I have now received so many comments on this video that I am struggling to keep up… This is new for me as I have never had a video this popular. Thank you so much to everybody for watching and commenting! It is my goal on this channel to respond to every comment personally to the best of my abilities. If you take the time to comment on my channel, I will do my best to take the time to read it and respond to it. Thank you.
Your title hit a nerve , yes there is a real issue with techs leaving the trade , up here in Canada the issue is getting real bad . I work for GM in Oshawa and at our dealership is like a revolving door of techs , some dealerships are giving out incentives although since the pandemic most are just happy to be working . But the number one reason is money , its always money . When a plumber or an electrician get paid more then there are issues especially when you consider a tech spends on tools in comparison . The real problem in the automotive industry is there is too much overhead . For every dollar the tech brings into the shop has to pay the advisors , the call center , the cashiers . and the managers get their bonus , no wonder there is not enough for the techs which provide the labor and hours for every dollar brought in . Your vid also hit a nerve with me . Thankfully my 40 years is near done ..
Master technician = electrical/computer specialist, mechanical specialist, plumbing specialist, heating and a/c specialist, noise and vibration specialist, materials/ chemicals specialist, research specialist and finally a customer affairs specialist( factory and retail)! Under paid specialist!!!!! 90% of repairs easy, last 10% percent complex. Under paid causes 20% failure in the 90%, and near 90% failure in the last 10%! And that is assuming 100% effective writers, who are more interested in selling a big repair! LOL! Good luck!
I got out of the business almost 14 years ago. Don't miss it at all. Had to deal with stuff like this constantly. Once had an elderly couple bring a Crown Vic to the independent ship I was at after spending almost $2k at the dealership trying to fix an EGR flow code. I fixed it for $50 (probably 1/3 of what I should have charged) and they were mad at me for charging them because they'd already paid the dealership so much money. People are stupid, particularly when it comes to taking care of their cars.
Yep I have experienced that also. They don’t realize you’re rescuing them from their nightmare. EGR systems are usually very easy to diagnose with some system knowledge, unfortunately that is the reality of the industry right now….the dealership techs were just guessing rather than diagnosing and it is a huge time suck for everybody involved. Thanks.
I had the same experience years ago ( with a K car) They'd taken it to an Firestone store for poor running. They had been charged for a carb rebuild, plugs, wires, several modules to the tune of 500+. Firestone told them "It needs a computer module. Take it to the dealer and DEMAND they replace it for free> It's covered under the emissions warranty" Brought it us demanding the "free" computer. The real problem was a worn out distributor shaft (scattering timing) This was a common problem back then. Customer threw a FIT! Raged at ME for trying to screw them over. It got really heated. I finally told them, "Look! Why aren't you mad at the shop that charged you 500 bucks and DIDN'T fix your car? I'm the guy who's charging you 75 bucks and FIXING it!"
As a shop owner I deal with this stuff everyday. It’s always something like. “ you put wiper blades on now my check engine light is on! It wasn’t on before you worked on it” most people always want something for nothing.
Dead on, they have no clue how it works or why and it's always your fault. I have started videoing what I do and photos of the wrecked pieces of junk, they want me to work on( I do motorcycles and the garbage I see is staggering). From buggered up wiring for cool LED underlighting, which sets of security module and bike wont start to I rigged this so it works better etc.
Yes I’ve dealt with similar situations over the years. The customer is a shop owner whom I consider to be competent so I don’t think anybody was trying anything funny in that way. I believe it was just a miscommunication. Thanks.
My neighbor works privately on vehicles out of his garage. When I hear him screaming obscenities and throwing tools around I’m reminded that I made a great choice leaving the industry. I don’t miss the backbreaking work that doesn’t pay anything. I don’t miss seeing my boss roll up in a 100K$ super car every day while I couldn’t afford an apartment. I don’t miss snap on and Matco tool bills each week. Technicians deserve so much more praise and compensation for their skill set and devotion. Even retail or fast food seems like a more appealing career, and I would encourage any young men or women to stay out of this industry. It’s a good skill to learn and retain for yourself, but going to work for someone else is a waste of your time
One of my big regrets in becoming a mechanic is me and my little brother both really enjoy all things mechanical, it was a hobby when we were kids, I went to tech school, he joined the Navy, when he got out he lived on my couch going to college for his mechanical engineering degree, we both still like mechanical stuff but its hard to get him to understand my job really has ruined the hobby, after 10 plus hours working on machines, the last thing I want to do is come home and work on some pile of junk in the evening.
OMG! I've been out of the industry for many years but I still have a pile of receipts from Snappy, Matco and Cornwell. OP good luck in dealing with people in the future.
No! The real problem are BUTCHER mechanics!! I have re fixed vehicle's myself for friends and I'm not even ase certified!! There are even so on UA-cam...
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist right! I am not ase certified, but have maintained many vehicles up to and past 300,000 miles with no major issues... What to watch a pro? UA-cam South main Auto 2019 Silverado.. UA-cam pine hollow auto diagnostic. Those two guys are all I'm watch...
COULD YOU CHECK OUT THE POINTS AND CONDENSER WHILE YOU HAVE THE HOOD UP?????? WISH I COULD TURN BACK THE CLOCK......FJB AND THE RAT RINOS....THEY OWN THIS MESS!
45 yr career came to an end when covid hit us. Now I only do side jobs for fun and beer money. I absolutely refuse to take on any new business, especially anything that code reader wont get me to. Wont spend $$$ on equipment for modern car issues, no graphing diagnostic or the like.
I know how you feel. Been turning a wrench since I was 12, and just turned 40 this year. I got burned out working in dealers in my late 20's, and then burned out from working fleet maintenance a few years back. By the time we are done paying for our tools, and all the free hours we work, we make less than minimum wage. Hence why I'm a factory mechanic now.
This is why it's so important to get a written work order. If you're verbally asked to programme a BCM and then they change their mind and say they said ECM you don't have a leg to stand on. Glad you stood your ground and got paid for their error.
It wasnt verbal it was written. Even so he should have checked to see what had been done before doing any work on the vehicle. That part of the mistake is all on him
@@holmes1956O Don't be silly. If you did that you would be treated with disdain by the writer and management team. "Can't you read dummy?" Do the work as written, write your comment at the end, emphasise that your work as instructed is completed and tested with no codes....and photograph the original works order with all that written on it BEFORE they try to hand write a "correction".... Now who's the "dummy?
I learned a long time ago - if you don't charge enough money for the work, the customer doesn't respect you. No one discusses the cost with me. NO ONE. I determine the price, they pay it. Mind you I have a business built on a niche type of work that very few people do these days, and I charge accordingly. I quote the price up front. Don't like it, fine, go elsewhere. And there is no elsewhere. The flip side is I stand behind my work, without question, without argument. I will see the job to completion. But yes it's tough out there, and I'm going to hang it up soon. After all of us old guys leave the business people will finally understand the value of experience and skill gained over decades. But it will be too late - I'll have my feet up and taking it easy.
No they won't- they only understand that Henry Ford was sued under US law to ensure that corporations must always prioritize profits over employees. Put your boots back on and change some laws or we'll come and eat you.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist Arnold Schwarzenegger before he became famous as an actor started a brick laying company in Cali they billed themselves as a low cost alternative, business was not good. He rebranded as an exclusive European bricklaying company and charged above market, business boomed and he still has that company.
Fixed my problems 3 years ago by retiring. I started working on other peoples headaches back in 1976 and it has gotten progressively interesting since. A lot of people want something fixed for a little bit of nothing and that grew old very quickly for me because tools and talent does not come cheap anywhere. Time is money and I did not like arguing with people that think they know more than you do. When someone would say" you can do it cheaper! I double the Price"! The last few years I was into this I faced every excuse in the book until I hung it up! This is part why tech's are quitting this field of repair because a lot of folks want something for nothing... So I tell them to buy the books and tools and do it themselves! Even many dealers can't keep mechanics because of money! Nuff Said.
Yes I feel that every day. Customers don’t want to pay what it really takes. Employers don’t want to pay what it really takes. In my experience shops are terrified to charge customers for legitimate repair work so they place the burden on the technician to make up for poor management. Thank you for commenting.
I understand where you’re coming from people don’t realize the education and the skills and. Tool. ( electronics tools cost ) to work on these new vehicles not any Tom, Dick, or Harry can do it anymore in the back yard
@@stashoski2675 electronics tools cost is one time feed you can easily make back the your money you spent on it within the first few months it the programming that cost every time you used it because of the manufactured and there subscription cost, also shop rate ridiculously overrated that is why more and more people end up going somewhere else come on seriously a $150 hour most people don't even make that working all day.
I used to work in a similar environment. I designed electronics for Delco, Chrysler, Motorola, and a few others. Every morning when I get to work, its like an emergency room everyone waiting for me. After a few years, you need to get away from this because people will take your miracles for granted and it begins to affect your mental health. Eight years ago I retired and walked away. Nowadays when things get rough, I try to remember what it was like at work and it never fails to bring a natural smile on my face. In fact I am smiling right this minute watching your video. You are dealing with fools! Thanks for posting.
I'm one of those BURNOUTS. But I missed the challenge of troubleshooting. So I started flipping Basket Cases. You know, the car that wont run after "BUBBA" replaced his own (FILL IN THE BLANK)... I usually bought the car/truck/motorcycle/boat at scrap value. That way, if I lost, I could always get scrap value for what I had. This way, you work on them WHEN you want to, and STOP when you want to. NO PRESSURE. It was FUN to play with toys again. 'Cause remember : Working on cars is FUN, as long as you don't have to ! Just my $.02
I stumbled into one of these myself -- bought a used minivan at a dealership for too low of a price (great deal in my opinion). Everything seemed to work and run great during the test drive. A week later drove over some bumpy railroad tracks and the electrical system started acting crazy -- dash lights and electronics flickering and acting up real bad. Took me a little bit of time to find a wiring harness under the steering wheel area that was coming loose and the block not screwed together to keep it attached. Tightened all that up and the van gave me no trouble after that for the 5 years I owned it. Makes me think previous owner (and/or dealership) knew there was an electrical gremlin and they couldn't figure it out so sold it cheaply...
I'd much rather be doing this kind of work than working on customer cars. 2 problems I have though: no car trailer, and in NY its usually also rotted beyond repair if its a "good deal".
ACTUALLY a long-standing DREAM of mine, and a smart idea! Hell, look for the ones that really just need a good DETAIL job! They're out there, covered with green slime! 🙂
I worked at a dealer for almost thirty years. And it never stops amazing me how the service writers never ever take responsibility for there screw ups.
My favourite was a customer who complained that the fuel gauge didn't move on their newish car, I asked the service adviser to seek clarification on what the customer meant, To which he replied that the customer must be referring to the gauge not moving when they put fuel in..... instead of just calling the customer to clarify. So I take note of the fuel gauge reading both before replacing the fuel sender unit, and after replacing it.... Surprise, surprise, surprise.......no change..... Come to later find out that in the customers PREVIOUS car the fuel needle would drop when the car was switched off........... So since this DIFFERENT car wasn't doing that... it must have a fault..... The only saving grace was that I could access the fuel sender unit (and top of the fuel tank) by taking out the back seat... instead of having to drop the entire fuel tank.
If I got one in that was High Mileage and needed a ton of work I would make sure to tell them that I AM NOT! Responsible for other things that can burn out or quit working because some of them were about the end of their usefulness. Many agreed with me and spared both of us a lot of headaches. I don't like to put up with Stupid crap.
Had this happen recently, lady brought a 2009 Lincoln MKS to my shop and said the windows didn't work. I found a blown fuse, changed it and voila all the windows work again. A week later her water pump goes bad and she's claiming I caused it. Yes because the interior fuse box is conveniently located on the water pump inside the engine...luckily my shop tells these people to take a hike up a tall mountain
Good to hear the shop will stand up. Some shops will bend over backwards to reward bad customer behavior. I’ve experienced situations like that over the years. “The customer may lie, but the car never will” Thanks.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist Newer cars try to lie, since they have confusers in them. Usually by throwing codes not related to actual fault or not throwing any at all although the problem is clearly felt or seen. Go in with multimeter or scope and figure it out on your own. Some numbers on dashboard (like fuel consumption) can't be trusted as well.
True a lot of the gauges do not display the actual value they are filtered. I “specialize”, and my job is to be able to cast the confusing BS aside and figure out what is related to the problem and what is not. it can be rewarding to find the cause of a challenging electrical fault.
I am currently a GM tech in Canada . I get where you are coming from . I'm looking at getting out myself because it's gotten bad in the trade as well as I'm getting too old for this .
I'm only 30 , doing this for 10years, the last 2-3 years is just f ing hell.... they block you to do the job, you don't have access to shit, they make the software a pain in the ass just to f with the 3rd repair shops, made everything only accessible online... even a simple adaptation nowadays is a pain in the ass, than comes the cliens who want their cars to be done in 1 day, and for free, when you put in 2-3 days worth of time to find a problem , because you don't have the acces for anything anymore, and at the end you don't get paid what that work was worth, you always get way less than what you put in to find a problem, and these new cars, all have things like this, that looks like is a 10min job, and will become days and weeks because the entire system is made to be bad, and hard to repair. I still have 1-2 years and i';m done with this job for sure, people can cry in 5--6 years not having anyone to repair their car , and i will laught on the side. Repairing cars nowadays became ridiculous, even people who came to learn from me, the first thing i say, if you want a life and money, go and find another job that you want to do, repairing cars became a pain in the ass, there is a big problem with the equipment prices, the amount of things you need for simple things, the access for anything, making online everything, and the amount of things they put in cars just became a major problem, and let's not talk about the people, people want everything done in minutes... on cars that are made in a way for people who repair them to have a heart attack when they see them.
Great job, definitely charge them again for another reprogramming. You are totally correct about not being able to find good techs, most shops around me are raising their rates, because so backed up, and inflammation. I would raise your rates, its hard to find good quality mechanics.
but sometimes it is the 'mechanics' actions or none actions that cause the problems. Some mechanics are crooks ie like the ones that do a full serive and dont change the engine oil or filter or cabin filter but just wash the car and charge top Dollar
Ok, so my business was plumbing - I would NEVER offer any kind of guarantee if the customer supplied parts - usually either second hand or the CHEAPEST they could get. But I am so lucky in that I had very few bad customers over the years. I would only ever do ONE job for the few bad customers, and warn everyone I knew to avoid them. Conversely, my nice customers would recommend me to other nice customers, my customer base grew & grew without any paid advertising, and my last few years working were almost a pleasure (I would have preferred leisure!).
Yep. Our auto shop has filtered the "Walmart Shoppers" out of our system as well. It is nice. That's why I am still working there after 26yrs. Previously worked 10yrs in automotive hell because of corporate management that assumed the customer was right about everything. The cars are getting more annoying, but our customer base is that of educated people who know how hard it is to know everything about every car.
