Meeting people as a mechanic.

[BP]

Anytime I see one of these posts I think back to the Just Brakes car.

Customer brings in the car for warranty work complaining of calipers leaking. In warranty 3/36 easy. Road test car, stops perfect, pick up car, pull the wheels. Great lining thickness, no leaks anywhere. Have SA call owner, he says call Just Brakes. Talking to the Just Brakes "tech" personally. He says calipers are leaking internally. "no they are not" nothing out of caliper piston's boots on either axle/side.

"oh if they are not now, they will be soon"

That's pretty much the SOP at that company. I don't know why they ever bothered calling us for warranty, I inspected every single one of them and usually ended up paying to have the vehicle towed to a dealership, where I'd be told there wasn't anything wrong other than normal pad wear.

I'm absolutely amazed they keep getting away with it. Most of the parts they install are the cheapest rebuilds they can find, you are paying them to put worse quality parts on the car.

[talisman]

I hear the clock, it's six a.m.
I feel so far from where I've been
I got my eggs and my pancakes too
I got my maple syrup, but this coffee tastes like poo.

I hear the clock, it's six a.m.
I don't know where I've been
I got my eggs and my penis too
I got my maple syrup, but this coffee tastes makes me poo.

Nice rip off dickcheese.

[MattB]

I meet so many dumbass "car guys" I can only imagine dealing with your daily dumbass as a mechanic. I'd need train $$ + a $50k bonus in order to do that.

[SMKR]

I li

So lets here y'alls stories.

hey, do you do exhaust work by chance? (catback stuff)

[LaserSVT]

hey, do you do exhaust work by chance? (catback stuff)

We can weld stuff up but do not have a pipe bender.

[Pokulski-Blatz]

Nice rip off dickcheese.

Oh, I thought that is what we were doing. I was supposed to be original?

[redrocket5.0]

I've been a mechanic for a shop for over 6 years. I have switched to selling parts here in the last 6 years. I have so many stories and over the years nothing surprises me anymore. It does blow my mind no matter how many times you say, "I need the last 8 of the vin" They will bring me the last fucking "4". Or the 8th digit. And then they get pissed off and tell me, "That's what you said". I just laugh about it now. Some people don't even know what a vin# is, or where it's even located.

Or I had a guy come in to the dealership and buy a water pump for 03 Chevy pickup, and he's rambling on about how he only buys G.M. parts cause "they are the only goddamn company that makes their parts in America anymore". I don't say anything, just agree with him. I'm back there pulling the part and can't help but crack the fuck up cause right there big as shit on the box "made in Mexico". he pays for the part and left, an hour or so passes and he brings the part back saying that it was not a Genuine Ac delco part with that Aqua de bomba, and made in Mexico bullshit on the box he wasn't taking it. I laughed about it and just did a return and gave him his check he had me fill out back to him and told him to have a good day sir. Oh yeah, that pissed him off. He has never been back.

[LaserSVT]

Customer comes in with a complaint of always having to add coolant and the car has a squeak. 2005 Stratus. I can see the thermostat housing is cracked. The squeak is just bad sway bar end links. Customer says she wants the squeak gone and will take care of the coolant leak next month. I explain a worn sway end link wont kill the engine and leaver her stranded. When the thermostat housing finishes breaking it will leave her stranded.
She did not care, wanted the car to be quiet.

[slow99]

Customer comes in with a complaint of always having to add coolant and the car has a squeak. 2005 Stratus. I can see the thermostat housing is cracked. The squeak is just bad sway bar end links. Customer says she wants the squeak gone and will take care of the coolant leak next month. I explain a worn sway end link wont kill the engine and leaver her stranded. When the thermostat housing finishes breaking it will leave her stranded.
She did not care, wanted the car to be quiet.

My wife just turns the radio up - problem solved.

[crapstang]

Customer comes in with a complaint of always having to add coolant and the car has a squeak. 2005 Stratus. I can see the thermostat housing is cracked. The squeak is just bad sway bar end links. Customer says she wants the squeak gone and will take care of the coolant leak next month. I explain a worn sway end link wont kill the engine and leaver her stranded. When the thermostat housing finishes breaking it will leave her stranded.
She did not care, wanted the car to be quiet.

I don't get things like this.

I've told three different people at school that their EGR coolers in their 6.0l diesels were going to break, leave them stranded, and possibly damage the engine.

I've recently had three EGR delete jobs in 6.0l diesels.

They were convinced that it wasn't common, they could do it later, and it was only a "hotrod" thing to do. Even the Ford DEALERSHIPS do EGR deletes as the fix now.

[petyweestraw]

Great stories in here. I have quite a few myself.

I did work at Just Brakes for few years. Yeah I know ..... bunch of crooks. I moved around to 5 different locations and ended up staying with one in Richardson cus it was the only one out of the 5 that was honest and didn't screw over people. If anything we bent over backwards to help. Even letting some hard luck cases pay out the bill.

One in particular was a young Guy that brought in his car. Couldn't pay the bill. Called parents and they refused to pay it cus he's a fuck up basically. Told him Wed hold the car till he got the money. He left pissed and cursing his parents. Hour later they show up. Nicest older couple you could meet. Explained how they are tired of his shit but felt bad and came and paid the bill. The dad tries to calm the son to let him know but no answer. Another hour or so we are having lunch in the office. We hear a car start up outside. I look up to see the kids in his car. Puts it in reverse and floors it and hits the brick wall hard destroying the corner of the shop. Puts it in drive and floors it again hops the curb popping a tire dragging the passenger rear wheel witch is now not moving because of the rear corner of the car has it pinned from being crushed. Tears ass up the street rear tire smoking and screaming and the front tire flat.

