General Question about your mechanic charging methods / fees

[bennjamin]

thats the difference between a good mechanic and a crappy one.... a real mech would look after his/her customer, not tryn rip them off

No its not - all mechanics are there to take your money. No mechanic is your "friend" unless close family or known friend for years. ! This just makes them cut to the chase A real mech , rips you off less and over a longer time lol.

[rotary_snail]

I don't rip anyone off. And i don't charge for misdiagnosis unless there is obviously something wrong with the part (ie. complaining of suspension knocking, replace a worn bush and the noise is still there).

As said it's about knowing who to take it to, and knowing if they can do their job right.

[dciisir]

If I take my car back to the mechanic to look at the problem, he will charge me time to further diagnose the problem. I just want to get rid of the noise.. It's very annoying... This is actually for my rex. I am thinking of maybe taking it back to Subaru Docklands or something.

[egb16b]

If I take my car back to the mechanic to look at the problem, he will charge me time to further diagnose the problem. I just want to get rid of the noise.. It's very annoying... This is actually for my rex. I am thinking of maybe taking it back to Subaru Docklands or something.

But he never fixed the original problem though. When you first went there, did you tell him about the knocking noise - did you explain to him that that's what you want fixed? If so then he didn't do his job and you have a right to go back there and get it fixed properly.

So this is for your rex? 02 STI?? Then i'd recommend Subaru docklands for sure. Should've taken it there in the first place. I doubt the first mechanic has had a lot of experience with Brembo brakes.

Nice car btw.

[dougie_504]

If I take my car back to the mechanic to look at the problem, he will charge me time to further diagnose the problem. I just want to get rid of the noise.. It's very annoying... This is actually for my rex. I am thinking of maybe taking it back to Subaru Docklands or something.

Where in Melbourne do you live? My family mechanic is a top bloke, no BS, and has been doing it for 56 years now (yes, he's 72 and still going hard!). I would recommend him to you if you want to try him out. Good job/price or otherwise re-direction to another 'trustworthy' mechanic.

Mechanics is one of the least trusted professions in Australia. Right next to Taxi drivers, real estate agents and politicians.

Thats why always get an independent second opinion before getting any work done.

I think car-salesmen are literally the least trusted profession in Australia, whereas my profession is #2 after paramedics
Bit of a joke though isn't it? You can always get caught out...

[munkaii]

It really depends on what the problem may be. I work in an environment similar to that of a Mechanic (Wrecking Yard) but we get a lot of people who come in and just say "Oh I have this noise, or my car does this...".

At our place, if the diagnosis is very simple such as an alternator brushes being no good, causing the car to flat batt all the time, we will let our customers know what is wrong and quote them for a replacement second hand part + install.

But if you come in saying that there is an issue that requires further investigation, then don't expect a free quote. You can't expect Mechanics to be used to diagnose your issues and then to walk away and fix it yourself. We have a quick look at it, narrow down the problem as much as possible and quote to repair those problems (best case vs worse case scenario, e.g. May be battery, or alternator or distributor etc.). Then, if they agree to the price then we will accept the job, diagnose and inform the customer prior to fixing it, what it actually is. If the customer then decides not to fix it, we will charge them a diagnosis fee. If we cannot fix it, we do not charge them. I suppose this is made easier as we have parts on hand (being a wrecking yard).

Seems pretty fair I think. There are definitely some dodgy as **** mechanics out there, but we have retained our customer base for the last 2 years and it is still growing.

[na-118]

No its not - all mechanics are there to take your money. No mechanic is your "friend" unless close family or known friend for years. ! This just makes them cut to the chase A real mech , rips you off less and over a longer time lol.

your wrong,,, i don't take customers money i charge them whats neccessary

the problem where i see is growing is the amount of e mechanics going around,, you can't fix something or gone way too far what your suppose to, then when your quoted to fix "YOUR F UCK UPS" they get upset

no offense to anyone

[mao]

Come on guys, not all mechanics are dicks. There are good ones out there. Simple fact in any service industry ---- customer brings in a problem, service provider has to diagnose and fix problem, charges customer and if problem persists, service provider has to repair problem. Of course, always good to get a quote first.

