HWGA: Back To Business

HWGA Business Never Stops...

Last time we spoke about how to do customer service and how it's done right.

I don't want to say Im about to tell you how it is not done buttttt...

Sometimes no matter how well you manage customer support it will lead to loss of business occasionally.

Now maybe in some industries it's easier to get your customers to understand but in business you deal with customers who are just out to blame you for anything just to get their money back.

When you're in an industry that deals with processions of your customers like cars. They tend to hold a special place in the customers eyes.

Now whether its because they have some emotional connection with that vehicle I've seen many cases like that.

Or

That is their only form of transportation, everything that has to do with a car is costly, from a simple oil change that cost $90 we dont charge that much but I have talked to local mangers of other auto repair shops and it can start there and only go higher.

Side note the most expensive oil change for a non exotic car I've seen is $300. Keep in mind that shop is located in a place where there is very little competition and surrounded by wealthily people.

Back to the point.

We had a customer come in with a new mini van he had bought for $1000. He was stoked and wanted us to give a look to make sure everything was okay. Of course we did just that. He went ahead and did a full inspection without looking into the engine just things from the exterior of the car. The only thing we noticed off the bad was just that it needed a brand new O2 sensor. Also that it would need new spark plugs but he wanted to do that a later time we told him okay.

He gave us the okay and we did just that. Took us less than 20 minutes he was happy and told us he was going to go to the bank to get our money. He eventually comes back and we get paid we told him if he notices anything else please bring it back and we will see what we can do.

He never brought back the van or himself to our shop.

The very next day when we went to start his car it did not want to start. He eventually took it to another mechanic. He told him that the motor had given out and he was going to need to replace it all of it.

We don't know for how long the O2 sensor may have been had or what had happened but he was blaming us. We explained to him that what we did had nothing to do with it. Even if we might have left the O2 sensor loose or whatever the case there is no way that from when he left till the morning it could have messed up his motor to such a degree. There are step and lead to such damage that an overnight thing could not have messed it up.

From what we gather the engine had overheated and would need a new head gasket best case scenario. Meaning that the car must have previously over heated and he was just not informed of. Knowing that the car had previously over heated would be tough to know considering all the signs that point to it where not evident. When he brought it in the engine bay was like new all the fluids were toped off and the reservoir where you can usually tell looked brand new. One indicator is that the car can't keep the coolant fluid but whether it was him to topped it off or the seller we will never know. He had just bought the car.

But it could have been anything since we never got confirmation of what really happened to that mini van.

In cases like these its better to just explain and if you can't reason with them you have to let the customer go unfortunately, it sucks because you want to believe you could have helped them before something like this had happened. It could have overheated and the family sold it immediately and he was none the wiser.

I once over heated a car and I would run it with my heat on to let out hot air or at least that was my believe any how it, took it about an other week before the engine had given up on me. Could be a similar case.