Thanks (Long)

[deecee@exit109.com]

Thanks to everyone who replied with support.
Finally this week has come to an end. I want to post what happened to
explain why I flipped out. I vow to never let it happen to you again.

 Put yourself in my shoes and what would you do? I am a flat rate "A"
technician. The more hours I produce the more I get paid. Now a days it is
a struggle to make 40 hours because of all the warranty work.

I mentioned before about "Thinks that are going on behind the shop door"
Well I will tell you there are many "secret warranties" that you don't know
about. I have seen many cash jobs turn into warranty pay because of the
secret warranty.

Here's the story.

First on Monday my boss asked me to get him the alignment specs on a 95
Passat for a customer. Okay since we are on the Bentley CD Rom system it
was very easy.
Later in the day a customer came to the service desk. The Service Advisor
called me and asked for a TSB for the customer. The TSB was in a printed
article in an auto magazine.  I took the customer back to my PC and
searched for the TSB. I found the TSB Group 44, 94-01 I showed the
customer. He started to complain that it was not the same as the other.
Than I realized this is the customer who want the Passat alignment specs. I
asked the customer why he wanted them. Was there a problem? The repose No
problems I have 30k and wanted the alignment checked. Ok I told him we had
the latest specs in the Hunter machine. No you're not doing the alignment I
am going to NTW. I just wanted to make sure they had the specs.  Why are
you going there? I can save $50.00. He than asked me for a copy of the TSB.
"Sorry we can't print the TSB"  

Next case. During the summer I did a used car buyer check for a customer on
a 88 Sirocco. We get 1.00 to do the check. I spent about 2.00 with the car
and the customer. Bottom line I was able to get $2000 knocked of the price
for him from the buyer. In return I had written up 16 hours of labor to
cover the needed repairs. The customer left and returned 1 month later.
Great a good cash job. I spoke with the customer again and he told me that
I was going to only replace the r/s motor mount because he had everything
else done some where else. "Dicks"   He came by on Monday with a broken
hood cable. I told him in some cases we have to break the grille to gain
access. I was able to take out the trim around the left side headlight and
pull the cable to open the hood. It turned out to be a broken handle. Parts
$6.00 labor $65.00 . This guy freaked out because it didn't take me 1 hour
to open the hood. This was the estimate that included everything. He
declined. Ok I put the grille back and dropped the hood. At 10minutes to
closing know he decides he wants the hood cable handle. I had to bring the
car back in and fix it before I went home.

The final straw came Tuesday. I was working on a 96 Jetta with a ABS
problem. The car had 31,000 miles. I was told that Pep Boys had just done
rear pads.  I  checked for codes and found codes for the rear sensor. I
pulled the sensor out and looked into the cutout to see if the ABS rotor
was rusted. Gee I couldn't find it. After taking off the rotors I noticed
that both rear ABS rotors were missing. Pep Boys must have forgot to put
them back on. I told the service advisor. Great finally a cash repair. 2.5
hours car out of warranty. Wrong again. We warranted the repairs. This was
the final straw.

Because of my frustration I vented to the group. The weekend is here and
everything will be forgotten. Until Monday than the shit starts all over.
Next week is a short week. I have to attend another Audi school. This
course is Advanced Fuel Injection in the V6.