Does anyone give a shit about the jobs they do anymore?? Or is s it just do the minimum or band aid fix it and see if we get away with it?
I bought a used van it had a couple issues so part of the deal it was to be fixed. I purchased the van 2 hours away and they deliver it to me after it was fixed. The main issue was the foglight had moisture in it and was not secured to the bumper. It was to be REPLACED. They deliver it and there is no moisture and is attached. 2 days later I got new fog light bulbs so I got to swap them out well what do you know the fog light has become detached all they did was stick a dab of glue on it. So I am pissed and the dealer is 2 hours away. They say take it to the closest dealer and they'll take care of the bill.
No problem but it will be a week or so as I am dropping the van off for window tint, fix a couple cosmetic issues, and a full interior and exterior detail.
So I drop it off for that at a local body shop on a Monday should be done Friday. Nope, they found a blemish in their work and have to do it over (give them credit for not trying to slide it through). So I go to pick it up Wednesday and as I am looking over it they just crappily stuck one part back on. Instead of buying the factory clips they tried to make their own and it looked terrible. So 2 more days waiting on the proper clips. Finally finish it and it looks good but they had it a week longer than originally quoted. Ohh, well it looks good.
Now I can take it to the local Toyota dealer so the foglight can be fixed properly. I informed the fella at the service counter that I had swapped the standard halogen bulbs for yellow LEDs so make sure they don't put a standard bulb back in it.
I go to pick up the van at 6:30 service closes at 7:00. The woman is quite unfriendly from the get go and asks if I already paid. I said no another dealer was taking care of the bill and the service tech I dropped it off with was well aware. She nastily says she knows nothing about it and hands me the invoice which clearly indicates it was being paid for by the other dealer.
I go out to inspect the work and guess what I have 1 LED and 1 halogen bulb.
I go back inside and am met with the grump face and a "what now" I told her they did not put the proper bulb back in. She says yeah you had some yellow bulb in there. I said I know I put it in there and told the service tech I dropped it off with about it. She said she did not know anything about it. To which I said clearly you did as you
mentioned it being yellow. She said they don't have yellow bulbs, I said fine where is the perfectly good that was in there I told you all about. She does not know and everyone has gone home early. I said it is not my problem people left early. She calls the service tech and he says he will get it in the morning.
Why can't people just work on things like they are working on their own stuff. Why must folks try to cut corners and do as little as possible.

This is exactly why I do all my own freaking work on my cars that I can.

Sorry to hear about your service troubles.

Think of all the bad luck that you are burning off though! Eventually, you'll be left with nothing but good karma.

Proves what I have believed for some time now. You can easily buy a vehicle, any type of vehicle, new or used and get a good deal.
But finding anyone who can actually work on it or repair it is a crap shoot.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Proves what I have believed for some time now. You can easily buy a vehicle, any type of vehicle, new or used and get a good deal.
But finding anyone who can actually work on it or repair it is a crap shoot.

It has been more than 20 years since I have taken a vehicle to a dealer for service. I have searched out a local shop that does things correctly. I can not tolerate dealing with a service writer who insulates me from the technicians.

The local shop I have been fortunate to find, has three people on staff: two mechanics and the owner. The owner serves as the service writer, he does all the road tests and quality assurance, he is a mechanic, and most important, he has P226s and P229s, mostly in .357 SIG, with some 9mm in the mix.

None of the "our insurance prohibits ..." nonsense, I can go into the shop to see my vehicle being worked on. The owner does, in fact, treat my vehicles as if they were his own. He sources parts to try to control costs for me without sacrificing quality. For example, he has shown me a Bosch part in a Bosch box and the identical Bosch part in a Mercedes box, identical parts in different packaging, with a very significant price difference.

With service like this, I see no reason to go to a dealer.

What, no Enter/Return button on your device!?!?!?

That's a sweet nearly wall of text.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
What, no Enter/Return button on your device!?!?!?

That's a sweet nearly wall of text.

That just shows the frustration of OP. Just typing and typing to try to vent. There's no time or need to use the enter or return key

Son was hit and took his car to the body shop. A piece of trim came off and you see where they had tried to glue it instead of using clips.

Took it back, got it fixed, a week later, same thing.

Took 3 tries to get it done correctly.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Proves what I have believed for some time now. You can easily buy a vehicle, any type of vehicle, new or used and get a good deal.
But finding anyone who can actually work on it or repair it is a crap shoot.

It has been more than 20 years since I have taken a vehicle to a dealer for service. I have searched out a local shop that does things correctly. I can not tolerate dealing with a service writer who insulates me from the technicians.

The local shop I have been fortunate to find, has three people on staff: two mechanics and the owner. The owner serves as the service writer, he does all the road tests and quality assurance, he is a mechanic, and most important, he has P226s and P229s, mostly in .357 SIG, with some 9mm in the mix.

None of the "our insurance prohibits ..." nonsense, I can go into the shop to see my vehicle being worked on. The owner does, in fact, treat my vehicles as if they were his own. He sources parts to try to control costs for me without sacrificing quality. For example, he has shown me a Bosch part in a Bosch box and the identical Bosch part in a Mercedes box, identical parts in different packaging, with a very significant price difference.

With service like this, I see no reason to go to a dealer.

It took me a while to find a mechanic that I trusted, but I got one that is honest and up front about things. He's not cheap and he knows it, but he also provides a level of service above everyone else. I like to work on my cars when I can and he'll let me know if an issue is a DIY or really needs to be performed by a mechanic.

