Why we use and trust decent indy's!

[rockits]

We know this kind of stuff goes on at some stealers and poor garages but it is pretty shocking to see it so brazen also so obvious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-avpx8UTakI

 

[Petrol Pete]

I guess unless you sit there watching them do the work, first knowing what the 'work' looks like and knowing how long it should take you are 100% at the mercy of the company/mechanic you choose. You need to trust them 100%.

But one thing you should avoid if you care for your car is any place that says it can do an oil change for 'chump change'...I:e £15 or less.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Well, that's it, I'm definitely not taking either of our cars to America for an oil change.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Although there are some very poor practices and methods used by main dealer servicing departments, at least there is some sort of guarantee available, how many times do you hear of stand alone "specialist" garages ripping folk off?

 

[noogieman]

well, I had some nasty experiance with my X-mechanic buddy who is an indy Mercedes spezialist on the west coast in Sweden.
this dude is by now my former buddy/MB spezialist.

In Sweden where I live, my mechanic buddy worked for stealership for many years and was their TOP mechanic, he also had his own work shop on the side after hours taking in other cars for repairs.

My x-buddy the indy MB spezialist screwed me for both parts and money.
I had a fuel leak so I bought a replacement hose, took my car to the indy garage telling my buddy to replace the brittled leaking hose.
When I went to pick my car he told me he replaced fuel line and also had to replace the fuel pump, at the same time he tells me he had to replace my fuel pump my former mechanic buddy puts up with a devious smirk on his face telling me fuel pump is shot!
WTF!?!?!?!
My gut feeling was telling me this guy was not honest.
I asked him what was the problem with my pump?
He then again showed his crooked ugly smirk on his face telling me pump was leaking from the angled pipe.
This pipe is cast metal, I have no rust on my car and don't drive in winter, how could it leak from the angled feeder fuel pipe?
His ugly smirk he put on his face while he was telling me my pump is shot smelled like a dead cat to me!
He was ripping me off!
Only a Judas friend would scam his own buddy out of parts and money!

The socalled possible problems with my fuel pump was something we did NOT discuss when I left my car at his shop, for him to replace my fuel pump, car had only covered 100.000km's.
I had no problems with my fuel pump and this MO-FO Judas idiot screwed me of my pump.
He was building a high power 190E 2.3 16v Cosworth, instead of buying a new fuel pump out of his own money he decided to screw me snatching my old fuel pump so I had to pay for a new pump.
I made the mistake not to question him or take the old fuel pump with me to test it at another shop for issues.

Lesson learned the hard way, small indy shops specilized in MB are not always 100% honest or serious!
There are shady mechanic shops ripping off customers and their own friends leaving their cars for service.

Only god knows how many times my former mechanic buddy screwed me on parts and money being a backstabber and devious like a Judas snake?
Can't trust snakes!

It came as a shock to me when I realized my former mechanic buddy was ripping me off!
I would have never believed him to to such devious thing to me like stabbing me in the back for parts and money.

I'm so pis-ed and fuc-ing disapointed and angry with him because he played me all the time like a greedy cheapskate hustler.
In these days can't trust nobody not even a good mechanic friend!

He did some other shady things to me in the past, so I knew there was something not right about him the way he behaved towards me with the fuel pump situation!
What an ugly MO-FO!
Karma will hopefully get to him someday

 

[markjay]

...My gut feeling was telling me this guy was not honest.... I made the mistake not to question him or take the old fuel pump with me to test it at another shop for issues....

He clearly lost your trust, which is fair enough, but at the same time you can't really be sure he actually ripped you off.....?

Trust is a subjective matter, but fruad needs proof.

 

[noogieman]

He clearly lost your trust, which is fair enough, but at the same time you can't really be sure he actually ripped you off.....?

Trust is a subjective matter, but fruad needs proof.

