technician job experiences

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ramenth said:
I would consider doing nothing but busting tires and changing oil a working retirement.

No such thing around here except Wally World. Every tire shop here wants you do to brakes, suspension, alignments. All cake work, but still more than I wanna do as far as working on cars go.
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That's true, it is all cake......but I tell you what, "MOST" tire shops don't have ANY business doing anything "other" than tires and maybe alignments. Most I've seen get in WAY over their heads trying to make a dollar.
 
I could do brakes all day long. Strange but i enjoy it. Good money,and 90% of the troubleshooting is right before your eyes.
 
RustyRatRod said:
That's true, it is all cake......but I tell you what, "MOST" tire shops don't have ANY business doing anything "other" than tires and maybe alignments. Most I've seen get in WAY over their heads trying to make a dollar.
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I'll agree with this.

The last tire shop I worked at wanted to do everything under the sun. They failed at it 90% of the time. The two brothers who worked the shop had a come back rate that sucked. Everything they touched came back on 'em.

Their dad kept yelling at the boys to get back to the bread and butter that his dad built the shop on: tires, suspension, and alignments only.
 
I remember in the local ford dealer’s last days the comeback rate was near 100%.
Half the techs walked when a new manager came in,hired a bunch of youngins and it went downhill near immediately. As a service writer it was frustrating.
One guy couldnt fix everything the other techs effed up.
That guy was a great tech,owners son. He finally walked too.
 
Tooljunkie said:
I could do brakes all day long. Strange but i enjoy it. Good money,and 90% of the troubleshooting is right before your eyes.
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You still have a passion for it. Unfortunately, I lost that a long time ago.

I still can't help myself, though. Pop got brakes for his car not too long ago. Figured, nope, he's a good wrench, taught me a lot over the years, especially when it came to engines, transmissions, and rears. I'll sit right here with the boys, make sure they stay out of trouble...

Wound up putting the boys coats on em and going out and doing it for him.
 
I did the large dealership thing. It was the worst place I ever worked. It was also a blessing in disguise.
I was hired to run a Mopar parts room that was bleeding 10K a month. The owner and I agreed to a weekly salary of $450 a week and 8% of the gross profit. I would get an additional 2% if I hit the projected goal at the end of the month. That was nothing I ever saw in a mom and pop place.
But I was good at what I did, it took me 3 months just to clean up the inventory. I turned the place around and and within 5 months I got my 1st dock back that reflected a profit. It wasn't much, $4K, but it was in the black. The next month I get a call, $22K to the good, it just got better and better with each month. Inside of a year I was on track to bring in $125K or better, most of it my monthly bonus. We were slated to move to a new facility so I had scaled back inventory, because who wants to move $300K of inventory when you can move $150K. The move was to go down on Labor day 2016. Aug 16th the head shed came in and wanted to have a talk. I wasn't surprised, we've been planning the move for months and we had meeting all the time. At this meeting I was told that I made to much money, that they couldn't afford to keep me. I made the argument that I didn't cost them any more than a what our parts driver was making. Didn't matter, they no longer liked the agreement we had made, and I was actually being paid more than the GM and the fixed ops mgr. The third guy they had hired, to work the parts counter when we moved, turned out to be my replacement.
That day I learned a valuable lesson, large companies are machines. They will take you in, grind you up, and spit you out when it suits them. I vowed never again. I already had a degree, I decided I was going back to graduate school and to hell with the automobile business.
For the most part, I've kept that vow. I agreed to work P/T for the old mom and pop place I used to work for. They got the same raping that I got, just by Chrysler in 2009.
BTW, one of the fixed end coordinators got wind I was working at the old place. He came by and visited me. He told me that since I left the numbers were way down, and in fact, they were missing $30K in inventory. I chucked and told him that number was more like $50K. I had the inventory values packed $20K to the good. See, we were making more in profit all those months, but I was setting back 3% to cover loss and obsolescence. The look on his face was priceless. He asked if I would consider coming back. I told him no thanks. I did agree to go look at what was happening and I did. My replacement hadn't been getting his credits from recall and warranty work. Seems like cheaper wasn't better in this case. Last I heard, that guy was selling lawn mowers at Lowes and that fixed end coordinator left the company also.

Bigger places have a nice shiny carrot at the end of their sticks, but good luck catching it. If you do, you find out that there are too many worms going after that same carrot.
Good luck with what ever you do.
 
