Dealerships should have a balcony to watch mechanics do work.

While I agree that you should let people do their work it’s funny cause there have been several threads lately regarding things shops have or haven’t done.

 

I repair home appliances for a living. Unique situation. I’m in their home.

I hate when people watch. I handle it differently depending on the customer. If you’re a know it all, or you watched a You Tube and wanna make sure I’m doing it right, or you’re an asshole engineer and need me to know that, I’m not too shy about telling you I don’t work well with an audience. Customer refuses to back the hell off and I will leave the house and they can call someone else.

I’ve also had enough bad mechanic work that I’ve paid others to do, that I as a customer want to watch. I get it.

A dealership starts letting customers watch from the balcony, the good techs are going to go work somewhere else. Eventually the rookies will build up the resume a bit and they will follow.

If I could go back in time and do things differently I would have become a maintenance tech for a municipality, or a university, something along those lines. Just because of all the bullshit I deal with working with customers in their own space.

The goal should be to find a mechanic you trust and then be a loyal customer. Perhaps do quality control later after you leave the shop as I do sometimes. Yes, it’s hard. But even my appliance repair customers manage to figure it out eventually.

 

I will say the Toyota dealership I go to sends me videos of my car on the lift pointing out what they’ve done or inspected. That’s enough for me.

 

I fix home appliances. Sometimes I stand there and scratch my head, lookup the service manual on my phone, which they think is Googling the problem, just to piss them off. Always a good laugh when someone calls the office and claims I “Googled it”. Lol.

 

I watched my house being built as I lived next door. A lot of beer drinking going on. Caught a lot of mistakes. I even nailed beer cans to the framing that no one seemed to notice. Not a lot of pride in work these days....

 

I worked in the nuclear industry for quite a few years, and you did not wipe your ass without the procedure open to the right page and two QC guys watching your every move!

 

You often have woodworking customers looking over your shoulder?

Edit: At night?

 

Very imaginative post, thanks for that!

 

Everyone wants to know what's in the secret sauce even if it won't help them the next time. I'm sure doctors have about had enough of WebMD.

 

I wouldn't go to a dealership unless it was warranty and then I wouldn't care to watch.

 

We have to come to an understanding that even SOME people that drive Tacoma's are corner cutters. I mean if they were doctors as in MD they wouldn't have bought a truck with drums brakes. This is the Internet and were all banging tens and even the screws we put in sheetrock are level, straight and on point.

 

Exactly what I was thinking of when I saw the operating theater post and I’m surprised it took until page 3 for someone to mention this.

 

Prosper TX toyota has a viewing window. most people could care less to look.

 

Dealership could sell tickets and serve gourmet food, it worked for the airlines. The real question is, why isn't there a cotton candy machine in the service lounge?

 

My dad tells a story from when he was a kid. His mom was having her wheel bearings replaced for routine service. This was before “insurance regulations” that prohibited customers from entering the garage area, so my dad was watching the mechanic. He turned to my dad and said that the only reason he was actually doing it was because he was standing there watching.

 

I'm okay with not watching but........ watching mechanics work on cars would be far more interesting than watching those "round robin" Toyota commercials in the customer lounge.

 

Careful. If you pull an all nighter you'll end up with morning wood.

 

I'm not sorry, but that sounds like bullshit. Wheel bearings being bad comes with a complaint, how could one not replace them? Change the tires.

 

This reminds me of those insurance commercials of Dr. Rick and not becoming into your parents. With the guy standing over the plumber trying to watch and help.