New job :)

September 29, 2013, 08:01:28 PM

Just read Dougy_fresh's update on his new job and realized I'd forgotten to tell you all about my new job.

Long story, but gotta vent, so bear with me. This is actually the "reader's Digest" version, with many details left out to keep it as short as I could. If you wanna skip the back story, which I wouldn't blame you because I'm probably the only one interested in it, the details of the new job are in the last paragraph.

Conditions at the used car lot I was working at started deteriorating about six months ago when a new general manager was hired, and got really bad in the past month, as rumours have been circulating through the whole town that the owner of the place was looking to dump the service department. The most prevalent rumour was that he was looking to sell the service side of the business to a chain shop. This chain shop is well known for doing shoddy work, using white box parts, and putting safety stickers on anything that drove in, without even looking at it. We call that shop "Lick & Stick". This particularly angered us, because the owner of our shop would send his own cars down there for stickers because he was afraid we'd find things wrong with them, which would cost him money. This practice started after this new general manager, who immediately went to war with the service dept, accusing us of "over reconditioning" the cars. This really angered us in service because he'd sell a "lick & stick" car, then the customer would bring it back a few days later with a lengthy list of problems, really pissed off because their own mechanic looked at the car and told them it was junk. Of course the customer did not know the car was a lick & stick, they would think we safetied it, so our service manager would have a customer in his face accusing us of doing shoddy work to a car we'd never even seen. It was so bad that the dealership had to buy two cars back in the past two months because of threats to sue. Our service manager was so pissed off about this he started telling customers "that car has never been through our shop, we know nothing about it, go see the general manager if you have a problem".

The owner denied these takeover rumours (or more accurately, brushed them off without answering our questions), but they were pretty much confirmed when we got a shipment of parts that was addressed the lick & stick shop, but at our address. The service manager confronted the owner, who again brushed it off.

Meanwhile, two weeks prior to this, I was having problems with my Avalanche, which I bought there. The fuel pump shiznit the bed. I also bought a warranty when I bought the truck, and the fuel pump was a covered item, so I limped it in, had a work order written up on it, and took it apart. The general manager saw my truck in the shop and started giving the service manager a hard time about it. The service manager told me about it just after I got the truck back together. I went over to the GM's office and went up one side of him and down the other, telling him that I bought that truck with a warranty for a reason, and if he didn't want me working on it I'd take it to a shop that would appreciate the business (I also pointed out that this was a $1900 repair being paid by the warranty company, you'd think he'd have been happy to have it. The service manager certainly was). After tearing a strip off him I told him I'd have enough. I started looking for a job and made no secret of it. They were so afraid I was going to leave the day after my telling the manager off that they parked trucks in front of all the bay doors and hid the keys in the owner's office, scared I was going to come back and take my tools that night.

Fast forward two weeks, with the constant grumbling about the rumours the whole time, this shipment comes in with Lick & Stick's name on it, and the owner once again ducked the service manager's question. I had gotten several job offers and finally accepted one, and told the service manager I was giving my two weeks notice (he was expecting it, I'd used him as a reference). It was a fairly slow day, nice weather, Friday afternoon, so we all left early except the service manager, who told me he was having it out with the owner that day. Later that evening, he texted me to tell me that he had just quit on the spot, and told me to get my tools out ASAP while I still could - things were happening faster than we'd expected. I stayed up late that night turning my flat deck trailer into a utility (by adding sides), and went in the next day. I backed the trailer into my bay, loaded my tool box onto it, and handed the GM my key to the place and said "Good luck with this mess". He had, after all, just lost his service manager and best technician in less than 12 hours.

I still keep in touch with others who work there, and they are telling me constantly about how the other tech, who was recently hired and also happens to be a friend of the SM and was his "golden boy", is in way over his head and has brought the whole operation to a standstill. He can do brakes and suspension, but absolutely nothing else. He panics at the slightest hint of having to diagnose something, and flat out refused to install a Passtime GPS unit into a car this past Friday. This is a device installed into sub-prime finance purchases that allows the finance company to track the vehicle via GPS in case they need to repo it. It also disables the starter. It is extremely simple to connect: Five wires and you're golden (Power, Ground, Ignition, and then cut the vehicle's starter wire and connect each end of this cut to the two remaining wires so the unit can interrupt the starter). It is a 30-minute job, but it was above his head. The dealership ended up losing the sale over it, and the entire sales dept, including the SM, was really pissed off at him over it. He (the young tech) got so upset at the situation he left early. Naturally, I loved hearing about this...

So that ended my employment at the used car place. I started my job at the new place two days later. So this new place? Don't hate: I'm now a Honda tech. I took a job at Canada's largest Honda dealership. Make fun if you will, but Honda flat rate pays really, really well. As in one hour per side to replace brake rotors, and 3.5 to replace inner tie rod ends on a Civic (takes an hour including alignment). The job is 99% gravy, because Hondas really aren't the kind of car that requires a lot of diagnosis-type repairs (which I enjoy doing but they kill you on flat rate because while you are plugging along tracing wires and making straight time the guy next to you has done five brake jobs - this is why I left flat rate in the first place, because I was always the diagnostic guy and got mad at the "stupid" guys making all the money doing brake jobs). And another the nice thing: they don't deal with aftermarket , so even though it's a Honda dealership, NO RICERS!

New job :)

Reply #1 – September 30, 2013, 09:19:17 AM

well..
you cant fix stupid. i get it though and im glad you took matters in your own hands. looking back on it though you probably figured out that you wasted your time even talking to the new GM.

New job :)

Reply #2 – September 30, 2013, 03:35:40 PM

Sounds like you made the right choice and I'm sure the new gig will be much less stressfull all around. You won't find me giving you are hard time about working for a Honda dealership. Two of the best cars I have ever owned and wish I still had were CRX Si's. Not real fast cars, they sure were fun to drive.

Congrats on the move, hope it all works out!

New job :)

Reply #3 – September 30, 2013, 05:15:57 PM

So today I was vindicated. I've been getting texts from former coworkers all day. They went to work this morning, the owner of the dealership came over with the owner of Lick & Stick, and fired everyone. They closed the doors, and they've been putting new signs up today. Glad I got my ass out of there when I did...

New job :)

Reply #4 – September 30, 2013, 10:08:57 PM

Quote from: Thunder Chicken;422671

So today I was vindicated. I've been getting texts from former coworkers all day. They went to work this morning, the owner of the dealership came over with the owner of Lick & Stick, and fired everyone. They closed the doors, and they've been putting new signs up today. Glad I got my ass out of there when I did...

Well it was good you got out when you did. I'm betting working for Honda will be a much better experience than the old dealer. I wish more employers would treat their workers with respect instead of treating them like disposable, easily replaceable pieces.