How can I address communication problems with my mechanic?
November 7, 2011 4:37 PM Subscribe
My mechanic said my car would be done four days ago. It's still not done. How can I, or should I, address this?
I had my beloved and ancient car towed to my mechanic in the next city over on Thursday morning, and after diagnosis was promised that the car would be finished Friday afternoon.
Friday afternoon rolls around and I'm told the car won't be finished by the close of business because they didn't start on it until that afternoon, but they'll have it to me by Monday. Today I talk to my mechanic and am told the part he thought he could use, he can't. So he ordered the part, which should get to him tomorrow, and the car will be finished by tomorrow afternoon (knock wood).
Although I have a good relationship with my mechanic, this isn't the first time this has happened, and it has caused me considerable inconvenience--not just the being without transportation, but the inconvenience for others, who rearrange their schedules to take me to pick up the car only to have me cancel yet again.
How can I bring up my frustration in a positive, productive way to my mechanic? Or should I? Is this just something that happens with mechanics sometimes, and I've so far been pretty lucky? Ideally I would like him to acknowledge that he could have managed the situation better (by double-checking the part in the first place, and by rounding up in time estimates in the future) and will somehow make it up to me--either by reducing my bill this time, or giving me a credit for next time. How can I broach that possibility in a gracious way?
I live in a very small town, and my current mechanic is the only game in (the next) town for imports, so I won't be able to entertain advice suggesting I find another mechanic. Or, you know, another car.
I had my beloved and ancient car towed to my mechanic in the next city over on Thursday morning, and after diagnosis was promised that the car would be finished Friday afternoon.
Friday afternoon rolls around and I'm told the car won't be finished by the close of business because they didn't start on it until that afternoon, but they'll have it to me by Monday. Today I talk to my mechanic and am told the part he thought he could use, he can't. So he ordered the part, which should get to him tomorrow, and the car will be finished by tomorrow afternoon (knock wood).
Although I have a good relationship with my mechanic, this isn't the first time this has happened, and it has caused me considerable inconvenience--not just the being without transportation, but the inconvenience for others, who rearrange their schedules to take me to pick up the car only to have me cancel yet again.
How can I bring up my frustration in a positive, productive way to my mechanic? Or should I? Is this just something that happens with mechanics sometimes, and I've so far been pretty lucky? Ideally I would like him to acknowledge that he could have managed the situation better (by double-checking the part in the first place, and by rounding up in time estimates in the future) and will somehow make it up to me--either by reducing my bill this time, or giving me a credit for next time. How can I broach that possibility in a gracious way?
I live in a very small town, and my current mechanic is the only game in (the next) town for imports, so I won't be able to entertain advice suggesting I find another mechanic. Or, you know, another car.
Sometimes by being the genial customer who goes with the flow, you earn points toward him doing you a favor when you need it and ask.
posted by lathrop at 4:46 PM on November 7, 2011
posted by lathrop at 4:46 PM on November 7, 2011
This happened to a friend recently, and after the second delay she asked for a loaner or rental car to use until it was finished.
posted by instamatic at 4:54 PM on November 7, 2011
posted by instamatic at 4:54 PM on November 7, 2011
If you are unwilling or unable to change mechanics what incentive does this person have to provide any improvement in service?
Unless your mechanic is a complete idiot, he knows his behaviors are an inconvenience to you. He has had customers tell him this previously. He doesn't care. Anything you say to him is not going to matter.
posted by 26.2 at 5:48 PM on November 7, 2011
Unless your mechanic is a complete idiot, he knows his behaviors are an inconvenience to you. He has had customers tell him this previously. He doesn't care. Anything you say to him is not going to matter.
posted by 26.2 at 5:48 PM on November 7, 2011
Yeah just keep politely pestering.
