"GUNNER" wrote: > Yesterday I had a guy get pissed at me because I charged him > $89.00 to > fix a similar problem. > He had replaced the following on his Jeep, > Crank sensor $125.00 > Cam sensor $85.00 > Dis Cap $20.00 > Wires $45.00 > Plugs $20.00 > Pick up in the Dis $110.00 > still his Jeep wouldn't run so he bought a $500.00 computer > and hung > that on his Jeep. After all that still didn't fix his problem, > he > brought it to me. > I have it running fine after about 15 min. > This guy is pissed and calling me a rip off after he dumped > all that > money in to his car when he didn't need to. > I charged a half an hour labor and a fuse link. > The moral of this story is, > Hire a pro. In the long run it's cheaper. I could have saved > this guy a > ton of money if he would have just brought it ome first. > For some reason, people have a preset notion that everone is > out to rip > them off. I, like so many others depend on earning your trust > so that I > can make a living. > If you want your cars to run, take them and have them fixed. I > am > reading about all of the guessing and thinking you folks are > wasting a > ton of money that you don't have to.
Gunner, I agree your customer was foolish for spending that kind of money guessing, and he should be thankful that you fixed his problem cheaply, honestly and quickly, never mind taking his frustration out on you.
Having the know-how, documentation and the tools to diagnose a problem can?t be beat. Some of us though enjoy the satisfaction of fixing our own problems when we can, with a little help from our friends and places like this. In my case I had easy access to free parts of some cars that I kept as parts cars, so I didn?t have to spend anything to swap in parts. I?m not crazy enough to spend $1000 + replacing a tranny on a 16 year old car with 250,000 KM, but it pays to keep it around for parts if you have the room.
Since the car was 30 miles from the nearest shop, I managed to save a $90 towing charge, $40-80 for diagnosis, plus the cost of the repair (re-soldering a wire). In this case it was worth it, but obviously not in every case. Keep things reasonable both in the money you throw at guessing, and the job you undertake relative to your skills and willingly pay for help when you need it. If the parts are near their service date anyway like caps, plugs rotors etc (for older cars). there is no harm in replacing them anyway.
As far as dishonest mechanics go, as an ex-mechanic (15 year ago), I have to say most mechanics are honest and the problem is more related to an in-experienced owner explaining a problem they don?t understand to an ?service advisor? who translates the problem on a work order to the person who actually tries to fix the problem. A lot gets lost in the translation. Your customer should have turned out as a referral for you but I guess he was an idiot or to embarrassed to admit he screwed up.
Obviously owners don?t realize that just because you replace the ignition module or pickup coil last week because the car didn?t start has nothing to do with the fact the starter failed out in the paring lot when they went to pick it up. To them the car didn?t start either way and they don?t have the logical knowledge to figure out they are unrelated. And when it comes to electrical related problems, even the seemingly un-related might be the cause.
Reminds me of one of the strangest work orders I had. Oil leak at the right rear door. Seeing as there was no business having oil any where near there it was kind of strange. It turned out that the power window was dropping too far in that door so an innovate yet misguided mechanic, stuck an old oil filter in the bottom of the door so the window bottomed out on it. Unfortunately he place the filter opening down, so that the oil drained out and caused a leak.
That?s my 2 cents worth