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THE PROCEDURE when dropping your car off for repairs.
This was a popular discussion on my favorite mechanic's forum. I thought I'd share it here, so people not in the auto industry can see the view from the other side of the service counter. It could also be called, how not to be an automotive SC. Enjoy!
The Procedure (by Greg)
1. Call and make an appointment. Be friendly on the phone. Have an idea what you want before you call. Hang up.
2. Show up on time. Leave vehicle for the day. Have a friend or family member pick you up.
3. Don't call the shop to check on the car
4. Seriously, don't call.
5. Answer the phone at the primary number you left when we call you.
6. Authorize or deny the work - just make a decision.
7. Don't call.
8. Pick up the car when we phone to let you know its ready.
9. Pay the bill in full.
10. Leave immediately.
IS THIS SO HARD???????????
The Anti-Procedure from Chris
1. Drive in without calling at lunchtime.
2. Demand car to be looked at right away.
3. Leave car but end up mad that car couldn't be looked at right away.
4. Call within an hour to ask how everything is going.
5. Complain about price given at upsell and question every diagnostic result given.
6. Tell service advisor that you'll get back to them.
7. Call back the next day to tell them to only do part of the repair.
8. Come to pick up car at least one day after its finished.
9. Pay bill with one check and two different credit cards and ask if they can hold your check till the end of the month.
10. Find any other prior existing problem and call the next day to complain that this new work caused it.
How much mischeif can one SC cause, anyway? By Automan Empire
1. Park halfway across the driveway before opening, so long before that you and your buddy have wandered around and stared at everything there is to see and then some, so you are beyond antsy and ready to leave when I arrive.
2. Greet me by asking if I remember the car as I dash across the boulevard in rush hour in the rain. Never mind Hello, or even Can you hear me over the din of traffic while running 25 feet away.
3. Listen patiently as I ask you to pull the vehicle into a particular spot between two cars after I open the gate and pull the truck out. Pull the car right in before I can even start the truck, leave car diagonally nosed 3 inches into spot I requested and in the way of said truck. Stare at me in the driver seat fuming, until I have to burst out of the cab to tell you to move.
4. Listen patiently as I ask you to please pull the car all the way into the spot I indicated before, so that the next driver doesn't park right in the way, which I point out. Pull car into spot. Set your donut and drink on car parked next to yours, which is worth several times more than your car.
5. As I pull the next car out of the lot, get back in your car and drive it over in front of the shop, right in the way of the rest of the vehicles that need to come out and the doors that need to open, right where I just indicated needed to be kept clear. Look hurt as I have to storm across the lot needlessly to tell you, yet again, not to park in the way.
6. The guy who is waiting is not a party to this transaction at all, but make sure he follows the busy service manager around like a no-see-um, and acts both bemused and irritated that said manager has to keep telling them how to not be a PITFA, by standing in the way of moving vehicles, peering into other people's cars, asking pointless questions about repairs in progress on random cars, asking how much we're asking for cars that belong to customers, etc.
7. Now that another, more sensible customer has pulled into the spot you vacated, take a very long time to understand the directive to park behind that car now. The clock is really ticking now; employees and more customers are pouring in, and you're talking slowly like the teachers in the Charlie Brown cartoons; other people are frozen in strange poses, and birds are stopped in midair as your syllables ease out.
8. Lean against the same car I just took your drinks and s#$% off of. The rivets in your jeans couldn't possibly scratch this $35,000 machine down to the primer without you even noticing, or me until the owner lividly points them out later.
9. Insist that we already diagnosed the problem as a wheel bearing, while describing a non-wheel-bearing sounding symptom that you want fixed today, and ONLY that. Expect a fresh complete look today for free though, when you bought one out of 18 recommended repairs last time, which has now been months and thousands of miles. Remind me what a good customer you are.
10. Throw something in about the fact that it is almost Christmas sometime around when the inspection estimate is presented. Find plenty to ramble on about, as it is sprinkling harder and harder, and the other customers are waiting patiently, out of the way, pen hovering over the signature line which is the last step before I'm done with the write-up.
11. Tell me to have a good day in a kind of condescending way, now that I am running behind and rather wet from the rain, and blatantly acting rushed with you.
12. Call two hours before I told you to, interrupting the flow of work INCLUDING YOUR OWN, and go into the whole round of why haven't you finished even looking at it yet, etc. instead of just saying oh okay call me when you know the way normal customers do.
13. After having said at least twice each time we talk that you MUST have the car back today, which we move heaven and earth to successfully accomplish, don't pick up the car until two mornings later. Early. With a different numpty of a friend driving you. Goto 1.
