Topic: Shop stories!

[trueblue]

I had one lady in at work just last week who had been quoted over $600 to replace the front brake pads on her Diahatsu Applause, she was extremely happy when she got new rotors and pads fitted for just under $200.  As she said the car isn't worth 600 #$%*ing dollars

[Stretch]

I have a good friend that ran over a screw with his Savage. He asked me if I'd change the tire if he bought it and brought the bike to my house. I said sure but it would cost him $50 if he left it, nothing if he stayed and "helped". He said he would stay.
We spent a great hour and a half talking, joking and discussing the days events. Everything went perfectly. I had the tire mounted and balanced, I got to the last bolt, the one holding the brake stay rod to the drum, I looked at him and said, "I wonder where this goes?". He looked at me and said, "He11, you're the one doing the work.". The look on his face was priceless.

[grcamna2]

I have a good friend that ran over a screw with his Savage. He asked me if I'd change the tire if he bought it and brought the bike to my house. I said sure but it would cost him $50 if he left it, nothing if he stayed and "helped". He said he would stay.
We spent a great hour and a half talking, joking and discussing the days events. Everything went perfectly. I had the tire mounted and balanced, I got to the last bolt, the one holding the brake stay rod to the drum, I looked at him and said, "I wonder where this goes?". He looked at me and said, "He11, you're the one doing the work.". The look on his face was priceless.

That's great that you let your friend be 'part of the adventure' on the work you did to his bike. 
I think that there's So much of the 'Us' (from the perspective of the place of business we go to): which is the repair shop,Dealership,place of business,Dr.'s office,store,etc.    and 'Them'(from the perspective of the place of business we go to): which is us..the general public,the ones who frequent these places of business and sometimes a few of us get a bad 'Rep' by the places of business(mostly for the wrong reasons)and lot's of times we have no idea what's going on with the actual 'Work' or 'Workings' of the establishment that we have put our complete trust in.
I think it's nice when you have a good customer/friend who knows you well and you can stay friends 'through thick and thin' as the saying goes...  And who has a 'teachable,positive attitude'.   
                                   
They have been very 'few and far between' for my own journey so far..

Magnaman,it's good of you for working with your friend and helping to 'break down some barriers' that some of us wouldn't normally try. 

[Stretch]

I've found that for "easy jobs" I'd rather teach someone to fish. I wouldn't take money from a friend except for parts. When you start charging for work it takes it from friendship to a business and the expectation may be higher. Not that I would do something I didn't know how to do or send something out that wasn't right. I also prefer to work at my own pace without the pressure of shop time over my head.

I used to do some work for money until a guy took 6 months to pay me. I told him on Friday XX/XXXX his bike would be on the curb minus the carbs and exhaust unless he paid me or beat the garbage man. He had the balls to call me a year or so later to ask me how much I'd charge to swap the engine. I told him $1200 and he provided the engine. My wife said, "Nothing of that man's comes in the house!" I said yea but $1200 for a day's work. She repeated!

[70CB750]

^^^ the same for small jobs, if it's a friend he/she usually pays back somehow.

I repaired shfiting on big tiller for a friend of mine - open it, clean it and close it job - and got home made salsa 

Besides, all american iron of a tiller is fun to work on, they are built like tanks 

[alacrity]

Thanks so very much for saying this, Mark.  It really means a lot to me!
 
-steve

Alacrity:
Thanks for the true story! First, it takes guts to be "real and true", and second, to move on, knowing what to watch out for next time.

I talk often about the 2 main Honda shops I worked in: I don't talk about a third one I was briefly at, until an event much like yours occurred. I hope to never be affiliated with them, in any way, as they still exist today (although I don't know if they are the same owners now). I also worked (briefly) at an electronics repair shop, until I saw a bill the owner gave the customer for the work I did on a tape deck. I spent 15 minutes to fix it, and it was billed out at 4 hours of "hi-tech labor". Since then, I also worked with a machine building shop who did the same type of thing on almost every job: when I found out, I quit cold. That owner tried to blacklist me, but the result of that became the most references I've ever had for new jobs! It turned out that many people knew what he was up to...

Well done, Honda rider!

