Howdy. Multiple Rivs

Hi all.

Another Jason here. I've got a 97 n/a Riv (198K miles), and just scored a 96 s/c Riv, 113K miles. My 19 year old son wants the n/a one (good taste).

About me: I play with tow trucks. ASE Master Auto Tech, 12 years at GM dealers, mostly Buick, up until 2000 when I lost my temper with the service writer "games". I worked on these under warranty and have liked em since then.

buggboy wrote:

About me: I play with tow trucks. ASE Master Auto Tech, 12 years at GM dealers, mostly Buick, up until 2000 when I lost my temper with the service writer "games". I worked on these under warranty and have liked em since then.

Welcome! LOL at the service writer "games". I agree 100% with that statement.

buggboy wrote:

Hi all.

Another Jason here. I've got a 97 n/a Riv (198K miles), and just scored a 96 s/c Riv, 113K miles. My 19 year old son wants the n/a one (good taste).

About me: I play with tow trucks. ASE Master Auto Tech, 12 years at GM dealers, mostly Buick, up until 2000 when I lost my temper with the service writer "games". I worked on these under warranty and have liked em since then.

I have long suspected that service writers played games, but not being in the business had no idea that mechanics would become frustrated with them. Me, I started working on cars when I was in high school because the only way my dad would let me use one is if I did my own mechanical work. (same with electronic calculators. He did not let me have an electronic caculator until I built one. I still have that calcuator...) What do you think, in general, frustrates mechanics about service writers? I think it might have something to do about mis-managing customer expectations.

Albertj

Welcome!!!

I can tell ya Albert....service writers love to tell customers things that we didn't tell them. Half the time they have no idea of how a car even works, and they make shit up to sound "fancy" to the customer. They sell jobs at reduced labor rates, and they won't tell you that until the bill is paid and you find it on your time sheet. They have "favorite" technicians, sometimes regardless of work performance, and will assign work to their buddies......shall I continue? lol I've been there........

That's bullshit Scott. Makes sense for why there's such a disconnect on a lot of jobs though.

DEMonte1997 wrote:

That's bullshit Scott. Makes sense for why there's such a disconnect on a lot of jobs though.

Kind of wonder if that depends on the shop.

Albertj

It definitively depends on the shop. As I know there was no Discounting of jobs at the GM dealer I worked at, so there was no problem with paying the appropriate flat rate to any mechanic.
There were mechanics that were known to be better at doing certain jobs as compared to other techs and they would the get the R/O's handed to them for those specific jobs.
I had no problem doing that because the other mechanics didn't do anything or take the initiative to learn that specific job.
Or there were certain mech's who would turn down jobs knowing they couldn't make flat rate on it..
So what comes around goes around.

Scott and Rick are on the right track. My big issues, not to start a rant but hey you did ask , were the feeding of the "gravy work" to the favored techs, while I kept bangin out the warranty jobs, and fixing other techs' comebacks. The response I got when I'd complain was "Well, so and so isn't as good as you on warranty (read:FIXING THE DAMN CAR).

One of the last straws was when I got a driveability complaint that was presented as a "comeback" on me....that I'd never seen. I went & pulled the paper RO and found that one of the svc writers had written the thing up, using my number with a buncha bullshit and ultimately NPF'ed it. (No problem found). So when it inevitably came back, I'm the guy looks like a moron and also makes it harder to get diagnostic time, OLH, etc.

You could say that I lost my temper...you could also say there was some little devastation at Hiroshima.....

Not all shops are like that, and not all svc writers play games to that degree...but I needed a change at that point in my life.

Welcome!
And sorry to hear about all that bull. Totally understandable that you'd had enough of it!