so I am considering a job offer from a local repair shop. This is to be a service writer and the pay is pretty good. The only bad thing is the number of hours I have to work a week its almost 60. Has anybody done this particular job before and what was your experience? the company seems to have a very nice owner and the service manager is very cool. They both seem like people I would not mind working with.
Harsh job. Everyone is always mad at you. The customer thinks you're trying to rip them off. The Techs think you're giving away everything for free. It's one job I refuse to do in this building.
60 hours is absurd. That's a shift and a half, and they are trying to fill that position with one person.
Bobzilla wrote: Harsh job. Everyone is always mad at you. The customer thinks you're trying to rip them off. The Techs think you're giving away everything for free. It's one job I refuse to do in this building.
My wife used to be a service writer for a VW dealer. I'm sure she would say to the above: "QFT"
Did it for 2 years at one of the bigger Nissan dealers in central OH. I couldn't recommend it, at least not highly, to anyone that I liked.
Bobzilla is spot on. There are lifers, who all they know is sales, they're generally good at their job in the eyes of the higher-ups but most of the public that has a clue thinks they're a snake in the grass, because they usually are. Those lifers that don't have a conscience can rake in some money though.
If you do have a conscience, or at least care about your customer, you'll probably treat your customer better, and still be able to make a decent amount of money, even develop a decent customer base, but all of the techs will start to get pissed at you for not selling/up-selling stuff the customer doesn't really need.
Pay scale is another issue, most of us were 100% commission + bonus, I was lucky enough to be salaried + bonus, which was good because I was the latter type, didn't sell fluff, had a lot of happy customers, a good CSI, but didn't bring in the bacon like some of the other cut-throat advisors, and generally had a few techs pissed at me all the time.
60 hours is retarded though. I averaged 48 a week, had Sundays off, a floating weekday off or every 3rd Saturday off. You can ask SWMBO I was generally not a very pleasant person to be around when I got home from work.
YMMV, I learned a lot about the industry, people, and myself. Mostly I learned that I don't care much for people, hard to not like people and be in a customer service job.
I did it at Lambo. Will give you grey hair overnight.
Crap job. Working in the back is bad enough. 60 hours sounds like service manager territory. Hope it has overtime.
Curious about the likelihood of techs being mad at the writer. How does that work? Are techs not hourly staff?
In reply to OHSCrifle:
It varies but most shops the techs are FLAT RATE, i.e. they only get paid for the hours they turn on the vehicles they work on. So if there's not a car in their bay, they ain't getting paid.
bigdaddylee82 wrote: In reply to OHSCrifle: It varies but most shops the techs are FLAT RATE, i.e. they only get paid for the hours they turn on the vehicles they work on. So if there's not a car in their bay, they ain't getting paid. - Lee
Interesting, most techs I know are "flat rate", but they get paid a specific amount of $$$ to do a job. If the job is under the amount of time the manufacturer says it takes, they technically earn more $/h so they can move onto other jobs.
I find it funny that people don't realize this... auto techs make good money if they work hard.
In reply to HiTempguy:
The most heinous words you could say to our techs were "Warranty Work." Nissan would often have stuff listed at repairs being done in 2/3 to 1/2 the time it actually takes to do them, wouldn't pay for any more than what they claimed it should be done in and warranty $/hour was less than customer pay $/hour.
Being the nice service writer and helping the customer get their transfer case in their Murano replaced at 59,995 miles just before the 5yr/60K mile power train warranty was up NEVER went over well. That's something I butted heads with the most techs about, because ~80% of the daily driven Muranos have leaking transfer cases before 60K miles, and it's one of the more popular SUVs on the road, so we did a lot of them. I don't remember exactly but it was a real world ~18 hour job that Nissan said should be done in ~13.
I know I sound like I'm tech bashing, I don't intend to, we had some GREAT guys, two of our best left and opened an indy shop. I sent customers there if I knew there was no chance of me getting their business.
bigdaddylee82 wrote: In reply to HiTempguy: The most heinous words you could say to our techs were "Warranty Work."
Life is not always perfect, and being a mechanic most certainly isn't. I just expressed amusement at the fact that in my mind, people's view of the profession is flawed in not understanding how mechanics SHOULD (or in the case of the province where I live, DO) get paid.
It's kind of like that thing where people say working overtime isn't worth it due to getting taxed at a higher tax bracket. Its like "lolwut?", that's not how it works!
