2003 Ford F250 - 6.0L HPOP Issues? FIXED

[steven kiser]

as far as the "so and so can do it cheaper" crapolla goes i'll tell them i can do it cheaper to but with that comes less quality. at this point i tell them flat out that i'll button it up and they can come and get it and take it to the other shop. case closed, i'm dead serious. i flat out don't care if the customer tells me to just go ahead and do it. i don't want them to feel they're doing me any favors. i've had bottomers come and pick up their vehicles and take them to the other shop and have that shop call me and ask me if they can borrow a specific tool that is needed to repair the vehicle. i just smile to myself and tell them no. i can be a bit of a vindictive s.o.b. and i've driven buy the "other" shop weeks later and the vehicle has still been there. i call (oh ya, with a smile on my face and a giggle in my voice) the customer under the guise of bettering my shops customer relations and competitive views. i really enjoy trying to make them squirm as much as i can. i know i've mentioned it before but i had a beemer in years ago with a heater core/blower motor issue. my price was to high and it was taken to another shop for repair. a few days later i got a call from that shop and asked how much i would charge them to repair the car. i tacked on a hundred bucks to the price i quoted the person when it was in my shop. i got the job and did the work. a few months later i ran into the vehicle owner and asked how it worked out and she told me that she was very happy with the work of the other shop. i asked if it was done cheaper than i quoted. she told me that it was and i was a rip off. i kind of smiled and shook my head and told her that i just couldn't see how it was done cheaper than i quoted. she assured me it had been and again said i was a rip off. so i said i was glad she was happy with the quality of the work since the other shop had subbed the work to me but since i charged them a hundred bucks more so they either lost money on the job, up sold phantom work to cover the added expense and show a profit, or she wasn't telling me truthfully about the cost of the repair. i ended with that it really didn't matter to me what she paid. the thing that was important was she was satisfied with the quality of the work.

[NPASC_mike]

That's a good one I'll have to remember that one...lol

Here's a quick one from about 15-16 years ago. Running a fairly new shop, I had a lady come to me for a "second opinion". She had just come from a Firestone store where they they told her that her oil leak was caused by a bad oil pump. Even went so far as to have her sign a waiver stating if she drove it with the bad pump and the engine failed they could not be held liable. Now, she DRIVES it over to me about 9 miles away. Shows me the paper and the estimate to fix this "oil leak" and skip. Gauge reads fine... hmmmm... Pop the hood, valve cover gaskets are leaking a little on the plug wires on a 90-91 Taurus 3.0. I explain to her that if her oil pump was bad, there would be no oil in the top of the head to leak out the valve cover.. " I see" she says. I tell her to leave it for a few hours and come back and see me that afternoon after giving her a quick quote for the gasket and a minor tune up. Clean the throttle valve, fix the leak, plugs and wires, shes tickled pink says it runs better than it ever has and only spent a cpl of hundred bucks. From that day forward she always brought her families cars to me. and never questioned anything.
One day she has her husbands new Nissan Altima towed in, no start. At that time I was in a new world with imports. I messed with it for a day or so, and finally told her she was going to have to take it over to the Nissan dealer. I told her this is what I THINK the problem is but I cant prove it. So she says fine, tows it to Nissan and two days later it's back in my lot with a new distributor on the front seat and a note saying "Nissan says its the distributor, call me after you have it running, THANKS!"

She's still on my Christmas Card list.

[steven kiser]

i'm always glad to find mechanics or shop owners with integrity that are willing to follow through with their convictions even if it means loosing money. it's a rare quality. sometimes it means surviving on craft macaroni and cheese or hot dogs and beans. speaking for myself here i remember mixing left over hot dogs and mac & cheese knowing it could have been steak if i did the brake job on the ford van that was brought into my shop for a second opinion. so there i sat enjoying my meal and thinking the van owner was eating steak tonight because it was affordable because i showed him he didn't need 800 bucks worth of work. a week later he came into my shop with a gift certificate for a local top shelf steak restaurant along with his boss who was looking for a good honest reliable shop he could rely on to maintain his fleet of 30 trucks and mini vans. that was over 10 years ago and that single act of honesty has blossomed into more than a few dedicated customers. as for that company goes the fleet manager left to take care of the fleet of a larger company and we work on their vehicles as well. so eating the mac and hot dogs that night instead of steak and taters has given me the option of having prime rib whenever i want to. on occasions when i need a balance check i'll put together that meal and bring myself back to that turning point. my wife has issues with that heart attack meal but will stifle because of the significance of it. something so simple can have such positive results and i actually enjoy the meal now. if i really want to piss her off i toast a couple pieces of white bread, butter it, put a boiled hot dog in it along with sour kraut and chili pepper. makes for a long night with the exhaust fans in the bed room running on high.

[NPASC_mike]

LMAO. Amen!