[Bailgang]

Fortunately for me I worked at an honest shop when I was a mechanic, if the shop screwed something up then we paid for it, our mistakes were never passed down to our customers. My previous story about the exhaust shop butchering 2 exhaust manifolds, that cost for the replacement exh manifolds was paid for by our boss/owner of the shop ...... which is why he was still so pissed the next morning. That presented a problem though because so many times we had to deal with customers who thought for sure we were out to screw them simply because of reputations of other shops in our area.

[grcamna2]

Fortunately for me I worked at an honest shop when I was a mechanic, if the shop screwed something up then we paid for it, our mistakes were never passed down to our customers. My previous story about the exhaust shop butchering 2 exhaust manifolds, that cost for the replacement exh manifolds was paid for by our boss/owner of the shop ...... which is why he was still so pissed the next morning. That presented a problem though because so many times we had to deal with customers who thought for sure we were out to screw them simply because of reputations of other shops in our area.

I've run into that where a customer has lot's of 'baggage' from a history of trusting other shops/repairmen and getting burned.

I know just finding good forums like this one will help to heal up some of those experiences when we help each other like we do so well here. 

[HondaMan]

Fortunately for me I worked at an honest shop when I was a mechanic, if the shop screwed something up then we paid for it, our mistakes were never passed down to our customers. My previous story about the exhaust shop butchering 2 exhaust manifolds, that cost for the replacement exh manifolds was paid for by our boss/owner of the shop ...... which is why he was still so pissed the next morning. That presented a problem though because so many times we had to deal with customers who thought for sure we were out to screw them simply because of reputations of other shops in our area.

I've run into that where a customer has lot's of 'baggage' from a history of trusting other shops/repairmen and getting burned.

I know just finding good forums like this one will help to heal up some of those experiences when we help each other like we do so well here. 

Right you are!

[70CB750]

My first real job was prep and plan engineer in tool and die factory, we made dies for pressure aluminum casting.

Dies could get pretty complicated, you talk 100s of hours in machining and finishing process.

The steel used was CSN 19552, that equals 1.2343 (X38CrMoV5-1) and on the end it had to be hardened of course.

It happened at least once that a part would not harden and we would find out that somebody in the process screwed up the original part and replaced it with a plain carbon steel - and nobody knew anything till the very end.  People did not want to pay for the damage, but it would be cheaper for the shop to pickup the cost of the material than machine a complicated part from a piece of common steel.

BTW the centrally planned production of the east block wanted to shut us down many times, but because we made parts for the East German Navy - yeah, that really existed - we could always refer to defending socialism or some similar BS and russians would not let it happen.

[70CB750]

My favored story from those days was when a guy on precise XY drill station read wrong diameter number on the blueprint and drilled the hole 2 mm too big - so he fixed it on the blueprint and sent the piece down the line, LOL!

Quite the surprise for the final assembly 

[evanphi]

My favored story from those days was when a guy on precise XY drill station read wrong diameter number on the blueprint and drilled the hole 2 mm too big - so he fixed it on the blueprint and sent the piece down the line, LOL!

Quite the surprise for the final assembly 

That would be a surprise! Throw off a whole assembly? Or was the whole thing started over?

[70CB750]

Usually you drill it out, press in a bushing and drill it again.

[750cafe]

Usually you drill it out, press in a bushing and drill it again.

That would ONLY cost additional time and money thus putting the company out of business so no worries.
How many persons did this idiot put out on the streets???

Eric

[70CB750]

Usually you drill it out, press in a bushing and drill it again.

That would ONLY cost additional time and money thus putting the company out of business so no worries.
How many persons did this idiot put out on the streets???

Eric

That is the best part of it. He was a local senator for the communistic party, he could not be fired, also the company could not go belly up - bailing up failing companies was normal in the business cycle of the East Block.  The money to subsidize production was than missing some place else... you got the idea.

Sorry for going political, that was not my intention.

[MoMo]

Usually you drill it out, press in a bushing and drill it again.

That would ONLY cost additional time and money thus putting the company out of business so no worries.
How many persons did this idiot put out on the streets???

Eric

That is the best part of it. He was a local senator for the communistic party, he could not be fired, also the company could not go belly up - bailing up failing companies was normal in the business cycle of the East Block.  The money to subsidize production was than missing some place else... you got the idea.

Sorry for going political, that was not my intention.

Bailing out companies was Eastern Block???  Seems as though we are following right along...Larry