On Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:51:31 -0500, The Daring Dufas wrote:
You know, if you tell the customer it was your fault and fix it, they'll
have more respect for you and call you back because you were honest with
them. I see guys try to pull the wool over the customer's eyes and they
will lose out when they get caught. I repaired a system for a friend's
elderly mother when a couple of guys came out and shorted out the
compressor for one of her AC units. They told her it would be $5000.00
to replace the whole system because it was all bad. The crooks are being
sued and I explained to the attorney what they did to destroy her
AC system. Such assholes are universally despised by most of the other
repair techs in the business because it tends to give everyone a bad
name. "Oh yea. all of those XXXX are crooks" is the impression that all
people will wind up with and it happens in all the trades.

I got a referrel for a mobile mechanic and had him replace timing belt and
struts. On the strut job, he caught a rear seatbelt behind the seat and left a
clunking noise in the front end. They the joy began. He came by said there
were worn out spring retaining rings and he'd have to order them. Went on
vacation and upon returning found out that the part would still be in on
"thursday", but it was the week after he had originally said. Scheduled him for
friday. No show. Scheduled for monday. Got jerked along all day, scheduled
for tuesday; jerked along again and no show on wednesday. I didn't even bother
staying home that day, figured I'd wait for his call (which never came). This
went on for weeks. I have a job where I can work from home when I have to, but
there are limits! Finally I gave up, took it to a garage mechanic who
discovered a loose sway bar mounting bracket, fixed it and the seat belt for
$65.

Needless to say, I won't be using that mobile mechanic again. Too bad. If he
wasn't such a jerk about finishing his work, he'd have future business.
I had recommended him earlier to coworkers; I've of course now warned them
to avoid him.