Miscommunication, Mistrust, and Missed Expectations

In this episode, we talk about times customers were not fully honest, times communication was unclear, and situations where nobody was trying to cause problems but things still went wrong.

We discuss:

Stories of deceptive customer behavior shops sometimes deal with
 How estimate misunderstandings happen more easily than people realize
 Why clear communication matters before, during, and after repairs
 How both customers and shops play a role in building trust

If you’ve ever wondered why some repair experiences spiral into frustration, this episode is for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of the Automotive Integrity Alliance. I'm Brandon along with my co-host Austin. Today we're going to talk about uh how honesty is a important part of integrity. And honesty isn't just a one-way street, it's got to be from both directions, customer and the business. So the story that comes to mind is a Mini Cooper that we had in the shop a month or two ago, and they were a little less than honest when they brought it in.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yeah, so when it came in, it came in originally for it wouldn't go above 25 miles an hour, and it was I forget what the solenoids called, the actuator, but it's like a variable valve lift system in it. But the actuator for that was bad. It wouldn't go faster than 25, 35. They also told Alan, our service writer, that the turn signals, headlights, stuff like that didn't work. So I pulled it in. That actuator was just stuck. I was able to get it unstuck and it would go 60. I drove it for probably 30, 40 miles and it was fine. Called them, told them I got that working, said that it was stuck, I got it unstuck. It doesn't mean that it won't get stuck in the future. But the solenoid was was super expensive. Um I forget what it cost, but it wasn't cheap at all. I told them that if it were mine, I would just see what happens, as long as you understand that there is a possibility that it could get stuck again. And they were okay with that. Um at the same time, I was telling them for the turn signals and stuff, that wasn't their main priority, but they did mention it to Alan. I told them that I could look into it, figure out why the handful of things like the power windows didn't work either. I told them I would stay late because I needed the car next day from the sounds of it, but I would stay late and look at it, and then we could order whatever that needed. Ended up being the footwell module. We were all on the same page, and then the next day I dropped the car off over at our service center. They came to pick it up, and Leanne had called and said that they were there there was an issue with the price or something like that. And I was confused. At that time, um, we had a Duramax in the shop and the ABS module went out on it. So I was in the process of of flashing the ABS module at that current moment, so I didn't really want to get up and leave and go talk to them. But she ended up getting a hold of you, and then I'll let you tell the rest of the story.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

I I don't remember what the numbers were off the top of my head, but it was it was basically I talked to them and they were given a price. They told me that they were given a price over the phone. You know, you had talked to them and said that it was gonna be, we'll just say $500, you know, to to look at this, and the bill ended up being eight hundred dollars or something. Uh those aren't accurate numbers, but you know, the the bill was higher than what was discussed. And I hadn't talked to you about it. And I'm like, well, she told me the story of you know exactly what was said from her perspective and everything. I believe they were in our lobby. Um, and you know, any time that you're talking with a customer, you know, in the lobby and you've got other things going on, and I was busy as well. I'm like, well, I I can understand where you know there was extra diagnostic time, you know, that was charged for that she says was never communicated to her. And um I ended up saying, well, if we gave you this price, we don't adjust our estimates, so we'll charge you what you know what you're quoted. She was happy with that, paid the bill, and then I talked to you and and come to find out that you had gave her the price that she heard, but also said that there I think it was the footwell module diagnostic. She wanted you to look into it if whatever the circumstances were, and you had told her that it was would be, you know, another couple hours of diag time if you had to look into it, and she basically approved that.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