I was a technician for 30 years. I worked in an independent shop and worked on European, Asian, American and everything in between. Every day it was something different, and I had my share of accusations from customers. Everyone thinks mechanics are crooks, and the truth is we could easily be one. Cars are very complex now, and customers have no clue of how things work, or how things fail. Cars break every day, people. If they didn't, you wouldn't need technicians. Many times I replaced a bad injector or coil, or something else that what was also wrong with their car on top of the original complaint, with a good spare part I had laying around, and I did it for free just to keep them happy... I couldn't deal with it anymore and took a maintenance job at a factory. I couldn't be happier now. I know what I will be doing every day, and I don't have anybody treating me like I'm stupid or dishonest. The auto technician careers are fading fast, and I don't blame the techs one bit. Fix your own car, people, if you think it's so easy.
Thank you for sharing! I have done the exact same thing! I’ve fixed a customers vehicle with my own spare part just to not deal with the accusations. I have even seen a fellow coworker break a part on a customers car accidentally… Simple mistake. Coworker pulls out his phone calls the local auto parts store and buys the part with his own money rather than get the shop to cover it.
"ever since" It has been like that for a long time. people drive the cars into the ground, they want a nickle repair of one part and they blame you if the whole thing is not better then new. Add in the do it yourself experts that make 3 times the mess, and a business model that does not pay you for others inefficiency, and you get screwed every day. Got out of the dealership trade in 1988
I worked in a local shop for 4 years. The amount of money losing proposition jobs the owner agreed to undertake was astounding. And he was never in the workshop to do it.
I have several similar stories through the 37 years as a technician(30 with Honda). Recently retired. It helps to have a service manager that values your work and will support your decisions. It also helps to have some communication skills sufficient to convey why you are not at fault and will not be proceeding until payment method is conveyed. Through the years, I developed the reputation of being very thorough, capable and confident but not a fast high volume tech. Naturally this means you get more weird problems dispatched but not the big service jobs that pay well. The weird ones can be satisfying but harder to pay the bills(especially under warranty) 😉 Fortunately, I had upper management that was able to keep my pay at a reasonable level by having me train. They saw the industry changing and fewer technicians applying for jobs. I spent the last ten years with an apprentice. They would train with me for a year at least before flat rating. I was paid for my labor and theirs. I trained nine techs in that time. Throughout my career, I came across many very good technicians held back by their own attitude or lack of confidence. My guess is you've seen something similar.
Thank you very much for sharing! Yes I’ve experienced similar. A good manager is amazing for shop production. I had also always been thorough and slow….still am sometimes. The haste came with experience. I have trained some apprentices in a similar pay situation… Honestly, some of the most fun I have ever had working in the shop… Renewed my passion for auto repair. I would love to eventually teach… May have possible teaching opportunities opening up at the local college soon. Teaching was also partly the inspiration for this channel, I have literally spent my entire life gathering knowledge… To share knowledge and experience… To record what I have in my head before I am gone.
I'm glad you were able to place blame on the guilty party! As a customer, I've met many more experienced and competent mechanics/technicians than service writers in my lifetime.
My mom used to threaten me that if i didnt get good marks in school i would wind up a garbage man. I ended up a broke ass auto tech and now union garbage men earn $80 thousand a year and never touch a can.
I was told the same thing except it was a ditch digger. 3 years ago I quit being a master tech and started driving trucks. Making more money and less stress.
@bayoumike544 good for you. I had to retire early because my knees went out. I injured one on a job and the doctors did nothing for me. Later on after the cartlidge disappeared WCB told me it was my fault I didn't follow up. Now I am old and broke with no pension.
That is funny before I was done reading your comment I was going to say exactly that… “waste management specialists” make some dang good money and benefits these days. Honestly, it is possible to make a good living in auto repair… It takes a significant personal investment of time and money compared to other jobs. Thank you.
@@smokeskull I know the feeling. Knees and hips shot and no pension. However I am making more money sitting in a truck with a/c but am out for a week at a time (18 wheeler)
That's one of the reasons i retired after 44 years in the trade as a GM tech. Front office thought they knew best. I had a few run ins when i would not use someone else's diagnosis and then crickets when there diagnosis was incorrect. Life in the country playing with my own toys is so good 😊 In saying that it can be so satisfying to fix someone's long-term problem and get thanked for it (Too rare unfortunately) cheers from Australia 🇦🇺
7:47 38 years in the trade and I agree with every comment on here. I would love to get out of the trade.... My son followed in my footsteps (against my advice) 😢
I was in the flat rate game, off and on, for too many years. At one dealership I was in the shop 50-60 hours a week and got behind on my mortgage because the service writers had no problem giving work away. I’m doing fleet maintenance now. Servicing and repairing filthy old work trucks isn’t fun but I get paid reasonably well. Only 4 years left until I can retire and I’ll be out
Yes, it gets really old having to work hard and dig deep to make up the difference when everybody is relaxed about giving away your time for free. Glad to hear you are making it work. Thank you for the comment.
I'm there with my service writers, and for over 3 years I've been trying to beat into their heads that we don't give labor away! Just because it took 15 minutes to write a customer up (as half assed as possible) doesn't mean that the mechanic will fix it so easily. I asked for a raise, but was told we're not making the money, meanwhile they service writers aren't wasting time to even look up job times. I'm just glad in less then two years I'm done. I'm retiring early and will set myself up to do some jobs on my own and of what I want to work on.
@@Oldbmwr100rs it’s why I gave up working at dealerships and went back into contract security. Didn’t want to change industries but I didn’t see any other way to get ahead. Security pays a consistent hourly rate for way less headaches. Spent 7 months trying to find a good paying dealership position ( know what a service advisor does btw). I had 15 interviews for dealership positions and I never got a call back. 7 months and 15 interviews. Went back to security work cause they actually did call me back
I worked as an auto tech briefly about 25 years ago. I left because as the new guy I was getting all the work that paid 30 minutes for 45+ minutes of work while the long-time guys got all the gravy work that paid 3 hours for 2 hours of work or better. After about a year of essentially minimum wage work (where I had to buy expensive tools out-of-pocket) and seeing that it would be many years before my situation would noticeably improve I left for greener pastures and have no regrets!
Yes, that is very common… The older established techs would quit if the new guy gets all of the good desirable gravy work. It is sad that every time I teach somebody something that I am good at and share knowledge and tips, it cost me and hurts me. I experienced the same thing for many years… Working broke and buying expensive tools while waiting for it to start paying off. It is finally paying off… All of the hours upon hours of free reading material that I invested the time and locked it away in my brain more so than the tools. I am not that old and my body is already starting to kill me from the physical work of auto repair… I am hoping to be able to keep up production using my brain when my body can no longer produce the hours. Thanks for sharing.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist The physical side of auto mechanics is rarely even talked about. I took some auto tech classes & almost every teacher had noticeable scars with stories that they were lucky to survive from.
@@ag4allgood I think we all have some of those stories. I have lots of scars from jobs where I bled to meet and beat flat rate labor times. A couple good burn marks too lol. Thanks.
IT TAKES YEARS TO GET GOOD YOUR BRIEF TIME SHOWS YOU GAVE UP ON WHAT TAKES A LIFE TIMEYOU JUST DONT WALK IN GREEN AND EXPECT GRAVY TRAIN THOSE GUYS DID THE TIME ENOUGH SAID.
Removed myself from the public repair industry for this reason and shit service writers. Like you said "always place blame" haven't been happier! And now cars are fun again
On the other hand I had a water pump swapped on an Ecotec and they let the cam timing slip. It made the engine run poorly and vibrate. We retimed the cam chain and all was well. First shop still insists a vibrating dash is normal and that changing the cam timing would not cause vibration anyway. I think people on both sides can be right, sometimes simultaneously.
Yes sometimes it goes that way. The other shop just didn’t want to take accountability and kicked the customer down the road which is the absolute worst thing to happen to a customer. Thank you.
My "favorite" was when a customer would provide their own part, the work order would read "replace alternator" (or other component) and after I did, the car would be back a few days later as a comeback, still not working as intended, and now they expected me to diagnose the issue for free. Sorry, Nope. Someone higher up on the food chain than myself (customer, service writer, or service manager) diagnosed this, and I was told to replace a part- so I did. If the alternator (or other component) was the problem or not, at that point, was no longer my concern- you asked for a component to be replaced, you got a component replaced. Whether or not that component fixes the problem or was the problem is between you and whomever diagnosed the vehicle. I actually got fired multiple times for BS like this. They wouldn't actually word it that way, it would be more like "you're not being a team player" or something to that effect. I would usually come back with "if being on your team means I have to work for free, I'll find another team".
Well said… Yes, I have experienced those situations as well. I also worked at that kind of shop for a short time….we were not compatible and they played games to try and control you. They ended up firing me for not playing along, and when I called their bluff and had my stuff loaded up and gone in less than one hour, the boss had the writer call me and said it was all just a joke when I arrived in my driveway at home and then tried making me offers several times later and getting me back. I honestly think it was all a game to try and make me beg for my job. I just said “Ok. I’m gonna go load up my stuff and when I come back you’re going to have my final paycheck ready” D-O-N-E Done. Thanks for the comment.
My reply to some of these companies was, I didn’t get dressed up for nothing. PS I remember years ago customers used to come into the shop and want to borrow one of my tools, and I would say no problem. Give me your wallet and he said I’m not give me my wallet and I said I’m not giving you my tools. I don’t know you from Adam.
Your attitude is wrong. If someone brought me a part I would always ask who diagnosed the problem and made sure that there was a good chance the diagnosis was correct. In any case your position is wrong if you did not confirm that your installation of the part resolved the problem.
@@anon-tq1vv OH, don't worry, they try, and f up the car even more, and then when it comes to you, they even list what the problem is, and want the repair for free.
Dude you are SPOT ON with this..... I know the video is less than 8 min and customers think all you have to do is push a button to fix it. But have no idea what flat rate is and have to pay 4k plus for a scanner along with all the tool we have to pay for. I was a line tech for 30 yrs & a shop foreman. When a advisor had a problem with a write up to call me so we could get it right on the RO. Especially when customer was in with a noise complaint. I am going on a test drive with that customer and show me when, where & how does this noise start. We have stories with this shit if you have been at this for a living. It is a high stress job. Especially with all of the warranty & recall bullshit.. Great job on this post..
Sounds like the elephant in the room is the manufacturers, paying 4k for a glorified calculator is just insanity, these kinds of fixes should cost less than a happy meal realistically
I feel your pain..GM Saab owner here..Never before have i purchased a car, then had to get a Tech 2 or any other diagnostic scanner to keep it running..A spare used ECU, then a laptop etc for security access so i can clone the ECU in the vehicle for when it eventually fails. .I think i spend more time looking out for warning lights on the dashboard than i do looking at the road..
It’s getting to be difficult to find the old Saab cartridges for the Tech 2 too. The Saab version of the Tech 2 can be emulated via Tech2Win with a subscription and a J2534 device. I remember working on Saabs in the independent repair world before they shut down and then overnight they became difficult to source parts and tools, etc. then nobody wanted to own them or work on them. Thanks for the comment.
I was a mechanic in the military, got out in 1969 and lasted 3 years working on flat rate.....until I couldnt pay rent and started working in Industry.....regular work, regular pay, retirement, health care etc. only worked on cars for fun and beer money after that....still working on my own, and friends vehicles in retirement.
As an hourly telephone tech, I would sometimes get tickets where the problem described on the ticket was nothing related to what the customer was experiencing. I learned quick to always doubt what was written and confirm with the individual that was having the problem before wasting a bunch of time "fixing" something that wasn't broken....
Sometimes I will intercept the customer and have a quick chat with them just to get a feel for the situation and gather vital information. Depends on the customer, because that can turn into a big time suck all by itself. Thanks for sharing. That sounds like a fun job.
There once was a time when service writer's were knowledgeable now, last week they were a fill clerk just out of high school now they're writing tickets and your having to explain that the right side of the car is always the right side no mater where you are standing After 40 years of being a technician I was fired for telling a service writer that I was not looking for keys on a miss tagged car which had happened many times before. The manager said that I had hurt all the writers feelings at one time or the other and had to go
I get the feeling that service writers will be one of the jobs AI will replace once it gets up to speed. The people with manual labour skills will have AI as assistants to book jobs, find parts, repair manual specs etc. Those who can't do actual work, will get replaced.
I worked as a mechanic for a municipality and had the Public Works director tell me essentially the same thing. He told me everybody was afraid of me, and that I'd hurt a lot of people's feelings. My reply to him was that he hired me to service and repair the cities vehicles, not as a social worker or psychiatrist to worry about other employees' "feelings". He and I did not get along very well.
I recently bought some parts from a shop that i thought was also a mechanical workshop, when i commented that i thought he was a mechanic he said "I am but i have closed that side of the business because i got sick and tired of people blaming me for things that i didn't do, or pressuring me to do things for free whilst i had the vehicle in for repair, or just arguing about the price when they came to pick up there vehicle. So i just sell parts now, i make just as much money, i don't get stressed, and when it gets to 5pm i am out the door". Its a real shame as he did some work on my mums car years ago, and was so genuine and nice, its totally crap that people have burnt him out ...
I’ve found an honest shop in my area. He’s not cheap but he does exactly what he says he’s going to do. I’m good with that plus a tip to the actual mechanic.
That’s great! That is the true value of finding a shop that you can trust….it’s peace of mind that you can trust them to take care of you in the right way. Thank you.
There should be a place on a work order to confirm: "Reprogrammed BCM as instructed by X the writer. Engine started and ran poorly. All body functions controlled by this BCM tested fine and no fault codes after the testing." and take a quick photo of the instruction and your written response. No way can that be held against YOU.
Good on you for having the integrity to stand your ground and demand pay. The only way these mistakes will be corrected, is when they have to financially pay for them.
Thank you. Yes I get tired of being the one to take on the risk of doing business in this trade.….at that point just put my name on the building. I’ve already given up too much free work over the years.
Young people aren't becoming mechanics for a couple reasons. First off, I know few young men who have an interest in cars like they did fifty years ago. We all worked on our own cars for routine maintenance, if nothing else. Secondly, parents and teachers spent decades telling young people that their futures were ruined if they didn't go to college. The customer service issues have always been there.
I see that a lot. It’s few and far between to find a young and motivated candidate….then when you find one and spend many hours training them they realize there are better, faster ways to make a living with less personal investment and they leave. Although the ones that are skilled and end up staying will have a promising future as things are changing fast and honestly apprentice starting wages are the highest I’ve ever seen. One young guy I mentored for a couple years ended up staying in the industry and was able to move on to a new shop and survive the grind and support his growing family with everything I taught him. I told him I spent the money on schooling and realized it’s all available for free online you just need somebody to teach you like the old days…..like somebody took the time to teach me. That was part of the inspiration to start this channel…to share knowledge with anybody willing to solve their own problems with it. Thank you.
I used to be an employee. Y'all treated me like trash. I started my own business and now I fix your problems. And there's an army of people just like me. Poor management.
Would nor recommend auto tech to any young person . Flat rate will keep them broke and starving . As a new tech you get all the shit jobs nobody ever makes time on. On top of the garbage that is delt with in this video and if this would have happened to a kid right out tech school they more then likely would have eat that time not knowing better. I have been an auto tech for 38 years and I will not work flat rate in any dealership they will screw you every chance they get . just not a career worth the time.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist There is also the thinking manual labor is beneath many people. The willingness to learn auto technician type skills has gone away. I see my nephews & nieces go as far as learning to change their own tires but that is about as far as it goes. Its really sad the younger people just have no desire to learn auto mechanic skills.
