Some little things that annoy me about working in the motor trade:

1. People thinking that you treat a female customer any different from a male customer ie; Telling a woman they need parts fitted at £xx and getting "ah your just telling me that cos im a woman" and sometimes their male relation/partners coming in to say "yeah youve told her that cos shes a woman"

Why would i or anyone else treat a woman any differently? A cars a car no matter what the sex of a driver is!!

2. People calling in not knowing there registrations;
"Hi can i book my car in for a service please?"
"Yeah certainly whats the registration Sir/Madam?"
"Oh i knew you were gonna ask that, wait till i go get it"

Well why the fuck didnt you get it before you called if you knew i was gonna ask?

3. Old people think their always right;
"Hi son can i book my Vauxhall Clio in for some work?"
"Emmm is it a Vauxhall Corsa or a Renault Clio Sir?"
"No its a Vauxhall Clio"
"Sir you dont get a Vauxhall Clio"
"Son im telling you its a Vauxhall Clio ive got my paperwork in front of me here"

4. Getting the blame for any problems following the garage visit ie;
"My car was in last week getting a new exhaust and now the passenger seat doesnt tilt forward"

What the fuck? Some people do not have a clue

5. People who insist on coming in late to pick up cars. They know the closing times. I have a home to go to people

Really have to have the patient of a saint with some people cos at the end of the day they do pay the wages. I think a lot of problems are caused by peoples misunderstanding of things. Even after some eplanation they will still go away picking up something completely different from what you said

Anyway, RANT OVER. Who else has little irritations like these in the motor trade??

 

i take it you have had a bad day mate every job as there down side

 

Yeah it was really slow today and i was so bored and i got number 2 above about 3 times in a row and i thought it was really annoying. Then i started to think of other anooying things, just to keep myself busy

 

I had a bloke today telling me his rear pads shouldnt be down to the metal on his 23k miles vectra and they should be replaced under warranty, and that rear pads should last atleast 100k...

 

I had a bloke today telling me his rear pads shouldnt be down to the metal on his 23k miles vectra and they should be replaced under warranty, and that rear pads should last atleast 100k...

 

When i worked in a garage,

Things like, when you have a bad stage of the wrong parts being delivered,

People not leaving there locking wheel nut keys in there cars or telling you where they are and you ask reception and they dont no either.

people moaning why a job is taking so long why dont you come do the fucker then if it seems that easy

just little things lol

 

Thats another annoying thing, most people think that a warranty covers EVERYTHING. Usually down to bullshit salesman telling them this to try and sell warranties etc....

One of my colleagues today (Honda service - Im Toyota) had a customer who had went on holiday for 7 weeks & left the boot of his 08 plate Civic open, which in turn kept the boot light on, draining the battery. When told he would have to pay to charge the battery he was like "Why is it not under warranty?" Lol. Cleary not Hondas fault or a manufacturing defect. just carelessness

 

Fucking classic that one.

I hate when people phone and ask for the next available slot for an MOT.
And then when you say "next Monday" they ask if there is anything before then.

Do they thing I said next Monday for a fucking joke!!!

Thats why I'm not allowed to answer the phone at my Dads garage anymore.

 

"vauxhall clio"

 

my brother used to work at a charlie browns garage a bloke came in and said the suspension had broke when he told him price he said that too much can you chop a pogo stick down and fit that my brother nearly wet himself with laffter always makes me laff that story

 

something that really pisses me off

had a KA in at work rear wheel bent quarter damaged a bit and need a new corner bumper.

so it has new axle stubs drums etc repaired quarter fitted new bumper ............

all good i thought. got told to wash it over and bring it up.
didnt have much on at work (theres some sort of cash crisis i hear )

so i washed it
waxed it
tyre shine on wheels
cleaned leather seats
hoovered carpet as it was full of dog hairs
wiped all interior plastics over with dash wipes

basically made a fuckin nice job of this car in every way

gaffer complains theres some dust on it fro the car park after its been left there all day
and the customer says ............"oh yeah it looks ok, but i thought you might have replaced the knackered ford badge on the boot. would you throw that in?"

A no frebees !!