She she did, and I didn't give a price on that because diag time is diag time. It's gonna take as long as it takes to find the issue, and I can't I I'm not gonna bind myself to a particular price. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yeah, so she ended up basically approving the job, but saying that she didn't approve the job. You know, i it's that clear communication uh not only between the customer and the shop, but actually the people that work in the shop is kind of critical too. We should have had a conversation and I shouldn't have jumped to the conclusion that what she was telling me was was accurate. Going beyond that, they picked up the car and then that solenoid started sticking again. And I I don't even know if they left with the car and it it started sticking. I think we ended up towing it back over to the diag shop and you looked at it.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, I got it unstuck again. They came to pick it up. Leanne had called, said they were here and were complaining, had questions, so this time I wasn't wrapped up, so I went over there and talked to him myself. Of the handful of things they said, they ended up saying that how can this be when I didn't fix the car, and or uh how how can this be stuck when you said you did whatever and I had I showed them the write-up I made and I also told them and the write-up I said uh directly stated it is unstuck and working now, but there is a possibility it can stick again in the future. Given the cost of the solenoid, I would recommend driving it and see see if it sticks again. Um that's what they ended up trying to do. But then when they walked in, kind of the same story as when they didn't approve the additional diag time, all of a sudden it was you guys didn't fix the car, it's still broken, and it was like I never said that before. And I I think I said it to them four or five times. I read the actual RO, the the the description I made of that symptom to them several times and showed them on the printed out thing that I gave them, and the same thing I said over the phone.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

They were also saying that you know the the windows didn't have a problem when it came in, and the turn signals didn't have a problem or or whatever. The all the things that they originally said that there was an issue with, all of a sudden, there was no issue. Yeah, none of those issues were present before we touched the car.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

They they tried blaming all of the electrical issues on us, the the whole works, everything that they could do, they just tried to pin it all on us. And the RO I did was very thorough, very descriptive, and there were they they they had no leverage basically. Um we record phone calls too, so they they had absolutely none at all. And then on top of that, at some point in the conversation, they talked about bringing uh bringing their truck.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Yeah, towards the end of the conversation, they thought they wanted to bring an F-150, have us look at an F-150 or something like that after after the the Mini Cooper was you know resolved and you know the bill was paid and everything was good to go, they wanted to bring another truck to us.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

And uh after that, I told them I wasn't looking at their truck, and I wasn't looking at their Mini Cooper, and I wasn't looking at any of their vehicles anymore. Yeah, well, I mean I I just said that uh based off how this went, I said there is no I said that it's unreasonable. I said I can't reason with unreasonable people.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Right. Yeah, exactly. When when they start changing the script and start trying to blame us for for things that they originally brought the vehicle in for, those aren't the kind of kind of customers that you want.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

So Yeah, and uh to to paint a picture, it was they walked in and acted as if they thoroughly believed what they were saying. Yeah. Like in the they they were like trying to convince me that that was the truth. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Customers can be just as dishonest as what repair shops can be. And most customers, the majority of customers are are great customers. The majority of them are, you know, honest up front. They just want their car fixed. But there's a handful of them out there that you have to be prepared for and we'll try and get, you know, something for nothing. I I was just watching a video on social media yesterday where uh a guy was talking about a customer brought in their car and said that they changed the oil on it, the customer changed the oil on it, but they couldn't get the filter off. They just wanted the filter changed. And the guy s is like, well, no, we don't we don't do that. It's either a full oil change or it's nothing. And he went over and looked at the car and the car's knocking and everything else, and his suspicion was they wanted him to change the filter and then blame the engine knocking on the shop. You have to know your customers. Every new customer, most of the time they're good people, most of the time, you know, 99% of the time, they're just there to get their car fixed. But that 1% of the time it's somebody looking for something for nothing and trying to p pin you with the blame or what have you. I don't think that there's enough discussion in the industry, you know, to a public perspective of what the what shops deal with when it comes to this kind of stuff. It is a small percentage of them. I'd like to say it's a small percentage of shops that take advantage of customers also. And you just hear about the negative aspect from the shop perspective, but it seems like you never hear the negative aspect from the customer perspective because sh shops don't talk about it. Yeah, you know, shop shops can't review customers. You know?

