Here I Why I Hate Mechanics/auto Body Shops

[mikepike1125]

So I have a noise coming from my brand new 2010 sierra. To me it sounds like a distant school bell ringing. Audible mainly at higher rpm's just before it changes into 2nd 3rd and 4th gears. I can mimic the noise whenever I want to. It only makes the noise when driving the vehicle. I take it to the dealership and took the mechanic for ride to let him hear it for himself. He hears it. Its difficult to pinpoint the sound since we are travelling down the road. We get back to the shop and he takes it in and lifts it to look underneath for ten minutes. Bing bang boom, he finds nothing wrong. Says that it looks like a brand new truck should. Nothing out of place. Blah blah blah. Its not a safety issue. And then the part that pisses me off the most. "you will just have to wait until it gets worse or maybe gm will put out a service bulletin"

 

Why that pisses me off. My old 2002 silverado was making all sorts of clanks and clunks. It was the tranny. Took it to a shop and they look at it and agree that it is the tranny but they dont want to take action on it since its not something that seems to be an immediate issue. They say they could take the whole thing apart and replace parts but theres a chance that this whole issue could just be one of those things that happen but never really get worse. Well 3 weeks later as I am driving down the road and in the middle of a bad intersection/rotary/cluster ****, my tranny damn near blows up and I have to have it towed and then repaired.

 

 

Why do they always take the defensive side of an ongoing problem? IE waiting for it to break before taking action. I can see how from their point of view that its not worth spending the time to diagnose the problem since it may lead them down a dead end road which does not lead to a solution and the customer could argue that since they didnt resolve the issue then no money should be paid. But for the love of god. When a vehicle is doing something that is not normal (especially on a brand new truck) and the owner of that vehicle is concerned about the problem, take a couple hours of your day and do your ****ing job and figure out the problem.

[Ape0r]

Why do they always take the defensive side of an ongoing problem? IE waiting for it to break before taking action.

 

Here's why: Mechanics (even at dealerships) get paid on piecework. If they blow a day hunting for a phantom problem, then they are out all of the other work they could have billed that day. Word is a good mechanic should bill 10 hours in an 8 hour day. Guess how many hours they can bill if they blow the day working on hard to find and otherwise (seemingly) symptomless noises?

 

I worked a summer at a dealership and saw it all the time - if a mechanic doesn't want to deal with a problem, he won't. Period.

 

Your best bet is to solve or yourself, or try another dealer.

[mikepike1125]

Why do they always take the defensive side of an ongoing problem? IE waiting for it to break before taking action.

 

Here's why: Mechanics (even at dealerships) get paid on piecework. If they blow a day hunting for a phantom problem, then they are out all of the other work they could have billed that day. Word is a good mechanic should bill 10 hours in an 8 hour day. Guess how many hours they can bill if they blow the day working on hard to find and otherwise (seemingly) symptomless noises?

 

I worked a summer at a dealership and saw it all the time - if a mechanic doesn't want to deal with a problem, he won't. Period.

 

Your best bet is to solve or yourself, or try another dealer.

 

 

 

well then in that case someone should start a business of diagnosing mechanical problems. Not fixing them. Just diagnosing. Kind of like a middle man between the vehicle owner and the mechanic. I mean I thought that is what mechanics were trained to do but I guess not.

[Matt_]

Why do they always take the defensive side of an ongoing problem? IE waiting for it to break before taking action.

 

Here's why: Mechanics (even at dealerships) get paid on piecework. If they blow a day hunting for a phantom problem, then they are out all of the other work they could have billed that day. Word is a good mechanic should bill 10 hours in an 8 hour day. Guess how many hours they can bill if they blow the day working on hard to find and otherwise (seemingly) symptomless noises?

 

I worked a summer at a dealership and saw it all the time - if a mechanic doesn't want to deal with a problem, he won't. Period.

 

Your best bet is to solve or yourself, or try another dealer.

 

 

 

well then in that case someone should start a business of diagnosing mechanical problems. Not fixing them. Just diagnosing. Kind of like a middle man between the vehicle owner and the mechanic. I mean I thought that is what mechanics were trained to do but I guess not.

