They should do more than just refund the $45 charge. I think she should have called the GM, and had the entire service refunded. I agree--that's criminal. If they float a $25 past EVERY customer, they make a ton of money.

 

If your paycheck comes from profits made by charging customers for things they didn't actually buy, you should be thinking long and hard about why you still work there.

 

I agree. In the years that I made my paycheck working in a shop I would take a hike if there were unethical practices. I left one shop after one week. Thats one reason our toolboxes have wheels.

My reputation is way more valuable to me than a few extra $$ in my pay each week. Thas one of the reasons I had many loyal customers that would hunt me down when I moved to a new place of employment.

Mistakes can happen in billing and a good shop will correct the problem quickly.



On a side note: Did you know that most shops pay technicians on a flat-rate system?

In other words the technician gets paid based on the labor time listed to perform the task. The manufacturers decide how much time a particular job should take and that is the time billed to the customer and paid to the technician.

If a tech is making $20.00 per flat rate hour they aren't really making $20.00 per hour by the time clock like most people. They are paid by the number of labor hours they can do per week. If they are at work 40 hours per week and only perform 20 flat rate hours of labor then they are paid 20 x $20.00= $400.00.

If they are super efficient and can turn out 60 flat rate hours per week then they get paid 60 x $20.00 = $1200.00 for the week.

Flat rate pay systems have been around in the industry forever. If you work at a busy shop its a great system. When times are slow you starve.

Flat rate doesnt promote quality repairs it rewards speed and cutting corners.

With flat rate there are 2 different times listed for each job.
Normal time and warranty time. A job that the normal pay might be 1 hour will pay substantually less if the job is done as warranty. The time paid if it is a warranty job may be cut in half.

How would you like it if you boss came to you and told you that 75% of your job would only pay 1/2 of your normal pay rate? You get to bust your *** to do 40 hours of work that only pays 20 hours.

Since the manufacturer pays the dealer for warranty repairs one of the ways they cut costs is to cut the time they pay for a particular job under warranty. I have seen jobs that actually take 10 hours to complete properly then waranty time would only pay 6 hours. Then sudenly over night the time paid to do the exact same job had ben cut to 4.5 hours under warranty. Someone at corporate just got a pat on the back for saving the company money and a tech trying to make a living fixing a poorly designed product just got the shaft.

Unfortunately some techs will fall into the dark side due to the pressure to just make a living. There is always the pressure to make money to feed the family and pay the bills. Along with the pressure from management trying to "hit their number" so they make bonus. Suggesting unnecessary work. adding extra add ons to the job at hand are ways of upping the billable hours and increasing a paycheck and keeping the boss of your back and quite possibly keep from being fired.

What you are billed hourly for labor has nothing to do with the pay rate of the technician. If a shop is billing $75 per hour of labor the tech might be making $20. Its is very common for the labor rate to go up to say $100 per hour and the tech stays at $20. A very good tech that has been in the field for many years and is considered the best of the best might be making $30.00 per flat rate hour if they are very lucky.

Most techs hate the system but flat rate pay for auto technicians is a special provision in the labor laws of this country. If your job pays hourly or by salary the labor laws apply differently to you than they do to someone working under the flat rate system.

Another thing wrong with the system is the technician has to invest thousands of $$ in tools to perrform their job. Its not unusual for a good tech to have $50K invested in tools to do his job. In most jobs the employer provides the tools necessary to do the job, in this industry you are expected to invest your own money for tools to do your job so the boss can make money from your investment.

Would you spend $50K of your own money so you could equip your bosses business?


I worked hard to get good at diagnostics and eventually worked my way out of the shop and into teaching vehicle electronic systems. Now I teach and act as a consultant to help diagnose difficult vehicle electronic problems.

One of the happiest days of my life was when I finally broke free of working under that pay system and I will never go back.


stepping off the soap box.....

just a piece of advise...
Try to get to know the tech that services your car. When he does a good job for you shake his hand and thank him let him know his efforts are appreciated. Request him when you take your car in for service. You would not believe the extra service you get when you bring donuts!





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kzthunder A very nicely written insider perspective.

 

One thing I hate is dealers/shops charging for a 4wheel alignments on a truck with a solid rear axle, there are no adjustments to make, it's a front wheel alignment, and the other is charging for an alignment when everything was in spec and nothing was adjusted.

 

On a truck with solid rear axle they should be charging for a thrust angle alignment. To do the alignment they still need to hang all 4 alignment instrumentation heads to do measurements but since there are no adjustments on the rear the charge should be less than a total 4 wheel alignment.

Even if everything is within specs there has to be a charge for setting up the equipment and taking measurements and paying for the techs time.

With the cost of the equipment ( 20K to 40K ) nobody is going to do it for free.


some whel alignment info.....
http://www.anewtoronto.com/wheel%20alignment.html




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Thanks for the info but I know more then I ever wished to know, should have enlisted in the military instead of tech school and years of mechanic bs, I worked for a guy/dealer who wanted the service writers to pull in 100k of non warranty work a month, service writer retention was less then 2 weeks on average, I replaced more stuff just because, so I left.

 

That's what I said, given that Toyota offers the Highlander hybrid.

 

$45 error is what it seems to be.

 

Serviceman, service manager, service directior, owner of the dealer.....etc. Honestly none of them care about your complain, they are all scums, in it all for the money, they would rip off any dollar they can out of anyone if they can get away with it. They only care that you don't complain to corporate. Corporate is the only one that cares.

I am not saying ripping off people is not wrong, but I don't blame them. Today's modern cars require so little maintenance, if they don't rip people off, they really don't have much to do or don't have much income. Especially on Lexus cars that rarely breaks. I maintain all of our Lexus myself, I am constantly amazed at how little work they need to keep them in mint condition. I just did the very 1st repair on our 10 years old 01' ES300 with 60k miles, the 3rd brake light bulb burned out.......LOL......... 10 years and 60k miles.....bravo Lexus! See if all the dealers are honest, they all be bankruped by now.

 

There's no rear differential on a 400h? I thought they wereawd.

 

They are. But, there is no rear driveshaft. Instead an electric motor powers the rear wheels.

 

I was recently in the dealership to have them look at my seized rear calipers. They wanted $1200!!!! I just bought the parts from Sewell for $400, so they're charging me $800 for labor??? They told me they offer a free lifetime warranty on all repairs that I would pay for. I guess it's not so free....

 

OH ok. So there must be a differential between the rear wheels then right? Or does each rear wheel get it's own electric motor?
What I'm getting at, is if there's a rear diff, it still needs fluid changes no matter how it's driven.