Why i have such contempt for garages

red_eye

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Well when I can decipher what you have just printed I get back to you :T:T
But you seem to be saying you don't want any customers back that want to watch what your mechanics are doing?

Why the hell not? are they hiding something?

I'm not talking about getting in the way, simply that my garage will invite a customer down into the pit, via the same safety inspected route they take, to have 1st hand look at any issues found.

If you have an issue with that you are part of the reason that the OP said he had contempt for garages.

I dont mind customers watching. After I finished the job I show the customer around, getting under the car and getting in the way is the customers I dont want, I'm not a babysitter.

that and customers like you who have been ripped of previously come in with an attitude, already made up their minds that they going to get ripped off.

Lum

I can see this from both sides of the argument. It's true in a lot of industries that some customers ARE morons who shouldn't be allowed near whatever device they have brought in needing fixing, be it a car or a computer or whatever.

Half the skill for the engineer though, is actually getting through to the customer and explaining things in a way that they can understand, and if it is a problem that they have caused, as opposed to wear and tear, explaining to them how they can prevent it, without making them feel like an idiot.

It's a skill a lot of engineers, mechanics, technicians etc. are missing. The stereotype of the garage mechanic standing there, fag hanging out of their mouth, sucking air through the teeth and exclaiming "that's gonna cost you love" is alive and well as we've seen from some of the posts in this thread.

Yes you don't want customers (unless they seem competent) in the way and poking around while you're working, but taking 5 minutes to show them the actual damage and explain what needs doing leads to satisified customers and repeat business.

I don't know the suspension layout of a Passat/A4, but if you took me under the car and explained something like "so you see, this part covers both sides and has to come off first and that's 3 hours there.. here's the left side which is knackered. It'll take an hour to replace that, and then another 2 hours to put that first part back on.... no look at the right side. It hasn't actually gone yet, but look at the state of it. it's perished all down here and it's likely going to go soon.. they're both the same age after all. So if you replace it now, you save 5 hours labour as we only have to remove and replace that first part once".

Sure, some people still wont listen to reason.. you can't win with some people. But some will accept that and be satisfied.

voucher

why not post in here garages that are good and you would recomend in your area, or is that against the rules, if so and you need a local garage ask and get the answer p.med im sure it would help everyone out on here at some point.

s_b

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Oh dear oh dear, an mot station that cannot maintain it's own kit let alone customers cars, scary?, no pathetic.

for your information cycling bri
the incident was 23 years ago
it was in a garage that had just been opened
it was supposedly a fully reconditioned ramp
it wasnt my garage
get a grip before throwing stupid irresponsible slanderous posts about

brownie4583

I would never use a dealer again.My previous car was a Citroen C5.
I had a full service at the Citroen dealer,everything ok,2 weeks later it was in again for it's 1st MOT,3 years old and 22,000 miles on the clock.
They phoned me to say it had failed on both front suspension struts,which were leaking excessively,and it would cost me £680 to replace them.I then went for a 2nd opinion to a Citroen specialist who thought they were ok,booked another test at the station they use,and it passed no problem.
The struts subsequently passed another 5 years MOT's and i sold it 3 months ago with 88,000 on the clock,and the struts still going strong!

wba31

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

Robbing incompetent b@stards. Almost all garages are a bunch of crooks, its just some are more subtle about it than others.

My Dad has been a mechanic for 35 years, works at one of the biggest garages in Birmingham. He takes pride in his work, and the fact that without people like him, working in garages, many people in this world would be screwed when their car goes tits up.
In fact, he's so good at what he does, he has people asking him to help them outside of work, which he refuses on due to the issues of working extra hours and then having to declare tax etc.
You got one bad mechanic in a garage. the second place you took it to got you seen by a good mechanic. Believe me, there are far more good ones than bad ones, you were just unlucky. keep your sweeping generalisations to yourself in future

cyclonebri1

red_eye wrote: »

I dont mind customers watching. After I finished the job I show the customer around, getting under the car and getting in the way is the customers I dont want, I'm not a babysitter.

that and customers like you who have been ripped of previously come in with an attitude, already made up their minds that they going to get ripped off.

Whoa whoa whoa, Did I say that? or is your 1 sided perspective putting you totally on defence of your trade.

I have never been ripped of by a garage. There's probably a good reason for that, I've never used a garage in my life apart from the MOT for mine and all the families cars.
So please don't make the assumption that I would come to you and expect to get ripped off, for the simple reason that I would never come to you in the 1st place without good recommendation or serious research.

Or just maybe your reaction was to someone elses post.


But what I do feel is that any garage with a genuine feel for their customer base will allow reasonable access to view what is happening.
No I wouldn't expect to get under a car when they are working on it, but I do expect to be shown the problem if it is safe to do so.

Your safety concerns are admirable, but it needs tempering with a little more acceptance that the average joe bloggs simply wants value for money and a little more openness.

Is that too much to ask?:A

cyclonebri1

s_b wrote: »

for your information cycling bri
the incident was 23 years ago
it was in a garage that had just been opened
it was supposedly a fully reconditioned ramp
it wasnt my garage
get a grip before throwing stupid irresponsible slanderous posts about

b s I don't care when it was, the result is the same, a garage used faulty equipment and should have done correct overload testing before it went into service.
It could easily kill, and would be much more likely to kill the mechanic using it than a visitor.

The bold bit beggars belief to be honest. Substitute negligence for slander in your post and you'd be a lot closer to the mark.
Exactly who was stupid, (please don't say that again) in the case you mentioned.

mazza111

I think I must be lucky, I have a great local garage. Even bought his wife's old car from her He'll tell me if it's time to get rid of my cars, for example when they went in for MOT or major repair. His words are something like, "Don't even ask me to quote! It's time to get rid!!"

He's a bit more expensive than others, but I feel it's worth it knowing what a good job he does. Made the mistake of taking an old car elsewhere for a new alternator, a week later there were other problems that my local man would have probably have picked up on and told us before changing the alternator, he usually gives them a quick once over before he does any expensive job.He usually puts all the old bits he's taken off the car to the side too, just to show us how bad they are, although that's usually on my fella's car rather than mine.

nervous_gambler

fannyadams wrote: »

Oh

find a garage that's listed here maybe... i know a really good one in Trowbridge that I got off that site but as with everything there are good and bad ones.

You were lucky... the good garage scheme is a total scam. The reviews are worthless, they only post good reviews and never anything negative, so really not much use, in my opinion.

Just take a look at the reviews of the garages around your area, and see if you can find a single negative review.... good luck with that, you won't find one.

That doesn't mean to say, obviously, that the garages listed are not good, only that the reviews on that site are not a safe means of gauging that.

I would dearly like to know of somewhere to get genuine garage reviews, I think finding an honest, quality garage is like finding a really good doctor, I'm sure there are plenty out there, but it's so hard to find one without trial and error and the risk of being stung by a bad one, of which there are also plenty.