In fairness to the local MB dealer, I did take it to them once for a major engine out warranty issue and I can't say enough about how well I was treated. I was impressed since it was a warranty issue on a 10 year old car that I didn't buy from them. (I originally took the car to the above mentioned mechanic. He charged me the diagnostic fee, then saved me a ton of money by informing me of the MB warranty issue and that I only had a few more months covered by the warranty so I was better to have the dealer do the work since he would be at least twice the cost)

On the other hand, I took my truck to a local mechanic for a rear brake job since it really needed it and I did not have any time to get it done. I mean it's rear brakes on a old dodge ram, easy right? Picked the truck up after work, pulled in the driveway, went to set the parking brake and it went all the way to the floor with no resistance.

Ugh the Ram is a bugger to get the rear breaks installed

In keeping with your thread title, I figure I did something right.

Joined the army at 17, traveled some 6000 miles to Germany, first girl I met, who lived about 100 klicks from where I was stationed, became my wife.

Been married 59 years in May. Not to derail the thread, of course.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Proves what I have believed for some time now. You can easily buy a vehicle, any type of vehicle, new or used and get a good deal.
But finding anyone who can actually work on it or repair it is a crap shoot.

It has been more than 20 years since I have taken a vehicle to a dealer for service. I have searched out a local shop that does things correctly. I can not tolerate dealing with a service writer who insulates me from the technicians.

The local shop I have been fortunate to find, has three people on staff: two mechanics and the owner. The owner serves as the service writer, he does all the road tests and quality assurance, he is a mechanic, and most important, he has P226s and P229s, mostly in .357 SIG, with some 9mm in the mix.

None of the "our insurance prohibits ..." nonsense, I can go into the shop to see my vehicle being worked on. The owner does, in fact, treat my vehicles as if they were his own. He sources parts to try to control costs for me without sacrificing quality. For example, he has shown me a Bosch part in a Bosch box and the identical Bosch part in a Mercedes box, identical parts in different packaging, with a very significant price difference.

With service like this, I see no reason to go to a dealer.

Where in Central FL is this mystical mechanic??

Please don't tell me Zellwood or Eustis...

Got my bulb back!!!
Lady was as grumbly as last night.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
What, no Enter/Return button on your device!?!?!?

That's a sweet nearly wall of text.

Not sure what you are reading. I see 9 spots where the enter key was used.

quote:

Originally posted by g8rforester:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Proves what I have believed for some time now. You can easily buy a vehicle, any type of vehicle, new or used and get a good deal.
But finding anyone who can actually work on it or repair it is a crap shoot.

It has been more than 20 years since I have taken a vehicle to a dealer for service. I have searched out a local shop that does things correctly. I can not tolerate dealing with a service writer who insulates me from the technicians.

The local shop I have been fortunate to find, has three people on staff: two mechanics and the owner. The owner serves as the service writer, he does all the road tests and quality assurance, he is a mechanic, and most important, he has P226s and P229s, mostly in .357 SIG, with some 9mm in the mix.

None of the "our insurance prohibits ..." nonsense, I can go into the shop to see my vehicle being worked on. The owner does, in fact, treat my vehicles as if they were his own. He sources parts to try to control costs for me without sacrificing quality. For example, he has shown me a Bosch part in a Bosch box and the identical Bosch part in a Mercedes box, identical parts in different packaging, with a very significant price difference.

With service like this, I see no reason to go to a dealer.

Where in Central FL is this mystical mechanic??

Please don't tell me Zellwood or Eustis...

Do you know where Costco is, in Altamonte Springs? General Auto Repair is right around the corner from there, maybe a five minute walk, if that much.

My email address is in my profile if you want the address, phone number, name of owner, etc.

I found the place after I had thrown multi-bucks at my GMC 3500 delivery truck, paying a different place to (not) fix an intermittent dragging brake problem. I stopped in at this place, near my house and described the problem. The guy got up from his desk, walked out to the truck, took about 30 seconds to figure out what the problem was.

I left the truck for repair, he drove me home. That was a bunch of years ago, I have been using him for vehicle maintenance ever since, no complaints at all.

Preach it, Brother! My business continues to grow because some folks can't even do a simple haircut right. They charge out the wazoo, and do crap work. It's not rocket science, just give a shit while your doing it! Most of the crap work is cranked out by people with twice the professional experience that I have!

quote:

This is exactly why I do all my own freaking work on my cars that I can.

THIS! Unless it is way beyond the abilities of me and Google/Youtube, a perfect example of why. And these are just irritants, nothing like not filling the oil, leaving filter loose, stripping pan, etc. that we hear all the time.

All while they roll up 50 miles on an M3 in my case after replacing a nav DVD head unit. That was NOT a pleasant experience for anybody in the area......

Our motto is "there's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over."

quote:

I see 9 spots where the enter key was used.

At least 9.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Do you know where Costco is, in Altamonte Springs? General Auto Repair is right around the corner from there, maybe a five minute walk, if that much.

My email address is in my profile if you want the address, phone number, name of owner, etc.

I found the place after I had thrown multi-bucks at my GMC 3500 delivery truck, paying a different place to (not) fix an intermittent dragging brake problem. I stopped in at this place, near my house and described the problem. The guy got up from his desk, walked out to the truck, took about 30 seconds to figure out what the problem was.

I left the truck for repair, he drove me home. That was a bunch of years ago, I have been using him for vehicle maintenance ever since, no complaints at all.

Thanks!!

Still might be a bit of a haul from Winter Garden, but might be worth it. I'll think about it and email if I have questions.