This is how O'Reilly has turned out. It's "ok" and it's something to do. I have decent benefits, but I am getting ready to drop my company health insurance because I have qualified for better coverage at no cost. So that will save over 400 a month. We keep setting record after record at our store. Our manager is getting every bonus they offer every month and at the end of the year.

But now, they are raising the bar for us in order to get raises and promotions. Our "related sales" has to be at a certain percentage each month. That's gone up now. Also, full time employees now have to do at least 15K in sales each month, part time 7500. And get this, now we have to be responsible for our own payroll percentage........when the store manager makes the schedule. PLUS we have to meet our monthly corporate "fake customer" phone call where we have to jump through those hoops as well. All that just to be able to "maybe" get a raise.

Basically what they have done is give themselves as many reasons as possible to say no. I won't be working much longer. In fact, I gave my two week notice shortly before Christmas. I told my manager (who had rudely popped off at me the day before in front of the whole store) that I was a grown man and had it been even five years ago, he would have had a broken nose. I handed him my official resignation and he gave it back to me apologizing and begging me not to leave. That's when I negotiated down to four 8 hour days a week, because of all the trouble my feet are giving me. I told him that excluding the income I get from O'Reilly, that Kitty and I had over 1500 dollars left over a month after all the bills are paid. I let him know in no uncertain terms that I do not need this job. It would be tight, but we can get by......and we will because my future now with this company is very short.

It's all in the name of company greed, too, because the district and regional managers both get spiffs the better the store's numbers are, so they put the screws to us while we get nothing in return. Being assistant manager, I am sorta stuck in the middle. My employees look to me for answers and all I can tell them is the truth. That corporate greed even has control of our small town store. It's sad, really.


gunbunny said:
I did the large dealership thing. It was the worst place I ever worked. It was also a blessing in disguise.
I was hired to run a Mopar parts room that was bleeding 10K a month. The owner and I agreed to a weekly salary of $450 a week and 8% of the gross profit. I would get an additional 2% if I hit the projected goal at the end of the month. That was nothing I ever saw in a mom and pop place.
But I was good at what I did, it took me 3 months just to clean up the inventory. I turned the place around and and within 5 months I got my 1st dock back that reflected a profit. It wasn't much, $4K, but it was in the black. The next month I get a call, $22K to the good, it just got better and better with each month. Inside of a year I was on track to bring in $125K or better, most of it my monthly bonus. We were slated to move to a new facility so I had scaled back inventory, because who wants to move $300K of inventory when you can move $150K. The move was to go down on Labor day 2016. Aug 16th the head shed came in and wanted to have a talk. I wasn't surprised, we've been planning the move for months and we had meeting all the time. At this meeting I was told that I made to much money, that they couldn't afford to keep me. I made the argument that I didn't cost them any more than a what our parts driver was making. Didn't matter, they no longer liked the agreement we had made, and I was actually being paid more than the GM and the fixed ops mgr. The third guy they had hired, to work the parts counter when we moved, turned out to be my replacement.
That day I learned a valuable lesson, large companies are machines. They will take you in, grind you up, and spit you out when it suits them. I vowed never again. I already had a degree, I decided I was going back to graduate school and to hell with the automobile business.
For the most part, I've kept that vow. I agreed to work P/T for the old mom and pop place I used to work for. They got the same raping that I got, just by Chrysler in 2009.
BTW, one of the fixed end coordinators got wind I was working at the old place. He came by and visited me. He told me that since I left the numbers were way down, and in fact, they were missing $30K in inventory. I chucked and told him that number was more like $50K. I had the inventory values packed $20K to the good. See, we were making more in profit all those months, but I was setting back 3% to cover loss and obsolescence. The look on his face was priceless. He asked if I would consider coming back. I told him no thanks. I did agree to go look at what was happening and I did. My replacement hadn't been getting his credits from recall and warranty work. Seems like cheaper wasn't better in this case. Last I heard, that guy was selling lawn mowers at Lowes and that fixed end coordinator left the company also.

Bigger places have a nice shiny carrot at the end of their sticks, but good luck catching it. If you do, you find out that there are too many worms going after that same carrot.
Good luck with what ever you do.
Click to expand...
 
ramenth said:
I would consider doing nothing but busting tires and changing oil a working retirement.

