Question about car mechanics wasting my car's gas.

[xenophobe]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

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I've never really asked.

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You should ask him why your gas keeps dissappearing. Deduct what you owe him from how much gas is gone. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[jacktheshredder]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

if its happened several times and you are SURE you are correct - ie he is stealing your gas - I would confront him on it specially when the last few jobs have not required a test drive!

I would then find a new mechanic - one thats honest!!! Hell if hes stooping that low - how can you trust he isnt fixing things that dont need fixed or saying X is wrong to charge you more when it was really Y that was wrong... honesty is one of the most important traits I look for in a mechanic!

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

Yeah, tyhere should be no miles on it for those repairs, except the ABS stuff, and that shouldn't be too many I'd figure. Get a new guy, if he's stealing gas, he's probably screwing you on repairs as well.

[semagic]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

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I'm a mechanic, and I believe he's using your gas for his personal pleasure. No job I do, ever requires more than a two or three miles road test to diagnose, or confirm a problem. The odometer is your best friend, and never lies. These days, even if it's unplugged, which is quite easy on some cars, the ECU keeps track of the mileage anyways. I say find a new mechanic.

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amen brudda [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[semagic]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

plenty of things you can do... set your trip meter to zero, bring it in with about a 1/4 tank, make sure you get a mileage in/out compare it to the trip meter, finally get a phone book... search auto repair and find a reputable national chain shop. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

"reputable national chain shop"

HAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, right next to Bigfoots Cave in Loc Ness....

Not looking for a bridge in California are you? Hehe..

[semagic]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

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"reputable national chain shop"

HAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, right next to Bigfoots Cave in Loc Ness....

Not looking for a bridge in California are you? Hehe..

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plenty of places actually... firestone mastercare service, midas, local dealerships... not that far of a stretch. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

I'm in a biz that does direct wholesale work for all you've mentioned. If you think they are shooting straight, you're kidding yourself in a BIG way.

It's a rough world out there. BEst to find a local small shop and get in good with them. They wil value your biz and hopefully you will find one that is honest. Hard, but it happens.

I've had a Firestone tell me I needed a new center link, Idler arm, and inner/outer tie rods in order to line up and put tires on my car that I had recently put ALL of that on myself. When I pointed out the new tags that were hardly even dirty, the guy choked, and I went off and had him opull the car out of the shop immediately. His manager (acting like he was) yelling at him all the while. What a show...

Hard to find a trustworthy place....

[semagic]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

[ QUOTE ]
I'm in a biz that does direct wholesale work for all you've mentioned. If you think they are shooting straight, you're kidding yourself in a BIG way.

It's a rough world out there. BEst to find a local small shop and get in good with them. They wil value your biz and hopefully you will find one that is honest. Hard, but it happens.

I've had a Firestone tell me I needed a new center link, Idler arm, and inner/outer tie rods in order to line up and put tires on my car that I had recently put ALL of that on myself. When I pointed out the new tags that were hardly even dirty, the guy choked, and I went off and had him opull the car out of the shop immediately. His manager (acting like he was) yelling at him all the while. What a show...

Hard to find a trustworthy place....

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dude i respect your opinion, but you just said "and hopefully you will find one that is honest." how is that differant than finding one in a big shop. [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

Wellllll.... A big chain has a large advertising budget that will bring customers in the door no matter what. Even if they screw half the people that come in and they vow to never come back, they will still have more customers right behind them to take the place of the irate ones because of amount of advertising.

A small biz has little ad budget to keep a steady stream of newbies coming in and often rely very heavily upon word of mouth. They have much more of a need to actually satisfy the customer and appear as honest as can be to their customers in order to make them "repeat" customers.

My shop literally has generations upon generations, friends of friends, brothers, sisters, cousins, neighbors and all sorts of relations of devoted customers and we would be deathly afraid of being caught screwing one over, as it would cost us biz that just couldn't be replaced. We play buy the rules and yes we lose money sometimes, but that sort of thing brings more people in, in the long run.

Also, Small shops are much more afraid of legal action than a larger shop is I believe.

In a large shop, the manager is immuned to being held truly liable, he would just be fired for his attempt at fattening the bottom line of his paycheck. And yes, the managers bonuses depend on all the add-ons they can get on your service order, I assure you that.

A small biz might actually go under due to a fair judgement against them. I would have say that they take customer care much more seriously and go the extra mile quite often in order to retain a customer or make a statement of good customer service.

So, I have to side with a small biz. BUT, of course, there are the unscrupulous owners there as well. You just have to feel them out and see how you are served, and move on to the next one if dis-satisfied.

Not trying to be a smart-arse, I hope it doesn't come off that way. I've just been in these types of biz for long time and have seen what the bigger chains expect of managers.

Hope that gives you some food for thought. Bear in mind the big shops can have honest managers as well. They just don't usually last too long with that mindset in the biz as they aren't bringing in the numbers that the upper management needs to see. Been there, done that, hated it...

[semagic]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

cool i can respect that. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

That goes for any small "mom and pop" style shop or small JCF dealers versus large chains too. Imagine if Matt's Music or VWall Guitars had one mess-up or lousy service... it would resonate throughout the whole JCF and it would definitely wreck their reputation. So, they are honest, friendly, and a great guys to deal with. [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

Alright Ace, so my dad WAS right about it being difficult to siphon out gas from newer cars... awesome, thanks for the confirmation. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[whackmaster]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

I manage a small shop (5 employees) and Cleveland Metal is dead on. We get customers in all the time from the "big boys" and dealerships with $1000 estimates on repairs. We double check 'em and 99.99% of the time they may need 1 out of the 10 things they have been quoted. The key is overhead and comission. Small independents (not all of them, some are as bad as the chains)have fewer employees, less space,and pay hourly most of the time. Guess what you're trained to do at the chains- if it comes in for a brake job, sell shocks, wheels, steering components-anything you can because your paycheck depends on it! We don't advertise anywhere but the phonebook and we have more business than we can handle! Honesty is something that's hard to find in this industry, so when people find someone that's straight up with them, they tell their friends and so on.On the original post, lose the shadetree and get recommendations from people- even call some shops and ask for references. If they're honest, their clientele will tell ya! There's a survey that shows people are willing to pay more for repairs to their lawnmower than for auto repair. Just like guitars, you get what you pay for!

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Question about car mechanics wasting my car\'s

I find it shocking how mechanics can "diagnose" a million things wrong with the car and sucker the customers into paying for those parts and labor, especially if the customer doesn't know much about cars. I saw this on a TV show where they put hidden cameras under the cars and let the mechanic/SCAMMER spout off all that bullcrap about this-and-that needing replacements and such... classic... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Unfortunately, I don't know much about cars myself. Our mechanic is a friend of a family friend and I think my parents like him... I mean, he does charge some low rates and is rather honest, according to my parents, except the gas usage. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Stupid morals getting in the way... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Rest assured, this will never happen if I ever take a guitar to a tech because I actually KNOW enough about guitars to know whether the tech is scamming me and spouting bullcrap to me about how the trebaloes/arpeggios/meedley-meedley-meeeees needed replacement so he went ahead and did it for me... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]