Well, you weren't there and you don't know what happened in this strange situation when he was acting shady!
Last year I met my mechanic buddy at the stealership when he visited his old work mates.
I had an issue with my car which needed attention, my mech buddy comes out from the office and insults me infront of his work mates with accusation that I was trying to scam the stealership for a cheap repair!
He made me look bad as a scammer infront of his work mates that I was trying to rip off the stealership.
I could see his work mates facial expressions that I was no longer credible because of what my former mechanic buddy said to me when he made me look bad!
While he offended me infront of his work mates at the same time he also put the same nasty smirk on his face, this was the third time being devious and conniving towards me.
After this nasty encounter at the stealership I knew I was screwed for my fuel pump.
No friend would do such thing the way he acted towards me.

My former mechanic buddy is a 2-face devul, it's to bad I didn't notice this before I was scammed and being humiliated at the stealership by him.
If I had known before that this guy was a devious kunt I would have never taken my car to him for him to work on it.

 

[Tuercas viejas]

well, I had some nasty experiance with my X-mechanic buddy who is an indy Mercedes spezialist on the west coast in Sweden.
this dude is by now my former buddy/MB spezialist.

In Sweden where I live, my mechanic buddy worked for stealership for many years and was their TOP mechanic, he also had his own work shop on the side after hours taking in other cars for repairs.

My x-buddy the indy MB spezialist screwed me for both parts and money.
I had a fuel leak so I bought a replacement hose, took my car to the indy garage telling my buddy to replace the brittled leaking hose.
When I went to pick my car he told me he replaced fuel line and also had to replace the fuel pump, at the same time he tells me he had to replace my fuel pump my former mechanic buddy puts up with a devious smirk on his face telling me fuel pump is shot!
WTF!?!?!?!
My gut feeling was telling me this guy was not honest.
I asked him what was the problem with my pump?
He then again showed his crooked ugly smirk on his face telling me pump was leaking from the angled pipe.
This pipe is cast metal, I have no rust on my car and don't drive in winter, how could it leak from the angled feeder fuel pipe?
His ugly smirk he put on his face while he was telling me my pump is shot smelled like a dead cat to me!
He was ripping me off!
Only a Judas friend would scam his own buddy out of parts and money!

The socalled possible problems with my fuel pump was something we did NOT discuss when I left my car at his shop, for him to replace my fuel pump, car had only covered 100.000km's.
I had no problems with my fuel pump and this MO-FO Judas idiot screwed me of my pump.
He was building a high power 190E 2.3 16v Cosworth, instead of buying a new fuel pump out of his own money he decided to screw me snatching my old fuel pump so I had to pay for a new pump.
I made the mistake not to question him or take the old fuel pump with me to test it at another shop for issues.

Lesson learned the hard way, small indy shops specilized in MB are not always 100% honest or serious!
There are shady mechanic shops ripping off customers and their own friends leaving their cars for service.

Only god knows how many times my former mechanic buddy screwed me on parts and money being a backstabber and devious like a Judas snake?
Can't trust snakes!

It came as a shock to me when I realized my former mechanic buddy was ripping me off!
I would have never believed him to to such devious thing to me like stabbing me in the back for parts and money.

I'm so pis-ed and fuc-ing disapointed and angry with him because he played me all the time like a greedy cheapskate hustler.
In these days can't trust nobody not even a good mechanic friend!

He did some other shady things to me in the past, so I knew there was something not right about him the way he behaved towards me with the fuel pump situation!
What an ugly MO-FO!
Karma will hopefully get to him someday

kowalski
I feel compelled to comment.
Having been in this business at all levels for 55 years and worked on cars for about 61 years.
I can state that from your testimony on this forum post you got royally dicked and you deserved it. Sorry!

Lets look at your post for a moment .
A so called friend a supposed TOP tech at a DEALERSHIP (not stealership) because this tells me something about you already, something about the type of customer I see quite often in my shop bad mouthing dealerships .
To expand on this!
He was known to be moonlighting and running his own business on the side while still working for that dealership no doubt, using their factory shop info, training, maybe tooling and parts, who knows!!!
This for me is a red flag! Referee red car off the job--YUR FIRED!