For years as an Automotive mechanic aka technician this very event has happened to me sooo many times. I have always used three main (there's more I'm sure) statements that might help. 1)No ticket, no laundry! 1a) I do donate to charities when I want, not when I'm told to! For the involuntary free work. 2) Poor planning and diligence on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part! For the incorrect R/O line description entered.
Hey there, I'm an Evaluations, and Repair Technician for a Surgical Equipment Repair company, and when you showed the document at 3:09 I noticed something. Whenever someone makes a change to a repair request, it must be populated in the system and a new copy printed with the appropriate date and time on it. If we make any hand changes to the paperwork, we must also initial, time and date when we cross something out. Then it has to be updated in the system which cannot be falsified. Not sure who did the cross out, but it's a good practice to have. Sorry to hear about poor practices from big shops.
Yes I forced them to add an additional line electronically in the system and also forced them to electronically flag me the labor time…. Both of which produces a time stamp. Otherwise I’d have no way to check back later to verify I got paid. It’s an exhausting game to play, the hardest part of the job is getting paid. I’ve had this kind of hand written thing happen many times in many shops over the years. It always gets swept under the rug and forgotten about when they waste your time and cost you money. Thanks for sharing.
"Ever sincha" used to add $20 to any R.O. at a place I used to work at. Replaced a blinker bulb 3 weeks ago, now I have an exhaust leak, ever sincha fixed my blinker.....
One of the biggest beefs was the guy who takes his problem child to three different places trying to get it fixed on the cheap, then brings it to the dealer. Always starts with everything has been checked but it don't go. Shouldn't take long because everything has been checked, right?. Forty four years in the trade. Been there done that didn't even get a T shirt.
Yep I’ve dealt with that situation many times. One time I told a guy his brand new part was the cause of his long repair saga and many repair attempts. It took a new $250 OEM sensor to replace his part and it fixed if right away. Funny thing is he bought an OEM sensor online, but it was the wrong part number and missing an internal resistor. Thanks for commenting.
My LAST words as a mechanic in 1980 were FU to a nasty customer. I never worked in the field again by my choice. Became a FF and retired with 28 yrs. I would advise the same. 👍
Used to be a German & GM drivability tech way back and the more I see of this 'techno-depend on the computer stuff today, I love my 1980 SR5 even more. 19 years and going.
I hate modern cars with their computerised operation! Give me the good ol' days of timing chains, carburettors, coils, distributors, condensers and sports aircleaners!
I took car to shop(had the money, didnt want to mess with it) after I knew problem was bad right front wheel bearing. They "diagnosed" front left wheel bearing. Took it home and did it myself. What would have happened if I hadnt known in advance?
It depends on the shop… Some will call the customer and tell them it was their mistake, sorry for wasting your time, and they will fix the other side, parts and labor at no charge. Literally doing both sides for the price of one. Most of the shops I’ve worked for have been this way. Some will make a deal with you and discount the other side. Some will fix the other side and give you the car back without saying anything. Some will get you to pay parts and labor to fix the other side also. Some will not only charge you to do both sides… They will also get you for every flush and filter service possible whether it needs it or not, etc. The truth is… On a high mileage vehicle… At write up, the shop should have recommended doing both sides at the same time anyways. Along with inspecting and combining necessary brake labor into the job. Thanks.
I was a tech for 46 years and a shop owner for 40 years of that and shut it down in April and took a job with the railroad. Glad to be out of the business. No qualified techs out there to hire, parts are hard to find now and overhead is now too high to make it profitable. Like working on my race stuff but will never go back to being a technician for a living. I’m done.
While I was never a tech, I wore many hats in a dealership environment for most of my career (parts counter/manager, IT guy, warranty admin). Made a change and went to the railroad 14 years ago......and never looked back. I feel for my brothers and sisters still in the game.
Thank you. It’s sad that an employee has to take such measures. Imagine a world where they just paid an automotive technician for our time spent in the building lol.
This is an interesting point though,in my shop I have 3 cctv cameras and 2 microphones this way everything including sound is recorded,they are there because I once got threatened by a customer so now I have proof of everything if I ever need it and there's enough signs,thing is as said you can ask a customer twice the same thing but they will still deny it if it doesn't fit their agenda,best solution is to see all customers as liers
I had won a training scholarship at Chrysler after Graduating high school.. They were looking for future tech specialists because the industry was changing to all things electronic. When I saw a glimpse of what they meant by all things electronic, I was disheartened it was so different than what I had learned my entire youth. So I joined their Engine development Corps. and learned machining and remanufacturing I still hate Automotive tech, but really admire and respect those who do it.
I'm heavy equipment, worked for dealers for several years. Too much drama and BS for me. Dealing with the crap the sales team told the customer or what the service manager thought the problem was... Went to work for a company keeping the fleet running. Way better job. My customers were usually production supervisors angry because the piece of equipment was not running in the morning but after a brief explanation of why, things would settle down. I retired 5 years ago, they still want me to come back.
I get where you are coming from, but as a customer I have had my share of ineptitude and crooked service departments in the past. Dealerships nowadays seem to just throw my money and their parts at the problem till I trade it for another one.
Unfortunately, you are right… The problem is incompetent technicians that do not put any effort into diagnostics and just throw parts at a problem… Usually at the customers expense and a huge waste of time. Thanks.
Yeah, I had a buddy who was Chrysler trained and employed. Their M.O. was just throw parts at it until the code goes away. He was notorious for doing shi**y trans rebuilds and whatnot, but he's still employed there.
@@notmyname3883 I worked with a guy that everything he touched came back… Literally for years after he left also they were still coming back. “But he’s sooo fast” I was told lol.
I used to work on the service industry. I had customers who opt for independent technicians and when they can’t fix the problem they would call our company and would tell me “you were just here a week ago and we want to you perform the repair under warranty.” I would tell them let me check my repair log book and see if I had a service call to your office last week. Charge then for the full repairs plus the service call fee. 😂
As a CPA, always have a good, easy to read invoice with good descriptions and fees. You would be surprised how people will pay a lot more and quicker when they see and understand the services rendered.
Glad they didn't stick you with it. Getting people to take responsibility for their work is hard these days. Good to see there are still competent technicians out there.
Number 1 reason I retired from wrenching TECHNOLOGY HAS BECOME TO DAMN STUPID. I LOVE THE OLD MECHANICS RULE, KISS RULE KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID. AS FOR THE ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS, THEY DON'T HAVE TO WORK ON NEW POS'S.
it's never their fault it's the Mechanic's ! same BS i went through, i am so happy that i am retired now the whole system just got worse and worse every year with the new technology. the fights for pays increased and the pays dropped
Quit back in 2006 as dealer hr rate was $ 105.00 an hour, and only paid tech $18 an hour + fix other techs comebacks for free, after they got fired!!! @@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist
People would stay in the industry, if it paid. It just doesn't pay anymore, as the house takes 80% of Labor cut. You've got shop owners that want to run their business like a McDonald's, with similar overhead. I2 stayed in the business too long, multiple decades and the only time my income was respectable was one Ike quit working for somebody else. I went from $75,000 a year, to $165,000 a year and I work Less hours. Something to think about.
Its the same all over the world.. I was a multi brand master tech and a Automotive engineer, the blame game gets old quick as does the lack of trust. i have seen this problem from both sides of the fence and decided working on cars is better a hobby than a trade. The lack of understanding of the motortrade is bad.
That’s the same old story. Sounds like you are the exact kind of highly skilled, talented individual that this industry needed and failed. Thanks for sharing.
To all you mechanics out there. Go into industry. I did years ago and have not regretted it. I have hourly work , year round in California. Very rare for the customer to say to me, it worked, until you did what ever.
I’m in Hvac. A lock shop trued to switch all their techs from per hour pay to commission only 10-99 contractors. 23 out of 25 tech quit on the spot. The company went out of business 2 weeks later. The owner tryed blaming it on some increasing you profits summoner he went to. He know he was shifting all his liability’s onto his employees. And they where having none of that crap
Yep they know what they are doing. If the employee is paid by the hour… Suddenly the burden of management and production is on the shoulders of… Management. I see that from time to time in the auto industry also… Boss comes back from the big seminar, put on by somebody who has never even spent a day in the trade and wants to make all sorts of big changes. Totally out of touch… I blame that on ownership and management that does not come from the tradespeople that it manages. Thank you.
If you're going to be 1099, you might as well just be self-employed or start your own HVAC business with a couple of other guys. All you're doing is taking all the liability while the boss gets rich.
I used to install A/V equipment for a local shop in the evenings and people would bring in stuff to be installed that wouldn't work and then either not want to pay or blame us for the non-working component. I eventually started having them pay to have the item bench tested upfront and then would take the testing fee off the install fee if I did the work.
Us consumers see the shortage as well. Slipped a pad in one of my work vans. Pads and rotors were changed 42k ago on this van, paid the dealership to do it. I take it here because this van is never in my hands and this particular employee is known for ignoring obvious signs. I told the manager why i bring it to them for oil changes, so they can do the inspection and keep my van ready for work. Well they couldn't fit the van in for a week so i did the pads and rotors myself(used to work as a mechanic a lifetime ago). Upon removal i discover the caliper pin/bolts have never been greased since factory installation. Dust caps are full of exactly that, dust. So the caliper slides are completely frozen, needs new calipers as well. Then i noticed the passenger strut is toast, boot detached and leaking fluid. Asked my employee how long has the van been pulling? He says for a while now and i told the dealership. Why didn't you tell me? Dealership does the tire rotations as well with the oil changes so how did they not notice the strut? I think they are just so understaffed that either they dont have time to fix identified problems at the time of discovery. Or they are so understaffed that inexperienced mechanics are forced to do jobs they haven't been properly trained to do. I used to do all this myself but we are in the same boat, no time. Looks like i will be making time in the future because i cannot afford to have a van down for maintenance and then for dealing with improper maintenance. FYI, I paid one of our local shops to do struts and shocks. I just don't have the time or facilities for the struts. It seems we are understaffed in every field thanks to Joe and crew. FJB
Lasting 42k isn’t too bad for brakes on a work van. Caliper slide pins do get hot and dry out more often on work vans too, but yeah it’s likely they didn’t even clean and grease them. For some reason in this industry the most important operation of doing oil changes, inspections, and other maintenance services are regarded very lowly and given to the lowest skilled and inexperienced “technician”…..usually right off the street with little to no training similar to a quick lube. The opposite should be true… a car comes in for an oil change it should have skilled eyes doing a thorough inspection to recommend repair and upkeep because the customer isn’t even aware of problems until they become bad enough. In reality “lubrication specialists” are incentivized with extra money to upsell filters and flushes so that’s all they end up caring about on top of not even knowing what they’re doing. Thank you.
The food and hospitality industry is hurting in that same way also. It's so bad some places are forced to hire ppl with known drug habits and other issues. Or you can't fire shit workers because a shitty worker is better than no worker in many cases. It's unreal. And now C19 stuff coming again making it all so much harder and ppl are going to quit and we're going to lose all the places that didn't close during the last lockdowns etc.
@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist I have 5 of these promaster 2500. Typically they make it about 80k on front pads. Bought all of them new so we keep a maintenance log on all of them, that's the only reason I know this. It's crazy times for skilled trades. An over abundance of work and a lot of Americans don't want to work. Our government handed out a lot of money during covid which worsened thst issue. I wish we could get through to some of these people that college isn't the only path. You cannot learn my trade in a classroom, only the technical portions of it. But it won't make much sense without learning the application of that knowledge in the field. Skilled trades are a dying breed and one can make 6 figures easily if they are highly motivated. Best of luck out there my friend 👍
@@knuckledragger2412 brake life varies widely around here because we have a lot of hilly terrain outside of the cities. If I can help it I’d like this channel to be a resource pool for anybody seeking knowledge and experience. I would like to give somebody the gift of learning a skilled trade to be able to better themselves. I have a lot of fun teaching any of the apprentices that are interested in learning which is rare.
I work in diesel mechanics and only serviced a customers truck. He came back the next day irritated a check engine light came on. Once diagnosed it had to due with the scam after treatment system. He then got quiet and appreciative. Glad you got paid sir. Programming can be a pain in the ass especially when other shops don’t have the proper equipment to do their job
I hope you charged him for the diagnostic. I have experienced similar situation over the years… The customer may lie, but the car never will. Thank you for sharing.
Lol on the service and repair side of things when somebody comes in with a concern right after they left the body shop, the body shop is the first to get blamed. Sometimes it’s true sometimes it’s not… But they are always the first to take the blame because they touched it last. There have been times on diagnosis where I found a simple ground nut left, loose or some thing from a good body shop, and I explain to the customer it was just a simple mistake, and to not hold it against them too much. On the flipside, I have also seen lots of bad body shops do some nasty work and cause some new problems. Now days we have to take full walk around photos of the car inside and out to avoid being blamed for pre-existing damage. I can usually sniff out a customer who is hunting for a victim… I always take good notes also. Thanks.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist yes I know all about bad body shops. Thankfully the last 3 over 15 years all have been the top shops in my state for quality . But I know of a song you can relate to. Hold on I'll link it in a Second
Sounds like they put the ecm in after you programmed the bcm. Because if it ran for you after you programmed the bcm. In the video you try to crank it and you had no crank no start. That couldn't happen after you programmed the bcm initially. Plus the check engine light was flashing with key in run position which in my experience always indicates a new ecm that has not been programmed
That’s exactly what I had thought, I really don’t know if that is what happened though. I programmed the BCM and did the theft learn…it started and ran on 4 cylinders. I notated what I did and that I recommend diagnostics for the engine running bad. I left for the day and next morning I have the note on my desk and it wouldn’t start as shown. A phrase I picked up years ago on iATN….”the customer may lie, but the car never will” has always helped me to maintain a clear head in situations like this. Honestly I don’t think they did anything negative like that, I think it was a miscommunication….of course neither one of us can explain how and why it started before because I never saw the old module. Anyways it’s been handled and all is well. Thank you, great comment.
People in other industries are saying "One reason people are quitting........." Its not just the automotive industry. Business has become so much more complicated and frustrating. There are too many specifics to list. However, if you take general issues in one industry, there will often be general similarities in another industry.
I think it is a culture of being way too comfortable giving away somebody else’s time to appease a customer at the lowest rate. Race to the bottom business model. Thank you.
I work as a residential electrician. On numerous occasions over the years customers have blamed the company for electrical problems found elsewhere in their home after we did repairs. “You did something wrong and have to fix it for free.”
Always dreamed of getting the your level , Thank you for talking us through your thought process , busted them and got paid , And did it with gentlemanly style , Congratulations on mad skills
Thank you very much! I’m what your average technician should be, I just fake it till I make it. Jokes aside I learned everything I know from somebody else at some point over the years, I’ve also made plenty of costly mistakes which were good lessons. So I’m trying to return the favor here on UA-cam and share the knowledge and experience with anybody hungry to learn.
