My bad experience at Camden GTI

So having been absent from the forum for a few months with family commitments and running the business, looks like you lot have been having fun on here without me!

In this instance, the customer got the oil supplied and changed and a filter from our stock. If he had categorically just asked for the oil change, then maybe we would have done it at an hourly rate. However, he wanted the book stamped which then brings my warranty into play.

We are warranting the work is done to a standard and have all the insurances and licences to back up this guarantee.

The hourly rate of $110 is not our pay rate, i wish, but rather reflects a proportion of GST, workers compensation insurance, public liability, licence fees, insurance, workers wages, taxes and super. This is how we arrive at that figure.

If someone tells us how to do our job and says I want just this part fitted, not what we recommend, I write on the invoice "fit part supplied by customer" and there is no warranty. Or we just send them away to fix the car themselves.

In this instance, had I been there, I would have told the customer to have a seat and let my professionals do their job, or buy some oil and top it up himself. I was actually on a mountaintop on a family skiing holiday when I got the call. I asked my mechanic if we were stamping the book as if so, its a service. That`s why it was billed as such.

Winston Churchill said it best, you can please most of the people most of the time.

If the customer had got in touch with me and expressed his concerns, I would have sent him some free stuff to ease his pain, now its all over the net, I will just have to try and keep the rest of our customers happy.