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quit my job, fuck working on cars, need opinions


Avancier2

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I quit my job as a dealership technician yesterday. The situation was this:

I performed a major service to a vehicle, test drove when I was finished for 6 miles, everything was fine. Customer comes and gets their vehicle. Customer calls dealership back stating that when they got home coolant blew out of the engine bay. Customer stated that since they paid a lot of money for the service and other repairs, they werent lifting the hood. They said they werent comfortable with driving it back. Thats fine and understandable. Of course, the customer is now furious with the shop.

 

I get a phonecall that night from my service writer, she tells me I need to be back at the shop extra early the next day, 7 am. She says I need to go to the customer's house and fix the car. I tell her it needs to be towed back in so I can look at it. We go back and forth for a brief period and I tell her I am not going to anyone's house at 7 am, someone's house who I dont know, and someone's house who is angry at me. Besides that, what am I supposed to accomplish in someones driveway, with no tools, where I am not insured to touch the car? This is all aside from the fact that no one knows if it was even something I did to cause the problem at this point.

 

I come into work yesterday and just acted like nothing happened. Eventually our boss had a sit down meeting with us and stated that the car had an air bubble in the cooling system, a common problem with this particular model of car that even the master techs have problems with. So it was my fault, that is fine. I have no problem with admitting fault. He said that is not the problem, the problem lies in my attitude towards customer service. Basically I told him that I am not backing down from my stand point, and he tells me that he does not need me working at his shop, so I quit. Does this make sense to any of you? Who do you think is in the wrong or right? I mean, I can see it from both perspectives, but shit, it seemed rediculous to me then and still does. Everyone else I talk to agrees as well.

 

But anyway, fuck working on cars for a living. It is hard to make money at it when you are recieving flat rate pay. Warranty work doesnt help any either. How would you like to be somewhere 52 hours a week and only make 25 or 30 hours on your paycheck? No thanks. So now I am going to do something else, in the mean time I got this mega slack job doing maintenence at a hotel making what I was making on average at the dealership.

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It is liberating. At one point in my life, being a tech as a career was what I wanted. As time wore on, I became less and less interested in it. I love working on cars for fun, to hop them up and shit. I still have my thousands of dollars in tools and huge fucking snap on box. I am so over the bullshit and the politics of dealerships. I want to work at a local brewery, drive a dump truck, cement mixer, which I need a CDL for, or get the CDL and drive a big rig.

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Shut up fat ralphy you queeeeer....

 

Avancier, that sucks balls man. I wouldn't have been so excited about them telling me to go to a customer's house either. If you've got a good driving record driving big rigs can be very profitable. Convince that customer to part their car out and sell me their shit... haha... I bet at most it needs the head resurfaced and a new hg.

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He cant fire you for not wanting to come to work early, especially when he told you the night before. He cant fire you for not going outside the workarea to assess a car for the customer, especially when its outside of your workmans comp/insurance.

 

Get yourself an attourney.

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When my boss went to another position, her position opened up obviously - which I should have gotten because we are the top team in what we do in a huge geographic area, most of which comes from what I do day to day.

 

*flash back*

 

Last year our Ac went out on a side of the building, and when this ex-stripper slut of a bitch (her mom died, she slept with a doctor, and got disabilities because her mother died so she could strip and get paid from our company - 100% true story) complained she was cold. I told her she should move to let the 50 people enjoying the air be comfortable, while she's shivering like I'm her dad keeping her in a freezer next to moms cancerous colon. I got turned down for this new position because stripper whore went crazy and got written up, but our HR people saw me as "inflexible" which I am. BUT, having been turned down, within a week three people recruited me to ask if I'd come work for them, including an offer to move to another state...this is not the first time either. Ding ding ding, the person who runs my department and wanted me to take the position originally but bitched out to the HR people suddenly thinks I'm the shit and is building another team budget for me.

 

I should quit and I respect someone who would. My revenge is going back to college this fall on the company dime and bailing afterward. Also I am going to make a new team that will destroy people like those who work for me currently because I will basically hire 90% smart young guys (to make me money), and 10% hot girls (because they're hot). I hate my job...

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Shut up fat ralphy you queeeeer....

 

Avancier, that sucks balls man. I wouldn't have been so excited about them telling me to go to a customer's house either. If you've got a good driving record driving big rigs can be very profitable. Convince that customer to part their car out and sell me their shit... haha... I bet at most it needs the head resurfaced and a new hg.

 

My driving record is perfect. All I need is the CDL. If I ever get onto big rigs I'll come down there and kick it with you. Im not sure you'd want anything from this car, it was a PT Loser (PT Cruiser), that one customer with the 1G Talon I fixed is happy and driving their car. Too bad he doesnt know what he has. Probably some middle aged fuck who thinks the car is fast the way it is stock. Too bad he doesnt know he needs $1000's of dollars worth more of work. I wasnt going to marry that car, and Im sure if the man wanted to have his car done my boss wouldnt have let me done it my way. Thanks for helping me on that issue though. Hit me back up sometime.

 

Soup, I wish that was the case, but I quit. Thats why he didnt fire me, because part of him knew that I am resourceful enough to know that firing me for that shit would not be right in terms of the law. He even confirmed with me that it was a voluntary quit. Aside from this whole situation the dude was a dick anyway. Not a complete fucking jerk, but damn near it. Manipulative too. I was getting tired of working for him anyway. Nobody in the industry in my area likes him and all say the same thing about him, that he's a fucking asshole.

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Congrats on moving on.

