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Bad Mechanical Situation at work.

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Big91RustyBucket

Big91RustyBucket

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New Lenox IL, Area (Chi-town Suburb)
Ok This monday I started a new job , and It seemed to be good but I think things are not as they apeared. I need some advice. Also I didn't post this in the lounge as I need as much help as possible.

Ok last friday I got a call for an interview saturday morning. The guy was refered my resume by somebody else , and called me. Saturday morning I go in for the interview , and the guy hire's me on the spot. I figure cool sweet , this is gonna be good. The owner mention's they have connection's with some buisness's , and they do work for them . One being a big buis that I will not name. The one place I have a friend that is the assistant manager at. I was like cool this must be a cool shop as you work with them .

Well Day one come's along , and I start working. I think it is cool at first that they give me service work right off the bat. Anyways fast forward ,the owner has me do oil change's for another big client which will be nameless as well , and has me change the oil. I look in the filter book to see there is no 07 model year car's, and mention it to him. He tell's me if there is no filter then leave the old one on it we will get it next time. :eek1:

Ok so I do that as I have no choice but to do it , and the funny thing is we have a vatozone across the street literally. A whole 4 lane road away and we are told to leave it on . So I start to have moral issue's and it bug's the crap outta me. One thing lead's to another and I see like 10 alignment's come and go , and never see the machine get setup. So I begin to wonder how "WE" do alighnment's and ask the guy who doe's them. He tell 's me he doesn't use the machine that he set's the wheel straight , and then visually look's at the tire's to make sure they "look straight" . At this point I am really bothered. So first people are paying for filter's and not getting them , now they pay for an alighnment and get nothing more than what at dumb 15yr old can do in his driveway. :doah:

Well The day's go on and I ask where the 5w20 is for ford's , and honda's. I am told that we don't have any when we did we went thru it fast and have not gotten more. :doah:Well let's see if we went thru it I would guess it is valid to "NEED" it. So Instead I am told to use the 10w30 in the Gun . :doah:

Today a car from one of the big company's come's in and get's an oil change. I did it we even "had" the filter lucky for them , and I look at the wheel's to see the rotor's look like they are damaged. I pull the wheel's and show the service writer , and he say's to put the tire's back on and pull it out.

What would you guy's do.
I already called the friend at the one big biz , and am gonna talk to the boss tommorow , as I don't really think I fit in there but what would you all do?

It seem's to conflict with my morral's and I feel like a liar , and cheat.

Discuss....:confused:
 
I once worked for a shop like that for all of a week and told the boss to shove it up his ass I'm not a lier or a thief. let your morals guide you.
 
I would make a call to your local auto related authorities and give them a heads up on what's going on at the shop you work at. Chances are they'll send an undercover car in for repairs and then once they find out what they were charged for and did not actually get done then there will be hell to pay. The shop may lose their license for a given period of time and also have to pay penalties for their actions. I would also tell the boss that you quit and let him know why.
 
If **** keeps going like that, I'd probably leave. However, the rotors thing isn't as bad as you probably think. Namely in the mechanic world, you have to say "it ain't in here for that". If someone comes in for an oil change and you pull the wheels to check the breaks they will be wondering wtf you were doing pulling their wheels to begin with. Suggest that their brakes be checked, don't just DO it. You can get in trouble doing stuff like that. However unsafe something may look. If someone doesn't want their brakes or suspension checked, thats their deal.

Refuse to do things they tell you to. Let them fire you if they want. Whenever someone wanted me to do something I didn't agree with, I just flat out turned them down flat.
 
4X4HIGH said:
I would make a call to your local auto related authorities and give them a heads up on what's going on at the shop you work at. Chances are they'll send an undercover car in for repairs and then once they find out what they were charged for and did not actually get done then there will be hell to pay. The shop may lose their license for a given period of time and also have to pay penalties for their actions. I would also tell the boss that you quit and let him know why.
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x2... i once send the car to the jiffys lube cause i was in a hurry to get the oil change to go to ohio.. i acted like i didnt know abt the cars.. like dumb.. and i watched them do everything thru the glass. then i nicely walked in the garage and told them to leave the k&n air filter alone, i need a new oil. and would like my car vacummed and all fluids filled, since i picked that one to get everything checked.. so the manger saw what happened so he gave me 10 free lube changes. i threw it away and went to ohio. didnt pay for anything.. a week later when i got home, i changed everything my self since i dont trust their stuff... and it looks like the manger never straighten them out or fired them.... they still work there..:rolleyes:
 
4X4HIGH said:
I would make a call to your local auto related authorities and give them a heads up on what's going on at the shop you work at. Chances are they'll send an undercover car in for repairs and then once they find out what they were charged for and did not actually get done then there will be hell to pay. The shop may lose their license for a given period of time and also have to pay penalties for their actions. I would also tell the boss that you quit and let him know why.
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X 1.5:o I'm not sure I would tell them why.

Look for another job now:waytogo:
 
Why couldn't you look up a previous model year for the filter? Unless it was a model car/engine that wasn't available in 06, you probably had a filter onhand that would fit. After some more experience, you will be able to determine what filter it should have taken.

Second thought of the day: you are just as responsible for doing the work right as your boss/employer. Shame on you for not changing the filter. If it were my business, I'd fire you and your boss, and furthermore, anyone that knew about the situation and did nothing about it. But that is just me.