In reply to iadr:
Depends on how big the dealership is, a lot of the Mega places with long hours have shifts even for the advisors. We were 7 to 7 weekdays and 7 to 3 Sat. There was nothing that mandated you HAD to be there more than 15 min before open, that was just to get the computer on and ADP running.
I was unique in ours shop as part of an advisor team, the two of us had overlapping schedules during the week, (one opened the other closed swapped each week) and the same hours on Sat, had a floater fill in for whoever was off on the 1 Sat. a month we got off. The only full 7 to 7 I worked was when my partner had a week day off. I think it made the best of the situation. We saw plenty of volume to justify the team. If he or I were 100% commission though, I don't think it would have worked, as well. There would have been too much competition between us, the commission would have to have been figured collectively for the two of us, or something like that.
Every training I went to there were several different examples from other dealers, of what they thought was best/worked for them, everyone has their own way to "skin a cat."
Edit to add, we had a pretty good BDC, scheduling appointments, we still wouldn't turn away drive-ins. Most advisors were good about managing carry-overs, and we politely turned away quick-lube type customers 15 min before closing. The vast majority of customers during the last 30 minutes or so of business were predominately quick-lube and drop-offs for the next day. We had a night drop box and online appointment scheduling that helped a lot as well. If you were still at work 45min after close, it was usually your own fault. Though I did have those nights more than I'd care to admit.
This is a base plus commission position so it has that going for it. I will get a trial run part- time for a few weeks to so we'll see how that goes.
This is a locally owned independent with a TON of money reinvested into scan tools with the intention of competing with dealers for post warranty period high quality work. I am a little scared about the hours and commission but am excited to do something that is in a field I like for people that seem to care about their customers and employees.
My dad was a service adviser and manager for a while.
His saying: "I hate people, I hate cars, and I hate people who drive cars."
So do u get 20 hours overtime?
id pass, for all the above listed reasons.
-J0N
N Sperlo wrote: My dad was a service adviser and manager for a while. His saying: "I hate people, I hate cars, and I hate people who drive cars."
anyone in this business long enough will feel that way. EVERYONE thinks you're ripping them off. EVERYONE thinks you're a scammer. EVERYONE thinks you know everything about everything and are just hiding information from them because you want to.
Well I have been severely underemployed for alm ost a year now and am taking just to get my ducks in a row. I have waited long enough for the right job to come along and am sick of it. Hopefully my business will go somewhere in the next two years. Thanks for the input everyone.
Best of luck!
I'm a service advisor for the local Ford dealership. Been here 3 years. Been doing the same type of job for over 10 at various independant shops like Firestone, Pep Boys, Car-X, NTB, etc.
60 hrs is the norm. Sorry, it just is. I'm here from 7:00-5:45 mon-fri and 8:00-1:15 on sat. (30 mins before opening and 15 mins after closing) At Firestone, if I JUST worked 60 hrs, it was a blessing. Most of the time it was 65-80 hrs. We lived off the overtime. Here, not so much. We actually just get a salary, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. We get docked like we're hourly if we dare to need time off, but we don't get the overtime like we're hourly. Most SA jobs are commission, which is awesome if you live in a bigger city, but small towns can make you cry.
You are ALWAYS the bad guy. You are ALWAYS disarming the customer from the second they walk in the door. No matter what you do, you are an shiny happy person. It doesn't matter if you find 100 things wrong with someone's car or 1, you're trying to screw them out of money. You will begin to loathe people. Your tolerance of stupidity or lack of basic knowledge about cars will drop to zero quickly. I can't tell you how many times a day I facepalm and shake my head at the stuff I see or hear.
Just never take anything personally and let everything roll off your back and you'll be OK. Leave work at work and never bring the stress home.
PM me if you need or want to man. I've lived it all. LOL
Been doing this since 1986. There's the downside that's already been covered. The upside is that there can be very good money in this without being a crook.
Curmudgeon wrote: Been doing this since 1986. There's the downside that's already been covered. The upside is that there can be very good money in this without being a crook.
Sounds to me at the end of the day the $/h doesn't make jt a worthwile business to be in. You should get paid well if you have to work 60 hours a week, even if your "hourly" rate is crap!
Job sounds like my past 7 years working I have worked in education, higher education, and for a corporations. In all these fields customers, students, & colleagues have yelled at me. I have worked long hours some jobs included overtime but most often not. I have worked many weekends and many nights. The only difference is that I have never been paid well. So, to put it in perspective most jobs are service oriented and no matter what you will be yelled out or hated. So if it pays well, you are able to do a good job, provide excellent customer service, stay positive, and earn respect I say go for it.
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