Brad Clayton Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Well, it's safe to say the "magic 8 ball, diagnostic dice, dart board", ect. are alive and well down here in NC. I went to Lowes on my lunch break to get some fittings and I saw a Super Duty in the parking lot with the hood up and about 5 guys crammed under it. When I saw this, I did what any self respecting dealership tech would do, I covered my name badge on my shirt and walked the other way clear around them to get to my vehicle and got the hell out of there. As I was leaving the parking lot I could see there was another truck of the same company beside the broken truck with it's hood up as if they were using it to perform a jump start. Twenty minutes after arriving back at work, this truck showed up hooked to the wrecker. It was written up and dispatched to me with explicit instructions. You ready for this? And I quote "the customer has looked at this truck already and wants the crankshaft position sensor replaced. Don't do any diagnostic tests on it, just replace the sensor." It seems the company that owns these trucks sent their mechanic out to look at it and after checking it out in the parking lot of Lowes and conferring with the corporate mechanics back at headquarters, they determined it needed a ckp sensor. I gotta be honest with you, I have never came across a bad ckp in a 6.0L. I head out to the truck and give it a spin over and the tach is working and the oil pressure gage is dead. I stroll back in and get the IDS and again I am stopped and told not to do any diagnostics. I reply that I am not replacing a good part (just to spite a customer that rubbed the service department the wrong way). Get to the truck and the VCM won't boot up. Check the fuses and the damn thing isn't even there. What kinda service call did this guy perform where he didn't even scan the truck for codes? I shook my head and just chuckled. I put a fuse in it, scanned it, and hit up the data logger: The customer was called and we now have their blessing to continue with proper diagnostics and repairs. 5 minutes of free scan tool work saved me loads of frustration of dickin' around with an aggravating known good part replacement. And now I am getting paid properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 What a shame that we have to fix the customer AND our service departments first before fixing trucks. Fortunately I have a Service Advisor that has a decent head on his shoulders and knows better than this. He knows better than to even write a repair order like this let alone bring it out to me. I hope you can eventually acheive the same with your writer(s) in your new dealership. Golly, I feel like a lucky man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 Golly, I feel like a lucky man! I had no idea how good I had it and how fortunate I was in Vermont, until I moved down here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Ah but look at it this way my friend, now you have a purpose. You can be the inspiration for our new motto: "The DTS, unfucking the industry one co-worker at a time." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmorris Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 +1 ^^^^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchan68 Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 My all-time favourite is when a writer writes one up for me, "Customer requests quote to replace all eight injectors". We all know the cost of parts and labour, as do the writers and service managers. That said, we have to wonder if the writers and managers give a rat's tail as to whether or not we fix the customer's vehicle, or just simply line their pockets vehicle repaired or not. I had a good customer a couple years back requesting me to replace the engine on his truck with the intent to achieve repairing an intermittent stalling issue that I was having difficulty reproducing the symptom/diagnosing. As I was replying to the customer that I KNEW that replacing an engine would not repair his complaint, I got interrupted by the service manager, "Mike just shut up and go ahead and do the job". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 Quote: You can be the inspiration for our new motto: "The DTS, unfucking the industry one co-worker at a time." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieselD Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 "Mike just shut up and go ahead and do the job". I too have heard this line one too many times. At first I would say no problem and do the repair asked of me, after all they are your boss.....once I was finished and got to tell them "I told you so" I proceeded to get it rammed up my ass sideways. As per usual I ended up going negative on the job repairing the vehicle how I said it needed to be done in the first place. My intent was to get the vehicle repaired the correct way and move on to the next one, instead we would waste countless hours dicking around with either customer or service manager arm chair diag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmorris Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 What about the service writer that says "Oh ya, I know what's wrong. You need this, this and this, and it will cost you this much." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott1984 Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 Brad now you what i been putting up here. hahahahahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted January 30, 2013 Author Share Posted January 30, 2013 Too bad you're all the way over in Plymouth, we could open up a shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseldoc Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 I am glad that my shop isnt the only one that does this stupidity. . . . .90% of the RO's I get handed are troubleshot over the phone or counter and I am told what to replace and that will only take about 20 min. EXCUSE ME!!!! why the hell am I even here if you got all the answers?? I had a truck today rolls in at 5:15(my shift is over at 5:30) "you wanna pop a vehicle speed sensor in this, was already in a shop and they told him what it needed and the part number(they sold the customer the wrong sensor too)" I not listening hook up with insite and check pids for vehicle and engine speed. Start the truck and vehicle speed goes to 102 mph, snap the throttle and speed changes. Foreman says see it needs a sensor. I told him it is a wiring or ecm issue not the sensor. He insists,after order the right sensor, I put the sensor in and guess what it does not fix the issue. I locked my toolbox and went home. I guess now that we wasted 1.5, I will t/s the actual problem, likw we should have done from the get go. Will they ever learn?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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