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Is The Customer Always Right?

2024
Is The Customer Always Right?
Is The Customer Always Right?
Anonim

MARKET

SERVICE

IS ALWAYS RIGHT A CLIENT?

Instead of a desk in front of me, a shabby lift

and at work I don’t put on a suit with a tie.

Pavel Martynenko, Voronezh.

Photo by Alexander Polunin

I paraphrase the classics: in the county town of V. there were so many auto repair shops that it seemed as if the purpose of the life of its inhabitants was to bring their “iron horses” to perfect condition.

In one of these workshops, the author ended up in the recent past, an employee of the missile design bureau. Previously, the car was a kind of hobby - in my spare time I bought half-wrecked foreign cars, brought them to a salable condition, and more or less successfully sold them. Now he decided to combine his passion and the main work.

THE FIRST DAY

I meet my new colleagues with some timidity - they are professionals who used to work at the largest service station in Voronezh - VAZ. Communicating with them is only good: after all, repairing your cars in the garage, even if they are always different, and servicing others' is not the same thing, you have to learn a lot.

That's just to learn especially and not at all - there are no customers. We stand and watch how work is in full swing in the workshop opposite - not so often, but people drive up, change ball, crosses, silent blocks … That's what a “lured” place means. The regular clientele has been working out for a long time, but for the first two weeks after the opening, we mess around or mess with our machines. Moreover, the competitor, in contrast, clearly does not have enough stars from the sky - he drove the G8 to himself, came up to us, asked how covers on CV joints of front-wheel drive VAZs were changing.

DAY FIFTEEN

Hooray! The first client is changing the release bearing at the 1990 Passat. For initiative, the chief decided to carry out repairs at the price of work for the VAZ-2108. The owner needs the car urgently, but an unexpected hitch - the bearing selected in the catalog in the store does not fit. A common thing for foreign cars is no matter how many catalogs you look at, but buying a part is best if you already have the old one in your hands. Then we will have a Renault Laguna, the owner of which twice received completely unsuitable brake pads on order; Ford Transit, for which the cross was found on the third attempt, and again Volkswagen, and again, and again … Well, if the item was purchased in the nearest store, where it will be immediately exchanged, but what if in Turkey?

DAY TWENTY, THIRTEENTH, SEVENTY …

So the work went. Gaining "service experience." Having got to know the “professionals” better, I see that their work style is specific. Here is one of them, specializing in body repair of rear-wheel drive “Zhiguli” for about ten years, accepting a rumpled “penny” asking the owner to “straighten and weld”. The master first rips the ragged door and rear wing, receives money, and then discovers a hole in the rear arch. If you patch it up, you won’t earn much, and the client is quickly convinced to replace the entire arch. But for this, it is necessary to cut down the rear wing, which is rotten and, most importantly, has just been straightened out … And they completely charge the customer for replacing the arch and wing. But in order to achieve such results, you probably need to really be a “professional”, I can hardly succeed … And the truck driver, with nostalgia, recalls the eighties and his mentor: “It used to happen, the client would change the front brake pads to him, and he also cuts the brake hose, and pierces a couple of anthers on ball bearings. The man counted on fifty dollars, and left hundreds of three more of those pre-perestroika rubles. Yes, that’s how you can earn money for bread …”

These stories cease to amaze over time - you may not see this. One of the "professionals", collecting his friend "eight" engine, drops the piston with a connecting rod. A piece of forty millimeters in diameter breaks off the piston skirt. After scratching his head, the master continues to assemble the engine with this piston. I had to listen to an absolutely stunning story about a certain turner who wasted a block under a set of repair pistons. It was obvious that the cylinders were monstrously "weakened", the pistons simply failed. However, when the client arrived, everything was in order - the pistons entered with a noticeable effort. Just before that they were “corrected” by a mallet.

I, a new man in a car service, perceive all this with difficulty. But, communicating with the masters, and especially with customers who have visited other workshops, I am convinced that against the general background, our service station looks very good both in price and in the quality of the repair.

So, once we got a Ford-Scorpio equipped with ABS, the electric brake booster motor burned out (a rather strange and capricious, I must say, design). I suggested replacing the unit, but the owner of Ford decided to try to repair it in a workshop known throughout the city. A local specialist, turning in a greasy robe on a Ford velor chair, announced: “Change the unit, for repairs in turn in two weeks, the cost of work is 400 thousand, and for diagnostics - 70.” Dumbfounded, the owner returned to us. He was offered to do the same twice as cheaply. But in the end, the garage craftsman replaced the electric motor for only 100 thousand.

"RIDERS" AND OTHERS

Contacting a car service in general and our workshop in particular can be divided into groups. The first - the most numerous - these are the "riders" who do not delve into what is happening under the hood. As a rule, they make money by trade and their car is the same means of production as a lathe machine.

Another group is motorists who service the car mainly on their own, with the exception of complex or physically difficult work. They come to us to sort out the engine or replace the clutch, weld or touch up the body.

The third group includes, I would say, clients “conditionally” who would gladly contact the service, but they can’t afford it at all. Well, what can you do - we don’t have the opportunity to ask, say, for replacing the clutch less than the average Voronezh pensioner receives for a whole month. After all, you have to pay for the rental, license, certificate, yes taxes, supplies …

A special group consists of customers who are extremely reluctant to part with money, although they consider themselves wealthy. Oddly enough, this includes bandits and police. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, but there are few of them. It happens like this: a completely fresh Sierra enters boxing, on the back shelf there are a striped rod and a gray cap. The owner of the car complains about the idle hand brake and strange creaks under the bottom. Having set the “Ford” on the lift, I find a broken lever of the “parking brake” and a cable gradually winding around the driveshaft. I fasten the cable away from the shaft and remove the lever, drilling the rusted screws. After 40-50 minutes, the car moves off the lift. Having learned the cost of the work (60 rubles), the owner of the car is indignant for a long time, but, nevertheless, returns in a couple of hours with another lever. I propose to put it for 40 rubles - you don’t need to drill anything, the work is familiar. The car again enters the elevator, but when everything is finished, the owner bars outstretched two dozen with the words: "I think this is enough." We look at each other and, without a collusion, decide: don’t take money. I don’t feel like exchanging self-esteem for twenty rubles.

As for the old rule “the client is always right”, it is regrettable that we have to admit that this is far from always the case. Once I change the "Antifreeze" on the fifteen-year-old Mercedes. After some time, the owner of the car reappears with us. It turns out that the pump flowed and, in his opinion, allegedly from the fact that the “Tosol” was changed incorrectly. The only consolation is that there are few.

Another client, seeing his recently acquired Audi-A6 on a lift, was quite surprised to find a front-wheel drive only. The car, it turns out, was bought as all-wheel drive …

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