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Yeah, and we we run into that several times among different customers, similar to that Mini Cooper story. Um and another thing too I found out is I was at our parts store in town and I always chit chat with the guys at the counter a little bit. They knew who the person with the Mini Cooper was, they actually recommended them to come to us. Come to find out, they told me, yeah, they also burned Jerry, another auto shop, and they actually burned him somehow, somehow also. Um so I'm assuming they just go around to different places and see what they can get for free at each place.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

It's nice to have those relationships inside of the industry. You know, we um we didn't hear that directly from from Jerry, but we heard it from our parts store. But we've got a really good working relationship with all of the shops in town. And if if we run into a customer that's like that and we happen to see their car at another shop, we'll absolutely let them know and say, you know, be careful of these people because this is what happened, you know. And that's another thing that customers I guess don't realize is and it's not that way everywhere, but um it should be where we don't view other shops in the area as our competitors. There's plenty of work for everybody, and you know, we do a lot of towing for for Jerry and Yeah, and Jerry b Bill is Jerry's son.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Jerry and Bill have bailed me out of a few situations where I needed something and we didn't have it, but they did, and then vice versa, same thing for them. Yeah, we've we've we've saved each other butts a couple times.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, when you got you know a special tool or something like that that's that's needed. And um I think one of the things was just w we didn't have a the right cone for a a wheel balancer and yeah, for some huge wheels or something like that, yeah. Yeah, when in the automotive industry, when you work together with other companies, it it's it makes a big difference. Customers can can definitely be dishonest and throw shops for a loop and try and get something for nothing, that's for sure. But uh clear communication is is critical too. Um we had uh Tesla that came in and we quoted out some front-end work on it, and Alan talked to them and gave them the pricing for everything. Uh they approved all of the work. After the work was done, the bill was higher than what they thought. And what ended up happening, I went back and looked at or listened to the phone conversation, when Alan quoted it out, we did tires, we did uh control arms on it, and they started asking questions of well, how much would it be for just the tires and how much are just the control arms? And Alan thought, well, they were asking how much were just the parts of the control arms, so he gave them the parts of the control arms, you know, that was 500. So in their mind they're thinking $1,300 for, you know, $800 for tires and five hundred dollars for control arms. And it the bill ended up being fifteen hundred dollars because of the the labor to put the control arms in. And so when they came to pay their bill, it it's two hundred dollars higher, and it's like, oh, I thought it was only only thirteen hundred dollars and now it's fifteen hundred dollars what happened. And we went back and listened to the phone call and we explained to them exactly what happened, and we've instituted a new policy now where so a lot of times you'll do an estimate, and there will be you know multiple things on that estimate that needs to be addressed, and we'll tell the customer, you know, this thing can wait or that thing can wait, you know, it's not a safety issue, but it's something that needs to be done in the future, and they'll decline that work. And we have a policy now that once the presentation is done and all of the information is given, the last thing of the approval process is okay, this is what you've approved, and this is the total out-the-door price. Then there's no confusion, there's no, okay, the there's no adding by the customer, there's no, you know, misrepresentations of you know, oh, I I only told you how much the parts were, not the labor, which you know doesn't make any sense. If you give the bottom line, okay, this is what we're gonna do for you, Mr. Customer, and this is how much the total bill is gonna be, it takes care of all of those communication issues.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, I I remember that that Saturday I came in. She wanted to pick it up on Monday. I came in, I actually called her, talked to her, talked to her for like 20 minutes, um, explained to her like what you just said, this is what happened. And she was very appreciative, happy that I called her and talked to her, came in and dealt with it on a Saturday rather than just waiting until Monday. Uh we we just came to a we came to a resolution, a solution to the problem, and she was happy. We were happy, she'll keep bringing her car back, and her family owns Teslas too, so all around it was it was dealt with properly, I believe, on our end, and it was a good learning experience for Alan also.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah, yeah, and she I mean she's a very reasonable customer, and she was a hundred percent. It it was the confusing conversation from both sides that caused the issue. If Alan would have just said this is what the total price is out the door, that confusion would have never happened. And that's why we instituted that policy so we can prevent that from happening in the future because we don't ever want there to be miscommunication or or misunderstanding, um, especially when it comes to the the cost of the the repair that they're expecting. I've seen a lot of service advisors where when they do an estimate and they're talking to the customer, they'll give each price individually because they are afraid to give the big number, the total number. That's uh you can get into trouble a lot of times by doing that. So don't be afraid of I mean the cost is the cost, and I would much rather have a customer say, you know, I can't afford it, or you know, we gotta adjust the estimate, you know, when they're on the phone or when you're originally talking to them than when they're standing at the counter and we've already done the work. It just makes for an easier transaction when they know the exact cost and what it's gonna be out the door, and then there's no confusion.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Yeah, and the difference between that story and the Mini Cooper story was that was an error more so on our end, the Tesla story, but the Mini Cooper story was just complete dishonesty on one side of the one side of the spectrum on the customer side.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