Started working on car’s in an old full service gas station in 1983, went off to a technical school to learn to be a mechanic in 1987 after my father an ex army mechanic taught me how to work on cars. In that time I had customers rip the station off for car batteries at $5 per battery, dropped out of the trade school that later became an accredited college over the funky monkey BS the school was pulling. And have since worked in another service station, where I saw a bunch of funny business going on by the owners son and customers. I still work on car’s, but refuse to do it for the general public or for an employer. The reason there is a shortage of mechanics is 4 fold, poor education, unethical employers, unethical customers and corrupt/incompetent mechanics. Only takes one bad mechanic, to cause a shop to develop a bad reputation that shuts a shop down.
Well said. Thanks for sharing. That one bad mechanic in the shop can really ruin it for everybody else you are absolutely right….I’ve worked with “that guy”.
Former Mercedes Master certified technician, teamleader, shop foreman & independent repair shop foreman/manager. I can attest this industry sucks! i retired early & became a stay at home dad.
My mother has an '82 380SL, it's been a money pit when she bought it used in Dec '90. It's been sitting for the last 22 years at a shop wasting away. Can you help her? 🤣🤪
Hi guys yes me too I worked with engine development last 30 odd years electronics was my major, it's gotten insane how much time and equipment needed to work independently on car electronics, 57 years old Every day is a grind ,sometimes it takes days To work out a problem no information and schematics or coding information, it's dammed hard and no one cares ,very little money in it now what do we do??
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist Yes no worries, today I am 3 days in on a Peugeot 207 will it be pay day today? The customer is a lady Who is sure she knows what the problem is, loose keys !! I tried to explain can bus communication is nothing related to loose keys 😉
I Feel your pain brother , Was always like this when i worked at a dealer guilty until i prove myself of no wrong doing. This is why i work for myself i can weed out the yeah not going to touch that with a 10 foot pole kinda cars.
If it was easy every shop would do it. Just because they have their papers doesn't mean they were at the top of their class. Been working on cars for over 40 years and good technicians are keepers.
When I “graduated” trade school the person in the class that we all knew wasn’t going to survive in the industry and asked the most obvious questions over and over again because he just could not understand unfortunately….. He ended up becoming the next automotive instructor after the older instructors retired. Absolutely blew my mind. Certifications in my opinion, don’t matter much unless you are looking for a job. I have worked with some ASE Master techs that were not qualified to change a door knob. It is not terribly hard to read a book and take the test on paper… Application is where it counts. Thanks.
I love it when you go into a dealership or independent shop and the service advisor is a girl in her 20s. Hire the most unqualified people to cut your payroll costs. Can bus is nothing but problematic, its a daisy chain and if its not a bad module and its a wiring problem GOOD LUCK ! New vehicles with less that 10k on the odometer at the dealerships for a month and still not repaired !
Men and women working as service advisors completely lack automotive knowledge so I wouldn’t really blame it on this or that. Yes usually they are hired at a minimum to be a people handler. I kind of enjoy network diagnostics it is fairly easy to understand and is clean work. I believe many dealerships are lacking skilled personnel, and also there have been significant parts delays across-the-board. Thanks.
If the service advisor is generally a person with little mechanical skills then why is hiring a 20 y/o girl as a service advisor a problem? I would assume this position is more about communication and customer service. I don't work in the auto industry, just someone that DIYs my own cars, so maybe I misunderstand, but definitely open to being corrected.
@@donaldlee6760 The main reason why I started doing my own service was so called service advisors. Looked at the repair bill on my mom's car and they charged her for 6 quarts of oil on a 350 V8 ! When I was working and took my Honda in for service = car was 3 years old and air conditioner compressor went out. Spent 6 hours working on my car and called me up and the parts guy ordered the wrong part ! Sitting in the waiting room waiting for my car I see a tech drain the differential oil on another car and then lower it down like it was done, talked to the cute little girl and she was to scared to talk to the tech. I went out and told the dumb ass to do his job and he said thanks man ! Went to Les Swab for tires and drive home and they put the wrong size tire on one side of my vehicle and the correct size on the other ! Had some brake work done and start driving and the steering wheel was moving back and forth without me touching it so get out of the car and lug nuts were loose on both front tires. The average cost of car repairs today is $4500 bucks according to CNBC . SCREW SERVICE WRITERS AND GREASE MONKEY'S WHO CHARGE UP THE KAZOO AND RIP PEOPLE OFF ! I GUESS YOU BUY A NEW CAR EVERY 2 YEARS AND HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED BEING SCREWED !
I’m a medical Xray/Device Technition and I’m telling ya, it not just your industry! I’ve actually gotten the “he was in the building and now X does not work” get it all the time, blamed for things I had absolutely nothing to do with. It’s really bad especially with salesmen making impossible promises to make sales. I’m looking to get out of this Industry, I’m a burnout aswell.
Communication in business is essential. If any corner of the triangle is stoopid, difficulties will arise.. I own a 1971 plymouth and I broke a shock mount. I am kind of old and cant see well so I drove it back it to the same chrysler ram dealership. I also wanted the ignition distributor replaced. Everyone wanted to work on the car because it doesn't give them any codes. I returned three days later and the car was fixed and everyone was happy.
I left the industry (retired) 7 years ago. This type of thing was almost a daily occurrence. It got to where you spent half of your day performing "freebies". Now I drive older autos that don't need a damn computer to diagnose or reprogram.
These modern vehicles with all their electronics and computers are such a pain to work on if you don't have a shop, or at least shop-grade tools/equipment. It used to be pretty straight forward to diagnose a rough running engine, no computer needed. 3 things needed for a running engine... fuel/air mixture, compression, and spark. It was usually kinda simple to narrow down which of the 3 had the issue. Now.. well.. too many inter-connected computers & sensors that it takes another computer just to weed through all the readings.
True there are now many more complexities on modern vehicles. The secret to diagnosing modern fuel injected engines….the engine needs have not changed, it still needs air/fuel, compression, spark at the right time. The computer just makes it so much easier to take many different measurements all at once and sometimes diagnose the engine fault from the drivers seat. You’re not wrong though, they sure can be a pain to work on and require specialized equipment at times. Thank you.
I got blamed for bending a clutch disc in a Camaro. It wasn't bent, and I knew it wasn't. Was chattering when it came in, and they wanted me to give it back in that condition (ostensibly to collect the bill). I refused, told them the customer would not take delivery with poor operation. I finally won out. pulled it apart and handed the disc to the service manager and said, show me the bent disc! It had 2 marcel plates stacked, so a thick spot in one section of the disc. Manufacturing defect.
And I bet they wiggled and squirmed on paying you for your time? That’s been my experience at least…it takes quite a bit of time to take the transmission out to prove your innocence. Thanks for commenting.
I was the used car tech at a busy dealership and they blamed me for over looking a missing spare tire after the customer bought it. I had to educate them that there is no spare tire! Only a bottle of fix a flat and a factory compressor. Did I get an apology. NO
As a owner of a shop Jr's Auto these people have gotten me to the point that I want the bill paid in full before I begin work I'm tired of getting screwed and f*****the way I see it and dr. Bob agrees there's no reason to take half now and half later give me at all now up front!!!!💰💰💰💯🚩
got one better! Crook customer comes in, gets everything repaired correctly,pays with credit card,then declines payment because not satisfied with repairs! 🤥
Customer came to pick it up after paying and it wouldn’t start. So fingers were getting pointed and it was alluded that I should diagnose and fix it for free because it had of been my fault. Happens every day in the industry and employers would rather place the burden on the employee than take the loss. I’ve experienced this at every shop I’ve ever worked for. Thank you for commenting.
Sooooo you didn't watch the video?@rob1248996 Dude-man says he started it up and it sounded like dog water only running on four cylinders. But at that point, it still wasn't his problem because he was only supposed to "reprogram the PCM" as per the work order.
Customer: You changed the oil and now my radio doesn't work! Me: I know what you mean, last week a guy fixed my satellite dish and now my oven doesn't work. Service manager: I need to see you in my office.
Working in a field dealing with the public sucks to begin with, and if you're in an industry in which the mfg's are constantly changing stuff to be less serviceable, but require more service, you cannot avoid frustration. I'm not a tech, I just work on my own stuff, and I cringe at the thought of working on a newer car when I have to buy one. Driving an '05 Taurus right now and plan to keep her alive for a long long time.
Yes it is hard to own a fancy modern car if you want to do your own work because you usually need to also own multiple special tools for common repairs. Every part and piece also seems to be expensive and fragile. Keeping the 05 Taurus is a good plan. They are solid cars and they’re cheap/easy to keep on the road. Thanks for commenting.
The reason is because parts are becoming so difficult to source for them it’s a real challenge to fix some of these vehicles. In a couple of my videos, I state that because there are no parts available. I cannot fix it and I sent it out. Tahoe hybrid video is a good example. Thanks.
I'm 60 and if I last 5 more yrs to retire Itll be a miracle. I was in a dealership but went to a small independent shop to do light duty work but the service writers do so much BS parking lot diag its borderline criminal because i do what they tell me but 70% of the time it's wrong so ill have to trll them if they want it fixed i need to diag it.. I also keep telling them to get more info on the service orders they seem not to care and just put...check car...for a hvac issue or something like that. Problem is they have the owner convinced they know it all....what bullshit we techs deal with is unbearable.
If any customer has had an issue with having to sign a verification of work to be done by the shop, this is an explicit reason why....CYA. This will be a memory grabber if another scenario like this rolls in, glad you had a good handle on what the issue was.
Normally things go smoothly for this customer. I program for other shops fairly often. It was just a simple miscommunication, I wasn’t willing to take the blame and remedy the situation for free. Thank you, everything worked out ok and all is well.
A few months ago I got out of the business. People were an issue time to time but incompetence was my biggest gripe. Someone somewhere did something and I was fixing their fuck up. Sometimes even being blamed for other people's fuck up. I'm glad and doing better after I got out.
Same here. When I walked up to it I was told “the old module is on the seat” it wasn’t there. This program was for a shop owner whom I consider competent so I didn’t question what he did. It was a simple miscommunication, it all worked out in the end. Thanks.
I survived the industry for 30 years. 2022 seen me open my own MC shop. Enjoyed my auto industry but have stories exactly like yours and wanted it to stop. Custom MC work is far better clientele.
I have now received so many comments on this video that I am struggling to keep up… This is new for me as I have never had a video this popular. Thank you so much to everybody for watching and commenting!
It is my goal on this channel to respond to every comment personally to the best of my abilities. If you take the time to comment on my channel, I will do my best to take the time to read it and respond to it. Thank you.
Your title hit a nerve , yes there is a real issue with techs leaving the trade , up here in Canada the issue is getting real bad . I work for GM in Oshawa and at our dealership is like a revolving door of techs , some dealerships are giving out incentives although since the pandemic most are just happy to be working . But the number one reason is money , its always money . When a plumber or an electrician get paid more then there are issues especially when you consider a tech spends on tools in comparison . The real problem in the automotive industry is there is too much overhead . For every dollar the tech brings into the shop has to pay the advisors , the call center , the cashiers . and the managers get their bonus , no wonder there is not enough for the techs which provide the labor and hours for every dollar brought in . Your vid also hit a nerve with me . Thankfully my 40 years is near done ..
@@waynesbutler7834 thank you very much for sharing!
You're doing a public service
@@cranberriesdoodle1450 I am just a random guy on the Internet… I do what I can. Thank you.
Master technician = electrical/computer specialist, mechanical specialist, plumbing specialist, heating and a/c specialist, noise and vibration specialist, materials/ chemicals specialist, research specialist and finally a customer affairs specialist( factory and retail)! Under paid specialist!!!!!
90% of repairs easy, last 10% percent complex. Under paid causes 20% failure in the 90%, and near 90% failure in the last 10%! And that is assuming 100% effective writers, who are more interested in selling a big repair! LOL!
Good luck!
I got out of the business almost 14 years ago. Don't miss it at all. Had to deal with stuff like this constantly. Once had an elderly couple bring a Crown Vic to the independent ship I was at after spending almost $2k at the dealership trying to fix an EGR flow code. I fixed it for $50 (probably 1/3 of what I should have charged) and they were mad at me for charging them because they'd already paid the dealership so much money. People are stupid, particularly when it comes to taking care of their cars.
Yep I have experienced that also. They don’t realize you’re rescuing them from their nightmare.
EGR systems are usually very easy to diagnose with some system knowledge, unfortunately that is the reality of the industry right now….the dealership techs were just guessing rather than diagnosing and it is a huge time suck for everybody involved.
Thanks.
Mechanics never except blame for anything. Liers always shift the blame to anybody or anything but themselves. 😮
@@Fred-xo3ku Seems to me you're the broken element, Fred...
I had the same experience years ago ( with a K car) They'd taken it to an Firestone store for poor running. They had been charged for a carb rebuild, plugs, wires, several modules to the tune of 500+. Firestone told them "It needs a computer module. Take it to the dealer and DEMAND they replace it for free> It's covered under the emissions warranty"
Brought it us demanding the "free" computer. The real problem was a worn out distributor shaft (scattering timing) This was a common problem back then. Customer threw a FIT! Raged at ME for trying to screw them over. It got really heated. I finally told them, "Look! Why aren't you mad at the shop that charged you 500 bucks and DIDN'T fix your car?
I'm the guy who's charging you 75 bucks and FIXING it!"
The same guy YELLS at everyone, no matter what.
As a shop owner I deal with this stuff everyday. It’s always something like. “ you put wiper blades on now my check engine light is on! It wasn’t on before you worked on it” most people always want something for nothing.
Dead on, they have no clue how it works or why and it's always your fault. I have started videoing what I do and photos of the wrecked pieces of junk, they want me to work on( I do motorcycles and the garbage I see is staggering). From buggered up wiring for cool LED underlighting, which sets of security module and bike wont start to I rigged this so it works better etc.
Yes I’ve dealt with similar situations over the years. The customer is a shop owner whom I consider to be competent so I don’t think anybody was trying anything funny in that way. I believe it was just a miscommunication.
Thanks.
@@danwilliams5867 interesting to hear that motorcycles have workmanship issues like that.
Know as a sinsu customer, that is ever since you did.....
@@allanszast7579Everett Sincya has paid all of us a visit once or twice.
My neighbor works privately on vehicles out of his garage. When I hear him screaming obscenities and throwing tools around I’m reminded that I made a great choice leaving the industry. I don’t miss the backbreaking work that doesn’t pay anything. I don’t miss seeing my boss roll up in a 100K$ super car every day while I couldn’t afford an apartment. I don’t miss snap on and Matco tool bills each week. Technicians deserve so much more praise and compensation for their skill set and devotion. Even retail or fast food seems like a more appealing career, and I would encourage any young men or women to stay out of this industry. It’s a good skill to learn and retain for yourself, but going to work for someone else is a waste of your time
Thanks for sharing! I've been there.
One of my big regrets in becoming a mechanic is me and my little brother both really enjoy all things mechanical, it was a hobby when we were kids, I went to tech school, he joined the Navy, when he got out he lived on my couch going to college for his mechanical engineering degree, we both still like mechanical stuff but its hard to get him to understand my job really has ruined the hobby, after 10 plus hours working on machines, the last thing I want to do is come home and work on some pile of junk in the evening.
@@scout2nut I totally understand that.
OMG! I've been out of the industry for many years but I still have a pile of receipts from Snappy, Matco and Cornwell.
