:yay:ing people, man. . . . · 1:22am Nov 13th, 2015
I'll make this short and sweet. It's kinda ranty, though.
Got a 2008 F350 crew cab dually in the shop for a four-wheel-drive problem. Fixed one thing, found another problem, fixed that, it worked once and now it doesn't. One of the guys has been poking at it for a couple of days, trying to figure out why.
Had to shuffle it out of the shop for a bit, 'cause we got flooded with big Ford trucks. I'm not gonna say Fords aren't reliable, but today we had three diesel Fords (two 7.3L and one 6.4L) and a Ranger in the shop. Also a F250 and a F150. Okay, I guess I'm saying Fords aren't reliable. But anyway, moving on.
Earlier in the day, this lady came in with a Chrysler minivan she'd just bought. Parked it on the sidewalk, with the rear end hanging out in the street. The hood release handle had come off, and she'd unwisely put it in the retractable cupholder, and it had gotten jammed. She wanted to know if I could get it out. And I did. She was happy, and I went back inside to work on a Ford.
Five minutes later, she comes back in. Can't get it started. I futz around with the key for a bit, and there's something wrong with the ignition lock cylinder. She tells me she's had trouble with it before. I give it the old college try, put in some lock lubricant, and it does nothing. I tell her there's not much more I can do, short of replacing the lock cylinder; she says she's going to give it some more tries herself, and I go back to what I was doing. Which was working on a Ford.
Eventually, since she can't get her van started, she leaves. Her van is still parked on the sidewalk, with the tail hanging out in the street. I've got other things to worry about, so I don't worry about her van (although it would have be hilarious if it had gotten clipped by a semi).
Get done later than I wanted to on one Ford, take it for a test drive, and I have to make some adjustments. It's after closing time now, but I want to get this done, so I stay about 15 minutes late and get it taken care of, take another test drive, and it's perfect. No issues.
I decide since I'm on a roll, I'm going to tackle that big crew cab dually. Get it in the shop, mess around with it for a bit, come up with a working theory of what went wrong, grab the scanner, and get ready to go on a test drive. When I open the door, I discover this:
While I was working, she'd come back for her van, and since she apparently loves parking on sidewalks so much, she decided to park her car right in front of my bay door.
That's when I gave up and decided to go home.
Rough dude, rough
Why didn't you call a tow company? If you tell them someone's blocking a driveway, they'll take it for free cause they get to charge the driver.
Also, it's really cool to see another fellow mechanic Brony.
Well you know what they say about Fords... Found on roads dead.
It's a rare thing. But tow companies can also be your friend.
Ticketing, Towing, and Psychiatric Evaluation for that woman, shes dangerous.
How are you comin along with the $10 Billion VW Emmisions scandle, given the other big guys are finding out theyre screwing with the things as well as IC engines have hit the limits years ago?
This is one of the reasons I am happy that my job doesn't require me to work with customers and other folks outside the company. The only people I want to kill are my co-workers and I can usually find 2-7 people who would be willing to help me ( or at they very least agree with me).
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I guess on the bright side, nobody got hauled off to jail today.
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It was very tempting. But, the two things that stopped me was small town, so I can't afford to upset customers (even if they are idiots), and that it would probably have taken an hour or more for a wrecker to show up.
FWIW, I also considered GoJacking her car into the middle of the street, where it wouldn't be my problem any more.
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And, if you spell it backwards, Driver Returns on Foot.
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That's very true. I've been on that side of the equation, too. Towing cars also sucks as a way to make a living.
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Luckily, VW's problems don't trickle down to me, especially since practically none of our customers own VWs (and the ones that do own fifteen-year-old New Beetles). My only disappointment is that we upgraded our scan tool to talk to European cars, so I can't use that excuse any more.
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Aside from the pay raise, I very much miss the days when I just worked in the back of the shop and didn't have to deal with idiots.
3538896 yeah I guess
I feel your pain, man.
I was at work the other day, happily doing whatever it was that I was doing. The phone rings and its an employee friend of mine from another store. He says that a lady came in with some untinted paint that she had purchased previously and now wants to have tinted. Fine. Whatever. Tinting is free and we regularly sell untinted paint during sales so the customer can get the discount, yet come back when they've had time to pick a color.
My friend says that this lady was also promised the same sale price when she came back to buy the rest of what she needed. Also fine. We run out of stuff during big sales and are generally more than willing to hold the sale pricing for people who intended to buy more than we had on hand.
Then my friend tells me that apparently I sold her the paint. That's actually quite possible; I worked in that store...
...three years ago.
It's too late. Tomorrow morning you'll wake up with a car parked on the sidewalk blocking your driveway. Then everywhere you go, cars on sidewalks. That lady is actually a ghost. That's why you couldn't get the van to start. She had possessed it to move it.
You know, I'm strangely neutral that at work I rarely deal with bad customers, more idiots really, though I more often then not I get an interesting customer with a piece of information to remember them by.
Today was a frail old man with an fair amount of anti-Semitic preaching that bordered on ranting.
I just smiled and nodded.
Just smile and nod.