B i cant keep track of dust

 

waste of time warranty claims that you know are down to the customer but they insist that you get the manufacturer to check the car over. i remember a CLS55 come in looking very low at the rear, tops of the rears wheels tucked in by 6" or so. Diff and whole subframe dragging on the floor. tyres bald 6months old car

what happened sir? - i just parked it up and then it was like this in the morning????

on the ramp, front bumper mounts smashed, exhausts, gearbox etc scraped sills scraped all the subframe mounts ripped from the body


just to clarify what happened sir? - well that must be a manufacturing defect! I WANT A NEW REPLACEMENT CAR I'M NOT WILLING TO MESS AROUND WITH THIS OBVIOUSLY SHONKY VERSION YOU HAVE GIVE ME

 

I like it when they go in the office sees no one is there
so comes in the body shop and asks if any 1s in the office

 

 

I put my car into reg Vardy ford in East Kilbride for warranty work on my Fiesta a year ago. I was told to phone back at lunchtime, which I did. At that point they had not found the fault, but speculated it was electrical and accused me of 'hacking the wires behind the radio' as I fitted my own head unit. I explained that I simply plugged my new radio in with the supplied ISO connector so the wires hadn't been hacked about.
Returned to pick my car up later in the afternoon, problem was sorted. I didnt know what was wrong with it, but I never queried it.
Went to use air-con one day this summer and found it not to be working again, same problem as I had before.
I looked under the bonnet to find a wire hanging loose.
Upon further investigation, the fault that was rectified under warrenty was a dodgy cable to a pressure switch, which they had promptly cut the end of the loom, twisted the cables together and wrapped insulation tape around them and connected them with spade connectors into the pressure switch and siliconed up the plug on the switch.
I understand that it would have cost £300 for a new engine bay loom as there was no sub-loom, but to accuse me of hacking wires after their shoddy work beggars belief in my book.

 

I get people coming in and asking to speak to a 'salesman' then when i approach them, they repeat 'salesman' when i explain i am a 'sales person' occasionally they still say they would rather speak to a 'salesMAN'

 

People who you specifically tell, your car will be X amount of days in the bodyshop but if its done any sooner we will give then a call, so they then think its a good idea to ring everyday to see if its done yet

People who think you can "just T-Cut" out a scratch which is down to metal or bumper scuffs. Then insist they have seen it done or done it before. You do it then you fuckwit

 

i must get about 20 of these a week and the conversation usually starts with " its mr smith, 123 the high st, london se12 3ab" so then i ask "whats the registration number mr smith?" and they do the " i knew you were gonna ask me that" after going to all the trouble of giving me all of their name and adress etc when the computer system would have all that if they just gave their reg!

and these types of booking always happen when its busy and take ages to get them to explain their problems and get off the phone.

and i swear some people have nothing better to do than invent problems that simply arent there or are due to their driving. (like when you get to show someone why their clutch went and show them a box full of soot and a fooked clutch plate - and they still dont understand why its not warranty)

 

it not custemers that piss me off its smokers

i go to work to work & i do all day normaly on shit jobs that you get no time for.
most of the controllers smoke & about half the tech's also smoke

they go outside 2 or 3 times every hour for a fag & after there brakes they got out for another one
the tech's mostly do servicing so get loads of time for not much work & never get anything said the them while they waste around 2 hours a day outside

if i sit for a couple of mins over my brake time i get moaned at if i have a chat with the parts lads i get moaned at then at the end of the week after spending loads of time fixing problem jobs i get moaned at for not getting many hours in

its like the more you know & are capeble of the worse they treat you

 

Motability is my main pet hate at work.....approx 80% of Motab people that I see seem to think that the world owes them everything and that their car is the most important car on the whole site. They have been extremly rude in many cases to reception staff whilst throwing their demands around also.

Another pet hate is slow-ass parts departments....even more annoying when they ignore the back counter and just concentrate on in-coming calls, normaly from other garages which is in effect our opposition!

 

I would agree with that. Motability is a great scheme in theory, but as said the reality is 80% of them are actual scum. Theyre horrible people. Theyre actually called Judys up here, cos most of them come in and say D'you dae mobility? Sounds like Judy Mobility in scottish accent and they come out with the most rubbish ever eg, you have to keep there car in to order parts - "Eh son am entitled to a courtesy car through Mobility i know my rights" - not true. They are entitled to a car after 7 days.