If you are uncomfortable doing something, don't do it. I used to refuse to do anything that involved taking a wheel off if the vehicle had broken studs until the customer or my employer paid for new studs.

And yeah, don't go looking for problems. Sure it would make the shop money, but probably wasn't what the customer wanted. Besides metal on metal stops better (read: higher coefficient of friction) than pads on metal anyway.
 
I can say this. The shop is in Markham Illinois I am white , and am the Minority there. Reasearch that town , and you might be afraid. Oh They have 2 location's and The owner was the one I asked most the question's about such as the oil , filter , and stuff.
 
Also the motor's that didn't get filter's changed they only carry a small filter stock at the store , and I am very framiliar with filter's , and The motor was not in other year's, or they changed the filter over. Probley 50% we canister filter's.
 
I would just deal with it until I could find something else.You have made a consciuos effort to do the right thing.When it hits the fan it wont be your ass in trouble or your name that is ruined.If that is how they want to run there buisness so be it.Just get out.
 
I completely got out of the industry for this very reason. I was in the auto repair business for 6 years working for 2 different major auto repair franchises in the Chicago area. It was the same s**t at all of them. Every day I saw customers charged for repairs that were not done at all, or not done right. I saw mechanics recommend repairs that were not needed simple because they were easy and paid well. (meaning the mechanic could "beat the book", and perform the job faster than the labor estimating guide said it should take to perform. For those of you unaware, most mechanics get paid a 'flat rate' for a job. If the labor guide says a job should take 1.5 hours to do, that is all the mechanic gets paid for, no matter how long it takes him. At the end of the week, all a mechanic's jobs are added up. This is what he 'books' in a week. Multiply that by his pay rate, ASE certified master mechanics made $25 an hour where I was at, and that is what he made in a week. In a 40 hour work week, most mechanics can 'book' 200 hours or more on average.)

I guess the straw that broke the camels back was when my service manager tried to write me up for telling a customer she did not need what they were trying to sell her. She asked me point blanck for my opinion and I gave it to her. My manager was not happy. I quit on the spot and never looked back.


I say, if what you are seeing bothers you, get out now. Because if you say in the auto repair industry long enough, it will only get worse. You would not believe some of the stuff I have seen.
 
We have a shop in town just like that. Now im not saying you have to be certified to be a good mechanic im saying at least have some mechanical background. I wont take a vehicle there anymore they have been sued twice now once for not refilling oil in an 06 Powerstroke right off the lot and another time for having the heads off of a ford ranger and upon reassembly there was a missing bolt and they found another and upon restart it was pretty obvious were the missing bolt was. Also my dad took his van there because it was overheating they replaced the water pump had to pull the motor forward blah blah blah anyways no change took it to chevy dealer blown head gasket and they said that they checked the headgasket was good. Id say do what you think you should do personally if it was me I would turn tail and not look back if you cant trust your mechanic who's left to trust:grin:
 
tyrantking said:
I completely got out of the industry for this very reason. I was in the auto repair business for 6 years working for 2 different major auto repair franchises in the Chicago area. It was the same s**t at all of them. Every day I saw customers charged for repairs that were not done at all, or not done right. I saw mechanics recommend repairs that were not needed simple because they were easy and paid well. (meaning the mechanic could "beat the book", and perform the job faster than the labor estimating guide said it should take to perform. For those of you unaware, most mechanics get paid a 'flat rate' for a job. If the labor guide says a job should take 1.5 hours to do, that is all the mechanic gets paid for, no matter how long it takes him. At the end of the week, all a mechanic's jobs are added up. This is what he 'books' in a week. Multiply that by his pay rate, ASE certified master mechanics made $25 an hour where I was at, and that is what he made in a week. In a 40 hour work week, most mechanics can 'book' 200 hours or more on average.)

I guess the straw that broke the camels back was when my service manager tried to write me up for telling a customer she did not need what they were trying to sell her. She asked me point blanck for my opinion and I gave it to her. My manager was not happy. I quit on the spot and never looked back.


I say, if what you are seeing bothers you, get out now. Because if you say in the auto repair industry long enough, it will only get worse. You would not believe some of the stuff I have seen.
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I am just trying to make end's meet till I get dispatched for the Union.
 
tyrantking said:
In a 40 hour work week, most mechanics can 'book' 200 hours or more on average
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Bull****.

I don't care how crooked you are, you can't book 200 hours in a week.

And even if you could, you couldn't do it for long. You'd have to be ripping every car for 5-10 extra hours of work, plus parts, and if you weren't doing the work, the shop would be shut down pronto by mobs of angry customers.

If you said somewhere around 100, that'd be a better estimate.

I've turned 75-80 hours in a 60 hour work week on a regular basis, and everybody got what the paid for, and nothing more than what they needed.
 
Big91RustyBucket said:
I can say this. The shop is in Markham Illinois I am white , and am the Minority there. Reasearch that town , and you might be afraid. Oh They have 2 location's and The owner was the one I asked most the question's about such as the oil , filter , and stuff.
Click to expand...




The two shops I were at were in Homewood, just off of Halsted St. One is across the street from a Chevy dealer. I grew up in Harvey. I lived there for 34 years. Needless to say, I was the minority too.
 
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