Auto repair costs are stressful enough, but now even simple repairs are
getting botched!
Here's the article....
Auto Repair: How Can They Screw Up an Oil Change?
“It’s all
about beating the clock.”
This quote comes from a wise old service manager, advisingme on how to
maximize my income as a flat-rate technician.
If you have
ever
wondered why your car doesn’t get fixed correctly, or all
your
concerns weren’t addressed, you can blame, in part, the
flat-rate
pay structure.
Flat-rate
simply means
that your mechanic is paid a flat fee for a particular repair,
regardless of how long the repair actually takes. In other
words,
if your car needs a water pump, which pays two hours of labor, and the
mechanic completes the job in one hour, he gets paid for two.
In theory,
this can work
to your advantage. If the job takes longer, you still only
pay
the “predetermined” labor amount. In THEORY, not
reality!
The
flat-rate pay
structure is designed to drive productivity. It’s
very
effective. This type of pay system encourages technicians to
work hard and fast, but it does not often promote quality.
In terms of
getting your
car fixed correctly, the flat-rate pay structure can have disastrous
effects. Flat-rate technicians are constantly looking for
shortcuts to beat the clock in order to maximize the number of hours
they bill. Experienced flat-rate technicians can bill
anywhere
from 16 to 50 hours in an 8 hour day.
It’s
these
shortcuts, and the breakneck speed at which flat rate technicians work,
that result in some of the most idiotic mistakes. In the
rapid-fire pace of a shop I’ve witnessed technicians start
engines with no oil. I’ve seen transmissions
dropped,
smashing into little pieces onto the shop floor. And
I’ve
seen cars driven right through bay doors—all in the name of
“beating the clock.”
Flat-rate
technicians can
get quite elaborate with shortcuts. My favorite was
the
implementation of an 8-foot-long 2-by-4, which was placed under the
engine for support while a motor mount was removed. It made a
job
predetermined to take 1.5 hours achievable in twenty minutes.
A
win-win, right? The technician makes extra money; you get
your
car back faster. Actually, in many cases the placement of
this
2-by-4 damaged the oil pan. Moreover, it caused the car, your car,
to balance precariously 6 feet in the air, while the technician
manipulated the car lift to access your engine mount. This
tactic
was abruptly discontinued when a technician’s 2-by-4 snapped
causing the car to crash nose down onto the concrete floor.
Sometimes
the shortcuts
create very subtle disturbances, which create problems
overtime. A quick example: a vehicle had its transmission serviced with a new
filter, gasket, and fluid. During the procedure, the
technician
was able to save time by bending the transmission dipstick tube
slightly, in order to get the transmission pan out faster. The
vehicle was reassembled, and the technician re-bent the tube back into
place and off it went—no worries….
Six months
later, the
vehicle returned with an intermittent misfire. The engine
wasn’t running on all cylinders. After extensive
diagnostics, it was discovered that the transmission dipstick tube had
chaffed through the engine harness, intermittently grounding out an
injector.
The
high-speed
environment and the subsequent shortcuts illustrate the devastating
effects of the flat-rate, sales-driven pay structure on the quality of
car repairs. No
wonder even an oil change gets screwed up!
The poor
quality of work
encouraged by the flat rate pay structure is disconcerting
enough. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop
here. The
negative effects of flat-rate get exponentially worse as it opens wide the door to rip you off!
To learn more about eliminating repair scams Click Here
-Theodore P.
Olson ©
http://www.repairtrust.com/
MLA Style Citation:
Olson, Theodore. "Auto Repair: How Can They Screw Up an Oil Change?" RepairTrust. 23 December 2006. http://www.repairtrust.com/articles_flatrate.html
APA Style Citation:
Olson, Theodore. (2006, December 23). Auto Repair: How Can They Screw Up an Oil Change?. RepairTrust. http://www.repairtrust.com/articles_flatrate.html
Chicago Style Citation:
Olson, Theodore. 2006 Auto Repair: How Can They Screw Up an Oil Change?. RepairTrust (December, 23), http://www.repairtrust.com/articles_flatrate.html |
