Professional attitude

[needforspeed66gt]

The "bad customer" stories can be funny, .. but the stuff that happens with industry professionals or ones claiming to be professionals FAR outweigh anything I've ever had a customer do.

c

Yep - I have seen some scary stuff come out of other shops. Just last week we were tuning a car on the dyno and it's a total pig, compression test shows 115# - kid bought the SBC motor on Ebay from a "race shop" in texas for $2500 just a month before. So he pulls the motor out for us to tear down, first thing I see is a 4" long freeze crack on the side of the head that was obviously there when it was built...second thing, one head is a 441, other is 624 - a heavy casting and a light casting, one uses a peanut plug, the other a gasket plug. The starter pad ear is broken off, there's .120" of shim under the intake springs on one head... the kicker is when the pan is pulled off to find that 5 of the 8 pistons have the pressed pins eating the cylinder walls, can't believe it couldn't be heard or that the motor even ran because it was really hard to turn it over with a breaker bar.

Luckily enough for this guy he paid with paypal and they are refunding his money once he provides proof of shipping the motor back...they were contacted by 4 other people who bough motors from this guy and all of them have pins eating the cylinder walls.

[FASTFATBOY]

Our society is providing people who are dumber and dumber..... everyone wants to be hand fed and take no respnsibilty for their actions.

I am a service advisor in a GM dealer, some of the stuff I deal with everyday would turn your mind into oatmeal. Its easier to call or come by and see me than read the owners manual on a $50,000 vehicle.

I saw a bumper sticker once and it read like this.....

Think college is expensive? Try ignorance.

[panic]

that idiot wouldn't last long there

He'll be there until he retires, and each year he'll acquire another layer of patina as the revered expert, passing on his wisdom to the hushed approval of his acolytes.

How can that be?

He's the smartest one there.

Many BBS have the same problem: some friend of the board owner or moderator is a complete fool, but the entire audience is 15 and nods like little bobble-heads when he says things that defy Newton, Boyle, Venturi, &c.
If you dare question him, you release a torrent of defensive rhetoric from his minions ("well, I guess he should know - he's been working down at Jiffy-Lube for 30 years!"), and a complete non-sequitur from the expert, frequently the original error with slight change in syntax.
A flagrant example: an elder statesman (user ID on request) remarked that Ford invented the sidevalve engine, and that his (the speaker's, not Ford's) extensive array of patents made his authority beyond dispute.
When I disagreed, and asked for some sample text from his affidavits in support of the patent applications (he didn't know what that was), he leaped over the cliff of courtesy and began stating flatly that he spent the last week helping to repair an engine that had exploded due to instructions given by me to his customer (customer and advice not specified, and such thing had ever happened).
I suggested to the moderator that this was not proper content, even if true (since my rebuttal was deleted continuously), and it was libel if not. I'm sure you can guess the end result.

[panic]

Naturally Mr Cheapo will choose shop X for the job. Because you tried to rip them off by at least $900.

The reverse also occurs.

Someone approaches you for simple work, for which you have a flat rate. It's non-critical, and very unlikely to come back if you have a fixture and work clean.
You give him a price, he nods and leaves.
He goes to the Mr. Bombast down the street, who charges 50% more and does about the same quality work but has huge advertising, big nut to pay, shop foreman wears a white coat - and gives him the work.

Why?

Because he charges more, and everything this child has ever seen is based on money = value (Donald Trump is a genius, &c.). It's not his fault he's an idiot, and he has no other mode of comparison.

[miniv8]

Yes he had the clutch replaced under warranty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM3So0U1BMQ

This is just sad

[Shopboss]

I was talking to Ole Smoky years ago about another stupid stunt that we had watched and in his words ...... "That's an insult to anyone that knows anything about an engine. " I guess in this case "a car"

[1outlaw]

I run a chain of fuel stations and we sometimes get the same thing that shops get- customers who do not have a clue how fuels are made, how fuel systems work, and when they have a problem expect others to pay. This is actually aggravated by some companies who have a "no questions fuel guaranty.

I am very keen on taking care of customers and very into fuel quality. This couple buys from me on a regular basis and after a fill up they drive home with no issue. Next morning it does not start and is towed to the dealer 15 miles away. Shop finds water and debris in the E85 so it becomes a "fuel problem". I had received no fuel complaints from anyone and have 1 micron filters in the pump. I called the state inspector and met him at the site where we pulled filters and drained into a jar- dry fuel and clean. He does a tank bottom sample and it is dry and completely free of debris. Ok- now we know there had never been any dirty fuel in the tank because this takes forever to rinse thru.

State inspector goes back to the shop and mechanic admits to seeing grass/straw-like material in the filler tube but they have drained the tank into a large waste tank- evidence lost forever. Now inspector goes to owners home and sees the garden hose laying next to the drive and several "little ones" running about. Turns out one of the kids played "momma filling her car".

Stuff just happens

I love my customers but I do not pay for this-- nor did I pay for the battery that E85 made go bad

[Keith Morganstein]

I know this is "vent" thread, but usually the best attitude IMHO is to educate the customer. Try your best to let them know you are working to help them.

[Darin Morgan]

I know this is "vent" thread, but usually the best attitude IMHO is to educate the customer. Try your best to let them know you are working to help them.

This has always been the way I have approached it. It sometimes takes the patience of a munk and the clam of a Zen master neither of which I posses. Thats why after I hang up the phone with a "problem" customer my demeanor changes from a calm soft spoken man into a screaming lunatic who throws the first thing I can grab! People tell me I waste far to much time with customers on the phone attempting to explain and educate. I disagree. I like everyone here have had customer's who knew more than I, wanted things there way regardless of the facts or where convinced that there was a "cheaper" approach to making the same amount of power. Those kind of customers you must let go and let them teach themselves. I have also had those customers who where twice bitten twice shy and accused me (in so many words) of either overcharging or trying to rip them off some how. I once invested a day and a half of my life in THE most aggravating and mentally exhaustive debates with a new engine customer over the final cost of his engine. Granted, the engine did go over estimate by $2800.00. After almost two days of faxes and negotiations,, in the end,, it was all about how two previous "professional" engine builders had given him far less than was promised. He was taking out all his anger on me! I ended up taking the $2800.00 off anyway and eating it. That customer went on to win the championship in his pulling class for two years in a row. He called me two years later wanting more power and has called every year since. For me, biting my lip and exhausting every option pays off most of the time.

Then again, sometimes it doesn't. Only you can be the judge.