carpediemracing 

No one really. Our (similar type chain) competitors are worse. Hard to believe. I suppose maybe a different flavor company, like a privately owned company, but the more I think about it, the more I think I'm done with this type of automotive service (where people are highly suspicious of anything you do, or don't understand, and don't want to understand, our side of the story.)

Just today:
"Hi, I need an oil change."
"Well, I can't do it right now because we're pretty swamped and I have no free techs and I have no free bays." (typically we're booking 5-8 days out)
"But it only takes 5 minutes!"
"Actually, it takes about 30 minutes, and that's 30 minutes I don't have right now."
"Oh, come on, you can always work in a small job."
"But that means the other job takes an extra 30 minutes or whatever. What am I going to tell that customer when their car isn't ready on time because I kept having the tech 'work in' some small jobs?"

That's when I disengage now.

On the other hand, if I feel like it, if the person isn't pushy or rude or disrespectful or whatever, I'll do everything I can to help them. There was this one couple that came in when we were super busy, asked me to check their tires because one looked dangerous. For some reason I told them yes, and went out to the car to look at the tires. The one they were worried about was cut through the cords on the sidewall, and was worn down to the cords on the inner edge. There were two nails in another tire. And a third tire was very low in tread (3/32"?). One tire looked pretty new. Ends up they were on a trip to visit with friends, one of their friends actually died, they went to the funeral, and now they were driving back to Baltimore (we're in CT!). Now This was a rental, and rental companies are notorious for taking forever to approve work (I had one flat tire come in on a Friday - Enterprise didn't approve the repair until Wednesday!!!! and I had to hear this customer complain to us, threatened to report us to corporate to get us fired, etc, and it's not something we have control over). This couple was the opposite. They were polite, quiet, and although obviously a bit stressed, instead of taking it out on me, they started talking between them about looking for a place to stay, etc. They didn't push me, didn't whine, nothing.

So I told them it may not happen but I'll give it a really good try.

I called the rental company (fleet company), put the call on speaker (because I was on hold), and worked around the call on hold. I was on hold for a long time, maybe an hour, maybe more, and finally connected. The couple could hear it. Then after a minute or so the call dropped. I was stunned, and told the couple what just happened. So I called back. Hold forever. Call dropped. It was horrible. Happened a couple times.

The couple told me to put the tires on and they'd pay for it and try and get reimbursed. The reimbursement bit seemed doubtful to me, and I told them that, but I think they knew themselves and they knew they needed to get going. So I had the guys put on 3 tires (cheap ones because a rental company won't spring for good tires), the couple paid for them, and they were on their way after maybe 5 or 6 hours.

They were very, very grateful. They were kind. They were respectful. And they waited super patiently. I empathized with them and I appreciated their demeanor under duress. So I helped them as best as I could.

That was in April. I got this letter today:



I don't know what kind of job I want to do but I know what I want to do in that job - it's to help people without worrying about extracting profit from them. It's to help people that want reasonable help, like they know they need help, it's not just so they don't have to do something. I like working one on one with people. I like fixing problems. I just need to figure out what kind of job allows me to do this.