 

 

Give me $80/hour and i'll diagnose it for you.

 

In all reality, there ARE situations where it's really not worth the time hunting down a phantom noise like that... such is life.

 

Tell the mechanic that you'll pay him his hourly rate to find the noise and he'll find it.... point being, the business you mentioned wouldn't work. I had people argue with me over the hour i would charge to diagnose a mechanical issue that they brought it in for on top of the repair time. People just want mechanics to wave a magic wand and know what the answer is in five minutes... no one wants to pay for a proper diagnosis anymore

[Zembonez]

People with unrealistic expectations about how magical technician skills are are equally hated by the shop.

 

Sounds like his crystal ball was out of commission to me. WTF do people expect? You really think the tech has some magic spell that makes everything show up to him like there is a light shining on it? Some problems are hard to find. Some things are just not going to be obvious. They also may or may not be long term issues.

[mikepike1125]

Why do they always take the defensive side of an ongoing problem? IE waiting for it to break before taking action.

 

Here's why: Mechanics (even at dealerships) get paid on piecework. If they blow a day hunting for a phantom problem, then they are out all of the other work they could have billed that day. Word is a good mechanic should bill 10 hours in an 8 hour day. Guess how many hours they can bill if they blow the day working on hard to find and otherwise (seemingly) symptomless noises?

 

I worked a summer at a dealership and saw it all the time - if a mechanic doesn't want to deal with a problem, he won't. Period.

 

Your best bet is to solve or yourself, or try another dealer.

 

 

 

well then in that case someone should start a business of diagnosing mechanical problems. Not fixing them. Just diagnosing. Kind of like a middle man between the vehicle owner and the mechanic. I mean I thought that is what mechanics were trained to do but I guess not.

 

 

Give me $80/hour and i'll diagnose it for you.

 

In all reality, there ARE situations where it's really not worth the time hunting down a phantom noise like that... such is life.

 

Tell the mechanic that you'll pay him his hourly rate to find the noise and he'll find it.... point being, the business you mentioned wouldn't work. I had people argue with me over the hour i would charge to diagnose a mechanical issue that they brought it in for on top of the repair time. People just want mechanics to wave a magic wand and know what the answer is in five minutes... no one wants to pay for a proper diagnosis anymore

 

 

$80 to diagnose. No thanks. $80 to fix. Gladly. I want a mechanic to do their job. fix problems. If they can fix it at an honest and reasonable price then by all means, fix the god damn thing!

[mikepike1125]

People with unrealistic expectations about how magical technician skills are are equally hated by the shop.

 

Sounds like his crystal ball was out of commission to me. WTF do people expect? You really think the tech has some magic spell that makes everything show up to him like there is a light shining on it? Some problems are hard to find. Some things are just not going to be obvious. They also may or may not be long term issues.

 

Im a firefighter. I pull up to a house that the homeowner says is on fire. So anyways, we get there and I see no fire. I go inside and theres a little bit of smoke but not too much. So I tell the homeowner to call back when the house is actually on fire and we will gladly come by and put it out for them. But right now theres just a little bit of smoke so it isnt necessarily a concern to us. Best of luck taxpayer! Im going back to the station to continue washing our new fire truck so the chief will be happy with us!!

 

wrong! they pay me to do a service for them. I do that service for them as best that I can in the shortest amount of time I can in order to protect them and their possessions. And no, I do not get rich doing this

[Matt_]

Why do they always take the defensive side of an ongoing problem? IE waiting for it to break before taking action.

 

Here's why: Mechanics (even at dealerships) get paid on piecework. If they blow a day hunting for a phantom problem, then they are out all of the other work they could have billed that day. Word is a good mechanic should bill 10 hours in an 8 hour day. Guess how many hours they can bill if they blow the day working on hard to find and otherwise (seemingly) symptomless noises?

 

I worked a summer at a dealership and saw it all the time - if a mechanic doesn't want to deal with a problem, he won't. Period.

 

Your best bet is to solve or yourself, or try another dealer.