No such thing around here except Wally World. Every tire shop here wants you do to brakes, suspension, alignments. All cake work, but still more than I wanna do as far as working on cars go.
Click to expand...
That is actually what got me into a tireshop, the high visibility, and a change of vocation; Oh and, and the free use of the shop to work on my stuff and my family's stuff afterhours and weekends,lol. By this time I had a fleet of at least 7 cars I was keeping on the roads, and ya know my kids cars needed a lot of TLC, cuz these clunkers were all they could afford. About 6 years later, as the kids moved up, so did I. The tireshop got left behind. They didn't pay much there, but the afterhours perk made up the difference. And the next job paid nearly double. And with the freetime I now had, hey God is good. Whenever I think of those years, I always think of the story of Racheal and Leah, and poor poor Jacob.
 
Tooljunkie said:
I remember in the local ford dealer’s last days the comeback rate was near 100%.
Half the techs walked when a new manager came in,hired a bunch of youngins and it went downhill near immediately. As a service writer it was frustrating.
One guy couldnt fix everything the other techs effed up.
That guy was a great tech,owners son. He finally walked too.
Click to expand...

Above is how it was that I got into a Yamaha dealership.
The owner had three techs, two of which who couldn't seem to tie their shoelaces,and the comeback work had become staggering. One day he invited me out to lunch and set forth an offer.. I said no I have a job. A few weeks later, he upped the ante, and again I said no, I have a job. A third time he came, and said name your price. Again I said No.... but if the job I have dies, I'll come. A short while later, the place I was working at,don't you know it, filed Chapter 13 and suddenly I became a free agent. So off to Yamaha I toddled. We hatched a deal,and it was time to prove my worth. The first thing I did was get rid of those two bozos that were sinking the ship (cuz their wages were now mine). Then I cleaned up the come-backs, and attacked the rest.To be sure,there was a staggering amount of both work overtime.We became viable;customer faith was restored,and the former Honda clientele had come on board.The Service Dept was caught up, new work was flooding in, Sales had picked up,and we had hired two more employees. Finally my boss was making money.
And so; now at 58 or so, I'm thinking, I'm finally on top of the world;all set to cruise thru retirement; God is good.
Then it happened again. Chapter 13.
Ya know God, I said,How many times are we gonna do this? I'm gettin' too old to keep starting over. Just give me any old crap job............ Lemmee tell ya;Be careful when you saychit like that to God....... The next two years were just that. One day, after much deliberation, I packed up my tools and vamoosed.
Ya know God, I said, I mightabin a bit sassy last time. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your goodness; Put me where you want me. A month later I had a FTPT semi-retirement type job that keeps me fit and strong, and provides many hours of on-the-job, paid, Bible-Study time; God is good. That is going on five years ago. It ain't glamorous, but there's no stress, it's easy work, and it's something I can keep doing until all my allotted days are done. It's a government job,working for the Municipality in which I live,and it's within walking distance so one car is retired. And so, Ima thinking, maybe, just maybe I've seen my last Chapter 13;God is good.
So I went and got me a dog, young enough to live for at least as long as I can bend over and clean up after him,lol.
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As to Chapter 13s; Sheesh; there have been a lot of those. A quick tally points to nearly 70% of all places I have worked at went Chapter 13. I kept telling prospective employers "don't hire me if you want to stay in business; Chapter 13 follows me around like stink on a skunk".
In fact,over the past 50 years, of all the places I have ever worked at for more than about three months, only four are still in business. One is that TireShop. And another went on to become a major automotive retailer named Canadian Tire; a big deal up here now, but just budding when I started in 68 or69. I sold parts there for over three years. I got a big fat head, heavy with hundreds of part numbers and locations, and cross-referenced applications.That first store had the Greatest Boss I ever worked for.God is good.
 
Ponder this : 40 years of experience is a BIG DEAL . It has got to be worth top pay. You deserve good pay , benefits, working conditions, vacations the whole deal . If you are healthy and you don't want to be self-employed , get all you can . Some of these shops are raking in money hand over fist and not giving anything back . Go for it.
 
