Shop Would Not Install My Water Pump

[Dan4510]

When i worked at a shop, the most fun customers were the ones that brought their own parts and insisted you broke something else installing it.

We just turned it away due to the high maintenece of the customers.

When it was a good customer, no problem.

Worst that happened when a person brought in a piece of junk cavalier and spent $900 on it, with us telling him it was wasted money. Also told him not to run it hard or it would not last very long. He paid, picked it up, and floored it out of the parking lot and was down on the floor till he was out of earshot. Two days later he was back ****** that it died. Threatened to whip everyone to boot. We had noted on the invoice all that we told him too. I think this guy was a definite darwin awards candidate.

Dan

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

"It's like taking your meat to McDonadls and asking them to cook it."
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Don't I wish.

 

[marcre]

I've run into this problem recently. It makes sense, they aren't going to warrenty the work on a part they did not buy, so in the end, it may cause a lot of problems. It's a hassle they don't want any part of.

 

[GMGuy]

CJH, you may have been further ahead if you asked ahead of time if they would install user supplied parts. That gives them the oppertunity to tell you that if anything goes wrong, your on your own, or you to tell them, if things go wrong you know its your responsibility and $$$ to make it right.

Another aspect to user supplied parts, if the part does happen to be a dud, you now have a car tying up floor space (be it inside, or the parking lot) while the customer deals with exchanging it, and you likely get an headache when the customer whines/moans/etc about why they shouldn't have to pay labour to r&r the part a second time. If the shop supplies the part, they are on the hook until the job is done and out the door. If they have a dud, they call up their supplier, who will likely have a guy out on a truck in a short time with a replacment.

Alex.

 

[castor]

i'm a refrigeration mechanic. i've had problems fitting customer supplied parts in their household frig's. if their part won't work, some of them will not pay, i have to take the part out, refit the old part while they get the new part replaced. not much you can do if the frig is in their house, is there?
THEN THEY EXPECT ME TO WARRANT IT? get out of here

 

[CJH]

Thanks all for the comments. Just for the record, Autozone had several water pumps for my vehicle. I picked the best one they had which was a new unit. I would never expect the shop to warrant a unit I had bought (how could they?), or to cover the labor if the unit was bad. I just figured...I am paying them for their labor, and that is all I expected from them.

I didn't plan to buy the pump and then have them install it...It just worked out that way since I could not do it myself. From my experience, it is always better if you CAN do it yourself. You avoid this kind of hassle.

I didn't ask them in advance because I never dreamed there would be a problem. I have delt with this shop many times without any kind of incident and they know me.

Dark Jedi, I don't quite follow your comments. First you make it sound like the shop should have installed it with comments on the recept...then you close by saying what my wife and I did was wrong. What did we do wrong? Just asked to have work done to our specifications and complained when it was not.

 

[Brett Miller]

I don't blame the shop one bit. It's not easy for a small guy to keep his doors open and make a living.

 

[CJH]

Bret, Not saying I am going to do this (haven't decided yet), but if the shop loses the servicing of a customer with 4 vehicles over a decision like this, is this helping or hindering them keeping the doors open?

If they are being paid for what the labor that they perform, how does that prevent them from making a living?

I was thinking of maybe talking with some other local independents but I am generally at work when they are open.

quote:

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Originally posted by Brett Miller:
I don't blame the shop one bit. It's not easy for a small guy to keep his doors open and make a living.

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[82DMC12]

They may be paid for the labor, but your truck in there is taking up the space where a another customer paying their margin on both labor and parts could be getting serviced. Not saying its fair or anything, but that's how it is. One shop that I go to is glad to work on my DeLorean even though I have to supply all of the parts. Some shops will help you out, others won't. Lots of good reasons on this thread.

Andy

quote:

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Bret, Not saying I am going to do this (haven't decided yet), but if the shop loses the servicing of a customer with 4 vehicles over a decision like this, is this helping or hindering them keeping the doors open?

If they are being paid for what the labor that they perform, how does that prevent them from making a living?