To give you an example, had a customer with a Nissan S15 come in, he said pls quote before you do the job. wrote me a whole list to do includling checking out his srs light. After pluggin in the diagnostics, found the problem to be a bad connection somewhere in the whole srs module. called customer and customer said, pls go ahead and check. we charge an hourly labor charge. So proceeded and found that another workshop had removed his airbag steering wheel and damaged the srs coil spring behind. After spending close 2 2 hrs, called customer and told him the problem. Nissan quote $290 for the part, so told customer that he needed to chg the part. customer said too expensive, i said look you gotta pay for the labor to remove, diagnose and put everything back. He got pissed off. What am i supposed to do in this case? Put everything back and not charge?

[munkaii]

Come on guys, not all mechanics are dicks. There are good ones out there. Simple fact in any service industry ---- customer brings in a problem, service provider has to diagnose and fix problem, charges customer and if problem persists, service provider has to repair problem. Of course, always good to get a quote first.

To give you an example, had a customer with a Nissan S15 come in, he said pls quote before you do the job. wrote me a whole list to do includling checking out his srs light. After pluggin in the diagnostics, found the problem to be a bad connection somewhere in the whole srs module. called customer and customer said, pls go ahead and check. we charge an hourly labor charge. So proceeded and found that another workshop had removed his airbag steering wheel and damaged the srs coil spring behind. After spending close 2 2 hrs, called customer and told him the problem. Nissan quote $290 for the part, so told customer that he needed to chg the part. customer said too expensive, i said look you gotta pay for the labor to remove, diagnose and put everything back. He got pissed off. What am i supposed to do in this case? Put everything back and not charge?

Best case scenario would be to neg on labour cost and cut your losses and not to deal with the customer next time as they probably aren't worth dealing with if they are going to take that approach.

[androo]

Come on guys, not all mechanics are dicks. There are good ones out there. Simple fact in any service industry ---- customer brings in a problem, service provider has to diagnose and fix problem, charges customer and if problem persists, service provider has to repair problem. Of course, always good to get a quote first.

To give you an example, had a customer with a Nissan S15 come in, he said pls quote before you do the job. wrote me a whole list to do includling checking out his srs light. After pluggin in the diagnostics, found the problem to be a bad connection somewhere in the whole srs module. called customer and customer said, pls go ahead and check. we charge an hourly labor charge. So proceeded and found that another workshop had removed his airbag steering wheel and damaged the srs coil spring behind. After spending close 2 2 hrs, called customer and told him the problem. Nissan quote $290 for the part, so told customer that he needed to chg the part. customer said too expensive, i said look you gotta pay for the labor to remove, diagnose and put everything back. He got pissed off. What am i supposed to do in this case? Put everything back and not charge?

Best case scenario would be to neg on labour cost and cut your losses and not to deal with the customer next time as they probably aren't worth dealing with if they are going to take that approach.

He doesn't need to negotiate does he? He just won't release the car to the owner until payment is made...

Bad customer = charged full price and hope they never come back.

[na-118]

if they don't have the money i'll shut the bonnet and tell them go cabramatta

[r3ckless]

Come on guys, not all mechanics are dicks. There are good ones out there. Simple fact in any service industry ---- customer brings in a problem, service provider has to diagnose and fix problem, charges customer and if problem persists, service provider has to repair problem. Of course, always good to get a quote first.

To give you an example, had a customer with a Nissan S15 come in, he said pls quote before you do the job. wrote me a whole list to do includling checking out his srs light. After pluggin in the diagnostics, found the problem to be a bad connection somewhere in the whole srs module. called customer and customer said, pls go ahead and check. we charge an hourly labor charge. So proceeded and found that another workshop had removed his airbag steering wheel and damaged the srs coil spring behind. After spending close 2 2 hrs, called customer and told him the problem. Nissan quote $290 for the part, so told customer that he needed to chg the part. customer said too expensive, i said look you gotta pay for the labor to remove, diagnose and put everything back. He got pissed off. What am i supposed to do in this case? Put everything back and not charge?

Did u tell him u will charge an hourly fee to diagnose the problem?

Be firm with him n dnt release the car.

Wtf cheap **** nissan owner... Refuses to pay money... Cheap ****!