Its such a thankless job most of the time. Sayin that i did get 3 tubs of tablet from a nice wee old lady the other day Its always great when the wee old dear/man slips you a fiver or that and thanks you for your help. Its greatly appreciated and really makes my day. One wee guy gave me a can of special brew wrapped up in a carrier bag he had sat in the waiting area holding for an hour while his mot was being done

 

i fucking hate garages who call up with issues like WRONG parts,,, yet cant be arsed to tell you anything else other than " there totally wrong mate ",,,,,,,, yeah cheers for that REALLY helpfull,,,,

they yoy ask " whos calling " ,,,,,,,,, the reply " ask anyone in the office, they all know me, been dealing with you for years ",,,,,,,,, again mate,,,,, ill ask,, BUT THROW ME A FUCKING BONE HERE AND GIVE ME A FUCKING NAME,,,,,,, you understand how a fucking phone wotks dont ya"

OR the garages who cant be ased to look at a fucking plate so say " its a 1,2 clio, about a 200ish",,,,,, yeah mate ever wonder WHY you get the wrong parts first time you fucking lazy moron

i no longer deal with people who cant be bothered to give me a engine code or a reg,,, as IMO if you cant be ased to get the reg of your car,,,,, are you REALLY gonna buy the parts or just bored at work and wanna call a few places

OH and the MOST anoying cock i had this week,,, guy wants rear cylinders for a 98 vitara import, we DONT have them listed, got BEFORE but not 95 onwards,,,,,, tell the bloke " sorry mate, main dealer"

I GOT A FUCKING CALL FROM HIM TODAY COMPLAINING THEY DONT FIT, the prick call BACK UP telling the salesmen " there all the same" and now hes bought them,,,,,,,,, AND GUESS WHAT,,,,, THEY DONT FUCKING FIT",,,,, just a shame i answered the phone cause the fucking lies the cock came out with " i gave the bloke the reg,,,, how hard can it be, iv taken the day off to strip the car down"

yeah mate,,,,,, what about when I told you we dont do em, and yoy said " the earlier ones are the same " and i refused to sell you them AS I KNEW THEY AINT,,,,,, why call back asking for them again

" cause you must do them"

yeah,,,, wonder why youn just wasted a few hours of your like and 5 mins of mine

 

oh and people who give the wrong reg and REFUSE to check, saying " your computer is wrong, "

mate this is hooked up to DVLA,,, if its wrong then you how the fuck have you taxed the car your driving,,,, look at the front of the car, little white plate in the middle of the bumper,,,,, read them letters out to me rather that the doctors/arabic writing on the back of a fag box

 

Yep that pisses me right off!

 

oh and the LAST ONE

people who dont understand the phonetic alphabet

Z for xylaphone
Q for cucumber
N for nike
k for car
F for phone
N for nun
O for orange,,,,,,,,,,,, even though its a zero
double U,,,,,, rather than "uniform uniform"


or asking people tp SAY A WORD THAT THE LETTER STARTS WITH
F,,,,,,,,,,,,, F,,,,,,,,,F,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,F,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,F,,, ,,,,,,,,,,

no mate, a WORD , is it F for fish OR S for sierra ,,,,,,,
" no F,,,,,, ITS F,,,,, you no speka das engalis,,,,,,,,

,,, recheck and its a S



ALSO hate people who ask for parts by saying what its next to,,,,, but dont actually know how to discribe the part or what it ACTUALLY DOES..... mate we sell car parts,,,, WE DONT READ MINDS OR DO MAGIC TRICKS,,,,, not asking for a part number,,,,,, just give us a clue what the fucking thing does and dont talk about stuff that its near OR what household things look " almost like a dishwasher tablet,,, but its not square, its black and its got either wires or a pipe goine to it",,,,,,,,,,,,,, what the fuck you washing your dishes with ffs

 

I have had to suffer this for 30 years lol

 

it was alot easier back then though as there wasnt as many choises about

 

or what about the idiots who ask " do you mind comming out the car and ill show you it"
"
,,,,, i wear a suit to work,,, its raining and you wanna show me something UNDER THE CAR,,,,,,, .......... YES I FUCKING MIND,,,,,,DO YOU MIND TAKING THE PART OFF AND BRINGING IT inside MY NICE HEATED/DRY/CLEAN OFFICE SO I DONT GET MY 100 QUID SHIRT COVERED IN SHITE FROM THE ROAD AND HAVE TO WEAR IT FOR THE NEXT 6 HOURS LOOKING LIKE,,,,,,, WELL LOOKING LIKE YOU,,,, SIR

 

Try having to deal with taxi drivers.

I know not all of them are imagrants but most are.

They phone up and ask for a taxi plating test and when you tell the next available slot is on day X. They alwasy say "But my plate runs out 2 days before and they wont be able to work.
Well they know for 6 bloody months when it runs out.
Or they turn up 40 minutes late saying they had to do run to Luton/Heathrow for a fair. 30 minutes or so before the test. And then cant understand why we wont test it.
"WE ARE BOOKED UP YOU FUCKING PLUMB!!!".
Or they try to barter the price set by VOSA for the test.