The trade normally doesn't tolerate this activity nor do I.

Without saying a word it says I am dishonest , I am untrustworthy and not fully professional in my approach to you as a customer nor to my employer (the dealership) who is providing me with a salary and financial well being.

Furthermore he, from, your description of this individual fits the classic bill of a passive aggressive personage, the very type of individual I will not allow into my premises fixing my customers cars
Yes you gave him your business and paid the price!
Why did you do that?

May I suggest that being so called friend at the time you were getting/enjoying repair tariffs well below what you should be paying as a member of the public . You obviously went along with this arrangement even though anyone with any common sense would have said this guy has no self respect, scruples , is really a thief, a low life Ali BaBa in disguise and so beware !
So you paid the consequences and I bet he didn't kiss you as you got diddled!:fail

Now dealership and honest Independents, there lot of us (the latter) !
I don't need to rip off the customer but I do make a healthy profit from fixing cars!
That means using technical education, experience, tools and good old knowhow to remedy a fault--all tempered these days by a bit of American can do as well!

When I hear stealership it tells me the customer has a bad attitude to the MV business. Then any business and I wonder if he/she thinks the same about other professions like Doctors, Dentists, Lawyers, or whatever and he maybe he/she is also a crook in disguise as well!

I weight up my new customers quite often and have been know to fire some as I don't need their business .

I have enough honest customers willing to pay for good old fashioned honest service without having to attract the rip off merchants, the devious, and the cheapskates.
I am always getting from time to time the devious individuals and people who have have a champagne tastes in cars but only have beer budgets to fix them by fair means or foul.!~
I don't need customers like that.

For ifo
80% of customers are good, of which 20% are the cream puffs who don't question the bill!
Of the remaining 60% some have resistances to fix something and some are in denial to a state on a sliding scale of difficulty to sell job!
Then you have the last 20% of which about 17.5% are time waster and phone a thousand shops in the area trying to find out what is wrong with their cars, glean scarps of repair info and how much to fix it!
Why do they do that?
Simple answer!
It the only common denominator which is cost but some shops will low ball the job and you will pay for it in the long run with shoddy repairs !
Lastly the 2.5 % who are down right CRAZY! --Nut jobs!--I try to avoid them at all costs!
So Kowalski where do you fit into the potential customer profile?
Regards
Tercas Viejas

 

[noogieman]

Tercas Viejas are you a person who laughs at other peoples mishappening?
are you feeling happy when people gets screwed or get into accidents?

the word stealerships is mainly used on US forums, I picked up the word there.

I had some poor experiance with repairs on my car from dealership in the past, therefore I tried to avoid them as much as I could, there are numerous customers in Sweden not only me having problems with this dealership.
on automotive forums this dealership gets lots of disapointment from customers having their car serviced.
this dealership has grown very fast buying all competators MB shops, expanding/growing fast usually means a massive drop in quality work.
this dealership had many employees leaving their jobs because they didn't like the structure of employment, mechanics went to work for other companies with better benefits.
this reveals a lot about the company people work for if they are happy with their jobs or being disgruntled like american post office employees shooting down their colleagues because they were unhappy with the management?

firstly I was a customer at my X-mechanic buddy shop before I got to know him.
time went by and we became pals at least what I thought because he noticed that I had a genuine interest in AMG cars.
Everytime I had an issue I went to his place for him to work on my car.
He did good work on my car for some years but got somehow greedy for the last 3 years before I found out he was screwing me.

finding an indy shop with good honest reputation doing HQ work with good rates $$$ hopefully means they are more keen to maintain their reputation if they want to stay in business.
Like I told you before I had some poor experiance from dealership in the past therefore I went to another shop who specializes in MB.
I never thought I would get cheated because over time we became buddies at least what I thought.
At an indy shop you get more quality work for your money than what a dealership will ever offer you!