OP good luck in dealing with people in the future.
kids,remember, YOU are the reason why your boss lives so much better than you do
A real issue in the industry is Service writers who don't know what it's like to walk in a tech's shoes (or have the education)
Yes very common. I have only worked with a couple writers that had any automotive knowledge at all.
Thanks.
I worked in an auto parts store for a time and I found the same issue when they would order parts... not that some of my coworkers were any better...
No!
The real problem are BUTCHER mechanics!!
I have re fixed vehicle's myself for friends and I'm not even ase certified!!
There are even so on UA-cam...
@@philllsxga.7737 you are not wrong… There is an excess of underqualified mechanics posing as automotive technicians in shops.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist right!
I am not ase certified, but have maintained many vehicles up to and past 300,000 miles with no major issues...
What to watch a pro?
UA-cam South main Auto 2019 Silverado..
UA-cam pine hollow auto diagnostic.
Those two guys are all I'm watch...
After 41 years as a technician, I'm worn out with this type of problem. I once loved my career, now not so much.
I know how you feel. It gets really old dealing with this kind of thing every day. Hardest part about the whole job is just getting paid.
Thank you.
COULD YOU CHECK OUT THE POINTS AND CONDENSER WHILE YOU HAVE THE HOOD UP?????? WISH I COULD TURN BACK THE CLOCK......FJB AND THE RAT RINOS....THEY OWN THIS MESS!
45 yr career came to an end when covid hit us. Now I only do side jobs for fun and beer money. I absolutely refuse to take on any new business, especially anything that code reader wont get me to. Wont spend $$$ on equipment for modern car issues, no graphing diagnostic or the like.
I know how you feel. Been turning a wrench since I was 12, and just turned 40 this year. I got burned out working in dealers in my late 20's, and then burned out from working fleet maintenance a few years back. By the time we are done paying for our tools, and all the free hours we work, we make less than minimum wage. Hence why I'm a factory mechanic now.
Same here
This is why it's so important to get a written work order. If you're verbally asked to programme a BCM and then they change their mind and say they said ECM you don't have a leg to stand on. Glad you stood your ground and got paid for their error.
That’s right. I included a pic in the video real quick showing where they crossed out BCM and hand wrote PCM.
Thanks.
It wasnt verbal it was written. Even so he should have checked to see what had been done before doing any work on the vehicle. That part of the mistake is all on him
@@holmes1956O
Don't be silly.
If you did that you would be treated with disdain by the writer and management team.
"Can't you read dummy?"
Do the work as written, write your comment at the end, emphasise that your work as instructed is completed and tested with no codes....and photograph the original works order with all that written on it BEFORE they try to hand write a "correction"....
Now who's the "dummy?
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq you are. I would be the guy to go to because I take the time to do the job right. Now if you are just joking around😛😛😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
What I’m curious about here is the fact that it started without the ECM being programmed and then wouldn’t start. What would cause that?
I learned a long time ago - if you don't charge enough money for the work, the customer doesn't respect you. No one discusses the cost with me. NO ONE. I determine the price, they pay it. Mind you I have a business built on a niche type of work that very few people do these days, and I charge accordingly. I quote the price up front. Don't like it, fine, go elsewhere. And there is no elsewhere. The flip side is I stand behind my work, without question, without argument. I will see the job to completion. But yes it's tough out there, and I'm going to hang it up soon. After all of us old guys leave the business people will finally understand the value of experience and skill gained over decades. But it will be too late - I'll have my feet up and taking it easy.
Well said. Don’t forget to share some of your old tricks to anybody hungry to learn before you get out.
Thanks for commenting.
Best of luck to you. I hungit up after 53 years of wrenching and love retirement.
No they won't- they only understand that Henry Ford was sued under US law to ensure that corporations must always prioritize profits over employees. Put your boots back on and change some laws or we'll come and eat you.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist Arnold Schwarzenegger before he became famous as an actor started a brick laying company in Cali they billed themselves as a low cost alternative, business was not good. He rebranded as an exclusive European bricklaying company and charged above market, business boomed and he still has that company.
@@brucenorman8904 I like that mindset. Yes I believe in providing high level service and charging a fair rate for it.
Thanks again.
Fixed my problems 3 years ago by retiring. I started working on other peoples headaches back in 1976 and it has gotten progressively interesting since. A lot of people want something fixed for a little bit of nothing and that grew old very quickly for me because tools and talent does not come cheap anywhere. Time is money and I did not like arguing with people that think they know more than you do. When someone would say" you can do it cheaper! I double the Price"! The last few years I was into this I faced every excuse in the book until I hung it up! This is part why tech's are quitting this field of repair because a lot of folks want something for nothing... So I tell them to buy the books and tools and do it themselves! Even many dealers can't keep mechanics because of money! Nuff Said.
Yes I feel that every day. Customers don’t want to pay what it really takes. Employers don’t want to pay what it really takes.
In my experience shops are terrified to charge customers for legitimate repair work so they place the burden on the technician to make up for poor management.
Thank you for commenting.
I just tell them to go to X shop in X state that allegedly does it cheaper or pay me and have it fixed now.
I understand where you’re coming from people don’t realize the education and the skills and. Tool. ( electronics tools cost ) to work on these new vehicles not any Tom, Dick, or Harry can do it anymore in the back yard
@@stashoski2675 electronics tools cost is one time feed you can easily make back the your money you spent on it within the first few months it the programming that cost every time you used it because of the manufactured and there subscription cost, also shop rate ridiculously overrated that is why more and more people end up going somewhere else come on seriously a $150 hour most people don't even make that working all day.
It all started when today's crap cars came with a computer.
I used to work in a similar environment. I designed electronics for Delco, Chrysler, Motorola, and a few others. Every morning when I get to work, its like an emergency room everyone waiting for me. After a few years, you need to get away from this because people will take your miracles for granted and it begins to affect your mental health. Eight years ago I retired and walked away. Nowadays when things get rough, I try to remember what it was like at work and it never fails to bring a natural smile on my face. In fact I am smiling right this minute watching your video. You are dealing with fools! Thanks for posting.
Thank you very much for sharing!
I'm one of those BURNOUTS. But I missed the challenge of troubleshooting. So I started flipping Basket Cases.
You know, the car that wont run after "BUBBA" replaced his own (FILL IN THE BLANK)...
I usually bought the car/truck/motorcycle/boat at scrap value. That way, if I lost, I could always get scrap value for what I had.
This way, you work on them WHEN you want to, and STOP when you want to. NO PRESSURE. It was FUN to play with toys again.
'Cause remember : Working on cars is FUN, as long as you don't have to ! Just my $.02
I have heard about a lot of techs doing stuff like that and making good money.
Thank you for sharing.
I stumbled into one of these myself -- bought a used minivan at a dealership for too low of a price (great deal in my opinion). Everything seemed to work and run great during the test drive. A week later drove over some bumpy railroad tracks and the electrical system started acting crazy -- dash lights and electronics flickering and acting up real bad. Took me a little bit of time to find a wiring harness under the steering wheel area that was coming loose and the block not screwed together to keep it attached. Tightened all that up and the van gave me no trouble after that for the 5 years I owned it. Makes me think previous owner (and/or dealership) knew there was an electrical gremlin and they couldn't figure it out so sold it cheaply...
I'd much rather be doing this kind of work than working on customer cars. 2 problems I have though: no car trailer, and in NY its usually also rotted beyond repair if its a "good deal".
ACTUALLY a long-standing DREAM of mine, and a smart idea! Hell, look for the ones that really just need a good DETAIL job! They're out there, covered with green slime! 🙂
I was a GM Dealer tech for 30 + years . The constant disrespect finally drove me out of the repair business .
I feel that. Thank you for the comment.
Exactly. I totally know the feeling.
I worked at a dealer for almost thirty years. And it never stops amazing me how the service writers never ever take responsibility for there screw ups.
Sounds like things have not changed much… Thank you for sharing!
Really? Cool
The one I always heard from service writers was "I'll make it up to you later".
@@petebrian2841
Yea, that plays like a broken record. I am still waiting for that to become reality. Lol
My favourite was a customer who complained that the fuel gauge didn't move on their newish car,
I asked the service adviser to seek clarification on what the customer meant,
To which he replied that the customer must be referring to the gauge not moving when they put fuel in..... instead of just calling the customer to clarify.
So I take note of the fuel gauge reading both before replacing the fuel sender unit, and after replacing it....
Surprise, surprise, surprise.......no change.....
Come to later find out that in the customers PREVIOUS car the fuel needle would drop when the car was switched off...........
So since this DIFFERENT car wasn't doing that... it must have a fault.....
The only saving grace was that I could access the fuel sender unit (and top of the fuel tank) by taking out the back seat... instead of having to drop the entire fuel tank.
I'm retired now. But I always loved it when the customer says "it was fine before you worked on it"
Thanks for commenting.
Yes it is usually a big waste of time and the shop is terrified to charge for it.
I have a lot of family I've quit doing favors for over those exact words
Should of said if everything was fine then why is it here?
If I got one in that was High Mileage and needed a ton of work I would make sure to tell them that I AM NOT! Responsible for other things that can burn out or quit working because some of them were about the end of their usefulness. Many agreed with me and spared both of us a lot of headaches. I don't like to put up with Stupid crap.
So...."help me out here, I'm confused." (Colombo line) If it was "fine" before I worked on it, then why did you even bring it in?
Had this happen recently, lady brought a 2009 Lincoln MKS to my shop and said the windows didn't work. I found a blown fuse, changed it and voila all the windows work again. A week later her water pump goes bad and she's claiming I caused it. Yes because the interior fuse box is conveniently located on the water pump inside the engine...luckily my shop tells these people to take a hike up a tall mountain
Good to hear the shop will stand up. Some shops will bend over backwards to reward bad customer behavior.
I’ve experienced situations like that over the years. “The customer may lie, but the car never will”
Thanks.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist Newer cars try to lie, since they have confusers in them. Usually by throwing codes not related to actual fault or not throwing any at all although the problem is clearly felt or seen. Go in with multimeter or scope and figure it out on your own. Some numbers on dashboard (like fuel consumption) can't be trusted as well.
True a lot of the gauges do not display the actual value they are filtered.
I “specialize”, and my job is to be able to cast the confusing BS aside and figure out what is related to the problem and what is not. it can be rewarding to find the cause of a challenging electrical fault.
If you work on someone's car, truck, tractor or whatever customer expects at least a one year complete warranty
Kinda nice when somebody has got your back.
I am currently a GM tech in Canada . I get where you are coming from . I'm looking at getting out myself because it's gotten bad in the trade as well as I'm getting too old for this .
Thank you for the comment.
I believe things are changing fast as shops struggle to find and retain qualified help.
I'm only 30 , doing this for 10years, the last 2-3 years is just f ing hell.... they block you to do the job, you don't have access to shit, they make the software a pain in the ass just to f with the 3rd repair shops, made everything only accessible online... even a simple adaptation nowadays is a pain in the ass, than comes the cliens who want their cars to be done in 1 day, and for free, when you put in 2-3 days worth of time to find a problem , because you don't have the acces for anything anymore, and at the end you don't get paid what that work was worth, you always get way less than what you put in to find a problem, and these new cars, all have things like this, that looks like is a 10min job, and will become days and weeks because the entire system is made to be bad, and hard to repair. I still have 1-2 years and i';m done with this job for sure, people can cry in 5--6 years not having anyone to repair their car , and i will laught on the side. Repairing cars nowadays became ridiculous, even people who came to learn from me, the first thing i say, if you want a life and money, go and find another job that you want to do, repairing cars became a pain in the ass, there is a big problem with the equipment prices, the amount of things you need for simple things, the access for anything, making online everything, and the amount of things they put in cars just became a major problem, and let's not talk about the people, people want everything done in minutes... on cars that are made in a way for people who repair them to have a heart attack when they see them.
@@UmbraWeiss well said. I bet there are a lot of technicians that could say the exact same thing. I have experienced all of that.
Everybody knows what wrong but they bring it to you. Always charge for time. Good work.
Thank you!
When they want to argue with me about what's wrong I give them advice and a choice...If they like neither then Goodbye!
Great job, definitely charge them again for another reprogramming. You are totally correct about not being able to find good techs, most shops around me are raising their rates, because so backed up, and inflammation. I would raise your rates, its hard to find good quality mechanics.
Yes, agreed. I see a lot of shops scheduled out for several weeks because they can’t get through them fast enough.
Did you mean inflation? Although many of my customers give me inflammation (with their use of the parts cannon...)
@@johnjennings2672 Inflammation: Getting mad over increased prices 😁😁
Inflammation will cause many employees and customers to leave.
but sometimes it is the 'mechanics' actions or none actions that cause the problems. Some mechanics are crooks ie like the ones that do a full serive and dont change the engine oil or filter or cabin filter but just wash the car and charge top Dollar
Ok, so my business was plumbing - I would NEVER offer any kind of guarantee if the customer supplied parts - usually either second hand or the CHEAPEST they could get. But I am so lucky in that I had very few bad customers over the years. I would only ever do ONE job for the few bad customers, and warn everyone I knew to avoid them. Conversely, my nice customers would recommend me to other nice customers, my customer base grew & grew without any paid advertising, and my last few years working were almost a pleasure (I would have preferred leisure!).
That’s great to hear. Thank you for sharing.
Yep. Our auto shop has filtered the "Walmart Shoppers" out of our system as well. It is nice. That's why I am still working there after 26yrs. Previously worked 10yrs in automotive hell because of corporate management that assumed the customer was right about everything. The cars are getting more annoying, but our customer base is that of educated people who know how hard it is to know everything about every car.
I was a technician for 30 years. I worked in an independent shop and worked on European, Asian, American and everything in between. Every day it was something different, and I had my share of accusations from customers. Everyone thinks mechanics are crooks, and the truth is we could easily be one. Cars are very complex now, and customers have no clue of how things work, or how things fail. Cars break every day, people. If they didn't, you wouldn't need technicians. Many times I replaced a bad injector or coil, or something else that what was also wrong with their car on top of the original complaint, with a good spare part I had laying around, and I did it for free just to keep them happy... I couldn't deal with it anymore and took a maintenance job at a factory. I couldn't be happier now. I know what I will be doing every day, and I don't have anybody treating me like I'm stupid or dishonest. The auto technician careers are fading fast, and I don't blame the techs one bit. Fix your own car, people, if you think it's so easy.
Thank you for sharing! I have done the exact same thing! I’ve fixed a customers vehicle with my own spare part just to not deal with the accusations.
I have even seen a fellow coworker break a part on a customers car accidentally… Simple mistake. Coworker pulls out his phone calls the local auto parts store and buys the part with his own money rather than get the shop to cover it.
My hero!
"ever since" It has been like that for a long time. people drive the cars into the ground, they want a nickle repair of one part and they blame you if the whole thing is not better then new. Add in the do it yourself experts that make 3 times the mess, and a business model that does not pay you for others inefficiency, and you get screwed every day. Got out of the dealership trade in 1988
Yeah, true. Happens every day unfortunately.
Thanks for the comment.
Ever since ya replaced my idler arm my car has been idling funny 😂😂😂
I worked in a local shop for 4 years. The amount of money losing proposition jobs the owner agreed to undertake was astounding. And he was never in the workshop to do it.
