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Customers perception of diagnostics #

Posted by Kristopher Sheridan on December 30, 2014, 8:19 pm
Edited by board administrator December 31, 2014, 10:30 am

Good evening all,

Bit of a "get it off my chest" moment!

Had a few vehicles in lately, all of which had been around the block, visiting different garages, being charged different prices and getting nowhere!

First of which, is a vehicle i posted a topic on recently, a VW polo.
We did not get any further with this vehicle as the customer politely told me on the phone that he was not prepared to pay me as he had spent so much on this problem already, (not with me, i might add) i quoted £55 to spend an hour on this vehicle + a genuine brake light switch, The customer had a little moan but agreed, Then the day after, called and said he didnt want to pay what we quoted, as he felt he was still at square one, so he would come and collect the car, but was not going to pay! I politely said that he had already agreed to pay for an hour of our time, of which we spent on the vehicle.
he paid, but left saying that the motor trade are rip-offs and he was going to leave the car like it!

Second car was a mondeo, the car came to us with a running fault and air bag light on the dash. same again quoted for an hour initially to plug into vehicle and check for codes / short road test to get a feel for the running fault, customer was happy to go ahead.
we diagnosed the air bag fault and running fault within the first hour and called the customer to discuss our findings and to quote for repair, Customer agreed the car was not worth repairing and to not proceed, so he comes down to collect car and brings with him an invoice from another garage from the day before.
This invoice read :

Diagnostic charge for plugging into vehicle - No fault found as our equipment would not connect to vehicle - £60.

i asked the customer if he paid it, he said he did! as they had spent time looking for the diagnostic socket and putting their computer on it! i was gobsmacked!
How would someone have the cheek to charge for something they are not capable of doing?!

The 3rd was a renault with an immobiliser fault
from a local garage.

ME "Whats wrong with the car?"
CUST "its immobilised"
ME "no problem sir, its certaintly something we can look at"
CUST "ive told you what the problem is, im not paying you to look at it, im paying you to fix it"
ME "i understand sir, but before we can fix it, we need to identify where the fault lies"
CUST "ive told you its the immobiliser, ive plugged my laptop into it and its an immobiliser fault thats coming up"

need i go on...

we did also have a guy who popped in today also with a mk4 golf with a bit of paper with 3 fault codes on
1, o2 sensor voltage high
2, Map sensor implausable signal
3, EGR valve excessive flow detected
and asked how much to fix his car and get it running right..

i must get some more batteries for my crystal ball!

Moan over... Sorry for the long post!

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Kristopher Sheridan on December 30, 2014, 8:42 pm, in reply to "Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Kristopher Sheridan

http://www.gumtree.com/p/other-motoring-services/car-van-diagnostics-plus-dash-light-epb-and-steering-angle-reset/1078011968

Perfect example of someone local to me offering "Cheap diagnostics"

it doesn't work!

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Ed Parry on December 30, 2014, 9:44 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Edward Parry

Theres a guy up here that uses that exact same advert for his `diagnostic` business, typical clown with a £30 ebay special laptop.

This guy diagnosed a tdci transit as needing a cam sensor, owner fitted it and it still wouldnt go.He calls the guy to go back to have another look but hes fully booked for at least two weeks...
I went to it, didnt even plug it in and diagnosed a snapped timing chain.
The total lack of compression and a bulge in the timing case gave it away !

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Lee Mackintosh on December 30, 2014, 10:02 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Lee Mackintosh

This is a large part of our trades problem, customers pay people such as in the advert who haven't fixed it but relieved them of £'s so when they take it else where we are already up against it.

They automatically think we will rip them off, I have had this loads which unfortunately embarrassing to admit lost my temper on a couple of occasions (my patients aren't great anymore) but you do feel good afterwards only if its short lived until you relax and thnk about it from there point of view.

I find it almost impossible to charge for a plug in when it says no dtc's present.

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Kristopher Sheridan on December 30, 2014, 10:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Kristopher Sheridan

i did lose it abit with the guy with the renault, i was just so frustrated and felt as if he was insulting my intelligence!

