Does anyone else have problems with customers when you do an inspection and they need one small bulb?
Last week we had one that complained that we replaced it and demanded it removed and the car passed. We told him that he needed it to be replaced or we could not pass it. All in all, we replaced it and the customer had to pay the $1 that the bulb cost. He then stormed out and swore saying that we had poor service.
Any other shops have this happen?
???
Basically a customer bitching about a $1 bulb and said can’t you just pass it.
but whats the point? you ask a question that doesnt mean anything. honestly, who gives a fuck?
some people just suck at life, what can you do about it lol
Why would you illegally put a bulb in without customer approval?
Technically the proper way to do the inspection is to do a thourough and complete inspection (pass or fail) before any work is done. then the work, then re-inspected. Yes i know its a pain in the ass but thats the way its supposed to be. Now granted its just a friggen bulb the customer should have understood(unless you were tryin to get $15.00 for an 1157) Every time i write up a shop for issuing a bad emissions waiver (well almost) its because the shop didnt do the complete inspection first. Then the repair. On top of that Joe’s right you cant do anything to a customers car without approval.
sorry I made my self unclear. but yes the customer wanted the bulb but he then freaked out that the bulb cost $1. We had his approval sorry if i made anything unclear.
well then you shoulda taken a BFH to his windshield, and said Now it wont pass cause the windshield fucker.
I would of handed the dousche a dollar out of my pocket. I deal with the best of the best complaints. Like people who bring me there 60k tires that are worn unevenly and tell me they want a free set of tires. However they put 40k on them and show no proof of rotation. Yes it is a pro rated discount. My favorite was a customer who got 2 full years of driving on his blizzaks snow tires. He wanted me to give him a new set because these tires have a unlimited mileage warrAnty. No stupid they have no mileage warranty.
unlimited mileage warranty? haha. morons never stop amazing me.
I bet the labor was like 1/2 hour
so yeah!
$1 + $45 = $46
THATS WHY THE CUSTOMER WAS PISSED 
If it was $1 to replace the bulb fine… last time I had a car inspected and they “had” to replace a bulb… it was like $15… I was like wait… let me see the car… (Had a stash of bulbs in my truck and I just put a new one in right in their shop as I was “looking at” the car…
If replacing the bulb was reasonable, fine, but $15 or $20 for a 2 minute job with a $0.25 part… come on…
Nope didnt charge them labor.
It is book labor. You think I should charge 5 bucks when In certain cars I practically take the front end off the car. If you did that in my store, I would of charged you the inspection and a reinspection.
ok, so what is book labor to pop the trunk, turn a connector 90°; pull out the bulb, put a new one in, and turn the connector 90° again, and close the trunk? no carpet to pull back, nothing to do but that? Is that really worth $20+? If so it takes me about 2 minutes to do it if I’m slow; that equates to a rate of $600/hr.
IF you’ve got to remove the whole front end to do a light-bulb; that’s another story.
Also, a safety re-inspection is only $10… still cheaper than the $$ they wanted to change the bulb!!!
If you have to take the car all apart fine. But the last shop that hit me for $15 to change a license plate bulb that didn’t even require tools to change hasn’t seen a penny of my business since. They’re also off my list of recommended shops when all my non-car friends come to me asking where they should get their car fixed.
You’d be surprised how far saying something like, “we had to change the bulb, but just charged you for the $1 part because it took less than 30 seconds to change” goes toward building a lasting customer relationship. That $15 certainly cost the shop that charged me far more than $15.
big hug… people suck… some people are born to never be happy and just have to complain about something, i’ve had cars pass inspection with flying colors but had customers go insane at the $21 i had to charge them b/c i was ripping them off by obeying the law. told one guy to get the fuck out in front of a bunch of other customers and they supported me once he left. and to everyone crying about paying to install a bulb shut the fuck up, you’ve never had to pay the overhead of a business to lose money on every inspection, $21 doesn’t cover anything… go pay uberengineering for a sticker and piss off if you don’t want to pay for a service rendered. not everyone owns a J body that takes 11 seconds to change a bulb, some require tools and time… but you wouldn’t know b/c that cavalier is the only car you’ve ever worked on since logging onto nyspeed.
WOW i wasn’t asking for you to be a dick.
sorry for the rant, i’ve been in your shoes before and it just aggravates me how stupid people can be.