I was thinking of maybe talking with some other local independents but I am generally at work when they are open.


quote:
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Originally posted by Brett Miller:
I don't blame the shop one bit. It's not easy for a small guy to keep his doors open and make a living.
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[mechtech]

Part of the shop's profit on a job is from parts, and part from labor.
For the same job, the shop would make less, if people brought their own parts in.

 

[marcre]

see, I think it is more than just the money they lose. Most of what they make is from the labor anyway. I know the shop I use doesn't carry every brand of parts. I still think it's a warranty issue.

We all say that we understand that there would be no warranty, but if two days later there was a problem with the installed part we'd go back looking for a break. A lot of people would claim thge problem was a result with the labor, and it may be, but it would be tough to prove.

I still say it's a headache a good shop doesn't need. A good shop will have a lot of customers anyway.

 

[Chris142]

quote:

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Originally posted by CJH:
I would never expect the shop to warrant a unit I had bought (how could they?), or to cover the labor if the unit was bad.

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You are smarter and more understanding than the average customer.

 

[Hirev]

I also got to side with the shop and there policy.

I see you don't expect the shop to warranty the work without their part.....But the reality is most customers do.

There is a fair amount of auto parts stores selling a lot of garbage parts from my experience. From there perspective I would not want to warranty the job with some of these parts.

 

[CJH]

A lot of you mentioned the warranty issue..and that is exactly what the shop told me. It seemed so obvious to me there would be no warranty that I thought the shop was just using this as an excuse. The Autozone pump was a new unit with a lifetime warranty (probably labor not covered) - I don't know what they put in. The shop did not represent their warranty to me, but I would bet it is not lifetime.

As far as making money on the parts, I think they charged me about $62 vs. the $52 I paid at Autozone. I don't know if they had to send someone to pick it up, or if they called some where and had it dropped off. Either way, it took someone's time. The cost was not an issue with me either way.

Thanks for all the comments. I guess this situation is not that uncommon. I had never run into it before.

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

Well, the guy wants to make a few sheckles on parts, sure..And truth be told, the same jobber may be supplying the same parts (pumps, alternators and starters, among other things) to AZ and your mechanic, if not to everyone in the area.

If I was him, I'd be happy to install someone else's parts, because then if the thing failed (and these kinds of parts fail a fair percentage of the time right out of the box) he gets a labor charge to replace it.

In my PC bizz, I don't sell parts at all, the markups are too thin, and when their budget hard drives and ROM burners fail in short order, I'm off the hook for the part, which I'd make almost no money on in any case.

He bent to your desire for the future, though, but as a coutesy to him, I wouldn't bring a part to him every time you need work done on it.

 

[CJH]

This is the last post for me on this subject.

It was an unusual situation that lead me to take part to this shop. I called today to make an appointment for state inspection of 2 cars and the owner happened to answer the phone. He told me he was very glad to hear from me. I could tell he was sincere. I am considering this to be closed.

Thanks to everyone who gave me different perspectives on the issue. It is very nice to have a bunch of knowledgable guys to run this by.

 

[mechtech]

In one of our trade magazines, there is a horror story of a man who brought in a used engine to a shop and had it installed.
Two YEARS later, the fuel pump went out. The man sued, and the judge awarded him the cost of labor and a replacement engine. The poor guy who owned the shop had to pay!
This is not a hearsay urban myth. I believe it was in Motor Age mag., 10 years ago or so.

 

[Russell]

Mechtech, That's incredible. there must be more to the engine replacement story.
No judge could have been that stupid. Perhaps it is a particular "work performance" law in that state that is out of date and not the judge. It is my understanding that judges must support all the laws.

 

[ted s]

actually very common, 2 reasons:

Shop make $$ on parts markup
And ho wants to warranty repairs with no control on parts used

quote:

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Originally posted by BlownF150:
Strange but that's the shop owner's policy. I doubt you'd find that problem from 99% of other shops.

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[ted s]

around here thats not even close to the going rate, many are pushing 100 bucks.

quote:

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Originally posted by CJH:
Thanks for all the comments.

I .
BTW, with a labor rate of over $50/hour, this place is not the cheapest in the area, so they should be doing ok from just the labor.
local service providers to see what their policies are.

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