We called the cops and apparently he didn't get far. He ditched the car.
A while later he shows up asking for his car while cops are still there filling out a report on it. My boss yells at him saying you took off in it destroying my shop in the fucking process. Now the kid is saying it wasn't him and someone must have stolen it. Clearly we saw it was him. The cop then asked how did the thief get an extra copy of the keys?

Looking dumbfounded he asked what do you mean?

Cop then orders him to turn around and cuffed him. Then shows him the set of keys that was left in the ignition . He insisted that it Wasnt his keys because he never got an extra set.

A week later the parents came back apologizing and the mom in tears begging to have the charges dropped. We told her it's not up to us and that she should let him take his licks for a change.

Needless to say corporate didn't drop it and bill ended up being somewhere round $80k


Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk 2

[Binky]

Wow. I'd always heard of cops having to be the parents...but not businesses.

[03mustangdude]

best slogan is customer is never right.

[Roscoe]

Great stories in here. I have quite a few myself.

I did work at Just Brakes for few years. Yeah I know ..... bunch of crooks. I moved around to 5 different locations and ended up staying with one in Richardson cus it was the only one out of the 5 that was honest and didn't screw over people. If anything we bent over backwards to help. Even letting some hard luck cases pay out the bill.

One in particular was a young Guy that brought in his car. Couldn't pay the bill. Called parents and they refused to pay it cus he's a fuck up basically. Told him Wed hold the car till he got the money. He left pissed and cursing his parents. Hour later they show up. Nicest older couple you could meet. Explained how they are tired of his shit but felt bad and came and paid the bill. The dad tries to calm the son to let him know but no answer. Another hour or so we are having lunch in the office. We hear a car start up outside. I look up to see the kids in his car. Puts it in reverse and floors it and hits the brick wall hard destroying the corner of the shop. Puts it in drive and floors it again hops the curb popping a tire dragging the passenger rear wheel witch is now not moving because of the rear corner of the car has it pinned from being crushed. Tears ass up the street rear tire smoking and screaming and the front tire flat.

We called the cops and apparently he didn't get far. He ditched the car.
A while later he shows up asking for his car while cops are still there filling out a report on it. My boss yells at him saying you took off in it destroying my shop in the fucking process. Now the kid is saying it wasn't him and someone must have stolen it. Clearly we saw it was him. The cop then asked how did the thief get an extra copy of the keys?

Looking dumbfounded he asked what do you mean?

Cop then orders him to turn around and cuffed him. Then shows him the set of keys that was left in the ignition . He insisted that it Wasnt his keys because he never got an extra set.

A week later the parents came back apologizing and the mom in tears begging to have the charges dropped. We told her it's not up to us and that she should let him take his licks for a change.

Needless to say corporate didn't drop it and bill ended up being somewhere round $80k


Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk 2

Something you'd only believe if you saw it... That's awesome!

[LaserSVT]

Great stories in here. I have quite a few myself.

I did work at Just Brakes for few years. Yeah I know ..... bunch of crooks. I moved around to 5 different locations and ended up staying with one in Richardson cus it was the only one out of the 5 that was honest and didn't screw over people. If anything we bent over backwards to help. Even letting some hard luck cases pay out the bill.

One in particular was a young Guy that brought in his car. Couldn't pay the bill. Called parents and they refused to pay it cus he's a fuck up basically. Told him Wed hold the car till he got the money. He left pissed and cursing his parents. Hour later they show up. Nicest older couple you could meet. Explained how they are tired of his shit but felt bad and came and paid the bill. The dad tries to calm the son to let him know but no answer. Another hour or so we are having lunch in the office. We hear a car start up outside. I look up to see the kids in his car. Puts it in reverse and floors it and hits the brick wall hard destroying the corner of the shop. Puts it in drive and floors it again hops the curb popping a tire dragging the passenger rear wheel witch is now not moving because of the rear corner of the car has it pinned from being crushed. Tears ass up the street rear tire smoking and screaming and the front tire flat.

We called the cops and apparently he didn't get far. He ditched the car.
A while later he shows up asking for his car while cops are still there filling out a report on it. My boss yells at him saying you took off in it destroying my shop in the fucking process. Now the kid is saying it wasn't him and someone must have stolen it. Clearly we saw it was him. The cop then asked how did the thief get an extra copy of the keys?

Looking dumbfounded he asked what do you mean?

Cop then orders him to turn around and cuffed him. Then shows him the set of keys that was left in the ignition . He insisted that it Wasnt his keys because he never got an extra set.

A week later the parents came back apologizing and the mom in tears begging to have the charges dropped. We told her it's not up to us and that she should let him take his licks for a change.

Needless to say corporate didn't drop it and bill ended up being somewhere round $80k


Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk 2

Now that's a good story! My business partner used to be the shop manager of the JB in Waco and has told me a little of that story but only said it was one of the Dallas locations.

JB was just bought by another company and will soon be selling tires and crap too. They do AC, batteries, suspension, BRAKES etc etc and only have $7.50 an hour employees yet charge over $100 per hour. Wish I had those kind of profit margins. LOL