Only a few more reasons why I'm not allowed to answer the phone.

 

Worked in sales for a bit and the worst thing ever... by a mile... is having a shit boss.

Was at a John R Weir dealership that dealt with Chrysler/Jeep stuff as well as Subaru/Isuzu and we got a new boss in. Late 50s, about 5ft, about 4ft wide, whiney nasel accent, female and had been with the company since its beginning. She was from fleet sales before she took over the general manager position, thought she was the best salesperson that had ever lived, believed she was attractive and 'still had it' despite being known throughout the dealership as, The Bulldog.

Classic moment I'll always remember, was one morning after spouting shite in a weekly sales meeting, giving us shite feedback about sales, leads, etc etc etc... spotted a customer pull up outside, waddled out from the office to intercept the poor person before they'd taken more than a couple of steps through the door.
Within 30 seconds she's come over to my desk with the customer, and said "We're looking at a 4-5 week delivery for PT Cruiser Diesel Autos aren't we Grant but" and I said "We'll be waiting longer than that Frances, they dont produce a PT Cruiser Diesel with an automatic gearbox"... which produced an extremely powerful stare from The Bulldog and won me a 'talking to' in her office once the customer had left.

I dont truely hate many people, but I honestly would have loved to jump on her head after the way she treated me. The perfect example of a fucking cunt.


Cheers,
Grant

 

The public in genral are twats, remember being a woolies when i first lift school on the CD counter, had some pricks in there....
Customer "This fucking CD dont work?" me: "and", Cus "i want you to sort" Me: "Sorry i dont make CD's" Cus "Wheres you mgr" Me: "Fuck OFF" - That was my last day pmsl

 

Us Motability customers are treated badly sometimes too you know. Kwikfit for example; whenever I have taken my car their, there has been a three hour waiting list and they always tell me my tires are fine.

Ford told me to take my Tires to be changed as they were on the limit. So, I went to Kwik Fit to be told they're was loads of life left in them. Went back the next week as I had a nail to be told they was past the limit. I knew they was anyway, why would Ford lie? Then he said the only explanation is I have been doing handbrake turns. Even though it was the front tires. What's all that about?

I once went in and told them I was not Motability, when they asked and was told my tracking was out, needed new tires all round and more. Then, when I said I was motability, it all changed.

Lying fucking scum.

 

Worst thing about this trade is that every fucker thinks there a mechanic and tries to tell you how to do your job and they always know better as a mate of a mate told them so

 

lol i do this but 90% im more qualified that the monkey turning the spanners and they look at me like im one of "those" people and i explain i just cant be bothers to do the work id rather do my own job and pay them for there time and facilities lol

thankfully i now have a mate in honda one with his own MOT place and one with his own general garage now all i need is a someone in a body shop and i wont have to deal with idiots that try it on

 

.. and the tuning trade is 1000% worse than the normal motor trade

"My mate reckons........"
"I read on the internet........"
"But.. why?....."
"Someone said......"

 

I think the inter web has a lot to answer for.

 

the insuance company database had my car details wrong as they had it down as a mk2 and not a mk3 as it's got a private plate on it, so not all as perfect as you may think

or the halfords lady who said "don't worry sir, just giveme the reg plate and we will find out what part it is"

so i gave her the plate and she said "i'm sorry sir, we don't have it listed, can you tell me what vehicle is it please?"

this was AFTER i'd told her that due to it being on an irish plate, it wouldn't be listed on their computers

and then she asked me for the engine size

"why do you need to know the engine size if i'm after a wing mirror?"

"ok, we don't seem to be showing them so we probably don't do them sir"



but i know what you mean about everything else

 

cause most of the catalogues are based ont the MAM look up,,,, so to search the parts you need to add the details manually

also SOMETIMES random info can tell you about the cars spec,,,, what exhaust is on a clio 1.2 for example can be narrowed down by " has it got abs" just as the same models with ABS seem to vary the exhaust..... though it does make you sound a idiot

 

fair enough ginge, but be it short or long arm'd wing mirrors, the glass is still the same

isn't it?

 

its the way to access the cat to get the infomation though, unless he knows the part number he has to access the steps to let the pc access the info in steps,,,,,, its fucking anoying ill admit for things like headlamps/mirrors/pannels ect ect ect