Weird and ungrateful customers

[Chris142]

Where I live and work Sometimes getting a part can be an issue. Friday,3:45P. Couple roll in with a bad radiator fan on a 14 Festiva. Only place in town that has a fan is Autozone and its pretty expensive. I have no other option at this point. They wont make it up mountain pass to Vegas without the Radiator fan. I add on a few dollars plus labor and the special fuse the bad fan burned out and the guy says I'm overcharging him. I didn't even charge him to diagnose it like the dealer would have.

Fan cost me $160. I told him $240 including labor + tax. So about $256 installed after tax.Guess I'm supposed to give the shop away? They him hawed around for 30 minutes then finally gave me the OK to fix it.

 

[Zee09]

I know you are a shop but next time tell them to get the parts they need and let them go get them.
Then tell them $100 install. I deal with this nonsense daily.
You're too cheap and you draw in losers that want something for nothing.

 

[StevieC]

You need this sign...

 

[Jimzz]

Give a real and honest estimate. If they don't want it let them walk. Not worth the headache as they will just complain more each time or demand more.

When I ran my shop I fired customers before. Not very often but some I would just tell them seem you are not happy with my work, there are 3 other shops on this road, try one of them.

 

[supton]

I wonder if they hoped you'd cave first. It's a negotiating tactic, right? I mean, you go into a car dealership and this is the sort of thing you'd do. [Apples and oranges I know, but some people don't realize there is a difference.]

 

[jeepman3071]

Everyone wants something for nothing, and many people have an unrealistic view of what things cost. This includes customers, taxpayers, corporate managers, etc.

I just met with a school system that wants my company to do a ton of internet cabling for them. We gave them an estimate, which they thought was way too high. They got 7 other estimates, and every single one was much higher.

 

[maxdustington]

Originally Posted by supton
I wonder if they hoped you'd cave first. It's a negotiating tactic, right? I mean, you go into a car dealership and this is the sort of thing you'd do. [Apples and oranges I know, but some people don't realize there is a difference.]
I think people just try it anywhere now, when I was a kid I saw my friend's mom try it where there was no chance it would work (it was West 49 probably 15 years ago). Trying to haggle goods, sure. People think that services are up for negotiation and that is almost never the case. People try it on my Dad all the time, who is a residential contractor. They try to haggle you down initially and you refuse, and then when the time comes to pay they try gaslight you into thinking that's the price you agreed to. When that doesn't work, then they just don't pay you or make up cleaning fees or other fees that they never have invoices for. My current boss who is an electrical contractor just holds the electrical inspection over their head or gets their power turned off.

If you're in construction, be careful doing business with real estate agents: they are snakes and try this nonsense all the time.

 

[SnowDrifter]

Folks do it because it works. Takes very little effort for them to really be a thorn in your side

Used to have some people do it and the manager would always cave. Guess what? They came in and did it again. And again. And again. Guy would whine and moan until he got free synthetic oil changes, then would STILL complain the whole way out the door

 

[maxdustington]

Originally Posted by SnowDrifter
Folks do it because it works. Takes very little effort for them to really be a thorn in your side

Used to have some people do it and the manager would always cave. Guess what? They came in and did it again. And again. And again. Guy would whine and moan until he got free synthetic oil changes, then would STILL complain the whole way out the door
I think they heyday of complaining was the early-mid 2000s. That's when people could really bully lower level employees and management. Just saying the words "I want to speak with a manager" was like a silver bullet and employees had to take whatever abuse was thrown at them. This decade it seems that employees will actually tell you to stop being abusive and management are a lot less accommodating and tolerant of abuse. They obviously have training on how to deal with abusive/manipulative customers, and I'm sure higher ups instruct them to not give things out for free to bullies or anyone for that matter.

I've watched a few youtube vids on abusive customers, and at some of the fast food restaurants, the customer will have the name and number of the store owner and use that info to bully the store manager. You can tell those people cannot be trusted with any type of power over others.

 

[CELICA_XX]

Originally Posted by jeepman3071
Everyone wants something for nothing, and many people have an unrealistic view of what things cost.

That's basically like half the country

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by SnowDrifter
Folks do it because it works. Takes very little effort for them to really be a thorn in your side

Used to have some people do it and the manager would always cave. Guess what? They came in and did it again. And again. And again. Guy would whine and moan until he got free synthetic oil changes, then would STILL complain the whole way out the door
I think they heyday of complaining was the early-mid 2000s. That's when people could really bully lower level employees and management. Just saying the words "I want to speak with a manager" was like a silver bullet and employees had to take whatever abuse was thrown at them. This decade it seems that employees will actually tell you to stop being abusive and management are a lot less accommodating and tolerant of abuse. They obviously have training on how to deal with abusive/manipulative customers, and I'm sure higher ups instruct them to not give things out for free to bullies or anyone for that matter.

I've watched a few youtube vids on abusive customers, and at some of the fast food restaurants, the customer will have the name and number of the store owner and use that info to bully the store manager. You can tell those people cannot be trusted with any type of power over others.