 

 

 

well then in that case someone should start a business of diagnosing mechanical problems. Not fixing them. Just diagnosing. Kind of like a middle man between the vehicle owner and the mechanic. I mean I thought that is what mechanics were trained to do but I guess not.

 

 

Give me $80/hour and i'll diagnose it for you.

 

In all reality, there ARE situations where it's really not worth the time hunting down a phantom noise like that... such is life.

 

Tell the mechanic that you'll pay him his hourly rate to find the noise and he'll find it.... point being, the business you mentioned wouldn't work. I had people argue with me over the hour i would charge to diagnose a mechanical issue that they brought it in for on top of the repair time. People just want mechanics to wave a magic wand and know what the answer is in five minutes... no one wants to pay for a proper diagnosis anymore

 

 

$80 to diagnose. No thanks. $80 to fix. Gladly. I want a mechanic to do their job. fix problems. If they can fix it at an honest and reasonable price then by all means, fix the god damn thing!

 

 

I rest my case.

 

 

A mechanic has to DIAGNOSE the problem to fix it. People like you are what ruin the trade for everyone else. How do you expect a mechanic to fix something that hasn't been diagnosed?

 

 

Say a mechanic spends 3 hours diagnosing a problem. The root cause is a $50 sensor that takes 1/2 hour to replace... you think he should only get paid the 1/2hour labor for the repair and NONE for the diagnosing?

 

The sad part is that i would put 3-4 hours into diagnostics and sometimes only charge 1 hour of labor depending on the circumstances... and people STILL would complain. Seriously, that's like a slap in the face.

[Matt_]

People with unrealistic expectations about how magical technician skills are are equally hated by the shop.

 

Sounds like his crystal ball was out of commission to me. WTF do people expect? You really think the tech has some magic spell that makes everything show up to him like there is a light shining on it? Some problems are hard to find. Some things are just not going to be obvious. They also may or may not be long term issues.

 

Im a firefighter. I pull up to a house that the homeowner says is on fire. So anyways, we get there and I see no fire. I go inside and theres a little bit of smoke but not too much. So I tell the homeowner to call back when the house is actually on fire and we will gladly come by and put it out for them. But right now theres just a little bit of smoke so it isnt necessarily a concern to us. Best of luck taxpayer! Im going back to the station to continue washing our new fire truck so the chief will be happy with us!!

 

 

 

Again, flawless logic

[Zembonez]

I'm not trying to be mean here Mike. It's just that repairing a modern, highly complex vehicle is much more difficult than it was in the old simpler vehicle days. Some "odd" issues are going to be very elusive. The noise you describe may be nothing or it may develop into something else in the long run. My point is that there exists no magic way to determine this.

[mikepike1125]

Why do they always take the defensive side of an ongoing problem? IE waiting for it to break before taking action.

 

Here's why: Mechanics (even at dealerships) get paid on piecework. If they blow a day hunting for a phantom problem, then they are out all of the other work they could have billed that day. Word is a good mechanic should bill 10 hours in an 8 hour day. Guess how many hours they can bill if they blow the day working on hard to find and otherwise (seemingly) symptomless noises?

 

I worked a summer at a dealership and saw it all the time - if a mechanic doesn't want to deal with a problem, he won't. Period.

 

Your best bet is to solve or yourself, or try another dealer.

 

 

 

well then in that case someone should start a business of diagnosing mechanical problems. Not fixing them. Just diagnosing. Kind of like a middle man between the vehicle owner and the mechanic. I mean I thought that is what mechanics were trained to do but I guess not.

 

 

Give me $80/hour and i'll diagnose it for you.

 

In all reality, there ARE situations where it's really not worth the time hunting down a phantom noise like that... such is life.

 

Tell the mechanic that you'll pay him his hourly rate to find the noise and he'll find it.... point being, the business you mentioned wouldn't work. I had people argue with me over the hour i would charge to diagnose a mechanical issue that they brought it in for on top of the repair time. People just want mechanics to wave a magic wand and know what the answer is in five minutes... no one wants to pay for a proper diagnosis anymore

 

 

$80 to diagnose. No thanks. $80 to fix. Gladly. I want a mechanic to do their job. fix problems. If they can fix it at an honest and reasonable price then by all means, fix the god damn thing!

