had also been digging through one of our maintenance trucks that was parked in the service lot, and had bragged about committing burglaries to a lot porter. Bye bye...don't need that here.
I use only bottles in my shop as well. I stock Supertech Syn, Mobil 1, Mobil 1 HM and Mobil 1 European (5w/40) I keep stocked with 0w/20 (and use this for the 5w/20 cars too) and 5w/30. I also keep a case each of Mobil 1 V Twin and 4T 20w/50 and for the random bikes that come for service. Lastly I have 2 jugs of Castrol GTX 20w/50 if somebody requests that for an old car or something. I don't do many diesels but I keep a couple jugs of Rotella T 15w/40 in case.
Anything else I need, I just run to the store and grab.
Anything else I need, I just run to the store and grab.
Just how much are we talking about here? Walmart has the 12 oz cans for about $5.
We use the 30lb bottles of r134a since you can't use those little cans with a machine. I think we paid something like $105 for a tank last week? Now R1234yf is significantly more expensive.
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- Sep 21, 2020
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Fact is most people you hire in the business today are bottom of the barrel bad..and I mean the worst. These businesses are so desperate for employees they will hire people with felony convictions..there was a story about this about four or six years ago.
No way I want a felon working around me. Stripes never change
No way I want a felon working around me. Stripes never change
I get what you're saying, but...it depends on the felony... my cousin took a felonious assault plea deal last year, so he's technically a felon.
we in the family are sure he got railroaded by the small town folks where he was living at the time.
without getting into the Gory details, it boiled down to a "He Said", "She Said" case, that he didn't fight, because he was black out drunk at the time, and has no memory of the night in question.
what he was accused of is EXTREMELY Atypical for him, but because he doesn't remember, he plead out to 6 mos, which b/c of covid they let him serve at the county jail, instead of the big house.
