whoa, hold up... begin rant...
If a shop accepts a job, they have an obligation to complete the work as promised, period.. "good customer" , new customer, it doesnt matter, nor does the source of the parts, the shop decided they were capable and willing to do the requested work, they need to be accountable if they screw it up. I am so sick and tired of the "good customer" argument..its like saying its okay to screw someone because they arent a regular customer. If theyre getting paid for their work, then everyone who brings them work is a "good customer." If they dont want to use the customers parts, they need to turn that job down. there is no excuse in my book for shoddy work. if i bring my car to you and ask for x to be done, i expect it done, on time, on estimate, if there is an issue, i expect a call, a recommendation and options or a question if something is unclear, if my mechanic cant grasp that, then they wont be my mechanic anymore.. and dont charge me for your learning curve, if you took the job and had to figure out how to do it, , making it take longer, then that part is on you, i paid for a knowledgeable professional, if id wanted to pay for education id send the neighbor kid to night school to learn how to fix my car..
A friend, who was like a father to me *(RIP Mr. Bill..), and also had several shops once told me "the only bad customers are the one who don't pay their bills!" sure his regular customers got some special attention on occasion, like not being charged for scanner pulls or other simple diagnostics, but he felt stongly that if someone was taking the time to come to his shop, whether he knew them or not, he was going to do everything he could to fix their problem and make sure they left feeling they had the best service and a fair deal. he also thought the book labor rates in many cases were ridiculous, and refused to charge an hours labor for a true 15 minute job, he did always round up to the nearest half hour, but always tried to be as fair as possible.. he had five different shops going at one point, and they were always busy. several times i saw him fire his shop managers for overcharging customers, or inflating bills...
I helped him get his last shop going , after he sold off the rest, and learned a hell of allot from him. to this day i still kick myself for not buying in as a partner when he asked me... oh, and he also was extremely detailed in his estimates, as a result, he always came in under the estimate, if the car didn't need a part on the estimate, it didn't go in and he'd deduct the item from the bill.. if only one in ten shops worked this way, people wouldnt be so scared to take their cars to them..unfortunately,id be surprised if there's one of 100 that work that way.
im sorry (actually im not, its just an expression) but the reason most dont trust the repair shops is because across the board, they screw people, it is the standard, not the exception. on the rare occasion i do need to use a shop, i always test them first, the last time i did this a shop created about 2k worth work that i needed "urgently", unfortunately it was all items that were recently replaced, fixed or updated. they slated every clean part under the car as needing to be replaced, told me i had broken parts that werent, needed hoses that were brand new , ect. and this was a "well regarded" performance shop. i pulled my car out of there so fast it probably created dust devils..
there is one shop on the entire east coast i trust, ONE! I think thats pretty sad...and i cant even give them my business as there 1200 miles away...they arent cut rate, and they arent kiss arse, but are straight up, do great work, and back up what they promise.. thats all it takes, but so many dont get it....
rant over...