 

 

I rest my case.

 

 

A mechanic has to DIAGNOSE the problem to fix it. People like you are what ruin the trade for everyone else. How do you expect a mechanic to fix something that hasn't been diagnosed?

 

 

Say a mechanic spends 3 hours diagnosing a problem. The root cause is a $50 sensor that takes 1/2 hour to replace... you think he should only get paid the 1/2hour labor for the repair and NONE for the diagnosing?

 

The sad part is that i would put 3-4 hours into diagnostics and sometimes only charge 1 hour of labor depending on the circumstances... and people STILL would complain. Seriously, that's like a slap in the face.

 

 

 

 

what I was saying was that I would be happy to pay them to diagnose the problem. just not at $80 an hour. Doesnt seem fair to the consumer. I mean if you can fix the problem at $80 an hour then why should I pay that same rate if all you are doing is diagnosing the problem to see if you can even fix it or not while, again, you would be charging me $80 to fix it.

[mikepike1125]

I'm not trying to be mean here Mike. It's just that repairing a modern, highly complex vehicle is much more difficult than it was in the old simpler vehicle days. Some "odd" issues are going to be very elusive. The noise you describe may be nothing or it may develop into something else in the long run. My point is that there exists no magic way to determine this.

 

Yes and I understand this. However the "may be nothing or it may develop into something else in the long run" is a HUGE gray area for someone who just dropped a bunch of money on a brand new "flawless" vehicle. Money that I paid in order to own the highly complex vehicle. Its a big investment and if the thing is so damn complex then why does it sound like two pieces of metal are grinding against each other with 800 miles on it?

 

bleh. Option 1. drive like a maniac and hope it gets worse and breaks under warranty. Option 2. Go easy on it and make it last until warranty expires and then sell it and make it someone elses problem.

[Matt_]

what I was saying was that I would be happy to pay them to diagnose the problem. just not at $80 an hour. Doesnt seem fair to the consumer. I mean if you can fix the problem at $80 an hour then why should I pay that same rate if all you are doing is diagnosing the problem to see if you can even fix it or not while, again, you would be charging me $80 to fix it.

 

Maybe im misunderstanding your question... but generally, you have to diagnose something before you fix it. Thus, for most repairs you get charged a diagnostics fee, then the repair fee (unless the diagnostics is really quick in which case you shouldnt be charged anything).

 

Point being, you can't expect a mechanic to spend an entire day hunting down a problem for you and not get paid.... their job IS diagnostics. Just like that business you wanted to start.... what was your business plan exactly? You said "just to diagnose, NOT to fix"... were you going to charge anything for the diagnostics???

 

Just think about it a little...

[mikepike1125]

People with unrealistic expectations about how magical technician skills are are equally hated by the shop.

 

Sounds like his crystal ball was out of commission to me. WTF do people expect? You really think the tech has some magic spell that makes everything show up to him like there is a light shining on it? Some problems are hard to find. Some things are just not going to be obvious. They also may or may not be long term issues.

 

Im a firefighter. I pull up to a house that the homeowner says is on fire. So anyways, we get there and I see no fire. I go inside and theres a little bit of smoke but not too much. So I tell the homeowner to call back when the house is actually on fire and we will gladly come by and put it out for them. But right now theres just a little bit of smoke so it isnt necessarily a concern to us. Best of luck taxpayer! Im going back to the station to continue washing our new fire truck so the chief will be happy with us!!

 

 

 

Again, flawless logic

 

 

sarcasm, bro

 

I am simply applying your own explanation to other comparable situations that life offers those in need of a service.

[C. Charles Hahn]

well then in that case someone should start a business of diagnosing mechanical problems. Not fixing them. Just diagnosing. Kind of like a middle man between the vehicle owner and the mechanic. I mean I thought that is what mechanics were trained to do but I guess not.

 

I've found that most mechanics won't work on a problem they haven't diagnosed themselves, or at least don't like it when someone comes to them telling them exactly what parts need to be replaced. Mechanics are more than just wrench turners.

 

 

Like it was already suggested, try another dealer.