boomarang cars

Any new customer we get normally hides the truth or "conveniently" neglects to tell us some information that would be really useful. Inevitably it adds several £'sss to their bill (and maybe a few more £'sss for trying it on in the first place) so who is the loser?

Education through finance is the method I used.......

DIY mechanics are the best. You only see them when they balls something up

yeah most folks with green flag/aa etc don't grasp the concept of broken down=doesn't start/move.this means take to a place of repair if you cant see anything obvious/straightforward.it DOESNT mean theyre gonna time up the cambelt you've fooked,press the balljoint/bearing back in you've smashed to fook.what?you don't wannna pay a garage to fix it?shoulda thought about that before disabling your car on a sunday afternoon/evening then shouldn't you?what?you need it first thing tomorrow cos you've absolutely GOTTA drive 200 mls?ok,tell me which local garage to take it to that's open at 6pm.whaddya mean there isn't one/you don't get on with/him/hes a thieving bastard?main dealer will normally have someone there if they do trucks at least.yeah that's right,people at that sorta dealer working sunday night gets you charged 150 an hour for repairs and that's IF they can lay hands on the bits you've wankered but hey,youve saved a fortune fitting your own rear pads aint you.it would generally be cheaper to have left it there to get fixed in the first place just on recovery costs.no I wont come back tomorrow to relay you 200 mls up the road.we will take you to a place of repair cos you've clearly fooked it,decline that and youre on your own.i know this sounds a negative/patronising opinion of the public but we get a wagon pulling up at shutting time 2 or 3 times a week at least with the above script-sats and sundays in particular-so im basing my opinion on personal experience.lost count of the amount of em that have started shouting at the recovery driver to take em somewhere else when we make it clear we will NOT be fitting a new engine tonight.have also lost count of said recovery drivers that have responded with summat along the lines "ok dummy tell me where you DO want it taking but next stops the fooking last cos there ISNT ANYONE WHO WILL FIT YOUR GEARBOX/ENGINE OVER NIGHT,YOU HAVE LOST YOUR fookING CAR TILL TOMORROW!NOW MAKE THE fookING CALL COS THATS WHERE YOURE GONNA BE STAYING!"i feel sorry for the poor guys.what?you wont drop me back to wales so I can stay there the night?what?you wont pick me up tomorrow to run me back to London either?IM COMPLAINING TO THE AA!anyone else not seeing this?or am I just unlucky?mutants muppets and morons,god help our species.corona virus might be doing us all a favour....

One thing I've never understood with some outfits is how they answer the question, how much will it cost when a diagnosis has not yet been carried out?

a diagnostic is x amount of pounds sir,when we actually KNOW whats wrong with it we will then quote you on that.what?you want an all in price/time to repair/option to go away and e bay the bits without anyone actually looking at it?minimum £10,maximum £1000 with a repair time of between 1 hr and 1 week.sorry sir I cant any closer than that without actually knowing what job we are likely to be doing....

We never did 'quick looks' or free diagnosis, minimum price was 15 min labour + vat which got the bonnet open and check all the big bits were there.
Any further diagnosis was at standard labour rate + vat. If they then had us carry out the repairs we used to knock the diagnosis time off the invoice.

yeah,any particular noise that's concerning you most sir?the heat shield rattle possibly?the roll bar links knocking?the busted spring graunching lock to lock?or is it the timing chain rattle that's concerning you most?which of the half dozen noises ive got is bothering you most?oh the faint hum when you brake heavily from 90mph that only occurs on a random day of a given month for 1.5 secs is the one youre worried about?sorry cant help you.....

I don't want to name names on the open forum, but some professional trainers on their courses have said that they charge £100 initially and then if more time is required, they advise the customer and then see what the customer wishes to do. In my opinion I don't think that is bad at all considering the training, experience and equipment investment required to do the job.