chit chat thread

patsbimmer1

m42b32 said:

Especially now that people all check reviews online before going somewhere. All you have to do is leave one bad review and their business could take a serious hit...

This is something we're all told but to be honest it really depends on the number of reviews that company has and how good their marketing team is. Just like anything else these reviews can be easily manipulated, deleted, etc. You can mine for good reviews and easily hide any bad ones without doing much work. Try looking at product reviews and tell me how many of those are honest reviews and how many were paid advertisements. Also, from my perspective there are tons of fabricated stories that paint the writer as a victim when in reality they left out key details. So how reliable are these reviews? For example, a recent one: Customer wrote a bad review because their wheel came loose while driving after having tires put on. In reality they failed to mention that after further investigation we found through Carfax that a week after leaving our shop they took it to another shop and had the brakes replaced on THE SAME WHEEL THAT CAME OFF.

Good reviews and word of mouth certainly help in auto service but based on market data I've seen reviews are typically the 3rd or 4th reason somebody chooses a repair facility. Writing a review may help get you heard and rectify your situation but more often than not if it's an independent shop they may not care and the person reading and responding to your review may be the same person you dealt with at the shop. Bad reviews are a great way to make people feel better and vent but other than that you're better off reaching out to the DATCP and starting your legal paper trail there. Nobody remembers the bad review someone else wrote, they only remember the experience they had and will defend that experience regardless of others experiences.

For clarity sake, this is not me defending poor service from a shop. That's absolutely unacceptable in an industry that relies heavily on paying someone to be the expert trust is key to building relationships. Many people have worked very hard over the decades to remove the "grease monkey" image and mentality from the industry and these shit hole scam artists that continue to perpetuate this image should be wiped from the face of the earth.

suspenceful

Nick_F said:

Anybody on here familiar with laws regarding auto repair estimates? I was quoted 1.5 hours (195 dollar) and they just called after finishing the job to let me know its 432 dollars now and the car is ready for pickup

I was surprised to see an XI downpipe install quoted at $195. That's dirt cheap, so I can't say I'm surprised it ended up costing more. But either way, that's shady to quote low and expect to sell at double the price.

m42b32

I was watching Doug DeMuro's review of the McLaren F1 and noticed something familiar.... looks like I can call the e36 window switch retrofit in my e30 a McLaren F1 window switch retrofit. Neat.

straight6pwr

good eye!

P_Roloff

Guess this answers our questions about BavAuto...

Rekpoint

m42b32 said:

I was watching Doug DeMuro's review of the McLaren F1 and noticed something familiar.... looks like I can call the e36 window switch retrofit in my e30 a McLaren F1 window switch retrofit. Neat.

Wiper stock is the same too!

HipMF

Rekpoint said:

Wiper stock is the same too!

FYI, I'm pretty sure it's "stalk", not "stock".

You're welcome.

rampelsauce

P_Roloff said:

Guess this answers our questions about BavAuto...

ECS tuning is an unstoppable juggernaut killing our favorite parts providers! Luckily FCP is too big.

patsbimmer1

So we're all clear here ECS isn't actually acquiring these companies. They're falling under the ECS umbrella but in the grand scheme they're being purchased by Bertram Capital who is the private equity firm supplying the money that has ECS in it's portfolio. These moves all make sense from a private equity standpoint. The target is acquire and increase value in order to sell at a higher price later on. A 5-7 year investment is pretty standard for most private equity firms. They're piling capital into a company to make it's net worth and gross revenue as large as possible in order to dump it off later. Every time they acquire a new company it's net growth. ECS and it's subsidiaries will all be sold off at a later date and the cycle will start over and as a community we'll be fucked looking for quality aftermarket parts at a fair price.

Nick_F

patsbimmer1 said:

You're in luck! I deal with this for a living! So if you signed for $195 then you owe $195 unless you verbally authorized more. The catch would be knowing the exact wording in the line you signed and of it says something where you "agreed" to paying more within a percentage of the quoted price. Unfortunately unless they agree to allow you to pay less then you'll end up paying it then filing a complaint with the Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection which will take weeks.

Yea I didn't know the specifics so I went in and just talked to them without making an enemy and agreed to 300 flat. I'm still not happy about it being quoted one thing and then it doubling and eventually paying 50% more but I've learned through this experience and at least the install went smooth and was done well.

patsbimmer1

Nick_F said:

Yea I didn't know the specifics so I went in and just talked to them without making an enemy and agreed to 300 flat. I'm still not happy about it being quoted one thing and then it doubling and eventually paying 50% more but I've learned through this experience and at least the install went smooth and was done well.

Did you sign a full and final settlement? If not you can still challenge them through the DATCP. It's still wrong for them to charge you more than you were quoted. If they were getting in over their heads they should have called and gotten verbal authorization to charge more or ate the cost and learned a $200 lesson. Communication is key in that situation and they blew it.

straight6pwr

patsbimmer1 said:

Communication is key in that situation and they blew it.

+1,000,000

Nick_F

patsbimmer1 said:

Did you sign a full and final settlement? If not you can still challenge them through the DATCP. It's still wrong for them to charge you more than you were quoted. If they were getting in over their heads they should have called and gotten verbal authorization to charge more or ate the cost and learned a $200 lesson. Communication is key in that situation and they blew it.

Yea I signed the final statement after we settled on the price and I paid. What they told me is that they pulled the wrong book time and it was supposed to be ~5 hours not 1.5 and I'm not sure why they didn't call once they realized the job was bigger than thought. I won't go back or recommend people to there shop for whatever that is worth but at least it was done correctly and I won't have to call them or go back for that reason.

HipMF

patsbimmer1 said:

So we're all clear here ECS isn't actually acquiring these companies. They're falling under the ECS umbrella but in the grand scheme they're being purchased by Bertram Capital who is the private equity firm supplying the money that has ECS in it's portfolio. These moves all make sense from a private equity standpoint. The target is acquire and increase value in order to sell at a higher price later on. A 5-7 year investment is pretty standard for most private equity firms. They're piling capital into a company to make it's net worth and gross revenue as large as possible in order to dump it off later. Every time they acquire a new company it's net growth. ECS and it's subsidiaries will all be sold off at a later date and the cycle will start over and as a community we'll be fucked looking for quality aftermarket parts at a fair price.

Sounds about right.

Two of the major companies that make the machines we use to build PCBs at work have fallen into this. It's been a few years and so far it's been fine, but I'm not optimistic about the future...

andyhundley

Nick_F said:

Yea, I'll be trying to come to an agreement but not double. I guess we shall see what happens but you're right. A happy customer brings more business

What repair did you have done? What was the reason behind the increase in cost? EDIT: Nvm I read that they misquoted you.