I'd say the early to mid-2000s was the heyday of actually protecting employees. I worked in customer service (a well known coffee/donut outlet) from 2006-2010 as a second job while in college and working a campus job. When I started, employee abuse was a huge thing, and we were instructed to contact management, notify police if necessary, etc. Towards the end with Facebook and Twitter becoming more popular, things changed. Those angry customers who would normally be refused started posting on Facebook slamming the store, and management realized any bad publicity whether false or not could hurt business. Basically all you have to say these days is "I'll give a bad review on social media X, Y, and Z" and you'll get what you want.

 

[khittner]

Part of the problem is that very few folks know what the price for any service is based on. I have an All-Data subscription for each of my cars, and so I know, before I go in for most of my work, what flat-rate hour multiplier is going to be for most procedures, and I know that I'm going to pay for that amount of time, whether it takes the skilled mechanic that long to do the job, or not. That's fair. The shop that I frequent lets me bring in parts for a job, knowing that when I have an issue that parts can't be predicted for, and that needs to be done promptly, that I'll pay their parts mark-up, too. They also charge me a bit of a premium per hour in labor to make up some of the lost margin in the parts, and that's fine---I nearly always come out ahead, and if I don't, I don't complain about it.

Some folks think mechanics' bills are, sort of like physicians' bills, made up mostly out of thin air, are intended to rip them off, and are widely negotiable, just like an insurance company's much lower paid rates/denials to doctors for any given procedure vis-a-vis the rates they bill to uninsured patients. Mechanics are the ones who often choose to keep their labor inputs as some sort of trade secret---expecting customers to be enthusiastic about you having your way with their wallets is pretty dumb. Being up front about "It's XXX hours estimated for that job, and my rate is $ XXX/hr." provides informed certainty for the customer. They may still not be happy, but they aren't guessing about the mysteries of what their vehicle problem is going to cost.

 

[Hootbro]

I would not have given them the 30 minutes to figure it out and would have left them for other work telling them taking longer than 5 minutes to decide was going to cost them another $50 to be added to the bill.

I have found economy car owners are the worst of the worst. They think their cheap cars mean cheap fixes when it is furthest from the truth.

 

[newbe46]

I know some shops put the hourly rate in big bold fonts at the counter. I didn't know why at the time and as I understand the industry a little better because I have a few friends run a shop on their own, now I understand why.

My take is that he can walk away if he doesn't agree to the price.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I did a guy favour with a Volvo 164 owner by installing a new exhaust after shop hours for parts plus 75 bucks, and the guy goes and squeals to my boss a week later.

Saved him 300.

Dope.

 

[HemiHawk]

My biggest complaint with shops is the price gauging on parts. I get that there is a little upcharge for maybe storing the part and time ordering or whatever. But I've had dealers try to charge me for over double for the parts. I've said it before, I'll pay for quality work on something I can't do myself. But when you try to rip me off on the parts thats when I'm not happy. I imagine this is a holdover from before the internet when I couldn't look up the parts price online. And I'm sure it still gets enough less savy customers that they get away with it.

 

[FowVay]

I don't see a listing for a 2014 Festiva. I do see a 2014 Fiesta though. The radiator for a 1.6 liter Fiesta with A/C shows $107 and AllData shows .7 hours to replace it.

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted by HemiHawk
My biggest complaint with shops is the price gauging on parts. I get that there is a little upcharge for maybe storing the part and time ordering or whatever. But I've had dealers try to charge me for over double for the parts. I've said it before, I'll pay for quality work on something I can't do myself. But when you try to rip me off on the parts thats when I'm not happy. I imagine this is a holdover from before the internet when I couldn't look up the parts price online. And I'm sure it still gets enough less savy customers that they get away with it.

There is no way that I can match online prices. A radiator may sell for $48/free shipping online. I'm stuck with my local suppliers if the customer wants it done that day.My cost may be $100 for the same part.Add in $50 profit and its $150 to the customer. Plus if there is a problem I don't have to deal with shipping the defective part back and waiting for a replacement.

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted by FowVay
I don't see a listing for a 2014 Festiva. I do see a 2014 Fiesta though. The radiator for a 1.6 liter Fiesta with A/C shows $107 and AllData shows .7 hours to replace it.

Ya whatever it was lol. How much does it show for a radiator fan?

 

[newbe46]

Originally Posted by HemiHawk
My biggest complaint with shops is the price gauging on parts. I get that there is a little upcharge for maybe storing the part and time ordering or whatever. But I've had dealers try to charge me for over double for the parts. I've said it before, I'll pay for quality work on something I can't do myself. But when you try to rip me off on the parts thats when I'm not happy. I imagine this is a holdover from before the internet when I couldn't look up the parts price online. And I'm sure it still gets enough less savy customers that they get away with it.


Agreed. As a general rule of thumb, one should never take the car for the dealers to service and expect a deal.

Likewise, if the independent shop is not up front about how much do the parts cost and how much labour is involved, I simply walk away.