I've had really good luck with Ford vans. All of our offices have Chevy trucks, and they're fairly happy with them. Car-wise, Fords seem to be cheap to buy and godawful expensive when something blows up, which will happen fairly quickly after you've just written a big check for something else.
I'm happy with my Honda Civic. It may be a go-cart, but it's a fun go-cart.
Typical of some people. She should have asked where she should have parked it before leaving her car. Reminds me of a story a manager form a former job told me about a Ford. He drove to a dealer that was just over an hour away to test drive a Ranger and not 6 blocks from the dealer it overheated and broke down. He called the dealer so they could come and pick him up and the truck. After half an hour he walked back handed the keys to the sales men and left the dealer after telling him where it could be picked up. He went and bought a Doge Dakota from the competitors a few weeks later. Now only if my VW would not a piece of junk.
Used to work at a dealership as a greeter/porter.
Loved it when people did this crap. "Oh, well, it's closed, they must not be using it!"
Fucking asshole customers, man. I would've called the city and had it towed. Once, one of the stupid neighbor kids parallel parked their parents' Neon with more than half the car blocking the driveway. The city said they'd tow it, but it'd be several hours. So we just jacked it up and pushed it out of the way.
Actually you should've removed all her tire valves, then charged her to replace them the next day.
Nah, just kidding. But not about having it towed, she needs to learn a lesson. I'm sick of idiots.
Incidentally, I'm working on an F250 with the 7.3. We put a trans in it and it's having some harsh shifts now. Meh, probably in the valve body, I'll figure it out tomorrow. Speaking of having a plague of Ford trucks, a couple years ago we had a plague of Taurus's. I mean... like for a whole month, seriously, Taurus after Taurus after Sable. It was... quite strange. We don't actually have that many regular customers who own them... I also once had two identical blue Mazda 6's, same model year, both manual transmission, and both in for clutches, at the same time.
yep some people are just like that. time for a tow truck.
and fyi
my Daly driver is 1996 f250 7.3 5 speed that is showing 257k on the clock. I am thinking it has time for new injectors and glow plugs this coming summer and maybe new u joints in the front.
the injectors will be stepped up one notch to try for more mpg I am getting 20mpg now I am shooting for 22.
but as this rig is a tow rig most of the time I would be happy with even 50 more hove power on the ground.
Harts Fire
No. It would have been hilarious if she'd been clipped by a Ford.
oh yeah, customers can be idiotic scumbags
reminds me of a job I had where the mechanic got tired of telling the boss's son not to park in front of the bay doors, grabbed a jack, and used it to put the kid's pickup right in the middle of the parking lot.
FORD: Found On Road, Dead.
F/&%$ed Over Rebuilt Dodge.
Wouldn't it be a shame if the car just so happened to have a crowbar taken to it while it was parked in front of the bay door . . .
Doesn't sound like this fine example of a human being would be capable of putting two and two together.
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At least she didn't ask for it to be tinted after it was put on the wall. That would have been amusing.
We occasionally get people that want something warrantied they bought years ago. I usually laugh at them. Just had one this week, in fact. Upset by the front brakes--which we'd installed 60,000 miles ago--needing replacement again.
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Luckily, that didn't happen. I would have been so sad if her car--or any car--had been on the sidewalk this morning. Then I would have GoJacked it out of the way.
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One benefit of being a mechanic is most people expect you to be a bit more abrasive than somebody in normal retail service, which lets me get away with saying things that I wasn't allowed to when I worked in a retail store. Plus, most people don't get the attitude that they know more than I do, and I can shut them down pretty quick when they make that claim. Case in point: this guy calls and wants a price on just brake pads without replacing the rotors, because 'they're fine.' I ask him what the rotor thickness, parallelism, and runout measurements are. He shuts up.
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I used to have fun arguing with the other wrecker drivers. Most of them were Ford guys, and they'd constantly harp on me for driving a Chevy (and preferring a Chevy wrecker). The thrust of their argument was that the 7.3 was better than the 6.5. I admitted that was so, but it was interesting how all the Fords were currently in the transmission shop, while the Chevies were all on the road. Heck, the one I normally drove did a full day's service with a broken frame.
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When I worked for a Chevy dealer, we had a Cobalt that died with under 500 miles on the odometer. The PCM decided it didn't want to fire the fuel injectors any more. Also worked on a displacement on demand Impala SS that permanently displaced one of its cylinders due to a malfunctioning lifter. I think that one had under 2k on the odometer.
I hear that if your VW is a diesel, Volkswagen is going to mail you a gift card. I wonder if it's redeemable for a gas mask?
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See, things like this are why I prefer working in the shop. Then it's just me and the car. I don't have to talk to anyone, and don't have to deal with stupidity. Now, unless I get another job or the boss hires some new counterperson, I'm stuck dealing with customers.
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If it weren't in front of our security cameras, I would have been tempted to do something mean to her car. Nearest company that can impound is probably an hour or more away, and I didn't want to stay that late. I was already at wit's end on this dumb truck. Finally figured it out today, though. Not only what broke, but why the diagnosis got screwed up that led to this whole mess in the first place. Long story short, the diagnostic tree in Mitchell left out a vital piece of information. Not the first time I've seen that happen, either.
