Interesting Vid re workshops and tuning industry

I wonder how many people, while doing the "due diligence and research " about tuner shops, will come across this video and decide ... not to go to this tuner.

 

nothing but a rant.

 

Love this. there is a responsibility to the shop, yes of course, but some people going to the wrong place for the right price just HAVE to have in the back of their mind "this guy might not be experienced enough". when all is said and done and there's a "built" car with x y and z problems, it is that way because it was built incorrectly. and it got built poorly because it was in the hands of an incompetent half wit. who gave him the keys?

 

What he is describing is the conundrum between accepting money from customers and responsibility for the job.

People will be misinformed and ask for all sorts of weird and wonderful things, if he tells them the truth he will lose the job and the money. If he is less involved in responsibility of outcomes he gets more work and money, IE telling people what they want to hear.

Its a ragged line to run.

Most mechanics will take a little from column A and a little from column B.

Doing business you have a responsibility to protect yourself.

Both the mechanic and the customer.

This is ultimately a negotiation.

If you play badly you may be unhappy.

 

I once used one of those mechanics. He was a ''mate'' of mine and was looking for business so I thought I'd Help him out, I was only getting a clutch fitted to a 4wd, what could go wrong?

Mistake number 1: I payed up front before the work was completed ($600) I thought at the time he was giving me a good deal ( I supplied the clutch too).

Well anyway, I drove the car in to his workshop still functioning properly.

I pushed it out while he told me " I've done everything I can, It's not my problem anymore." I even had to pay for the tow truck to a REAL mechanics.

Turns out he put the clutch plate AND thrust bearing in backwards, destroyed the slave cylinder and replaced my master cylinder with a incorrect part that didnt work. The good mechanic charged me $800 to remove and refit the clutch, trouble shoot the problems listed above AND replace the rear main seal ( which is a bitch of a job on a SD33T, involves dropping the sump and crank tho feed each half in ).

I learned my lesson.

 

Computer industry is very similar. I run a computer tech company and I'm ALWAYS up front and honest with my customers. Sometimes its not what they want to hear, sometimes I have to break to them they just sank hundreds of dollars into the completely wrong thing based on someone else's advice.

It's hard trying to fix someone else's half arsed uninformed work and I HATE having to tell a customer there is $400 of good stuff here but it's all useless for what they are trying to do.

At the end of the day though, I'm not the one who sold them that, so I don't feel guilty telling them...I still dont like it. I have found going the extra mile, explaining WHY something is wrong instead of just telling them it is and then giving them a GOOD solution and explaining whats different to the previous one and why wins them over.

If you are up front and honest and transparent, people appreciate it. They don't like knowing they were screwed over previously, but they do appreciate it - but only if you can tell them why and explain everything properly.

When I left my previous position to start my own company, all the customers who I dealt with directly, followed me when I left. No poaching or anything necessary - they called, asked for me, was told I no longer work there and they tracked me down themselves.

Thats the sort of business I want to run and the reputation I want to have.

I'd rather be brutally honest and fix peoples shit properly than pander to dreams and stroke egos, and it seems thats what people want from a workshop.

 

Classic and good find Rob. We see cars roll up here on a tow truck regularly after back yard Bob or dodgy work shop stuffed it.

 

Have a few left the same way?

PS I still have Sams old engine after the re tune Broken in the corner off my shed.

ross

 

Yes I still remember this one from about 8years ago. The guy was charged over $2000 for fit a front mount intercooler and it was the dodgiest pipe work I have ever seen. I wish I took a pic.

 

Yeah nothing but a rant................the guy is a bit annoying really. Hes got a god mentality or something?

I love the bit where he talks himself up as being an expert in everything, yet complained about the manufacturers not helping him out...........if I was a computer programmer or an electrician id be pissed off about his thinly veiled insult......

No wonder more and more guys turn to fixing their own cars..............id hate to have to deal with a guy with his attitude.

 

exactly that and more .... a non stop ranting and raving, grossly repetitive diatribe of self justification and irrelevant crap. gave up after 7-8 minutes of the nonsense going nowhere.

what he fails to cover/mention is the fact that no matter how well you may know a workshop, good mechanics do not remain with the same employer forever .. moving around is quite common ... we have all been caught out on that one; great work one one occasion and crap the next time.

and there is no way a normal customer could expect to know or keep track of workshop staff changes .. simply a load of rubbish.

happens in the best of workshops, too ... recall a few years back when a very popular Forum member was provided a quote of around $1,700 by a leading NSW workshop ... job done and he was then presented with an invoice for something like $3,500 !!!! that is when the shitfight started .. yep, it it is all on a thread here, somewhere.