AJ/FormS said:
Above is how it was that I got into a Yamaha dealership.
The owner had three techs, two of which who couldn't seem to tie their shoelaces,and the comeback work had become staggering. One day he invited me out to lunch and set forth an offer.. I said no I have a job. A few weeks later, he upped the ante, and again I said no, I have a job. A third time he came, and said name your price. Again I said No.... but if the job I have dies, I'll come. A short while later, the place I was working at,don't you know it, filed Chapter 13 and suddenly I became a free agent. So off to Yamaha I toddled. We hatched a deal,and it was time to prove my worth. The first thing I did was get rid of those two bozos that were sinking the ship (cuz their wages were now mine). Then I cleaned up the come-backs, and attacked the rest.To be sure,there was a staggering amount of both work overtime.We became viable;customer faith was restored,and the former Honda clientele had come on board.The Service Dept was caught up, new work was flooding in, Sales had picked up,and we had hired two more employees. Finally my boss was making money.
And so; now at 58 or so, I'm thinking, I'm finally on top of the world;all set to cruise thru retirement; God is good.
Then it happened again. Chapter 13.
Ya know God, I said,How many times are we gonna do this? I'm gettin' too old to keep starting over. Just give me any old crap job............ Lemmee tell ya;Be careful when you saychit like that to God....... The next two years were just that. One day, after much deliberation, I packed up my tools and vamoosed.
Ya know God, I said, I mightabin a bit sassy last time. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your goodness; Put me where you want me. A month later I had a FTPT semi-retirement type job that keeps me fit and strong, and provides many hours of on-the-job, paid, Bible-Study time; God is good. That is going on five years ago. It ain't glamorous, but there's no stress, it's easy work, and it's something I can keep doing until all my allotted days are done. It's a government job,working for the Municipality in which I live,and it's within walking distance so one car is retired. And so, Ima thinking, maybe, just maybe I've seen my last Chapter 13;God is good.
So I went and got me a dog, young enough to live for at least as long as I can bend over and clean up after him,lol.
__________________
As to Chapter 13s; Sheesh; there have been a lot of those. A quick tally points to nearly 70% of all places I have worked at went Chapter 13. I kept telling prospective employers "don't hire me if you want to stay in business; Chapter 13 follows me around like stink on a skunk".
In fact,over the past 50 years, of all the places I have ever worked at for more than about three months, only four are still in business. One is that TireShop. And another went on to become a major automotive retailer named Canadian Tire; a big deal up here now, but just budding when I started in 68 or69. I sold parts there for over three years. I got a big fat head, heavy with hundreds of part numbers and locations, and cross-referenced applications.That first store had the Greatest Boss I ever worked for.God is good.
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Would have been a whole lot quicker to just quote proverbs 30:8-9
:)
 
Did 22 years Chrysler-jeep dealer last 10 years fleet repair for a utility, would never go back to a dealer.
 
First off, as an "older guy" , I have come to believe prayers really do work -i don't want to get "all religious" for the guys that don't believe but it's a fact for me. I have prayed and minced the pros and cons for two months now , until I was driving my wife and probably the Lord) nuts about this. Here's what happened : I applied at a large tire chain and a Mopar dealership over Christmas break when my current job is closed for vacation . Both places showed extreme interest and offered very good advancement. Well , armed with that knowledge that I'm maybe not scum of the earth after all , thought about it for the better part of January waiting for other places to apply to and the right moment when both bosses would be available to talk to. It happened this past week . I had an adult conversation with them , telling them I appreciated them starting me out , giving me steady job for all the years but explained that I received some pretty good offers and that if i was going to change that now was the time. The next day after work , they asked to talk to me and asked me to stay , offering me another paid week of vacation and a $2 an hour raise which I gratefully accepted. My thoughts on this are such now : That God loves me enough to guide me through all this , and that I hope I do excellent work in my future years with this place to be deserving of my raise because , and I can't emphasize this , business cannot survive without good employees and employees cannot survive without good businesses. Once again , thank you to everyone here with their experiences and insight .
 
OL DODGE said:
First off, as an "older guy" , I have come to believe prayers really do work -i don't want to get "all religious" for the guys that don't believe but it's a fact for me. I have prayed and minced the pros and cons for two months now , until I was driving my wife and probably the Lord) nuts about this. Here's what happened : I applied at a large tire chain and a Mopar dealership over Christmas break when my current job is closed for vacation . Both places showed extreme interest and offered very good advancement. Well , armed with that knowledge that I'm maybe not scum of the earth after all , thought about it for the better part of January waiting for other places to apply to and the right moment when both bosses would be available to talk to. It happened this past week . I had an adult conversation with them , telling them I appreciated them starting me out , giving me steady job for all the years but explained that I received some pretty good offers and that if i was going to change that now was the time. The next day after work , they asked to talk to me and asked me to stay , offering me another paid week of vacation and a $2 an hour raise which I gratefully accepted. My thoughts on this are such now : That God loves me enough to guide me through all this , and that I hope I do excellent work in my future years with this place to be deserving of my raise because , and I can't emphasize this , business cannot survive without good employees and employees cannot survive without good businesses. Once again , thank you to everyone here with their experiences and insight .
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Awesome. Glad this is working out.
 
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