DIYbanter - View Single Post

wrote:

Too bad all you've met are the bad ones. There are a few good ones
left - but most of US have gotten out.(which leaves only the bad ones
for you to deal with).
I got out, largely, because the CUSTOMERS are unpolite,
demanding,dishonest, cheap, and generally impossible to satisfy - even
when you do something for nothing.
They book their car for 3 hours of work and don't show up, after you
have made room in your busy schedule to get them in NOW - and that is
only because it is IMPOSSIBLE to do it yesterday. Then they want you
to diagnose the problem over the phone and guarantee the price - AND
be cheaper than the other 10 or 12 mechanics they have done the same
thing to. If you can't get the parts PRONTO, they cry and complain -
and you can NOT have every possible part available - the dealers don't
either. Then they lie about what has happened to the car, because they
want it to be someone elses fault and problem, not their own.
You fix the car and they leave and stop payment on the check or
dispute the charge on their credit card. Not only that, they bad-mouth
you to everyone who will listen when at the bar, a party, or wherever,
whenever the subject of auto repair or car problems comes up - which
is ANY time. Then 3 months later, after you have fixed, say the
brakes, they come back with the wiper motor not working - and - you
guessed it - its YOUR fault!!!!

Not entirely true, the few lucky people who have been able to find
honest, reliable mechanics do tend to speak highly of them.

It just wasn't fun any more after 25 years - and its gotten a whole
lot worse in the last 15 or more years.

Remember that the people bringing in the cars in the last 15 years or so
as you have noted, are the parents (or now their children) from the
generation that has deluded themselves into the belief that mechanical
trades (dirty jobs) are somehow devoid of education and skill and have
actively discouraged their children from having any interest in such
things.

This delusion of the PYVs (plastic yuppie vermin) is furthered by the
increasing complexity of cars and the thought that the grease monkeys
couldn't possibly understand anything about computers so they must just
be swapping parts until things magically start working.

It's only going to get worse too...

Pete C.