I leave my car to the garage I trust and I trusted my mechanic buddy to do work on my car.
I never would have thought he would pull such a nasty stunt on me screwing me for a used part like the fuel pump jeopardizing our friendship!
People will eventually get caught and I realized what kind of a person my mechanic buddy really was the way he behaved at the dealership when he insulted me by making me look like a crook and the way he acted when he screwed me for my fuel pump.
The nasty smirk he put on his face on both occasions revealed that this guy was not a trust worthy person.
Is this something you laugh about and feel happy that it happened to me?
That tells a lot about you!

Lesson learned the hard way, trust nobody!

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Its a bad day that garages do this.. I went through similar recently with a garage that I used to use.. I say used to as the completed the last job last week for them.. an MOT, a full service, and two new calipers.. it took them two days to do this. Granted they've done the work but can you explain to me the two days to do the above? and why do they always wait until mid afternoon to tell you that "you need.." so that you can't organize any new parts or get what they are looking for?? I used the garage for year but as time went on and people left the standard of work went downhill, things became slower, parts took longer to obtain etc so I've decided to move on and start again... so to laugh at you, no, empathize yes..

 

[noogieman]

Its a bad day that garages do this.. I went through similar recently with a garage that I used to use.. I say used to as the completed the last job last week for them.. an MOT, a full service, and two new calipers.. it took them two days to do this. Granted they've done the work but can you explain to me the two days to do the above? and why do they always wait until mid afternoon to tell you that "you need.." so that you can't organize any new parts or get what they are looking for?? I used the garage for year but as time went on and people left the standard of work went downhill, things became slower, parts took longer to obtain etc so I've decided to move on and start again... so to laugh at you, no, empathize yes..

thanks for your understanding.
I'm sorry you had to go through a similar thing!

I'm not looking for sympathies because I got screwed by my former trusted friend and now MB factory trained X-mechanic.
Reading this thread made me share my ugly experiance which I had encountered with Judas the backstabber.

People you trust or care/love dearly for, if they decide to stab you in the back, this is very hard to forgive and to forget because you would have never believed they would be capable of doing it to you!
My former mechanic buddy got greedy therefore he decided to screw me over, he thought he'd never get caught!
His nasty smirk he had on his face when he treated me badly revealed him as a shoddy person!

Trust is something that needs to be earned the hard way.
A good reputation for repair shops takes forever to build and to earn, but takes seconds to ruin if treating customers badly!
Jungle telegraph from people to people, telling each other stay away from that certain shop they will screw you over if you leave your car with them means bad reputation losing income and finally going out of business for repair shop.

I am VERY disapointed that my former mechanic buddy lately treated me badly.
He helped me a lot with my car and I also helped him out with favors and other things as a token of great appreciation!
He was the only mechanic working on my car for years, only god knows what he did to my car?

Only good people treats their beloved friends with care.
Bad people who takes advantage and screwing other people are devious and conniving like snakes.
I loathe devious people

 

[Tuercas viejas]

Tercas Viejas are you a person who laughs at other peoples mishappening?
are you feeling happy when people gets screwed or get into accidents?

the word stealerships is mainly used on US forums, I picked up the word there.

I had some poor experiance with repairs on my car from dealership in the past, therefore I tried to avoid them as much as I could, there are numerous customers in Sweden not only me having problems with this dealership.
on automotive forums this dealership gets lots of disapointment from customers having their car serviced.
this dealership has grown very fast buying all competators MB shops, expanding/growing fast usually means a massive drop in quality work.
this dealership had many employees leaving their jobs because they didn't like the structure of employment, mechanics went to work for other companies with better benefits.
this reveals a lot about the company people work for if they are happy with their jobs or being disgruntled like american post office employees shooting down their colleagues because they were unhappy with the management?