I’ve been there. Thanks for sharing
I have several similar stories through the 37 years as a technician(30 with Honda). Recently retired. It helps to have a service manager that values your work and will support your decisions. It also helps to have some communication skills sufficient to convey why you are not at fault and will not be proceeding until payment method is conveyed. Through the years, I developed the reputation of being very thorough, capable and confident but not a fast high volume tech. Naturally this means you get more weird problems dispatched but not the big service jobs that pay well. The weird ones can be satisfying but harder to pay the bills(especially under warranty) 😉 Fortunately, I had upper management that was able to keep my pay at a reasonable level by having me train. They saw the industry changing and fewer technicians applying for jobs. I spent the last ten years with an apprentice. They would train with me for a year at least before flat rating. I was paid for my labor and theirs. I trained nine techs in that time. Throughout my career, I came across many very good technicians held back by their own attitude or lack of confidence. My guess is you've seen something similar.
Thank you very much for sharing! Yes I’ve experienced similar. A good manager is amazing for shop production.
I had also always been thorough and slow….still am sometimes. The haste came with experience.
I have trained some apprentices in a similar pay situation… Honestly, some of the most fun I have ever had working in the shop… Renewed my passion for auto repair. I would love to eventually teach… May have possible teaching opportunities opening up at the local college soon.
Teaching was also partly the inspiration for this channel, I have literally spent my entire life gathering knowledge… To share knowledge and experience… To record what I have in my head before I am gone.
For all of the technical skills, peruse the comments and see how many can't even construct a simple sentence properly...
I'm glad you were able to place blame on the guilty party! As a customer, I've met many more experienced and competent mechanics/technicians than service writers in my lifetime.
Thank you. Yes service writers do not often have automotive knowledge in my experience.
My mom used to threaten me that if i didnt get good marks in school i would wind up a garbage man. I ended up a broke ass auto tech and now union garbage men earn $80 thousand a year and never touch a can.
I was told the same thing except it was a ditch digger. 3 years ago I quit being a master tech and started driving trucks. Making more money and less stress.
@bayoumike544 good for you. I had to retire early because my knees went out. I injured one on a job and the doctors did nothing for me. Later on after the cartlidge disappeared WCB told me it was my fault I didn't follow up. Now I am old and broke with no pension.
That is funny before I was done reading your comment I was going to say exactly that… “waste management specialists” make some dang good money and benefits these days.
Honestly, it is possible to make a good living in auto repair… It takes a significant personal investment of time and money compared to other jobs.
Thank you.
@@bayoumike544 ditch diggers make some good money these days.
@@smokeskull I know the feeling. Knees and hips shot and no pension. However I am making more money sitting in a truck with a/c but am out for a week at a time (18 wheeler)
That's one of the reasons i retired after 44 years in the trade as a GM tech. Front office thought they knew best. I had a few run ins when i would not use someone else's diagnosis and then crickets when there diagnosis was incorrect. Life in the country playing with my own toys is so good 😊 In saying that it can be so satisfying to fix someone's long-term problem and get thanked for it (Too rare unfortunately) cheers from Australia 🇦🇺
Thank you for sharing all the way from Australia!
7:47 38 years in the trade and I agree with every comment on here. I would love to get out of the trade.... My son followed in my footsteps (against my advice) 😢
Exactly. A dying word these days....thankyou.
I was in the flat rate game, off and on, for too many years. At one dealership I was in the shop 50-60 hours a week and got behind on my mortgage because the service writers had no problem giving work away.
I’m doing fleet maintenance now. Servicing and repairing filthy old work trucks isn’t fun but I get paid reasonably well. Only 4 years left until I can retire and I’ll be out
Yes, it gets really old having to work hard and dig deep to make up the difference when everybody is relaxed about giving away your time for free.
Glad to hear you are making it work.
Thank you for the comment.
I'm there with my service writers, and for over 3 years I've been trying to beat into their heads that we don't give labor away! Just because it took 15 minutes to write a customer up (as half assed as possible) doesn't mean that the mechanic will fix it so easily. I asked for a raise, but was told we're not making the money, meanwhile they service writers aren't wasting time to even look up job times. I'm just glad in less then two years I'm done. I'm retiring early and will set myself up to do some jobs on my own and of what I want to work on.
And they never stop wondering why they can’t bring in any revenue.
And that most of their productive techs leave for other jobs.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist
@@Oldbmwr100rs it’s why I gave up working at dealerships and went back into contract security. Didn’t want to change industries but I didn’t see any other way to get ahead. Security pays a consistent hourly rate for way less headaches. Spent 7 months trying to find a good paying dealership position ( know what a service advisor does btw). I had 15 interviews for dealership positions and I never got a call back. 7 months and 15 interviews. Went back to security work cause they actually did call me back
I worked as an auto tech briefly about 25 years ago. I left because as the new guy I was getting all the work that paid 30 minutes for 45+ minutes of work while the long-time guys got all the gravy work that paid 3 hours for 2 hours of work or better. After about a year of essentially minimum wage work (where I had to buy expensive tools out-of-pocket) and seeing that it would be many years before my situation would noticeably improve I left for greener pastures and have no regrets!
Yes, that is very common… The older established techs would quit if the new guy gets all of the good desirable gravy work.
It is sad that every time I teach somebody something that I am good at and share knowledge and tips, it cost me and hurts me.
I experienced the same thing for many years… Working broke and buying expensive tools while waiting for it to start paying off.
It is finally paying off… All of the hours upon hours of free reading material that I invested the time and locked it away in my brain more so than the tools. I am not that old and my body is already starting to kill me from the physical work of auto repair… I am hoping to be able to keep up production using my brain when my body can no longer produce the hours.
Thanks for sharing.
What did you choose to do instead of you don’t mind me asking?
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist The physical side of auto mechanics is rarely even talked about. I took some auto tech classes & almost every teacher had noticeable scars with stories that they were lucky to survive from.
@@ag4allgood I think we all have some of those stories. I have lots of scars from jobs where I bled to meet and beat flat rate labor times. A couple good burn marks too lol.
Thanks.
IT TAKES YEARS TO GET GOOD YOUR BRIEF TIME SHOWS YOU GAVE UP ON WHAT TAKES A LIFE TIMEYOU JUST DONT WALK IN GREEN AND EXPECT GRAVY TRAIN THOSE GUYS DID THE TIME ENOUGH SAID.
Removed myself from the public repair industry for this reason and shit service writers. Like you said "always place blame" haven't been happier! And now cars are fun again
Thank you for sharing.
On the other hand I had a water pump swapped on an Ecotec and they let the cam timing slip. It made the engine run poorly and vibrate. We retimed the cam chain and all was well. First shop still insists a vibrating dash is normal and that changing the cam timing would not cause vibration anyway. I think people on both sides can be right, sometimes simultaneously.
Yes sometimes it goes that way.
The other shop just didn’t want to take accountability and kicked the customer down the road which is the absolute worst thing to happen to a customer.
Thank you.
My "favorite" was when a customer would provide their own part, the work order would read "replace alternator" (or other component) and after I did, the car would be back a few days later as a comeback, still not working as intended, and now they expected me to diagnose the issue for free. Sorry, Nope.
Someone higher up on the food chain than myself (customer, service writer, or service manager) diagnosed this, and I was told to replace a part- so I did. If the alternator (or other component) was the problem or not, at that point, was no longer my concern- you asked for a component to be replaced, you got a component replaced. Whether or not that component fixes the problem or was the problem is between you and whomever diagnosed the vehicle.
I actually got fired multiple times for BS like this. They wouldn't actually word it that way, it would be more like "you're not being a team player" or something to that effect. I would usually come back with "if being on your team means I have to work for free, I'll find another team".
Well said… Yes, I have experienced those situations as well.
I also worked at that kind of shop for a short time….we were not compatible and they played games to try and control you.
They ended up firing me for not playing along, and when I called their bluff and had my stuff loaded up and gone in less than one hour, the boss had the writer call me and said it was all just a joke when I arrived in my driveway at home and then tried making me offers several times later and getting me back.
I honestly think it was all a game to try and make me beg for my job. I just said “Ok. I’m gonna go load up my stuff and when I come back you’re going to have my final paycheck ready” D-O-N-E Done.
Thanks for the comment.
My reply to some of these companies was, I didn’t get dressed up for nothing. PS I remember years ago customers used to come into the shop and want to borrow one of my tools, and I would say no problem. Give me your wallet and he said I’m not give me my wallet and I said I’m not giving you my tools. I don’t know you from Adam.
Your attitude is wrong. If someone brought me a part I would always ask who diagnosed the problem and made sure that there was a good chance the diagnosis was correct.
In any case your position is wrong if you did not confirm that your installation of the part resolved the problem.
"My toolbox has wheels for a reason"@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist
That's still coming out of his pocket when you are working book time.@@normansabel1850
I'm glad I'm out of the game. "The customer is always right" was too much at times. Good thing you were able to sort the pay issue out.
Yes, over the years working in different shops one thing is always true. They’re way too comfortable about giving away your time for free.
Thanks.
In this business, the customer is almost never right. If they knew what they were doing they would be fixing the vehicle instead of coming to us.
Whom ever invented the phrase "The customer is always right" must of been a cork soaker or a spineless individual or both!
@@irvingsantiago6701
He was in management because reality would kill him....
so he had to make up little sayings instead....
@@anon-tq1vv OH, don't worry, they try, and f up the car even more, and then when it comes to you, they even list what the problem is, and want the repair for free.
Dude you are SPOT ON with this..... I know the video is less than 8 min and customers think all you have to do is push a button to fix it. But have no idea what flat rate is and have to pay 4k plus for a scanner along with all the tool we have to pay for.
I was a line tech for 30 yrs & a shop foreman. When a advisor had a problem with a write up to call me so we could get it right on the RO. Especially when customer was in with a noise complaint. I am going on a test drive with that customer and show me when, where & how does this noise start.
We have stories with this shit if you have been at this for a living. It is a high stress job. Especially with all of the warranty & recall bullshit.. Great job on this post..
Thank you.
Sounds like the elephant in the room is the manufacturers, paying 4k for a glorified calculator is just insanity, these kinds of fixes should cost less than a happy meal realistically
I feel your pain..GM Saab owner here..Never before have i purchased a car, then had to get a Tech 2 or any other diagnostic scanner to keep it running..A spare used ECU, then a laptop etc for security access so i can clone the ECU in the vehicle for when it eventually fails. .I think i spend more time looking out for warning lights on the dashboard than i do looking at the road..
It’s getting to be difficult to find the old Saab cartridges for the Tech 2 too.
The Saab version of the Tech 2 can be emulated via Tech2Win with a subscription and a J2534 device.
I remember working on Saabs in the independent repair world before they shut down and then overnight they became difficult to source parts and tools, etc. then nobody wanted to own them or work on them.
Thanks for the comment.
I was a mechanic in the military, got out in 1969 and lasted 3 years working on flat rate.....until I couldnt pay rent and started working in Industry.....regular work, regular pay, retirement, health care etc. only worked on cars for fun and beer money after that....still working on my own, and friends vehicles in retirement.
Thanks for sharing. I find it hard to enjoy working on my own cars anymore friends and family, etc..
As an hourly telephone tech, I would sometimes get tickets where the problem described on the ticket was nothing related to what the customer was experiencing.
I learned quick to always doubt what was written and confirm with the individual that was having the problem before wasting a bunch of time "fixing" something that wasn't broken....
Sometimes I will intercept the customer and have a quick chat with them just to get a feel for the situation and gather vital information. Depends on the customer, because that can turn into a big time suck all by itself.
Thanks for sharing. That sounds like a fun job.
Yup, always verify the customer complaint.
There once was a time when service writer's were knowledgeable now, last week they were a fill clerk just out of high school now they're writing tickets and your having to explain that the right side of the car is always the right side no mater where you are standing
After 40 years of being a technician I was fired for telling a service writer that I was not looking for keys on a miss tagged car which had happened many times before. The manager said that I had hurt all the writers feelings at one time or the other and had to go
The same old story. Anybody who speaks realism is let go while those who play along with the game are rewarded and coddled.
Thank you for sharing.
It sounds like I should be a service writer!
I get the feeling that service writers will be one of the jobs AI will replace once it gets up to speed. The people with manual labour skills will have AI as assistants to book jobs, find parts, repair manual specs etc. Those who can't do actual work, will get replaced.
@@Hunty49 that is funny. I think you are right… it would almost be a relief.
I worked as a mechanic for a municipality and had the Public Works director tell me essentially the same thing. He told me everybody was afraid of me, and that I'd hurt a lot of people's feelings. My reply to him was that he hired me to service and repair the cities vehicles, not as a social worker or psychiatrist to worry about other employees' "feelings". He and I did not get along very well.
I recently bought some parts from a shop that i thought was also a mechanical workshop, when i commented that i thought he was a mechanic he said "I am but i have closed that side of the business because i got sick and tired of people blaming me for things that i didn't do, or pressuring me to do things for free whilst i had the vehicle in for repair, or just arguing about the price when they came to pick up there vehicle. So i just sell parts now, i make just as much money, i don't get stressed, and when it gets to 5pm i am out the door". Its a real shame as he did some work on my mums car years ago, and was so genuine and nice, its totally crap that people have burnt him out ...
People can be that way sometimes to the point a business owner no longer wants to deal with it.
Thanks for sharing.
I’ve found an honest shop in my area. He’s not cheap but he does exactly what he says he’s going to do. I’m good with that plus a tip to the actual mechanic.
That’s great! That is the true value of finding a shop that you can trust….it’s peace of mind that you can trust them to take care of you in the right way.
Thank you.
Good for you, we need more clients in the industry like yourself.
There should be a place on a work order to confirm:
"Reprogrammed BCM as instructed by X the writer.
Engine started and ran poorly.
All body functions controlled by this BCM tested fine and no fault codes after the testing."
and take a quick photo of the instruction and your written response.
No way can that be held against YOU.
Well said… That is actually very close to my notes on the work order.
Thank you.
Good on you for having the integrity to stand your ground and demand pay. The only way these mistakes will be corrected, is when they have to financially pay for them.
Thank you. Yes I get tired of being the one to take on the risk of doing business in this trade.….at that point just put my name on the building. I’ve already given up too much free work over the years.
Young people aren't becoming mechanics for a couple reasons. First off, I know few young men who have an interest in cars like they did fifty years ago. We all worked on our own cars for routine maintenance, if nothing else. Secondly, parents and teachers spent decades telling young people that their futures were ruined if they didn't go to college.
The customer service issues have always been there.
I see that a lot. It’s few and far between to find a young and motivated candidate….then when you find one and spend many hours training them they realize there are better, faster ways to make a living with less personal investment and they leave.
Although the ones that are skilled and end up staying will have a promising future as things are changing fast and honestly apprentice starting wages are the highest I’ve ever seen.
One young guy I mentored for a couple years ended up staying in the industry and was able to move on to a new shop and survive the grind and support his growing family with everything I taught him. I told him I spent the money on schooling and realized it’s all available for free online you just need somebody to teach you like the old days…..like somebody took the time to teach me.
That was part of the inspiration to start this channel…to share knowledge with anybody willing to solve their own problems with it.
Thank you.