 

So you said you enjoy working on cars for fun, souping them up and shit. I don't know anything about that industry, but my question is what are the chances of you working your way up into a really nice shop that does specialize in that? I know not every shop is like west coast customs, but how many places are there that are like that, and how hard is it to work your way up to that? if you like working on cars and you have skills in it, do it, but work up to a really nice shop (if they exist more than just on mtv) or having your own shop or something. Just some thoughts/suggestions from a guy who doesn't know anything about that field.

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My driving record is perfect. All I need is the CDL. If I ever get onto big rigs I'll come down there and kick it with you. Im not sure you'd want anything from this car, it was a PT Loser (PT Cruiser), that one customer with the 1G Talon I fixed is happy and driving their car. Too bad he doesnt know what he has. Probably some middle aged fuck who thinks the car is fast the way it is stock. Too bad he doesnt know he needs $1000's of dollars worth more of work. I wasnt going to marry that car, and Im sure if the man wanted to have his car done my boss wouldnt have let me done it my way. Thanks for helping me on that issue though. Hit me back up sometime.

 

Soup, I wish that was the case, but I quit. Thats why he didnt fire me, because part of him knew that I am resourceful enough to know that firing me for that shit would not be right in terms of the law. He even confirmed with me that it was a voluntary quit. Aside from this whole situation the dude was a dick anyway. Not a complete fucking jerk, but damn near it. Manipulative too. I was getting tired of working for him anyway. Nobody in the industry in my area likes him and all say the same thing about him, that he's a fucking asshole.

 

 

Jesus... thank goodness, I thought that was a DSM horror story for a minute... I'm glad that car worked out, and fuck the pt cruiser I'm glad it blew up.... I mean, obvious aside.... I will take his lifters though :)

 

I bet if you did start driving big rigs, ~something would bring you to Dallas, we're huge for commerce.

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Congrats on moving on.

 

So you said you enjoy working on cars for fun, souping them up and shit. I don't know anything about that industry, but my question is what are the chances of you working your way up into a really nice shop that does specialize in that? I know not every shop is like west coast customs, but how many places are there that are like that, and how hard is it to work your way up to that? if you like working on cars and you have skills in it, do it, but work up to a really nice shop (if they exist more than just on mtv) or having your own shop or something. Just some thoughts/suggestions from a guy who doesn't know anything about that field.

 

For me its really a situation of not wanting to make my career the same as my hobby. There are import performance shops scattered around in my area, but all of them are farther than I am willing to drive. Some of them I would not want to work at. Besides that, the owner/operators of those shops are usually set up with their boys working there, so its not much of a chance of me getting in. Plus I can still make more money doing something else.

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I quit my job as a dealership technician yesterday. The situation was this:

I performed a major service to a vehicle, test drove when I was finished for 6 miles, everything was fine. Customer comes and gets their vehicle. Customer calls dealership back stating that when they got home coolant blew out of the engine bay. Customer stated that since they paid a lot of money for the service and other repairs, they werent lifting the hood. They said they werent comfortable with driving it back. Thats fine and understandable. Of course, the customer is now furious with the shop.

 

I get a phonecall that night from my service writer, she tells me I need to be back at the shop extra early the next day, 7 am. She says I need to go to the customer's house and fix the car. I tell her it needs to be towed back in so I can look at it. We go back and forth for a brief period and I tell her I am not going to anyone's house at 7 am, someone's house who I dont know, and someone's house who is angry at me. Besides that, what am I supposed to accomplish in someones driveway, with no tools, where I am not insured to touch the car? This is all aside from the fact that no one knows if it was even something I did to cause the problem at this point.

 

I come into work yesterday and just acted like nothing happened. Eventually our boss had a sit down meeting with us and stated that the car had an air bubble in the cooling system, a common problem with this particular model of car that even the master techs have problems with. So it was my fault, that is fine. I have no problem with admitting fault. He said that is not the problem, the problem lies in my attitude towards customer service. Basically I told him that I am not backing down from my stand point, and he tells me that he does not need me working at his shop, so I quit. Does this make sense to any of you? Who do you think is in the wrong or right? I mean, I can see it from both perspectives, but shit, it seemed rediculous to me then and still does. Everyone else I talk to agrees as well.

 

But anyway, fuck working on cars for a living. It is hard to make money at it when you are recieving flat rate pay. Warranty work doesnt help any either. How would you like to be somewhere 52 hours a week and only make 25 or 30 hours on your paycheck? No thanks. So now I am going to do something else, in the mean time I got this mega slack job doing maintenence at a hotel making what I was making on average at the dealership.

 

For real, eh? That sounds fucked up. People get fired at my dealership all the time, but not for shit like this.

 

Your service advisor is an idiot, and so is your boss.

 

Some of the techs make some decent money at my shop. They work maybe 36 hours a week and make a decent living. The slow season is done...

 

But I hear you...I wanna get into some other shit, too, but I don't know what. University costs too much and it would be who knows how long before I even get a bachelor doing parttime..

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Oh yeah, and I used to work at a private shop and I hated it. I would come home and punch holes in walls. Stupid fucking Chinaman, I still have designs on firebombing his shop. Working right under the owner, especially a crazy, fucked up piece of shit asshole of an owner is no good.

 

The dealership I'm at now is far better, but, hey, I'm off nights and starting days next week, so I gotta get prepared to get used to being busy.

 

PS: I have a really bad back today. Thank goodness for days off and a bag o weed.

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And another thing; I hear you on the whole not making your hobby your job. Sure, I buy the odd Turbo magazine, and I like fast cars, in general, but I'm not all about it. So being a technician ain't so bad for me.

 

I've heard lots of mechanics say that after a long week of work, they don't even wanna touch their own vehicle...that they actually pay money for someone else to do things like brake service..LOL..I think I can relate.

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