Busy day today.
So much different than the slow days I’ve had lately. 😅
Funny, as busy as I was, the very first job of the day wasn’t even a job that was on my schedule for the day. A lady called who is traveling across the country, and she was at a hotel with a truck that wouldn’t start. Based on her description, it sounded to me like a likely battery issue, though she thought it was an alternator.
So I grabbed the battery, and I headed over, and indeed it did turn out to be simply a battery, so I swapped it out for her. She was happy, moving from Seattle to North Carolina, trying to get away from the crowded city and whatnot.
The second job was a 2017 Jeep Wrangler that he said the fan was blowing super loudly on. So I went over, but I wasn’t able to reproduce the issue. It worked fine without any concerns whatsoever. I drove it around and around, got it all whipped to temperature, but no issues.
I helped him with some other things, such as teaching him how to take the doors off of his wrangler. I hadn’t ever done it myself, but it was pretty self-explanatory just looking at it.
Car number three was a 2005 Lexus e330 that he wanted rear brakes done on. Everything went totally fine for the job itself, but when I went to bill him for it to, I realized I hadn’t given him the quote. I had given him a quote for both front and rear, because that’s what he had asked me to do previously, but I had told him that he almost certainly didn’t need all four, so he asked me to just do the rear. I didn’t realize until that moment that I hadn’t gotten him a quote for just the rear. It was simply half of what I had quoted for the whole job, but I hadn’t given it to him.
That wouldn’t normally have been a problem, except he missed red my quote that I had given originally, thinking that it was a lot less than what it actually was. It was in writing, via text, so is simply him just misreading it, but he wasn’t happy at all. He was mad that I hadn’t given him a quote for the rear, even though he didn’t ask me when I got there, and he was mad again because he felt that I was charging him a lot more than half The job.
I tried to show him our text conversation That included the quote for both axles, but he wouldn’t even look at it. He just walked back into his house, saying it’s fine it’s fine it’s fine, but obviously angry, handed me the extra money plus more, and sent me on my way.
I was really flustered by the exchange, both because I was concerned about my own screw up, and also because I wanted to clarify that I actually wasn’t charging him anymore than half. He had assumed it would be half, but he had not looked closely at what I had written in the text.
So I sent him a text, apologized for not giving him the quote for just the rear, and telling him that I felt really bad about it, but he just threw it all back in my face telling me that I obviously didn’t feel that bad about it because I drove away.
That was pretty discouraging because I had tried to talk to him there, but he wasn’t really willing to talk, and I wanted to make sure that he was clear that I wasn’t charging anything more than half of the original quote, but he just wouldn’t have it. I don’t think even read the follow-up texts where I send a screenshot of our text conversation trying to clarify the original quotes and what I charged. He just kept throwing it all back in my face.
So I was pretty flustered all the rest of the day, pretty discouraged, pretty down, I don’t even know what to call the feelings…
I even called him to talk about it, but he’s still through everything in my face, and I offered to go back and to work it out and to do what he was happy with, but he wouldn’t even talk about it. He just shed everything completely down.
😕
About the same time, I had another experience that hit me to my core. I had charged the lady $60 for all that work I did to help her on the car. But when she went to get the car from AutoZone, Allison asked for the $60, and the lady said that I had never told her that I was going to work on her car, and that I did it without her asking me to or without her knowing, I guess I should say.
Allison responded to her by saying that she knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t ever take advantage of somebody like that.
That felt really good, and I felt like it was accurate, until I realized that maybe I actually didn’t tell her that I was going to work on the car.
I had called her, and I told her my price, she said she couldn’t afford that, and I said I would see what I could do, but I don’t think I actually ever told her until after I was done that I had worked on her car and that I was only going to charge her $60 instead of the $255 that I normally would for the job I had done.
So that had me feeling crappy for my integrity as well. Not so much my integrity in reality, but my just aloofness I guess at what all was going on and what all I had done.
I charged her $60 because I knew that’s what she had because that’s what she had paid for the used battery, and that’s what AutoZone had refunded her, so I knew that she at least had that much, but in retrospect, I’m not absolutely positive, and I think I even didn’t tell her ahead of time that it was going to be $60.
(sigh)
So now I Get to go to Allison and let her know that actually I did screw up on that one.
That’s a little uncomfortable, because I don’t want to be seen as someone who takes advantage of people, but I think she probably knows my heart and that it was a mistake and not something on purpose.
Still… I hate anything even close to a knock on my integrity.
In that same vein, I texted the lady and let her know that I had heard that there was confusion about the price and I apologize if I had forgotten to let her know ahead of time and whatnot. I forgot all that I said specifically, but basically I apologized and asked if there was anything I could do to make it right, and she just said that it was okay.
I still feel kind of crappy. I was trying to be helpful. Going above and beyond, and actually I ended up screwing up.
Funny how often I do that. 😕
So I felt pretty darn crappy the entire rest of the day.
The fourth car was a 2004 Infiniti FX35. Actually, two of them. One of them had died while his wife was driving. That one appears to be a bad camshaft position sensor. He also had another FX35 that he had loaned to some people in need, and they had completely trashed it. So I went over to that one and helped him without one as well. I put in a battery, vacuumed squirrel acorns out of the HVAC system And what not.
Then I left without realizing that my super duper scan tool and Bluetooth connector were still in his first FX35. I drove from North Bentonville all the way to Springdale to my next job, only to realize as I was about a mile or so away from the job that I didn’t have my scan tool. So I drove all the way back up to Bentonville, grab the scan tool, and drove all the way back down.
The fifth car was an Audi TT that had been running a little roughly, so she changed the coils, but after changing the coils, it wouldn’t start at all. I went over there, my computer couldn’t connect to the cars ECU. It could connect to all the other modules in the car, but not the actual engine computer. I spent probably 30 minutes or so, maybe a little more, trying to figure out what was going on, before throwing up the white flag. It felt like it was going to be a black hole job, and as we all know, those are best done at shops where they can work on it a little bits here and a little bits there in between the other jobs that they have to do instead of getting sucked into a black hole, and then having to come back to the black hole, and then come back again, and back again, and back again.
Those jobs just don’t make sense for mobile mechanics.
She wasn’t thrilled about it, but I gave her some suggestions for shops to take it to, and I didn’t charge her a penny for going out there and doing the work that I did trying to figure it out, so hopefully that helped a little bit. I had also spent quite a bit of time with her on the phone a couple days prior trying to walk or through it so she didn’t have to have me go out there because it seems like it was going to be something simple. So hopefully, she’s not angry with me, as I went a bit above and beyond trying to help her before having to throw up the white flag.
Car number six was a 2008 BMW X5 that just needed a battery. He said he was okay with an aftermarket battery, but I always hate putting aftermarket batteries in BMWs because the scan tool doesn’t ever let me register the new battery size. And aftermarket batteries have different amp hour ratings. But whatever, I explained everything to him, God is BMW going, and headed home for the night.
My goal was to get to bed early because I was waking up really early to have a conversation with my friend Cory to help me finally work through some things and make some progress in areas where I’ve been at a standstill for so long.
Gratefully, I got everything finished, and in bed by 9:30.
Love and hugs. 😊
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 