The ones we usually get runs on are Town and Country vans (and their Dodge twins). Not that it's a surprise, really; Chrysler has so much of the minivan market that even Volkswagen sells T&C vans.
[Also I live near Chrysler's proving grounds, so a lot of our customers are their employees.]
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A few daily drivers back, I had a s-10 with 400k or so on the odo. It's still sitting in the driveway. 7.3L is a good motor, and 20mpg isn't too shabby for that size of truck. I have a Suburban with a 6.2 that gets 22mpg or so, but it's not real good at towing or acceleration. Maybe next spring I'll fix the brake lines and start driving it again.
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That would have been awesome. Since the car was right in view of two of our security cameras, I totally would saved a copy of it getting hit (and posted it here, because why not?).
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One of the guys I used to work with liked to park his jeep behind my truck. One day, my truck was parked at the shop in need of repairs, and he parked behind it, and then I came in driving my other truck, which had a really nice towchain in the back. I dragged him halfway across the parking lot and just left him there.
In college, people used to park in the middle of the lot; whenever they were behind me, I'd just give their car a friendly nudge. I was driving a 25 year old farm truck, so I had no concern about scratching my paint. Here's what it looked like, in case you were curious:
orig10.deviantart.net/7b27/f/2015/317/0/9/winston_with_phoenix_by_admiral_biscuit-d9gl3m6.jpg
Seriously, who would be dumb enough to park that truck in?
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s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8a/56/aa/8a56aa576094c9d4a5074ba49713a521.jpg
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If only it hadn't been in front of our security cameras, I could have done so many fun things to it. Still, probably just as well that I didn't.
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Unfortunately for me mine is an '02 gas.
3540851 God dammit Mitchell...
Also, did you know that 'Routan' is German for 'I paid too much for a Caravan'?
*Sigh* Really? This is kinda pointless fainboyism. (For the record, I'm not a huge Ford fan myself; they make some good stuff but they're an idiotic company - as the Aerostar, Winstar, Ranger, and Ecoboost all show(ed))
Alright, it's fair to say that the Super Duty tends to be an unreliable piece of crap. But Fords in general? Not really. The F150 is on or off depending on model year but certainly not crap, the Expedition is considerably more reliable than other big SUVs with the exception of the Sequoia (this one is partly personal experience), the Fusion is one of the best, most reliable sedans on the market and rather reliable as a vehicle of any class, etc. Heck, even the Super Duty has tolerable reliability if you have the newer 6.7-liter Power Stroke (the old diesel was garbage though). You'd be hard pressed to find a truly unreliable automaker outside of Audi, Mercedes, or Chrysler/Fiat. Even then, modern Audis have fixed that problem and FCA has a few on/off models and the Durango, which has consistently been merely average.
The lady with the van, though: classic customer right thar. And people wonder why there's such a correlation between the length of time worked in customer service and the amount of hate people have for other people. Man I could tell you stories about the Walgreens where I work. When you work at the place people go to to get their happy pills...
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It can also work the other way around, though. Case in point; my dad has always rebuffed mechanics wanting to replace brake rotors on cars he owned, right from the day he bought his first car (a VW Scirocco). He always said just that, "they're fine." Now, between half and 3/4 of a million miles and 5 vehicles later (not just him driving, this includes my mother), he still has yet to replace a single brake rotor or have one fail on him. Ask him what the rotor thickness, parallelism, and runout measurements are, and he wouldn't know, either. At least not exactly.
...Though I suppose in all fairness he has the benefit of 10 years in the auto industry (Ford, Nissan, and Chevy as an engineer) and a Mechanical Engineering degree.
Funnily enough I just got done replacing the brakes on my '08 Saturn Vue today - pads only, of course. No rotor replacement.
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I can say with data (because I checked) that while we work on more GM products than any other brand, the average repair cost per order is higher on blue-oval products than any other. Having said that, I've got a Ford in my driveway (now dead), and my daily driver is a Chrysler. As with any other automaker, Ford had its hits and misses. I love picking on Ford, 'cause my grandpa worked for GM for about 50 years, but the general is hardly batting 1.000. Only thing I can say in their favor is that GM tended to build mediocre cars that could handle all sorts of abuse and a total lack of maintenance . . . and I should know, because I usually am the last owner of vehicles. My GM products have stood up better to total neglect than any other marque.
I'm also not saying that I'm always right when it comes to recommendations. I have to think from the perspective of comebacks (you just did a brake job and now I've got a pulsation), which makes me more conservative than I might be otherwise (I replaced a single caliper on my Grand Marquis, because only one had actually failed). Having been confined to the shop floor as a tech, and having been on both sides of the counter, I can see the arguments on both sides. Some people are willing to take a try it and see approach, some are not. As a salesperson, I have to make that judgement call on every order I process. I know some of my customers won't get pissed when I go over the estimate, and others will. Some are a total crapshoot.
And some people are just idiots. Guy called me today for the price on a transmission in a Focus. Didn't know if it was a sedan or hatchback, didn't know the engine size. Wanted an accurate price to replace.