firstly I was a customer at my X-mechanic buddy shop before I got to know him.
time went by and we became pals at least what I thought because he noticed that I had a genuine interest in AMG cars.
Everytime I had an issue I went to his place for him to work on my car.
He did good work on my car for some years but got somehow greedy for the last 3 years before I found out he was screwing me.

finding an indy shop with good honest reputation doing HQ work with good rates $$$ hopefully means they are more keen to maintain their reputation if they want to stay in business.
Like I told you before I had some poor experiance from dealership in the past therefore I went to another shop who specializes in MB.
I never thought I would get cheated because over time we became buddies at least what I thought.
At an indy shop you get more quality work for your money than what a dealership will ever offer you!

I leave my car to the garage I trust and I trusted my mechanic buddy to do work on my car.
I never would have thought he would pull such a nasty stunt on me screwing me for a used part like the fuel pump jeopardizing our friendship!
People will eventually get caught and I realized what kind of a person my mechanic buddy really was the way he behaved at the dealership when he insulted me by making me look like a crook and the way he acted when he screwed me for my fuel pump.
The nasty smirk he put on his face on both occasions revealed that this guy was not a trust worthy person.
Is this something you laugh about and feel happy that it happened to me?
That tells a lot about you!

Lesson learned the hard way, trust nobody!

kowalski
May I remind you that life is full of choices, it surprises me that grown men can be so gullible when it comes to car repairs. (The second is woman and affairs of the heart.)
I don't laugh (well sometimes I do. I confess ) when I hear of things like this.
Again you mention the way he treated you.
Question
Did you not approach the management of this dealership to inform them of their employee's moonlighting? His passive aggressive behaviour?

As the side bar dealerships.
Yes they are expensive and good independent garages/shops are about 20% cheaper on average.
The repair charge out rate is based upon overheads , need I mention this and the biggy in business any business ! The cost of doing business!


Dealerships have much higher overheads than Independents.
The level of overhead depends upon the commitment to the service provision in this case of fixing cars..The mantra or approach to dealership car repairs are different. They follow the practice of unit replacement for many reasons, which is often not required.
In the end you have to pay for this in charge out rates

Good Independents still value investment in the business/manpower and infrastructure improvements and training for their staff to deliver the "product" , this of course this is a sliding scale of proficiency across the business .
If the business isn't run right then the efficiency slips like any business and it can become a nightmare to contain. Profitability falls.
Here's question?
How much percentage of profit do you think a repair shop is expected to make on a job?
Measure that against say the level on profit on fast food like Pizza.


How much profit is there on say a whole pizza and how much did it cost the pizza business to make it/deliver it to you hot at the counter.
Understand some of this and it will explain and help you understand who by letting that someone who is fixing cars on the side is a risky business and don't grip when it goes wrong.
Tuercas Viejas

 

[Tuercas viejas]

Its a bad day that garages do this.. I went through similar recently with a garage that I used to use.. I say used to as the completed the last job last week for them.. an MOT, a full service, and two new calipers.. it took them two days to do this. Granted they've done the work but can you explain to me the two days to do the above? and why do they always wait until mid afternoon to tell you that "you need.." so that you can't organize any new parts or get what they are looking for?? I used the garage for year but as time went on and people left the standard of work went downhill, things became slower, parts took longer to obtain etc so I've decided to move on and start again... so to laugh at you, no, empathize yes..

The explanation for the time delay could be manyfold.
Availability of parts of course could be the root cause.
I had a 2011 3500 Sprinter in last week that took us two full days to complete brake work .
Why--No parts.
Special overnight order from MB central parts.

I could have used aftermarket at about 50% of the MB cost but the customer specified genuine OE parts.
No alternative than to wait 24 hours and see a the vehicle stuck in a profitable repair bay with the wheels and brakes torn off!

