Fixed Ops Journal - June 2019 - F32

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

LETTERS
Fixed Ops Journal welcomes letters from readers. Send your letters
intended for publication to foj@autonews.com; please include your
name, address, daytime phone number and title (if any). Letters may be
edited for length and clarity.

Effective pay plans require monthly review

Your insights on the pay plan problems that we face ("Pay wall,"
special report, April) were appreciated, and I think you will be a
resource to many.
In addition to monitoring pay plans, we felt the need to develop a
trend report to use as a conversation starter to address how an employee
is getting along. The report is a monthly review with an incentive that
builds in raises based on performance. It outlines current performance
and goals that help direct the employee. It tells our employees that we
have mutual goals and that we want to hear their issues.
We believe no pay plan change or system can succeed unless service
technicians, advisers and other employees knows you are watching,
guiding and making sure they succeed. They also have to know what
your expectations are, on a regular basis in a relaxed atmosphere. This
is achieved because it happens without fail once a month, good or bad.

DAN DOMME
Service Director
Quality Buick-GMC, Quality Mazda
Albuquerque, N.M.

Diagnosis takes time, too

The problem is not the flat-rate pay
system ("Flat flap," April). The problem
is the lack of pay for the time it takes a
technician to diagnose the issue to fix
the car. Technicians have to buy their
own tools, and none of these things is
regulated.

DAN WILLIAMS
Automotive Technician Recruiter
SearchPath
Cleveland

Managers treat techs unfairly, unethically

I am a former ASE master technician. Starting as an apprentice
mechanic in 1978, I always worked flat rate, averaging about $45,000 a
year.
I could have made a lot more if I had been willing to do things against
my ethics. I leaned on my tool bench while work was held for favored
mechanics. I was around mechanics who were on drugs to work fast.
Management told me to mind my own business.
Customers were charged for full brake jobs, but only pads were
replaced. Alignments that cost $125 were never put on the rack. One
mechanic charged for parts but rarely replaced them if he could get
away with it.
Management was paid off the commission of the shop. The faster and
lower paid a mechanic was, the more money managers made, and that
is all they cared about.
I could not handle it any more and quit. If I had it to do all over again,
I wish I had gone into aviation.

ROBERT GOODE
Shreveport, La.

Don't let customer dictate repairs

Solve customer ride complaints
Road Force Elite:
% Solves wheel vibration problems
% Up to 47% faster than previous models
% Patented vision system reduces operator error

PAGE 32

JUNE 2019

The writer of "Vetoing the adviser" (April), a former Ford Motor Co.
engineer, apparently has no idea of how things work in a dealership
service department, especially when warranty repairs are involved.
Under no circumstances can a service adviser and technician accept
a customer's self-diagnosis of a problem and the required repair.
The customer is not paying for the repair; he is asking the
manufacturer to do so. If he is wrong, the dealer will not ask him to pay
for it. The dealer eats the cost. The manufacturer wants all the
diagnostic information gathered by the technician to verify that the
part in question failed.
The writer spent several hours, perhaps days, to determine the
"potential" cause of his concern - one that was very minor and not
causing any driveability issues.
The poor technician is allocated only so much time to verify the exact
cause of the failure, document his or her findings and complete the
repair. In this case, there was no actual hard failure, just a momentary
malfunction of a thermostat.
Engineers make terrible service customers.

WENDELL ALLEN
Houston
The writer is a recruiter of service technicians for Texas new-vehicle
dealerships.
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2019

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