I had a friend who was a mechanic who worked out of his garage now and then. His suppliers were always getting the wrong parts or making him wait for forever, etc. But he told me in the business you just have to put up with it because if you throw a fit, next time they'll just make you wait longer, they'll find a way to charge you more, they'll say you ordered the wrong part, it's not their fault. So you're nice, so that they're nice and you just keep politely pestering until they get around to it. You don't don't outright complain about their incompentance or laziness, it's just the cost of doing business sometimes.
So if he's the only game in town, he's the only game in town. Don't risk ruining your relationship or next time it'll be worse.
posted by whoaali at 6:19 PM on November 7, 2011
I had a friend who was a mechanic who worked out of his garage now and then. His suppliers were always getting the wrong parts or making him wait for forever, etc. But he told me in the business you just have to put up with it because if you throw a fit, next time they'll just make you wait longer, they'll find a way to charge you more, they'll say you ordered the wrong part, it's not their fault. So you're nice, so that they're nice and you just keep politely pestering until they get around to it. You don't don't outright complain about their incompentance or laziness, it's just the cost of doing business sometimes.
So if he's the only game in town, he's the only game in town. Don't risk ruining your relationship or next time it'll be worse.
posted by whoaali at 6:19 PM on November 7, 2011
Do you trust the quality of this mechanic's workmanship? Because in my experience that's really all that matters with mechanics. Good ones are gold and they're well worth putting up with the occasional inconvenience for. I would far rather deal with a mechanic who takes extra time to do a job right than one who does half-arsed work to meet an arbitrary deadline.
Fixing broken things is an activity that comes with inherently unreliable time estimates, and if your car's off the road and in the shop, it's really up to you to create your own Plan B.
posted by flabdablet at 6:51 PM on November 7, 2011 [4 favorites]
Fixing broken things is an activity that comes with inherently unreliable time estimates, and if your car's off the road and in the shop, it's really up to you to create your own Plan B.
posted by flabdablet at 6:51 PM on November 7, 2011 [4 favorites]
Well, it's hard for me to see how it would help anything to complain about it. It's also not clear that anything that happened was due to any negligence or bad behavior on his part; it's entirely possible that he told you in good faith that the part would work. And of course he's not going to guarantee that the ordered part will be in his hands by a certain date--too much of the process of getting it there is out of his control.
If I were you, I would revise his time estimates myself--if he says two days, expect four. And don't arrange for rides until you have confirmation that the car is ready.
posted by WorkingMyWayHome at 9:20 PM on November 7, 2011
If I were you, I would revise his time estimates myself--if he says two days, expect four. And don't arrange for rides until you have confirmation that the car is ready.
posted by WorkingMyWayHome at 9:20 PM on November 7, 2011
Best answer: This sounds par for the course for getting work done on cars.
He looks at it Thursday, diagnoses it, checks the shop manual which says replacing the flux capacitor takes four hours. OK, Friday looks open; there's that brake job and then I can get to Stella's car, so Friday afternoon.
Friday morning. He takes a lot of phone calls or something, so he gets a late start on brake job #1. As he's getting started, the rusty calipers fall apart in his hands, so now a two hour job is a five hour job on that one.
Eventually he starts on your car, and has trouble with some fastener on the ancient car, and he has to cut off a bolt. It's taken twice as long to get into the flux capacitor housing than he expected. etc. etc.
Perfectly reasonable. My expectation is this. My mechanic will tell me when he expects to have the car ready, but I don't expect it to be ready until he calls me and tells me to come pick it up.
posted by chazlarson at 9:30 PM on November 7, 2011
He looks at it Thursday, diagnoses it, checks the shop manual which says replacing the flux capacitor takes four hours. OK, Friday looks open; there's that brake job and then I can get to Stella's car, so Friday afternoon.
Friday morning. He takes a lot of phone calls or something, so he gets a late start on brake job #1. As he's getting started, the rusty calipers fall apart in his hands, so now a two hour job is a five hour job on that one.
Eventually he starts on your car, and has trouble with some fastener on the ancient car, and he has to cut off a bolt. It's taken twice as long to get into the flux capacitor housing than he expected. etc. etc.
