Manic Mechanic wrote on May 30
th, 2011 at 11:25pm:
drdiesel1 wrote on May 30
th, 2011 at 7:27pm:
Randy H. wrote on May 30
th, 2011 at 5:37pm:
Good mechanics/techs are rare - many just replace parts and guess. Also a lot of shops are flatrate, so it doesnt pay to take your time and make sure its right.
The Cancer of the industry
I work flat rate, It always pays to do it right the first time , Testing not guessing pays me well , I invest in the tools to make me faster and better....
That's great. I didn't say anything about you. I was simply stating what most shops have working as a, so called tech.
After the corporation bought our dealership, they opened a new tech position to get around having a higher paid journeyman tech do the job. Now they have a bunch of low paid guesswork techs. All but a few of the journeyman guys are gone. The guys that did stay aren't that skilled and will not make a decent living off of flatrate.
The corporation has all but killed the customer base we had. Our waiting list was always about 1 to 2 days deep. Now no one has steady work and most of the customers are fed up with shitty workmanship and the need to return the car to the dealer because of problems from the repairs an service. Everyone wants to cut corners and cherry pick work
Flatrate breeds animosity in the shop and when someone takes a job to try and scrape the gravy and leave the shitwork for others, it's an ugly situation.
I had guys take a check engine light to try and make money off the job. The guy had no business getting the job to start with and when he found himself over his head, he wanted to hand it off to me. The manager asked me to help him. It's a flatrate shop. How was I suppose to make my money
Now the cars been in the shop for 2 weeks and he's grabbing other work and dancing around this car.
They let this guy get away with this all the time. After seeing how the shop was run (I was new) it all started to show how poorly things were being done. If this guy couldn't make easy money, he passed the job off. If it had gravy, he would scrape it off the top and not do the rest of the work. The customer is the one that suffered and the wire harness was hacked because when I told him to isolate the fault to the specific circuit. He started cutting wires under the dash and on the engine harness. Then the manager asked me to fix the car and I refused. I left the end of that week. The only work I could get was warranty, the shit jobs and the warranty work no one else could fix. I worked for that dealer almost 2 month and should have never taken the job, but that's hindsight.
Not all flaterate techs are like this, but in today's poor state of the economy, it's not a good scene in most shop. I worked for 34 years as an hourly tech/shop foreman and made good money without all the crap from flatrate thievery. We had a union pay scale, benefits, insurance and a great retirement fund. I paid 60.00 a month for my medical, dental and optical with ZERO co-pay and a $5 dollar prescription plan. We had 6 sick days with pay. We had Presidents day off and a floating holiday available each year.
What's your flatrate plan provide for you ? What's your plan as you get older and can't keep the pace you do now ? How's the retirement fund looking ? Any GOOD medical, dental, optical and family coverage available. Do you work holidays too. I never worked Memorial day, the 4th of July of any other recognized and national holidays. We always had the Friday after Thanksgiving off. We had Christmas Eve off and if Christmas fell on a Saturday, we had the next business day off.
Are uniforms where paid for. Our air tools where repaired at the dealers expense and should be for you too.
Flatrate is good while you're young and happy to burn up the streets with your ability, but it won't last for ever and then what ?
A lot of shops around here have unpaid techs standing by their toolboxes wondering who get the next job