Originally Posted by
Mark
Apparently, I struck a nerve! I apologize for that. There's nothing wrong with a dealership charging $25 to replace a rear wiper blade. Likewise, there is nothing wrong with someone stating one can be bought for $10, & you can do it yourself in under a minute.
Little gestures cost very little & have a huge impact on customers. I see this all the time!
One of our local mechanics is wonderful. I had a brake light come on (my former 2000 Honda CRV) years ago. He topped of my brake fluid in his parking lot, problem solved, no charge. I was working on my daughters car one time, & I didn't have the right tool to get the job done. I drove over to his shop. He loaned me the right tool, & I fixed my daughter's car in his parking lot. These are just a few examples.
Our driving school has some major changes & we lost the mechanics that service our cars. Guess where I directed the owner of our driving school. My local mechanic now has access to all our vehicles. I just call him up, & he services the vehicles, charges it to my driving school credit card, & leaves the paid slip in the car back at school. I eventually mail to the slips to our main office located in another town. He picks up the cars at school & returns them when done. I do nothing. It's a win/win for both of us.
I'm sure some dealerships are better than others, & I was not trying to say your dealership was a bad one. I do think simple gestures are noticed, & it has a huge impact on customer satisfaction.
One last example - several forum members have expressed free TPMS service being done @ Discount Tires. If Discount Tires has the tires you want, some members may want to go there. I've taken note of that, even though I don't live near a Discount Tire store.
Dealerships do have a lot of overhead costs. Charging for shop rags when services is done is probably justified. If someone is ok with that, I have no problem with that. I also don't mind considering/expressing other options.
And if somebody is in for an actual service, I have no problem dropping the time on a wiper blade. We sell them for... $17.50 or so, install is supposed to pay .1 at $13.00, we do em for under $25. If somebody is here getting a few fluids flushed or is in for a major repair, I've got no issues dropping that .1. I feel like I have a few other comments to reply to... probably expand on this in the next one.
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View my fuel log 2018 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 43.5 mpg (US) ... 18.5 km/L ... 5.4 L/100 km ... 52.2 mpg (Imp)