Perfectly reasonable. My expectation is this. My mechanic will tell me when he expects to have the car ready, but I don't expect it to be ready until he calls me and tells me to come pick it up.
posted by chazlarson at 9:30 PM on November 7, 2011
The worst thing that the mechanic has done, I think, is to be optimistic in his guesses about when he will be done. Parts get delayed, work schedules have to be rearranged, life happens. If he does good work I think you should just roll with it graciously.
I do think that you could probably tell him (politely, nicely, etc) about how in your situation you need advance notice and certainty to schedule the pickup of the car, and maybe he can work on giving you more notice. But again, the reality of working on old cars and dealing with suppliers is that delays happen, and they aren't his fault. From what you described, he has done nothing wrong -- he had a part in stock that he thought would work. When it didn't work, he immediately ordered a part; he has been promised a delivery date, but that is out of his control. Knowing that it is an ancient car, there's always the chance that replacing this part will uncover other problems; that's part of the trade-off between owning an old car and buying a new one.
posted by Forktine at 4:37 AM on November 8, 2011
I do think that you could probably tell him (politely, nicely, etc) about how in your situation you need advance notice and certainty to schedule the pickup of the car, and maybe he can work on giving you more notice. But again, the reality of working on old cars and dealing with suppliers is that delays happen, and they aren't his fault. From what you described, he has done nothing wrong -- he had a part in stock that he thought would work. When it didn't work, he immediately ordered a part; he has been promised a delivery date, but that is out of his control. Knowing that it is an ancient car, there's always the chance that replacing this part will uncover other problems; that's part of the trade-off between owning an old car and buying a new one.
posted by Forktine at 4:37 AM on November 8, 2011
the part he thought he could use
very small town, and my current mechanic is the only game in (the next) town for imports
Is this one of those archetypical cinderblock buildings on the edge of town, swamped in a gravel lot full of old Volkswagens? The mention of a 'part he thought he could use' makes me think he might've been trying to save you money by scavenging a part from a junker he has on hand. If that's the case, then in the future you might tell him that time is of the essence and you'd rather not economize quite so much if paying more would make the schedule faster and more certain. You could also sell the import, buy a Ford and use a mechanic that has local competition. The gains you'll get from either of these might be pretty small, though; as noted above, the occsaional delay like this is inevitable.
posted by jon1270 at 5:07 AM on November 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
very small town, and my current mechanic is the only game in (the next) town for imports
Is this one of those archetypical cinderblock buildings on the edge of town, swamped in a gravel lot full of old Volkswagens? The mention of a 'part he thought he could use' makes me think he might've been trying to save you money by scavenging a part from a junker he has on hand. If that's the case, then in the future you might tell him that time is of the essence and you'd rather not economize quite so much if paying more would make the schedule faster and more certain. You could also sell the import, buy a Ford and use a mechanic that has local competition. The gains you'll get from either of these might be pretty small, though; as noted above, the occsaional delay like this is inevitable.
posted by jon1270 at 5:07 AM on November 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, all, for the reality check. Sounds like the right thing to do is to let it go and simply manage my own expectations better next time around, and count myself lucky to have a mechanic I trust to do good work.
posted by stellaluna at 9:38 AM on November 8, 2011
posted by stellaluna at 9:38 AM on November 8, 2011
You already have the advice you need. However, you can always ask him "can you give me a worst-case estimate for time? I need to make other plans for transportation, and knowing the worst-case scenario will be more helpful to me than the best-case." Hopefully he'll understand and offer something like "well, if I can't use the part I'm planning to, and the place I order from doesn't have the part in stock, I'll have to order it from the place that takes forever, and so it'll be two weeks." Then when it shows up done in a week, you'll be happy.
posted by davejay at 4:26 PM on November 8, 2011
posted by davejay at 4:26 PM on November 8, 2011
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posted by titanium_geek at 4:42 PM on November 7, 2011