There there's not many customers that we've had that have tried to get something for nothing or tried to blame us for something that wasn't uh the only other story I can think of is that Jeep.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Which Jeep it was four-wheel drive, but it was just two-wheel drive, or she bought it as if it was a four-wheel drive. Oh yeah, she was told it was. And then we got it running, and the plugs were fouled, and ended up needing O2 sensors. It was just pegging the computer rich. So it was dumping fuel into it, or pegging it lean, uh falsely lean, so it was dumping fuel trying to compensate for it and would foul out plugs. So I put plugs in it, got it running, gave her the total estimate, and then tried saying it didn't run when it came in. She thought that it was gonna run, she could just pick it up now. I said, No, it's gonna happen again. I wouldn't be surprised if we go out right now and it doesn't start again. I mean, it was just blowing like like rich smoke out of the exhaust, like like clouds of it. Um didn't have had gasket issues or anything like that, just was that rich. And then tried blaming us for it not running and saying uh basically said that we were the ones that caused it not to run when it came in not running, but we had to make it run to determine why the plugs were getting fouled.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

So I told her that it was under warranty, the plugs would be we'd be able to warranty 'em or clean them or whatever. And then that was another story of we uh we we will never look at any of your vehicles ever again. Not afraid, not afraid to fire customers, we are anyways. The ones that that are deserving of it.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yeah, anybody that's gonna try and blame us for a problem that was pre-existing.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Yeah, and I think I think I spent probably half an hour talking to her, trying to explain it to her, and she just kept repeating herself. So then I actually ended up calling you and saying maybe you can talk some sense into her for lack of better terms.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

And the same thing ended up happening, and it basically ended up with just pay for the tow, we're towing it back to your house, and I think she was in a bad situation all the way around because and and who knows I I do remember this now. Yeah, forget about this. Who I who who knows how much truth there is to it or what have you, but you know, she bought that vehicle from somebody that told her that it was a four-wheel drive. They actually put a four-wheel drive badge on the back of the the trunk, the lift gate, and it wasn't a four-wheel drive, it was a two-wheel drive.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

So and and rear rear-wheel drive on top of that. We live in Wisconsin, and rear-wheel drives in Wisconsin are basically useless nine months of the year.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yeah, right. So so I think I think she overpaid for it. And and this is me trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, which uh is probably not justified, you know, from from our perspective, because she was unreasonable and she she did kind of I mean she tried to put the blame on us for for not running right when it obviously came in not running right. You never know the background of the story. And I th that doesn't justify anything, but my my perspective is she was taken advantage of when she bought the vehicle. She overpaid for it, she thought it was a four-wheel drive and it was only a two-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and so now she's gonna take it out on us because she can't she doesn't want to put any more money into this thing because it's not worth what she paid for it. And you know, uh it is what it is, but it's frustrating when you have to have to deal with that. So you know it's also frustrating when customers don't listen to your advice and don't listen to you know what your diagnostics is. You know, the Cadillac is a perfect example of that with uh with the transmission issues that he brought it in. And and I knew this before it even got to us, you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

I I knew it also, but he was persistent and it's just one of those things you gotta do it once, and then when you have good reason to decline work from them, then you have good reason.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