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Terry taylor on December 30, 2014, 10:14 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Terry Taylor

Hi, the day of reckoning is on its way( sounds like a post on the other forum) 2005 2006 when the heavy electronics started to become the normal, these vehicles will be around 10 yrs old and will still be worth a lot of money then you guys who have invested in kit and training will be able to dictate your price hold your nerve keep training for every £200 you spend on training the gap between you and the lesser garages will widen.terry taylor

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by sean savage on December 31, 2014, 12:21 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Sean Savage

To be fair they are the type of customers i would not want to do any work for. i dont know how long you have been trading kris but you will develop a 6th sense for customers, trust your gut its nearly always right. luckily now 95% of my customers are loyal good middle class people who want a good job at a fair price and trust me totaly which gives me a good choice of if or not i want to take a job on. I would have politly told the renault guy to mend the vehicle with his own laptop and the guy who said he wasnt willing to pay before i had even seen the car i would in no unceratin terms have told him where to go. we spend enough wasted hours trying to please our customers so i aint waisting any more with idiots on the phone.
This job is all about trust with your customers,once you have that with them then you have a good chance of everything else going smoothly. dont ever try and compete with the cowboys and £10 code reads mate.....you really dont want their type of customers in your garage,nothing but pure headache.
sean

happy new year all :-)

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by John Ritchie on December 31, 2014, 5:04 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
John Ritchie

Good advise from Sean, i also listen to what my head is saying as you can sus out most of the time wasters.I have a clear & simple method which is will i make money from this job? yes/no? chances are if the job has been somewhere else then i won't take it on as you are on receiving end of hassle etc.If it's a good regular customer or a well maintained car then i will take then job on.

I feel you need to put a sign up outside saying diagnostic tests from ££ , stops the plug in plonkers wasting your time in my opinion.

Regards
John

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Tony Bickers on December 31, 2014, 8:27 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Anthony Bickers

Seans response makes perfect sense, sometimes I plug in with a diagnostic, at no charge, dealers do this to attract work, as a rule I charge out a diag scan on a service at a tenner, on every service I do, as a part of the service, I have to pay Â£5000 plus to keep my tools in subscription,I am not a Charity, what do you lot think?, Snap -on alone costs me a grand a year !!

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Gerald Oliver on January 1, 2015, 7:51 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."

we charge for all code reading if we get any fault codes or no fault codes it's the same price. The only reson we do not charge is if we get no comms.

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Mark Shipman on January 2, 2015, 2:18 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."

Hi all
I think the underlying issue is other garages are devaluing the diagnostic side of it all by advertising it as diagnostics but all they are doing is code reads.
When they run out of ideas thats when it gets messy
I recently had a Ford Ranger in- customer came direct from another garage who had spent in excess of £1000 , from memory code was something to do with airflow too small, vehicle had AFM- two non genuine then Ford item.New turbo and an Ecu test.
They then where too busy to take another look for two weeks!

I agreed to have an initial look for an hours labour.(£45 plus VAT)
Cut a long story short smoke test showed up split intercooler.........customer then kicked off and refused to pay as all I had done was "plugged your computer in then that smoke thingy"
The other garages only charge £20 !!!!!

This type of story is getting more and more familiar.
Other regular excuses-usually after customer has been charged-
"you have a better computer"
"our computer away for repair"
"you need a different diag socket plug that we dont have"
My personal favorite after I diagnosed a blocked DPF due to glowplug failure-
" Marks insurance is better than ours...if he snaps your glowplug off his insurance will pay"

MARK

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Keith Simpson on January 2, 2015, 6:35 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."

Had this problem for years now. I just tell the customer up front and if they kick off I show them the door. Simples

Keith

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Ian Baxter on January 2, 2015, 8:24 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Ian Baxter

Agree with Keith,
I also remind them that its their vehicle which is still giving them the problem NOT mine

regardless of any sob stories.

Ian

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Tom Williams on January 4, 2015, 5:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Thomas Williams

Those of us that are also IATN members will recognise a type of customer referred to by our American counterparts as 'bottom feeders'.

Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics...

Posted by Andy Evans on January 5, 2015, 7:48 pm, in reply to "Re: Rant... Customers perception of diagnostics..."
Andrew Evans

Hi Kris, I assume this is your website?......https://www.i-autoelectrics.com/diagnostics.html

the comments on the top right of the page will not help your customers perception issues.

Andy Evans

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