I used to be an employee. Y'all treated me like trash. I started my own business and now I fix your problems. And there's an army of people just like me. Poor management.
Would nor recommend auto tech to any young person . Flat rate will keep them broke and starving . As a new tech you get all the shit jobs nobody ever makes time on. On top of the garbage that is delt with in this video and if this would have happened to a kid right out tech school they more then likely would have eat that time not knowing better. I have been an auto tech for 38 years and I will not work flat rate in any dealership they will screw you every chance they get . just not a career worth the time.
@frankjohnson3052 you are absolutely correct… The new kid would have eaten it and not had a leg to stand on.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist There is also the thinking manual labor is beneath many people. The willingness to learn auto technician type skills has gone away. I see my nephews & nieces go as far as learning to change their own tires but that is about as far as it goes. Its really sad the younger people just have no desire to learn auto mechanic skills.
For years as an Automotive mechanic aka technician this very event has happened to me sooo many times. I have always used three main (there's more I'm sure) statements that might help. 1)No ticket, no laundry! 1a) I do donate to charities when I want, not when I'm told to! For the involuntary free work. 2) Poor planning and diligence on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part! For the incorrect R/O line description entered.
Well said. Yes I’ve experienced being expected to work for free many times in many shops over the years.
Thanks.
Hey there, I'm an Evaluations, and Repair Technician for a Surgical Equipment Repair company, and when you showed the document at 3:09 I noticed something. Whenever someone makes a change to a repair request, it must be populated in the system and a new copy printed with the appropriate date and time on it. If we make any hand changes to the paperwork, we must also initial, time and date when we cross something out. Then it has to be updated in the system which cannot be falsified. Not sure who did the cross out, but it's a good practice to have. Sorry to hear about poor practices from big shops.
Yes I forced them to add an additional line electronically in the system and also forced them to electronically flag me the labor time…. Both of which produces a time stamp. Otherwise I’d have no way to check back later to verify I got paid. It’s an exhausting game to play, the hardest part of the job is getting paid.
I’ve had this kind of hand written thing happen many times in many shops over the years. It always gets swept under the rug and forgotten about when they waste your time and cost you money.
Thanks for sharing.
"Ever sincha" used to add $20 to any R.O. at a place I used to work at. Replaced a blinker bulb 3 weeks ago, now I have an exhaust leak, ever sincha fixed my blinker.....
Everett Sincya has paid us all a visit here and there.
Thanks for commenting.
One of the biggest beefs was the guy who takes his problem child to three different places trying to get it fixed on the cheap, then brings it to the dealer. Always starts with everything has been checked but it don't go. Shouldn't take long because everything has been checked, right?. Forty four years in the trade. Been there done that didn't even get a T shirt.
Yep I’ve dealt with that situation many times.
One time I told a guy his brand new part was the cause of his long repair saga and many repair attempts. It took a new $250 OEM sensor to replace his part and it fixed if right away. Funny thing is he bought an OEM sensor online, but it was the wrong part number and missing an internal resistor.
Thanks for commenting.
My LAST words as a mechanic in 1980 were FU to a nasty customer. I never worked in the field again by my choice. Became a FF and retired with 28 yrs. I would advise the same. 👍
Thanks for sharing.
Why did you tell the customer to f off
What is a FF ?
@andylowe2725 Firefighter would be my guess. If so, that guy was a total badass 🫡
Used to be a German & GM drivability tech way back and the more I see of this 'techno-depend on the computer stuff today, I love my 1980 SR5 even more. 19 years and going.
And it’s cheap and easy to repair. Thanks for sharing.
I hate modern cars with their computerised operation! Give me the good ol' days of timing chains, carburettors, coils, distributors, condensers and sports aircleaners!
It’s hard to find anybody that can even work on that stuff anymore. It’s becoming a specialized market.
Thanks for commenting.
I took car to shop(had the money, didnt want to mess with it) after I knew problem was bad right front wheel bearing. They "diagnosed" front left wheel bearing. Took it home and did it myself. What would have happened if I hadnt known in advance?
It depends on the shop… Some will call the customer and tell them it was their mistake, sorry for wasting your time, and they will fix the other side, parts and labor at no charge. Literally doing both sides for the price of one. Most of the shops I’ve worked for have been this way.
Some will make a deal with you and discount the other side.
Some will fix the other side and give you the car back without saying anything.
Some will get you to pay parts and labor to fix the other side also.
Some will not only charge you to do both sides… They will also get you for every flush and filter service possible whether it needs it or not, etc.
The truth is… On a high mileage vehicle… At write up, the shop should have recommended doing both sides at the same time anyways. Along with inspecting and combining necessary brake labor into the job.
Thanks.
I was a tech for 46 years and a shop owner for 40 years of that and shut it down in April and took a job with the railroad. Glad to be out of the business. No qualified techs out there to hire, parts are hard to find now and overhead is now too high to make it profitable. Like working on my race stuff but will never go back to being a technician for a living. I’m done.
Thanks for sharing.
While I was never a tech, I wore many hats in a dealership environment for most of my career (parts counter/manager, IT guy, warranty admin). Made a change and went to the railroad 14 years ago......and never looked back. I feel for my brothers and sisters still in the game.
One reason why all mechanics should video record their and the paperwork for said work. Great video
Thank you. It’s sad that an employee has to take such measures. Imagine a world where they just paid an automotive technician for our time spent in the building lol.
This is an interesting point though,in my shop I have 3 cctv cameras and 2 microphones this way everything including sound is recorded,they are there because I once got threatened by a customer so now I have proof of everything if I ever need it and there's enough signs,thing is as said you can ask a customer twice the same thing but they will still deny it if it doesn't fit their agenda,best solution is to see all customers as liers
I had won a training scholarship at Chrysler after Graduating high school.. They were looking for future tech specialists because the industry was changing to all things electronic.
When I saw a glimpse of what they meant by all things electronic, I was disheartened it was so different than what I had learned my entire youth. So I joined their Engine development Corps. and learned machining and remanufacturing I still hate Automotive tech, but really admire and respect those who do it.
Thank you for sharing.
A shop recently helped me get a pulley off and on without charge, I got an oil change and a new cabin filter bought the tech a drink as a thanks.
Thank you for sharing!
I'm heavy equipment, worked for dealers for several years. Too much drama and BS for me. Dealing with the crap the sales team told the customer or what the service manager thought the problem was...
Went to work for a company keeping the fleet running. Way better job. My customers were usually production supervisors angry because the piece of equipment was not running in the morning but after a brief explanation of why, things would settle down.
I retired 5 years ago, they still want me to come back.
I have experienced the same thing. Thank you for sharing.
I get where you are coming from, but as a customer I have had my share of ineptitude and crooked service departments in the past. Dealerships nowadays seem to just throw my money and their parts at the problem till I trade it for another one.
Unfortunately, you are right… The problem is incompetent technicians that do not put any effort into diagnostics and just throw parts at a problem… Usually at the customers expense and a huge waste of time.
Thanks.
Yeah, I had a buddy who was Chrysler trained and employed. Their M.O. was just throw parts at it until the code goes away. He was notorious for doing shi**y trans rebuilds and whatnot, but he's still employed there.
@@notmyname3883 I worked with a guy that everything he touched came back… Literally for years after he left also they were still coming back. “But he’s sooo fast” I was told lol.
I used to work on the service industry. I had customers who opt for independent technicians and when they can’t fix the problem they would call our company and would tell me “you were just here a week ago and we want to you perform the repair under warranty.” I would tell them let me check my repair log book and see if I had a service call to your office last week. Charge then for the full repairs plus the service call fee. 😂
Thanks for sharing.
As a CPA, always have a good, easy to read invoice with good descriptions and fees. You would be surprised how people will pay a lot more and quicker when they see and understand the services rendered.
Its like this in many other trades too. The customers simply wont pay enough for it to be worth our while.
Thanks for sharing
Glad they didn't stick you with it. Getting people to take responsibility for their work is hard these days. Good to see there are still competent technicians out there.
Thanks for commenting.
Take the money from the service advisor. He wrote it wrong he gives up his %
Thanks for commenting.
Number 1 reason I retired from wrenching TECHNOLOGY HAS BECOME TO DAMN STUPID. I LOVE THE OLD MECHANICS RULE,
KISS RULE KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID. AS FOR THE ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS, THEY DON'T HAVE TO WORK ON NEW POS'S.
Yes, today’s vehicles are not built with repair and service in mind it would seem.
Thank you.
it's never their fault it's the Mechanic's ! same BS i went through, i am so happy that i am retired now the whole system just got worse and worse every year with the new technology. the fights for pays increased and the pays dropped
Yep. Happens every day in this industry.
Have to fight for every tenth of an hour.
Thank you for commenting.
Quit back in 2006 as dealer hr rate was $ 105.00 an hour, and only paid tech $18 an hour + fix other techs comebacks for free, after they got fired!!! @@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist
People would stay in the industry, if it paid.
It just doesn't pay anymore, as the house takes 80% of Labor cut.
You've got shop owners that want to run their business like a McDonald's, with similar overhead.
I2 stayed in the business too long, multiple decades and the only time my income was respectable was one Ike quit working for somebody else.
I went from $75,000 a year, to $165,000 a year and I work Less hours.
Something to think about.
You are right about that… The old fast food business model, but for cars.
One of these days. Thank you.
Its the same all over the world.. I was a multi brand master tech and a Automotive engineer, the blame game gets old quick as does the lack of trust. i have seen this problem from both sides of the fence and decided working on cars is better a hobby than a trade.
The lack of understanding of the motortrade is bad.
That’s the same old story. Sounds like you are the exact kind of highly skilled, talented individual that this industry needed and failed.
Thanks for sharing.
Computers should not be in our vehicles it's a big scandal
Your mileage may vary.
Thanks for the comment.
To all you mechanics out there. Go into industry. I did years ago and have not regretted it. I have hourly work , year round in California. Very rare for the customer to say to me, it worked, until you did what ever.
Thanks for sharing!
I’m in Hvac. A lock shop trued to switch all their techs from per hour pay to commission only 10-99 contractors. 23 out of 25 tech quit on the spot. The company went out of business 2 weeks later. The owner tryed blaming it on some increasing you profits summoner he went to. He know he was shifting all his liability’s onto his employees. And they where having none of that crap
Yep they know what they are doing. If the employee is paid by the hour… Suddenly the burden of management and production is on the shoulders of… Management.
I see that from time to time in the auto industry also… Boss comes back from the big seminar, put on by somebody who has never even spent a day in the trade and wants to make all sorts of big changes.
Totally out of touch… I blame that on ownership and management that does not come from the tradespeople that it manages.
Thank you.
If you're going to be 1099, you might as well just be self-employed or start your own HVAC business with a couple of other guys. All you're doing is taking all the liability while the boss gets rich.
I used to install A/V equipment for a local shop in the evenings and people would bring in stuff to be installed that wouldn't work and then either not want to pay or blame us for the non-working component. I eventually started having them pay to have the item bench tested upfront and then would take the testing fee off the install fee if I did the work.
That’s a good idea. Sounds like it would take care of the problem.
Thank you for sharing.
Us consumers see the shortage as well.
Slipped a pad in one of my work vans. Pads and rotors were changed 42k ago on this van, paid the dealership to do it. I take it here because this van is never in my hands and this particular employee is known for ignoring obvious signs. I told the manager why i bring it to them for oil changes, so they can do the inspection and keep my van ready for work. Well they couldn't fit the van in for a week so i did the pads and rotors myself(used to work as a mechanic a lifetime ago). Upon removal i discover the caliper pin/bolts have never been greased since factory installation. Dust caps are full of exactly that, dust. So the caliper slides are completely frozen, needs new calipers as well. Then i noticed the passenger strut is toast, boot detached and leaking fluid. Asked my employee how long has the van been pulling?
He says for a while now and i told the dealership. Why didn't you tell me? Dealership does the tire rotations as well with the oil changes so how did they not notice the strut? I think they are just so understaffed that either they dont have time to fix identified problems at the time of discovery. Or they are so understaffed that inexperienced mechanics are forced to do jobs they haven't been properly trained to do.
I used to do all this myself but we are in the same boat, no time. Looks like i will be making time in the future because i cannot afford to have a van down for maintenance and then for dealing with improper maintenance. FYI, I paid one of our local shops to do struts and shocks. I just don't have the time or facilities for the struts. It seems we are understaffed in every field thanks to Joe and crew. FJB
Lasting 42k isn’t too bad for brakes on a work van. Caliper slide pins do get hot and dry out more often on work vans too, but yeah it’s likely they didn’t even clean and grease them.
For some reason in this industry the most important operation of doing oil changes, inspections, and other maintenance services are regarded very lowly and given to the lowest skilled and inexperienced “technician”…..usually right off the street with little to no training similar to a quick lube.
The opposite should be true… a car comes in for an oil change it should have skilled eyes doing a thorough inspection to recommend repair and upkeep because the customer isn’t even aware of problems until they become bad enough.
In reality “lubrication specialists” are incentivized with extra money to upsell filters and flushes so that’s all they end up caring about on top of not even knowing what they’re doing.
Thank you.
The food and hospitality industry is hurting in that same way also. It's so bad some places are forced to hire ppl with known drug habits and other issues. Or you can't fire shit workers because a shitty worker is better than no worker in many cases. It's unreal.
And now C19 stuff coming again making it all so much harder and ppl are going to quit and we're going to lose all the places that didn't close during the last lockdowns etc.
@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist I have 5 of these promaster 2500.
Typically they make it about 80k on front pads. Bought all of them new so we keep a maintenance log on all of them, that's the only reason I know this. It's crazy times for skilled trades. An over abundance of work and a lot of Americans don't want to work. Our government handed out a lot of money during covid which worsened thst issue. I wish we could get through to some of these people that college isn't the only path. You cannot learn my trade in a classroom, only the technical portions of it. But it won't make much sense without learning the application of that knowledge in the field. Skilled trades are a dying breed and one can make 6 figures easily if they are highly motivated. Best of luck out there my friend 👍
@@knuckledragger2412 brake life varies widely around here because we have a lot of hilly terrain outside of the cities.
If I can help it I’d like this channel to be a resource pool for anybody seeking knowledge and experience. I would like to give somebody the gift of learning a skilled trade to be able to better themselves. I have a lot of fun teaching any of the apprentices that are interested in learning which is rare.
I work in diesel mechanics and only serviced a customers truck. He came back the next day irritated a check engine light came on. Once diagnosed it had to due with the scam after treatment system. He then got quiet and appreciative.
Glad you got paid sir. Programming can be a pain in the ass especially when other shops don’t have the proper equipment to do their job
I hope you charged him for the diagnostic. I have experienced similar situation over the years… The customer may lie, but the car never will.
Thank you for sharing.
I'm a collision tech and I can relate. 20 years and I'm done dealing with customers . I Aldo take tons of photos for my protection.
Lol on the service and repair side of things when somebody comes in with a concern right after they left the body shop, the body shop is the first to get blamed.
Sometimes it’s true sometimes it’s not… But they are always the first to take the blame because they touched it last.
There have been times on diagnosis where I found a simple ground nut left, loose or some thing from a good body shop, and I explain to the customer it was just a simple mistake, and to not hold it against them too much.