And that that's still at the diag shop, and it's been a month and a half now. Came in initially, it it doesn't shift basically, but it doesn't engage drive. It does engage drive, but the clutches and internal to the transmission are just bad. It it slips. I can put it on the rack, put it in drive, and it has I mean, there's not the weight of the car, so the tires will spin. Um the pressure control solenoid is good. I I went through it, I said there is it is an internal transmission issue, there is no way around it, it needs a transmission. On top of that, it's a North Star, it misfires, there's someone put an outer tie rod on it. Like it looks shiny brand new, but the inner tie rod is junk on the same side. I I I just told them I didn't fully inspect the whole thing, but I just basically told them it's not worth putting a transmission in and it's not even safe to drive as it is now. Um there was other issues with it other than the inner tie rod too, but just told them that it wasn't it wasn't worth fixing, and then it turned into put a transmission in it, we don't care. And then his son was supposed to stop in, it's been a month and a half, he still hasn't, but he claims that he stopped by eight times when I wasn't there. Yeah, and it it it's been a never ending story like that.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

And we've just been trying to get rid of the Yeah, I think you finally gave him finally tracked him down as he was trying to dodge you, you know, and and said, you know, we've got tolls this Thursday. If it's not out of here Thursday, we're gonna start cut charging stores.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah, I I I told them that if it wasn't gone by today and towed out of here, I was gonna tow it to our our sales lot basically out back and it was gonna collect storage there. Um I have no more room there. If it wasn't i if it could be there, then it's not that big of a deal, but it's to the point where I need to make room for stuff and that's one thing that has to has to go away. Every time he stops in, it's been probably dozen and a half times. Every single time, the first thing out of his mouth is I know it doesn't need a transmission.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Yeah, it just needs a sensor, and it's because somebody told him that it needed a sensor or what have you, because it's got a code in it that says, you know, a pressure sensor is low or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Yeah, and keep keep in mind too that when it came in the transmission fluid was filled. There's the fill spot on the top of the transmission on those right to the brim. Completely full. Completely full. I mean I could see the the the the foaming, the churning of the fluid. You know what I mean? There's air in the system or it's it's turning, foaming, so that's not healthy for it. You know what I mean? Right. Um so I set the transmission fluid properly, but in the back of my mind, I wonder if the same guy telling him it needs a uh sensor is also the one that filled his transmission right to the brim. Right, exactly. And there was a transmission leak on it, I believe, from the cooler or a line or something like that. So I I wouldn't be surprised if it was just low at one point and then they way overfilled it, and somehow, somehow the clutch packs got fried in that whole process.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Um, it's just there's not enough friction material to grab to move the car, but there is to move just the wheels.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Again, you can try and communicate as as much as possible with a lot of people and they just don't listen to what you're telling them or wanting another. Actually, he he said that he was gonna tow it uh or have us tow it to somebody else and have them fix it. And it's like fine, just please take it.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

But yeah, there is no doubt in my mind that it needs a transmission so he can take it wherever he wants. And if they tell him it needs something else, unfortunately you're wasting your money. Right. Right. And at the end of the day, the car is not worth fixing. No, not with the misfire issues and everything else it has going on.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