The rules of the game are to inspect and do a 25 /30 point inspection on the care first thing in the morning and be ready to call the customer by 11,30 am. From then on, the clock is ticking!
YOU must call before 3,00pm to hold customer confidence in your business .
Ask the business why they took so bloody long, the reply might surprise you.
All the best
Tuercas Viejas

 

[noogieman]

Tuercas Viejas

Question:
Did you not approach the management of this dealership to inform them of their employee's moonlighting? His passive aggressive behaviour?

The incident at the dealership, my former mechanic buddy was no longer employed there, so there was no idea to file a complaint to the boss.
Former mechanic buddy was only visiting his old work place.

When my former mechanic buddy offended me with an accusation of me being a scammer he did this only to show off infront of his old work mates representing himself as a better person being an honest swede and me being dishonest because I am from another country.
According to my buddy's philosophy, it's only swedes that are the most honest people on planet earth and the rest are dishonest.
That's his mentality of being superior and better and the rest of the population on planet earth are untermensch.
You work with MB cars, I bet you know what derogatory word untermensch stands for?
This word was constantly used back in the WWII.

Your other reply:
It surprises me that grown men can be so gullible when it comes to car repairs.

I guess I was gullible trusting my so-called good friend?
I bet you have never been screwed over in your entire life!?
That's good for you!
Kudos

You probably wouldn't be disapointed finding out the hard way if someone you trust shanks you in the back with a knife over money or the worst thing that have happened to many other people finding out their best friend giving fine tuning pleasure to his wife behind his back?
Well that must come as a shock to most sane people getting cheated.
YES getting shocked or no NOT getting shocked?
What do you think?

It's great that you have never been scammed/cheated/duped/hustled/played/robbed/assaulted/raped/stolen from.
You must be a Superman
I wish you the best of luck not ever getting screwed!
For the rest of us getting punked with a scam, I'm sorry there are bad people out there!
We live and hopefully learn from our previous mistakes not to get scammed again!?

 

[Tuercas viejas]

Tuercas Viejas

Question:
Did you not approach the management of this dealership to inform them of their employee's moonlighting? His passive aggressive behaviour?

The incident at the dealership, my former mechanic buddy was no longer employed there, so there was no idea to file a complaint to the boss.
Former mechanic buddy was only visiting his old work place.

When my former mechanic buddy offended me with an accusation of me being a scammer he did this only to show off infront of his old work mates representing himself as a better person being an honest swede and me being dishonest because I am from another country.
According to my buddy's philosophy, it's only swedes that are the most honest people on planet earth and the rest are dishonest.
That's his mentality of being superior and better and the rest of the population on planet earth are untermensch.
You work with MB cars, I bet you understand what derogatory word untermensch stands for?

Your other reply:
It surprises me that grown men can be so gullible when it comes to car repairs.

I guess I was gullible trusting my so-called good friend?
I bet you have never been screwed over in your entire life!?
You probably wouldn't be disapointed finding out the hard way if someone you trust shanks you in the back with a knife over money or the worst thing that have happened to many other people finding out their best friend giving fine tuning pleasure to his friends wife in every female gap behind their back?
Well that must come as a shock to the person who is getting cheated.

It's great that you have never been scammed/cheated/duped/hustled/played/robbed/assaulted/raped/stolen from.
You must be a Superman
I wish you the best of luck not ever getting screwed!
For the rest of us getting punked with a scam, I'm sorry there are bad people out there!
We live and hopefully learn from our previous mistakes not to get scammed again!?

Kowalski
It's great that you have never been scammed/cheated/duped/hustled/played/robbed/assaulted/raped/stolen from.
You must be a Superman


Yes I have been ripped off & duped in my life many times , & I expect we all have; if we are honest with ourselves and can reflect back!
What we must all do is learn from it. With age comes wisdom, something i was short of in my 20's and 30's
Look life isn't fair!
Get over it and move on! No whingeing! Learn from it.
All the best
Tuercas Viejas
(Spanish for old nuts)

 

[NDFR]

anyone heard from DM recently?