On the flipside, I have also seen lots of bad body shops do some nasty work and cause some new problems.
Now days we have to take full walk around photos of the car inside and out to avoid being blamed for pre-existing damage. I can usually sniff out a customer who is hunting for a victim… I always take good notes also.
Thanks.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist yes I know all about bad body shops. Thankfully the last 3 over 15 years all have been the top shops in my state for quality . But I know of a song you can relate to. Hold on I'll link it in a Second
Sounds like they put the ecm in after you programmed the bcm. Because if it ran for you after you programmed the bcm. In the video you try to crank it and you had no crank no start. That couldn't happen after you programmed the bcm initially. Plus the check engine light was flashing with key in run position which in my experience always indicates a new ecm that has not been programmed
That’s exactly what I had thought, I really don’t know if that is what happened though.
I programmed the BCM and did the theft learn…it started and ran on 4 cylinders. I notated what I did and that I recommend diagnostics for the engine running bad.
I left for the day and next morning I have the note on my desk and it wouldn’t start as shown.
A phrase I picked up years ago on iATN….”the customer may lie, but the car never will” has always helped me to maintain a clear head in situations like this.
Honestly I don’t think they did anything negative like that, I think it was a miscommunication….of course neither one of us can explain how and why it started before because I never saw the old module.
Anyways it’s been handled and all is well. Thank you, great comment.
@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist glad all worked out well and you cleared your name so to speak. And got paid for your time
@@LewPopper yes got paid upfront… The old flat rate game when paycheck comes around I will have to verify. Gets old. Thanks.
Sounds like the service writer owes you an hr of clock time to me.
@@twinturbocoyoteftw got the hour. Thanks.
People in other industries are saying "One reason people are quitting........."
Its not just the automotive industry.
Business has become so much more complicated and frustrating.
There are too many specifics to list.
However, if you take general issues in one industry, there will often be general similarities in another industry.
I think it is a culture of being way too comfortable giving away somebody else’s time to appease a customer at the lowest rate. Race to the bottom business model.
Thank you.
I work as a residential electrician. On numerous occasions over the years customers have blamed the company for electrical problems found elsewhere in their home after we did repairs. “You did something wrong and have to fix it for free.”
Thanks for sharing.
Always dreamed of getting the your level ,
Thank you for talking us through your thought process , busted them and got paid ,
And did it with gentlemanly style ,
Congratulations on mad skills
Thank you very much!
I’m what your average technician should be, I just fake it till I make it. Jokes aside I learned everything I know from somebody else at some point over the years, I’ve also made plenty of costly mistakes which were good lessons.
So I’m trying to return the favor here on UA-cam and share the knowledge and experience with anybody hungry to learn.
Started working on car’s in an old full service gas station in 1983, went off to a technical school to learn to be a mechanic in 1987 after my father an ex army mechanic taught me how to work on cars. In that time I had customers rip the station off for car batteries at $5 per battery, dropped out of the trade school that later became an accredited college over the funky monkey BS the school was pulling. And have since worked in another service station, where I saw a bunch of funny business going on by the owners son and customers. I still work on car’s, but refuse to do it for the general public or for an employer. The reason there is a shortage of mechanics is 4 fold, poor education, unethical employers, unethical customers and corrupt/incompetent mechanics. Only takes one bad mechanic, to cause a shop to develop a bad reputation that shuts a shop down.
Well said. Thanks for sharing.
That one bad mechanic in the shop can really ruin it for everybody else you are absolutely right….I’ve worked with “that guy”.
Former Mercedes Master certified technician, teamleader, shop foreman & independent repair shop foreman/manager. I can attest this industry sucks! i retired early & became a stay at home dad.
Thanks for the comment. I bet you’ve got a lot of stories and experiences locked away in your brain to share.
My mother has an '82 380SL, it's been a money pit when she bought it used in Dec '90. It's been sitting for the last 22 years at a shop wasting away. Can you help her? 🤣🤪
There is that, and the fact that many shops still massively abuse techs, while under paying them.
Very true!
Thank you.
Hi guys yes me too I worked with engine development last 30 odd years electronics was my major, it's gotten insane how much time and equipment needed to work independently on car electronics, 57 years old
Every day is a grind ,sometimes it takes days
To work out a problem no information and schematics or coding information, it's dammed hard and no one cares ,very little money in it now what do we do??
Yes, I experience problems almost every day that are just not “in the book”.
Thank you for sharing.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist
Yes no worries, today I am 3 days in on a Peugeot 207 will it be pay day today? The customer is a lady
Who is sure she knows what the problem is, loose keys !!
I tried to explain can bus communication is nothing related to loose keys 😉
I Feel your pain brother , Was always like this when i worked at a dealer guilty until i prove myself of no wrong doing. This is why i work for myself i can weed out the yeah not going to touch that with a 10 foot pole kinda cars.
Yes at some point I’d like to do the same.
Thank you.
If it was easy every shop would do it. Just because they have their papers doesn't mean they were at the top of their class. Been working on cars for over 40 years and good technicians are keepers.
When I “graduated” trade school the person in the class that we all knew wasn’t going to survive in the industry and asked the most obvious questions over and over again because he just could not understand unfortunately…..
He ended up becoming the next automotive instructor after the older instructors retired. Absolutely blew my mind.
Certifications in my opinion, don’t matter much unless you are looking for a job. I have worked with some ASE Master techs that were not qualified to change a door knob. It is not terribly hard to read a book and take the test on paper… Application is where it counts.
Thanks.
I love it when you go into a dealership or independent shop and the service advisor is a girl in her 20s. Hire the most unqualified people to cut your payroll costs. Can bus is nothing but problematic, its a daisy chain and if its not a bad module and its a wiring problem GOOD LUCK ! New vehicles with less that 10k on the odometer at the dealerships for a month and still not repaired !
Men and women working as service advisors completely lack automotive knowledge so I wouldn’t really blame it on this or that. Yes usually they are hired at a minimum to be a people handler.
I kind of enjoy network diagnostics it is fairly easy to understand and is clean work.
I believe many dealerships are lacking skilled personnel, and also there have been significant parts delays across-the-board.
Thanks.
If the service advisor is generally a person with little mechanical skills then why is hiring a 20 y/o girl as a service advisor a problem? I would assume this position is more about communication and customer service. I don't work in the auto industry, just someone that DIYs my own cars, so maybe I misunderstand, but definitely open to being corrected.
@@donaldlee6760 The main reason why I started doing my own service was so called service advisors. Looked at the repair bill on my mom's car and they charged her for 6 quarts of oil on a 350 V8 ! When I was working and took my Honda in for service = car was 3 years old and air conditioner compressor went out. Spent 6 hours working on my car and called me up and the parts guy ordered the wrong part ! Sitting in the waiting room waiting for my car I see a tech drain the differential oil on another car and then lower it down like it was done, talked to the cute little girl and she was to scared to talk to the tech. I went out and told the dumb ass to do his job and he said thanks man ! Went to Les Swab for tires and drive home and they put the wrong size tire on one side of my vehicle and the correct size on the other !
Had some brake work done and start driving and the steering wheel was moving back and forth without me touching it so get out of the car and lug nuts were loose on both front tires. The average cost of car repairs today is $4500 bucks according to CNBC . SCREW SERVICE WRITERS AND GREASE MONKEY'S WHO CHARGE UP THE KAZOO AND RIP PEOPLE OFF ! I GUESS YOU BUY A NEW CAR EVERY 2 YEARS AND HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED BEING SCREWED !
I’m a medical Xray/Device Technition and I’m telling ya, it not just your industry! I’ve actually gotten the “he was in the building and now X does not work” get it all the time, blamed for things I had absolutely nothing to do with. It’s really bad especially with salesmen making impossible promises to make sales. I’m looking to get out of this Industry, I’m a burnout aswell.
Thank you for sharing!
Communication in business is essential. If any corner of the triangle is stoopid, difficulties will arise.. I own a 1971 plymouth and I broke a shock mount. I am kind of old and cant see well so I drove it back it to the same chrysler ram dealership. I also wanted the ignition distributor replaced. Everyone wanted to work on the car because it doesn't give them any codes. I returned three days later and the car was fixed and everyone was happy.
I am surprised you could even find anybody able to work on it… Thank you for sharing.
I left the industry (retired) 7 years ago. This type of thing was almost a daily occurrence. It got to where you spent half of your day performing "freebies". Now I drive older autos that don't need a damn computer to diagnose or reprogram.
Yep! And I’ve worked for free enough in this industry already.
Thanks for commenting.
These modern vehicles with all their electronics and computers are such a pain to work on if you don't have a shop, or at least shop-grade tools/equipment.
It used to be pretty straight forward to diagnose a rough running engine, no computer needed.
3 things needed for a running engine... fuel/air mixture, compression, and spark.
It was usually kinda simple to narrow down which of the 3 had the issue.
Now.. well.. too many inter-connected computers & sensors that it takes another computer just to weed through all the readings.
True there are now many more complexities on modern vehicles.
The secret to diagnosing modern fuel injected engines….the engine needs have not changed, it still needs air/fuel, compression, spark at the right time. The computer just makes it so much easier to take many different measurements all at once and sometimes diagnose the engine fault from the drivers seat.
You’re not wrong though, they sure can be a pain to work on and require specialized equipment at times.
Thank you.
I got blamed for bending a clutch disc in a Camaro. It wasn't bent, and I knew it wasn't. Was chattering when it came in, and they wanted me to give it back in that condition (ostensibly to collect the bill). I refused, told them the customer would not take delivery with poor operation. I finally won out. pulled it apart and handed the disc to the service manager and said, show me the bent disc! It had 2 marcel plates stacked, so a thick spot in one section of the disc. Manufacturing defect.
And I bet they wiggled and squirmed on paying you for your time? That’s been my experience at least…it takes quite a bit of time to take the transmission out to prove your innocence.
Thanks for commenting.
I was the used car tech at a busy dealership and they blamed me for over looking a missing spare tire after the customer bought it. I had to educate them that there is no spare tire! Only a bottle of fix a flat and a factory compressor. Did I get an apology. NO
@@johnrpizzaguy very common unfortunately.
As a owner of a shop Jr's Auto these people have gotten me to the point that I want the bill paid in full before I begin work I'm tired of getting screwed and f*****the way I see it and dr. Bob agrees there's no reason to take half now and half later give me at all now up front!!!!💰💰💰💯🚩
Yes some people don’t see their car as a huge financial investment which requires upkeep and repairs from time to time.
Thanks for commenting.
got one better! Crook customer comes in, gets everything repaired correctly,pays with credit card,then declines payment because not satisfied with repairs! 🤥
so tech gets back flagged on his commission. for labor..
@@garyhutchinson7546I’ve seen that before
I was told when I first started buying tools, the better you get the less money you’ll make. There’s been plenty of instances where that’s held true
I’ve found it to be true… very true. Punished for having the answer, yet always have work in the slow times of the year.
Thank you for commenting.
@@DadsGarageDiagnosticSpecialist guys in the industry, know whats up thought. Cheers
"Always ensure the customer signs a disclaimer absolving you of responsibility for any issues, as you didn't perform a car diagnosis."
Customer came to pick it up after paying and it wouldn’t start. So fingers were getting pointed and it was alluded that I should diagnose and fix it for free because it had of been my fault. Happens every day in the industry and employers would rather place the burden on the employee than take the loss.
I’ve experienced this at every shop I’ve ever worked for.
Thank you for commenting.
@rob1248996 yes I did, and it started and ran poorly.
@rob1248996 0:40 "engine started and ran terrible. It's a V8 engine and felt like it was running on four cylinders"
Sooooo you didn't watch the video?@rob1248996 Dude-man says he started it up and it sounded like dog water only running on four cylinders. But at that point, it still wasn't his problem because he was only supposed to "reprogram the PCM" as per the work order.
Customer: You changed the oil and now my radio doesn't work!
Me: I know what you mean, last week a guy fixed my satellite dish and now my oven doesn't work.
Service manager: I need to see you in my office.
Lol that’s why they try to keep customers out of the shop.
Thanks for sharing.
Smart ass; I like that. 😏
Working in a field dealing with the public sucks to begin with, and if you're in an industry in which the mfg's are constantly changing stuff to be less serviceable, but require more service, you cannot avoid frustration. I'm not a tech, I just work on my own stuff, and I cringe at the thought of working on a newer car when I have to buy one. Driving an '05 Taurus right now and plan to keep her alive for a long long time.
Yes it is hard to own a fancy modern car if you want to do your own work because you usually need to also own multiple special tools for common repairs. Every part and piece also seems to be expensive and fragile.
Keeping the 05 Taurus is a good plan. They are solid cars and they’re cheap/easy to keep on the road.
Thanks for commenting.
Seems to me that there is a reason why many shops refuse computer/electrical work on certain mfgrs over 9-10 model years old.
The reason is because parts are becoming so difficult to source for them it’s a real challenge to fix some of these vehicles. In a couple of my videos, I state that because there are no parts available. I cannot fix it and I sent it out. Tahoe hybrid video is a good example.
Thanks.
I'm 60 and if I last 5 more yrs to retire Itll be a miracle. I was in a dealership but went to a small independent shop to do light duty work but the service writers do so much BS parking lot diag its borderline criminal because i do what they tell me but 70% of the time it's wrong so ill have to trll them if they want it fixed i need to diag it.. I also keep telling them to get more info on the service orders they seem not to care and just put...check car...for a hvac issue or something like that. Problem is they have the owner convinced they know it all....what bullshit we techs deal with is unbearable.
That’s terrible, I’ve dealt with that before too….it doesn’t last long before they chase away all the customers.
Thanks for sharing.
And this is why you don’t end someone else’s repair. Especially not for a flat rate with warranties.
Yes, a lot of self diagnosed repairs end up being a sad story in my experience.
Thanks.
If any customer has had an issue with having to sign a verification of work to be done by the shop, this is an explicit reason why....CYA. This will be a memory grabber if another scenario like this rolls in, glad you had a good handle on what the issue was.
Normally things go smoothly for this customer. I program for other shops fairly often. It was just a simple miscommunication, I wasn’t willing to take the blame and remedy the situation for free.
Thank you, everything worked out ok and all is well.
Boss: ill make it up on the next one. Me: if I had all the next ones I’d be rich. Just quit wrenching this year
I always like to challenge that one… I ask so you are going to make customer A subsidize customer B?
Thanks.
A few months ago I got out of the business. People were an issue time to time but incompetence was my biggest gripe. Someone somewhere did something and I was fixing their fuck up. Sometimes even being blamed for other people's fuck up.
I'm glad and doing better after I got out.
I have experienced similar situations. Thanks for sharing.
As a general rule. I ALWAYS check ecu relace when some one says "I had my mechanic replace the computer".
Same here. When I walked up to it I was told “the old module is on the seat” it wasn’t there.
This program was for a shop owner whom I consider competent so I didn’t question what he did. It was a simple miscommunication, it all worked out in the end.
Thanks.
I survived the industry for 30 years. 2022 seen me open my own MC shop. Enjoyed my auto industry but have stories exactly like yours and wanted it to stop. Custom MC work is far better clientele.
Thanks for the comment. Good to hear you are doing something that you enjoy.