-Automan
The Procedure (by Greg)
1. Call and make an appointment. Be friendly on the phone. Have an idea what you want before you call. Hang up.
2. Show up on time. Leave vehicle for the day. Have a friend or family member pick you up.
3. Don't call the shop to check on the car
4. Seriously, don't call.
5. Answer the phone at the primary number you left when we call you.
6. Authorize or deny the work - just make a decision.
7. Don't call.
8. Pick up the car when we phone to let you know its ready.
9. Pay the bill in full.
10. Leave immediately.
IS THIS SO HARD???????????
The Anti-Procedure from Chris
1. Drive in without calling at lunchtime.
2. Demand car to be looked at right away.
3. Leave car but end up mad that car couldn't be looked at right away.
4. Call within an hour to ask how everything is going.
5. Complain about price given at upsell and question every diagnostic result given.
6. Tell service advisor that you'll get back to them.
7. Call back the next day to tell them to only do part of the repair.
8. Come to pick up car at least one day after its finished.
9. Pay bill with one check and two different credit cards and ask if they can hold your check till the end of the month.
10. Find any other prior existing problem and call the next day to complain that this new work caused it.
How much mischeif can one SC cause, anyway? By Automan Empire
1. Park halfway across the driveway before opening, so long before that you and your buddy have wandered around and stared at everything there is to see and then some, so you are beyond antsy and ready to leave when I arrive.
2. Greet me by asking if I remember the car as I dash across the boulevard in rush hour in the rain. Never mind Hello, or even Can you hear me over the din of traffic while running 25 feet away.
3. Listen patiently as I ask you to pull the vehicle into a particular spot between two cars after I open the gate and pull the truck out. Pull the car right in before I can even start the truck, leave car diagonally nosed 3 inches into spot I requested and in the way of said truck. Stare at me in the driver seat fuming, until I have to burst out of the cab to tell you to move.
4. Listen patiently as I ask you to please pull the car all the way into the spot I indicated before, so that the next driver doesn't park right in the way, which I point out. Pull car into spot. Set your donut and drink on car parked next to yours, which is worth several times more than your car.
5. As I pull the next car out of the lot, get back in your car and drive it over in front of the shop, right in the way of the rest of the vehicles that need to come out and the doors that need to open, right where I just indicated needed to be kept clear. Look hurt as I have to storm across the lot needlessly to tell you, yet again, not to park in the way.
6. The guy who is waiting is not a party to this transaction at all, but make sure he follows the busy service manager around like a no-see-um, and acts both bemused and irritated that said manager has to keep telling them how to not be a PITFA, by standing in the way of moving vehicles, peering into other people's cars, asking pointless questions about repairs in progress on random cars, asking how much we're asking for cars that belong to customers, etc.
7. Now that another, more sensible customer has pulled into the spot you vacated, take a very long time to understand the directive to park behind that car now. The clock is really ticking now; employees and more customers are pouring in, and you're talking slowly like the teachers in the Charlie Brown cartoons; other people are frozen in strange poses, and birds are stopped in midair as your syllables ease out.
8. Lean against the same car I just took your drinks and s#$% off of. The rivets in your jeans couldn't possibly scratch this $35,000 machine down to the primer without you even noticing, or me until the owner lividly points them out later.
9. Insist that we already diagnosed the problem as a wheel bearing, while describing a non-wheel-bearing sounding symptom that you want fixed today, and ONLY that. Expect a fresh complete look today for free though, when you bought one out of 18 recommended repairs last time, which has now been months and thousands of miles. Remind me what a good customer you are.
10. Throw something in about the fact that it is almost Christmas sometime around when the inspection estimate is presented. Find plenty to ramble on about, as it is sprinkling harder and harder, and the other customers are waiting patiently, out of the way, pen hovering over the signature line which is the last step before I'm done with the write-up.
11. Tell me to have a good day in a kind of condescending way, now that I am running behind and rather wet from the rain, and blatantly acting rushed with you.
12. Call two hours before I told you to, interrupting the flow of work INCLUDING YOUR OWN, and go into the whole round of why haven't you finished even looking at it yet, etc. instead of just saying oh okay call me when you know the way normal customers do.
13. After having said at least twice each time we talk that you MUST have the car back today, which we move heaven and earth to successfully accomplish, don't pick up the car until two mornings later. Early. With a different numpty of a friend driving you. Goto 1.
-Automan
Don't feel like the lone ranger, though.
Honestly, why do people even write their home number when they won't be there till after we're closed? 
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