You know, to put this in perspective, we we've talked about three customers. And we've been in business for five years. Thousands of ROs, and we got three customers that we've had issues with. It's not a common occurrence by any means. It's good to discuss those issues because other shops have those issues. And uh honestly, i if a shop doesn't have a phone system that records the conversations, that has been a key thing in our business. Anytime that there's a dispute or any time that there's an issue, we can go back and listen to the conversation and listen to how it was handled from both sides and you know, protect ourselves as far as approvals go, or just hear what the conversation was. And uh a lot of times, just like the Tesla, for example, that was a breakdown of communication on our on our end. And when you can actually listen to the conversation, learn from that, and learn how to correct those situations, you have a whole lot less of the situations versus not having that information to go back and and listen to or or look at and you know determine what exactly happened. You know. We don't listen to 99% of the phone calls, but when there's an issue, we can go back and listen to it to determine you know where the breakdown was. Having cameras are important in a business. It's uh that's as important as having phone conversations recorded. You don't do it because you have issues, you do it because if you do have issues, you can go back and you can verify things. And it it protects the business, it protects the customers. If we have a you know vehicle that's parked out front and a car backs into it, a c another customer backs into it, like that Tesla. At least if you have video of the incident happening, you can you know show who who it was that did it. Actually, it was what was it? It was probably three years ago at our sales lot, we had uh somebody I I think they were do they delivered a a car or they delivered a part or whatever, they had a semi and they pulled it in our back lot and then backed into our neighbor's lot. And when they left, they completely sideswiped uh or put the trailer over the top of the hood of a Honda Ridge line. Yeah. And at that time we didn't have cameras, and you know, the neighbor came over and said, What the heck happened to this truck? You know, and it's like uh we we don't go in your lot, we don't need to. We we we've got plenty big enough lot that we turn around all of our trucks and everything in our lot. And then we thought about it and said, Well, we had a delivery and it came on a semi-cracking.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

It came on a semi-covered 15-wheeler, and they probably backed into it to get out. And then we looked, there were still tire tracks, and you could see exactly what had happened. It was uh it was more than likely the semi. I didn't see it, so I can't be a hundred percent sure, but ninety-nine percent sure given the story and when it happened and how it happened, it was more than likely the semi getting out of our lot.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Yeah, I think he called the semi company and they denied anything happened and everything else. And if we would have had we have cameras up now, primarily because of that, and I have my camera pointed right in that direction through a sixty-degree view of our our sales lot, so that if anything happens, we know exactly what happened. It's a cover your ass kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

I noticed when vehicles were at other shops and then come to us, um, like that Buick actually, that Rainier is a good example. When they left, they called and said, No, the brake lights don't work after long story short, it was at another shop that didn't run. They threw three different things at it, still didn't run. It was we towed it to us, it needed an ignition switch, it runs. They came and picked it up and then called us and said the brake lights didn't work and it was our fault. Or that's what I I didn't hear. Alan answered the call at at the at that time, and then he told me what it sounded like to him. So I kind of take everything with a grain of salt without talking to him. But I called them, asked them to hit the brake light. Do any of the brake lights come on? They said, yeah, the third brake light. I said, There's I was looking at a wiring diagram, I said the fuse, there's a fuse that feeds both the rear taillights left and right. I said the stop lamp switch is obviously working. I said, so it's probably either a fuse or bulbs or bulbs. I said, so I would do that, and I said the shop it was at before, they what they did that probably didn't cause it. I said we didn't cause it, towing it. I said there's it is just the way that it worked out. I said there is no way that we could have caused your brake lights to not work.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Yeah, and that's an important part, you know, a important thing to think about too. It was uh old Buick Rainier, it's coming close to the end of its useful life, but they wanted it running, so we ended up making it run. That was all that we did. And we've been trying to implement the DVI on every vehicle, and we haven't got there yet. You know, I mean we do DVIs on most vehicles, but when, you know, I I think a lot of times when you get something like that that comes in that's used to or close to the end of its useful life, and all you are tasked to do is make it run again so that they can, you know, go on with their day or do whatever it is that they're gonna want to do with it. I mean, that that particular vehicle probably has five thousand dollars worth of of work that needs to be done, you know, on on the low end. And we didn't do a DVI on that vehicle. And if we would have done a DVI on that vehicle, then we would have had all of that stuff documented. So, you know, I think the the digital vehicle inspections are are not just selling tools, they're also a cover your ass tool as well, you know, and you we should really be taking pictures of every vehicle before they come into the shop, take pictures of the dash, take, you know, take pictures of everything. So you have you know a base starting point of the condition of the vehicle, and then inspect the vehicle and you know s show all of the things and it gives the customer an overall view of their vehicle. A lot of customers think that you know that's just a tool because we're trying to get you to buy everything, but I mean at the end of the day, you've got a vehicle that came in with a problem that you didn't document, and then you ship it back to the customer after you fix the problem that they asked you to fix, but that problem is there, and maybe they didn't know about it, maybe they did, but either way, you're on the hook for it trying to say that that you caused that issue. Uh uh DVI's kind of solved that. And it's you know, that's kind of a hot topic along with with flat rate, is you know, technicians aren't paid for DVIs. At the end of the day, it's something that really should be done on every vehicle, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Um but another story too was um Abdul's um Volkswagen, the hybrid, that was at the franchise Volkswagen dealer, and they quoted a transmission um because it was a hybrid and it wouldn't go into hybrid mode, but it was losing line pressure because of that O-ring in the mechatronic unit. There was that it got dinged somehow in the rear quarter, and he after we fixed it. Um I mean to keep in mind Volkswagen quoted a whole transmission and mechatronic unit, and we replaced just the steel, that was bad. Also, that's not in Volkswagens, that's not like a Volkswagen approved repair procedure, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Yeah, Volkswagen wouldn't go to that depth, they just did replace the transmission.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

