Who do you Trust?

[midas]

Im not doing any market research or tabulating results but I was curious about who you trust to fix/service/diagnose issues with your pride and joy? Do you fix the problems yourself or do you trust that who ever is spinning spanners on your commy is doing the right thing? The reason that I ask is I am in the industry myself and have been shocked at what customers are charged and if customers knew the real costing of parts they would be outraged!

 

[Snowfox]

Re: who do you trust

I live in a country town so I dont have a lot of choices but i have narrowed it down to two mechanics. I wont name names but i only use one. He happens to run a service station as well. I've worked this out through experience and mates experiences. The other guy is good, plain mechanic, but has the annoying habit of fixing everything in sight without consulting me first, eg car goes in for a regular service and I get a $2000 bill .
The servo guy I go with doesn't do extra stuff without a phone call and picks up just about everything. He also does the cop cars, mustangs and various other performance vehicles. Another good thing is he's about a 100 metres down the street. I do what I can. eg air filters are $18 DIY instead of up to $30 in a service. There are a few backyard heroes around, yeah they are cheap but you get what you pay for - !@#% that.

 

[Bax]

Unfortunately noone.

I do as much as I can myself, and then I either take it to close friends of the parents, or my mates dad.

I've been screwed over by everywhere I've been in one little way or another, so I'm avoiding that now.

 

[Troy711]

one thing that annoys the hell out of me is when you take anything, not only a car, to get fixed/serviced and you ask them to call when they find out what is wrong with it to give you a quote on fixing it. then, when you call them up 3 days later they say it is fixed and will cost more then what you expected.
i think its poor customer service to not do what a customer requests. and its even worse when you have to call to ask if it is ready and it has been ready for a day. dont they know how to use their phone?

 

[Bax]

True that, just recently, car was in to get my CAS replaced.

Dropped it off friday because I had no use for the car and was the easiest day for me to get it there. He told me that he would not be able to get to it til Monday at earliest, and I said thats fine. And I took him out and told him how I had to use the remote for my alarm, because the remote is shagged and flattens the battery, so I had to connect it to 12v from two wires poking out of the dash.

Anyway, Monday comes along, no phone call, I call them, We've checked it out and its definately the CAS, its on order, will be here tomorrow.

Tuesday arvo comes along, no phone call, I call them, Nope, CAS still hasn't arrived.
Wednesday arvo comes along, no phone call, I call them, Yep its running nicely - come pick it up when your ready..

I arrive, he showed me the bill, CAS was 120, plug was 20..
Labour was something absolutely crazy, I asked why, oh, your alarm wasn't working so we had to chop it out and reconnect the ignition leads.

So I just went hmm, theres all the labour costs... Paid it though, else he wouldn't let me take my car..