What happens when you decline service for a job that your service advisor says needs to get done?
I am apparently the poster child for why you should ALWAYS listen to the recommendation of your auto repair shop when they say “you REALLY NEED THIS” I just got the regular old call.. “OK, your car is all done and we did your 50K service. You should also have your brake pads replaced and your battery needs replacing as well.” That was it! My car is 5 years old, so in my mind, NAW its all good.
BUT!!! They didn’t show me any pictures of My Car and why I really needed itNOW. There were no comments about the fact that my battery was only able store XXXX amps when its factory rating was XXXX +????? amps. And I certainly never got to see a video that explained all that stuff… Holy crap, why didn’t my service advisor tell me that my battery was going to be completely dead in 3 weeks, and that I might get stuck on the side of the road without a lifeline at the drop of a hat?
You can not open this door if the engine is running
OH, And, If someone told me that, even if you get your car started, you can not turn it off so, in an Audi A4 you can NOT open the gas door to get gas. You might end up with a dead battery and be out of gas as well. YES THIS REALLY HAPPENED!!!!!!! Without power I could not add gas and could not even open the trunk to get out my jumper cables.
OMG… Why does my repair shop not have a digital inspection program that tells me all this stuff before I get stuck on the side of the road?
OK, I’m a little more calm now. I ended up paying over $400 for a battery and service at the exact wrong time plus the inconvenience of not being able to be where I was supposed to be. What if I was stranded in the wrong place. What if no one was able to help me get my kids to school. What if I missed the most important meeting of the year… What if?
Sorry for the shameless plug, but anybody who is running an Auto Repair shop should be using something like the Electronic Inspection Sheet or SmartFlow from AutoVitals. Using a digital inspection program like this would have saved me and my repair shop so much time and money I can not believe this is not something everyone does. Customers would trust a shop implicitly if they can educate themselves about why they need a repair and see pictures of their own car indicating why it needs to get done now.
Im going to sit down now, and relax, and try not to think about ways not to inflict pain on my repair shop. Mostly, I will reflect on how to better help them understand that I would rather be in a partnership with them on how to keep my car on the road in top shape for many years to come.
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