Yeah, yep, they they don't go any farther than this is the issue, replace the transmission because of it. That's why it's not an approved repair, but it is a repair. Um, but it got dinged, and he ended up calling and asking if we knew anything about it. And that was another story where it came from another place, and it has this ding. We were the one that gave it back to him, so we're the one that gets asked all the questions. And we had cameras at that time, and I think that I think that I actually looked and just fast-forwarded through everything, and nothing even came close to it. So it was a matter of showing them and proving that we you it it didn't happen on our property at least. Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

So yeah, that's another one that we didn't do a DVI on. I mean, that was before DVIs were really a super big thing, or at least on our radar. And had we done a DVI on that, it would have the dent, you know, grip prior. I I'm sure this has always been an issue in the automotive industry, you know, as far as you know, damage done to vehicles while they're on the lot and stuff like that. But uh with the technology nowadays, you can eliminate a lot of those concerns if you're actually doing the the digital vehicle inspection on everyone uh before you know it it's ever pulled in. We've got them set up and I I've made it part of the service advisor's job to, you know, take the exterior photos, take a picture of the of the dash and you know, all of the things other than everything other than what mechanically is wrong with it, and we've you know split it between the service advisor and the the technician. Sometimes the service advisor will pull it in, sometimes the technician will, but the service advisor should be doing the exterior photos and and everything else when they're writing up the repair order and have that all done before the technician ever gets to the car. It's a good system as long as it's implemented and it's done thoroughly on every vehicle. I mean, at the end of the day, clear communication is critical in customer business relationships, um, being thorough with your estimates, being thorough with DBIs, having the tools available, you know, like recorded phone calls and and security cameras and stuff like that, that all makes things a whole lot easier anytime there's a conflict that arises. And again, it's 1% of the customers that you might have a problem with, but that one percent of customers could be thousands of dollars that you know it could cost a business if if they're not diligent in in documenting things and if there's a lack of communication and the price is different, I I don't I don't ever like it when a customer doesn't know upfront what our bill is gonna be. And when that bill changes. That's why I took the stance with the Mini. They're telling me that this is what they were quoted and now it's you know a couple hundred dollars or three hundred dollars more. I I don't like that as a business owner. I I I wanna I wanna charge the customer what we quoted for it, but customers are dishonest also, and you gotta take that into consideration. So communication is key, and you know, having good communication and being able to verify things is how you run a effective business.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

I was happy that they did come back and I was able to talk to them because when they came back, the going back to the Mini Cooper story, I was happy to remind them that I called her, told her I was gonna stay late to diagnose it, it'd be an hour or two, whatever it was, and then when you showed up, you act like you had no idea. And then, like I said, they want to bring their truck, and it was at that point you're you're dead to me.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

There it is. Well, on that note, I think we'll leave it there. I want to thank you for watching another episode of the Automotive Integrity Alliance podcast. And uh remember cars are complicated, but integrity shouldn't be. Till next time, we'll see ya.