Why do people have a negative view of repair facilities?

Ok, here is a little story of incapable mechanics. My friends 2001 ZR2 was taken to the dealer for bad U-joints. They were replaced, ok. About 3 weeks later he noticed some trans fluid on the ground. He brought it to me and I found the tail shaft seal was leaking. I changed it for him. He never said anything more. About a year later he calls me from Ohio and said his truck wont move, he was on the freeway and it just stopped going. Lo and behold the T-case had burned up. He takes it to the dealer down there and there was no fluid in the t-case. $3000.00 bill. 3 weeks later the new t-case was leaking fluid out of the tail shaft. I was supsicious of this and pulled his driveshaft. I noticed the yoke was damaged right where the seal rides. This damage was the culprit for tearing the seals which in turn ran the t-case out of fluid burning it up. The yoke was damaged by the dealer who changed the u-joints. So, that winter we go to deer camp. We needed the 4 wheel so he engages it and we get a god awful clunking from the front end. Its the front driveshaft. So I go back underneath to see what the problem is. Guess what I found? The cv joint on the rear of the front driveshaft has pry and smash marks on it where the Ohio "mechanic" took a pry bar to it to get the T-case out. A little knowledge would have gone along way for that not to happen. There is a snap ring that needs to be removed to get the shaft off, but oh no, lets just pry the piss out of it. Then he went to get the door hinge pins replaced from a maintenance shop. He gets the truck back and the lower door sill was crushed from the jack the moron used to hold the door up. That was in South Carolina. I told my friend not to go back to any shop and that he and I will fix the shiit ourselves. So, I have. From the intake gaskets to head gaskets, we have done it and no going back to have to fix the half azz repairs by so called mechanics.

most vehicle owners have a very poor understanding of how their vehicles work and therefore know that they are vulnerable to being taken advantage of, and at the same time far to many shops are too busy trying to get things done quickly and move on to take the time to properly explain to people what they are going to do and why. I believe that most all of the problems people have with repair facilities are caused by miscommunication

and that goes both ways when a customer tells the service writer that they hear a noise and the mechanic takes it out and the exhaust is loud so they replace the muffler then the customer pays $300 and drives away only find out that the rattling swaybar links are still rattling, the customer is now angry because they spent all this money and their car is not fixed, but they did a poor job of describing their complaint, because the exhaust noise grew slowly the customer never noticed it and didn't care about that noise but how is the tech to know that

then there is the fact that with so many intertwined systems and electronics controlling everything, many problems do not have clear cause and effect anymore leading to a higher than acceptable rate of misdiagnoses in the industry and how often when a shop replaces a $500 part that doesn't fix the problem does the shop eat that mistake, most of them don't and understandably that makes for irate customers

i really don't believe most places or technicians are out to take advantage of anyone, but misunderstandings and legitimate mistakes are rarely handled appropriately leaving customers feeling as though they've been taken advantage of

Most people, like myself, have their most frequent auto maintenance/repair work done at a local quicky oil change facility. Once, the place I went to left the top off the coolant refill while doing an oil change/fluids check. Not far up the road, it boiled over. I came back to find my cap and of course they couldn t find it so they rigged another. I had to replace the entire system. I changed places. Another time the cap on the oil drain was left loose enough to fall off causing the vehicle to lose all the new oil. Yet a third place replaced the oil filter and left it so loose it started to leak profusely. When I got it to another place they told me that the oil filter was ready to fall off. What? Oh, and of course there are the two times I have had the oil drain cap stripped, once it could be redrilled (?) and the second time with yet another facility had to cut something and use a different cap and.....yada, yada, yada. That is just maintenance, now repairs, how about how I was quoted $700 for labor and the actual labor suddenly got to $1300? I am not inexperienced. I have had to replace a clutch, entire braking systems, a transmission and countless other things. I have been driving for 44 years. I have owned 13 cars (off the top of my head). I always trust the owner/head mechanic. It is the guys that float from company to company, who don t really car if your car is going to lose all the oil because while they were changing it they were in an in depth argument with their girlfriend, who I have a negative view of. And unfortunately, they are the ones who lose good shops, good customers.

In 1984 I bought a Dodge 600ES and when I looked at the maze of hoses for the feedback carburetor I decided I would have to leave repair to the dealer. Sure enough, soon after the warranty expired it failed emissions on high CO at cruise. I took it to the dealer and was told it needed a new carburetor for $600+. I took the car back, troubleshot it myself and replaced the fuel pump for $20 and half an hour labor. Problem solved - and I realized I could never let untrusted people troubleshoot my cars again. I'm a senior IS tech for a Fortune 100 company by trade, but if I want it done right I do it myself.

Because many technicians in our industry have little to no respect for the customer, and see a customer as a dupe to take advantage off by inflating estimates and performing unnecessary repairs. Many shops also will routinely try to fleece the insurance companies with inflated estimates , which increases deductibles for customers and therefore creates a very negative impression. It is this greediness that gives the auto repair industry a bad name and causes people to get new cars instead of supporting the industry by having their existing cars repaired.

Because they have been screwed over one to many times. Even if it's once that's enough. A lot people don't realize all the procedures to fix a car, so if you miss one little thing or whatever they'll automatically assume you don't know what's going on. Some people are very tough on shops because there expectations are very high and with the expectations so high there is almost no room error.

Having being the AUTO and OVER the Road Trucks and Air Craft world for the last 35 years i know why. their are so many shops. that all they care about is money. and they hire people that don't care and are not trained in their field. and try to sell more parts then needed. most Mech get paid by the book time. so if they can sell more book time then they will make more money. and most people don't realize that when a good mech does work on their car at times we do fine more then one problem to fix . i Always tried to explain to them what i found and and why it needs a new part.

the driver has no idea of the work that is needed to repair a car. I go in with a small dent and i hear 700 bucks. and there are so many different kinds of cars, there is no way we think you can fix them all properly.