Confessions of a Service Writer : Your Questions Answered!

"Stephen Rivers" (stephenrivers)
12/25/2019 at 17:00 • Filed to: Confessions of a Service Writer, Service, Auto Shop, repair

Good day to you all! Hopefully you’re enjoying a long awaited and well deserved day off. Recently I posted to oppo to ask what you would like to know about service shops and the operation behind the curtain. I was totally surprised by some of these but here we go!

1. Do dealerships actually care about their reputations or the horrible things they do such as high Pressure sales, unneeded service work, selling parts that aren’t broken, poor scheduling, intentionally misdiagnosing?

This is a simplified version of the question which can be seen !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

No. And Yes. It’s shop dependant. Sometimes the Sales manager will be a completely different personality than the shop foreman and you’ll get amazing service but high pressure sales at the same dealer.

The best places will bend over backward to take care of you. They recognize that YOU are the only way they’ll maintain a business. The worst places are so big or so cheap that they almost can’t fail. They can treat anyone badly and just wait on the next customer to roll up.

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I’ve seen some wild stuff work but I would have to say an improvised drain pan bolt. It’s innocuous enough that I can say for a certainty that it worked too. A car came in one day with a small oil leak. We found that the last place to work on it had stripped the oil pan bolt. Ultimately the only professional solution was a new oil pan as oversized drain plugs weren’t working out. Sadly the customer didn’t give us enough time to get one in, roughly 2 days. So we received permission to improvise. That’s when we busted out a bolt that was objectively twice the size of the original bolt, tapped the pan and boom. No more leak. Let it sit for more than an hour after a long test drive and it was dry as a bone.

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I would say fullness and appearance. If it looks clean but is very full of cars that’s typically a good sign. It means they’re organized enough to do high volume and still keep the place in good shape.

Ano ther tip

Go in and ask for air in your tires. How quickly does that happen? How are you treated? If a service tech does the work ask them about the shop and or how long have they been there.

4. How do you navigate the fine line of: suggesting repairs to prevent issues down the road without coming across like you’re upselling, while making sure you’re not ignoring a problem that will have the customer back too quickly, thinking you didn’t do your job?

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We have one guy who is so meticulous that it’s wild. He’s great but he’s the reason I have experience with this. One customer came in with a coolant leak. By the time this tech was done checking the car over it needed $2700 worth of stuff.

So here’s how I deal with this. Focus on the original issue. Once we have an idea of what needs there are with regard to that I’ll have a conversation with the customer about that. Depending on the severity of the problems found in other places I’ll tell them as soon as we’re done focusing on the original complaint. If it’s a small concern like slight wear on control arm bushings for instance I’ll tell them that when they pick up the car that it’s something that can be handled in the future.

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These were asked separately but the answer is the same. The photo you see above is one I took of a vehicle that came in at one point on a flatbed. In the condition it arrived in it was worth maybe $1000 despite being less than 5 years old. It didn’t help that it smelled of death and weed and had 3 bullet holes in it and didn’t have any caps on the battery and didn’t have a passenger side windshield wiper.

The customer said that they heard a loud pop one day as they were turning right and that the car wouldn’t go anymore after that . Turns out that the CV axle on the front passenger side was snapped in two different places.

In addition they had hit something they didn’t tell us about because the lower control arm was bent so far that it would need replacing. You can see in the photo how far back the wheel is compared to the actual fender well.

Once the arm and sway link and cv joint was all replaced we found out that the subframe but also be bent because it was more than 2 degrees away from being able to be aligned properly.

I called to give them the bad news and with almost no hesi t ation approved the subframe being replaced altogether. I won’t say exactly what their bill ended up being but it was in my opinion the worst waste of money on a car I’ve ever seen, and that includes lowering springs on a 10 year old 2 door Nissan Altima.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed this little Q&A. Have any questions you didn’t see covered here or in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ? Ask below!

DISCUSSION (14)

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 17:26

Great content for Christmas. Your gift is preventing us from getting flim-flam med.

Stephen Rivers > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
12/25/2019 at 17:36

My pleasure.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 19:05

To be fair, Altima coupes are sweet.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 19:32

How often do u dragon a customer's car?

AestheticsInMotion > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 19:34

Are there particular manufacturers that are considered better or worse to work for as a mechanic/salesman/whatever , or is it all just based on each individual dealership?

Urambo Tauro > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 19:40

Turns out that the CV axle on the front passenger side was snapped in two different places.

Kinja'd!!!

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 21:18

I guess I didn’t see this post and I understand if it’s too late, but how does one become a service writer and what would be some of the qualifications that wouldn’t necessarily be on the job description?

glemon > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 21:33

Go in and ask them to put air in your tires. Do people actually do that? I think of me and can’t imagine it, but then I guess if I think of others I know I could see that happening. I thought everybody aired up at gas stations if the didn’t have a pump or compressor at home. I can see it at the dealer you bought the car new from, but it sounds like you are suggesting you just drive to a random shop and ask for this? Do they drop everything and do it? Do they charge? I could see a dishonest shop happily doing this to make a cheap, easy first impression and suck you in for the big work.

Stephen Rivers > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/25/2019 at 22:15

Dragon???? Drag on....???? Like... let it linger in the shop after it’s done?? I’m not sure what you’re asking.

Stephen Rivers > glemon
12/25/2019 at 22:16

Happens at my shop at least 5 times every day in the colder months. On really cold days we’ll get 30+ JUST FOR AIR. I’ll make the rest of this response a part of an upcoming edition of COASW

XJDano > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 23:00

https://jalopnik.com/dragons-having-sex-with-cars-306619?tag=carsewww

XJDano > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 23:03

How often do you deal with an extended warranty?

What are the stories of a customer getting over on a extended warranty claim, or the company denying a claim? Or would you even mention it?

I will say the warranty I bought paid for itself and then some.

Aremmes > Stephen Rivers
12/25/2019 at 23:08

Kinja'd!!!

Look at what this guy is doing to the poor innocent car in this picture and imagine what it looks like. That’s dragoning. The etymology of the term is buried deep in Rule 34 shit.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > AestheticsInMotion
12/26/2019 at 09:50

Typically the higher end manufacturers are better than lower. Not always the case, particularly in the US, because each dealership is run independently of the manufacturer. Sure they follow guidelines and franchise rules, but some suck and some are awesome. Outside of the US, many more dealers tend to be manufacturer owned so consistency is better. Domestic manufacturers tend to be notoriously stingy with warranty times, and Europeans tend to be better. But again, no hard and fast rule there.