$1500.00 PPI?

Just messing with you a bit this morning Tom. I’m sure we’ve all been beat down by idiots at some point in our career.

 

if you arent paying to have the car shipped/dropped off at the shop the $1500 seems extremely reasonable IMO. Travel time and lost work cost a lot of money (to the point im suprised it isnt even higher for essently a day of lost time+miles+food)

 

A friend and I were on a road trip, me in the 328 and he in a loud yellow 355. Both of us were in jeans and sloppy T-shirts. We stopped at a breakfast place and next to us were two gentlemen wearing matching black outfits with Ferrari logos on it from head (caps) to toes (shoes). We were wondering what Ferrari they were driving since we did not see a Ferrari out in the parking lot. At the end of the meal, we all left at the same time and they got into a Lexus and drove off.

 

One of my favorite guys at cars and coffee in college had an absalutely thrashed 308 gtsi (I'm talking rust holes in wings and no driver door window) and would come in a full ferrari tracksuit with ferrari trainers every week. I wonder if he is on here tbh.

 

It's not the cars I'm tired of. It's the constant battle of dealing with people with unreasonable expectations. It really gets under your skin.

 

If their expectations are truly unreasonable and you are not able to help them understand that tell them they need to find someone who can meet them. Do not ever put yourself in a position you cannot show an unreasonable potential client the door.

No is only 2 letters....its pretty easy to say.

 

I used to love parking at shows or just get togethers then standing back and listening to people describe all the cars completely wrong. Can't tell you how many times I heard someone say my lowly 308 was a $100k car. It was fun.

 

I'll double that for you and your crew chief to do a major on mine! ;-)

 

You are leaving out the cost of bandaids, antibiotic ointment, gloves and some people drink beer while they work. Not just parts my friend. ;-)

 

"It's the constant battle of dealing with people with unreasonable expectations"

I can understand that concept but...what is an "unreasonable expectation?" I would expect whatever work/service would be done correctly. When I drove my new-to-me '89 328 from Las Vegas to MD in '08. I took it to a well-known exotic car shop for a fluid change since I had no garage/place to do it myself at the time. On the drive home from the shop, the coolant departed the vehicle. Mechanic had forgotten to tighten a hose clamp when they had drained the coolant. They said, "Sorry, bring it back and we'll fix it." That wasn't much help since I couldn't drive it back because there was no coolant. Hose clamp turned out to not even be on the hose, just rattling around on the pipe.

Another time I wanted the AC system checked/charged. Shop hooked up a fancy, semi-automatic machine...then had to hunt for the directions to figure out how to use it. Then, they evacuated/checked/charged it and, per the tech, "added some extra refrigerant to be sure it cooled really well." Turned on AC system, compressor locked up. I suggested that maybe they put in a bit too much. So they 'scientifically' bled some off until the compressor would run.

Their work on the AC was what convinced me to learn as much as I could about auto ac and do all future AC work myself!

So, what constitutes unreasonable expectations?

 

When I bought my first Ferrari, an 84 GTB QV it was in Des Moines Iowa. Took one of the suburbans in my trailer to retrieve it. Before I was to load it up the next day after inspection and service, took my trailer into some tire dealership and ask them to repack all four wheel bearings as it’s been a year or two since it’s been done. Watched some kid under the direction of this 40 year old pack the bearings and then snug up the axle nuts tight. I said, hey! You need to back those nuts off a bit, they can’t be tight. Guy looked at me and said that’s old technology this is how we do it now. I thought, OK, he’s a mechanic and I’m a carpenter. You guessed it. Got 75 miles out of Des Moines and smoked both axles, Lucky I didn’t lose the wheels and car right there. Got to sit in a little town for three days while another business sourced axles for my trailer. Thought about driving back and chewing some ass but wouldn’t have done me any good.

 

That was my first thought. The guy quoted a high price to scare the customer off.

 

There are plenty of them. Lets not turn this into clients against mechanics. Everyone knows, us far more than you that there are more than enough incompetent people out there. They are in every profession including yours. Want to come here to pick a fight....**** off.

Want my address to do it face to face? You can have that too prick.

 

"There are plenty of them. Let's not turn this into clients against mechanics."

Such was not my intent. I was just curious about some examples. I was a professional engine builder/mechanic. The "unreasonable expectations" that I saw most often were when clients asked for high HP engine mods that were not practical on the street, insisted upon them despite my explanation of why they wouldn't like it, and then complained when the engines performed exactly as I told them they would. This happened often enough to be a joke among several shops in the area.

 

Working for a dealership for the past 2 years has certainly not increased my passion as a mechanic.

5 more days and I'm out.