I was called on Wednesday by a local auto repair dealership about them bringing in a van, the rear end of which had to be re-lettered after a collision. It was one of “mine” - customer with a small fleet, I do them all; have for years. I had quoted the customer a week or so ago, for insurance purposes, normally they no longer ask. Involved was a 2 foot square 2 color emblem and lettering/ quite a bit. Quote was 175.- No problem.
OK- bring it on, I said, I knew to expect it. Do you know how to find me. Oh yes, we know where you are, we’ll bring it today.
So on Thursday afternoon I was going down Broad Street and met one of their vans in cross traffic and it reminded me that they had not shown up with it. HMMM. Let it be, I said to myself, you’re so backed up (thanks to all that writing on the BullBoard), they’ll bring it... But it gnawed on me, so I fished for my cell phone and called the customer directly, because I did not remember who had called me from the dealership.
Why Myra, he said. The van is done. They already brought it. Why Steve, I said, I haven’t been drunk in over 10 years and I did not do the job.
Now let me see, he said, I was busy when it came in, but I did notice it looked funny. It has a big bubble in the shield and the lettering looked thin. I said, he told me: ”This does not look like Myra done it”.
That’s because she didn’t. So. Steve, I said, find out what happened. After all, they did call me and lined up the job.
Then, this morning it all fell into place. The dealership had somebody on the side who had under”bid” the job and done it for 115.--. They tried to pass it off to the customer as mine, and pocket the difference. At least that’s how it looked. Nobody admitted to anything.
Except I will pocket mine, on Monday, redo that hind end at my price and the dealership pays. I don’t know the moral of this story, but maybe it’s just as simple as: keep your eyes and ears open and follow your instincts.
Posted by Rick Chavez (Member # 2146) on :
I can't believe they would do that for a lousy 60 (120 with a mark-up, no doubt) bucks, some people! Makes you wonder what else they cheaped out on..... Rick
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
10 bucks says the guy who does it for $115, also provides reciept for $200+ for the insurance company.
Myra, I thought when you said you ran across the guy in cross traffic, you were going to get to redo the side graphics as well Posted by aaronssigns (Member # 490) on :
its simple...........90% of all auto dealers that I have had to deal with become dirt bags at one time or another...for them its not what is right.....but the all mighty dollar that they think about Posted by Bob Rochon (Member # 30) on :
Myra that was cool that you had a good enough relationship with the customer, that he would help you out.
I love a good ending!
Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :
Hey, Not all dirt bags are car dealerships! Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
Don't say it, Bruce... Don't say it, Bruce... Don't say it, Bruce... Don't say it, Bruce...
Ah haf bi'en a hole in my ton'ue... LOL!
Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
Most all work that comes to auto body shops goes through insurance companies. Some managers do not let the vehicle leave the premises before all work is accomplished, and its not the vehicles owner who makes the decisions. However, the vehicles owner can tell the body shop to call a certain person to accomplish the lettering work at the body shop ( mobile service ) I can guarantee that most all body shops wouldn't have a problem calling a sign person if the vehicles owner gave them your phone number. I have done mobile serice for this type of work for many years and it is my job to repair all work to pre-accident condition.
These days its hard to screw insurance companies with deductables as well as spliting the cash amongst the people involved. The days of insurance fraud of over due to strict laws where one doesn't take a chance.
Posted by Myra Grozinger (Member # 327) on :
Joey - there is a body shop, private owner, for whom I work at times, I bid it, they bring it, pick it up, and it's independent from the owner; in essence they contract with me. I never know anything about the owners.
This one, though, was a big Chevrolet Dealer, they knew I was the sign maker of record, they had brought me this company's and other's vehicles before. And as I said, they had called me and made the arrangements to bring the van and pick it back up for final finishing.
I thought it was an interesting thing to have happened, something new, annoying and unpredictable. That's kind of all there was to it.
Bruce....is it an inside joke? Worth sharing?
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
This sounds like a case of someone in the bodyshop trying to give a buddy an "in" at the dealership!
Looks like he blew it! Bigtime!
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
Myra, You Go Girl!!!
Calling the customer was a good call on your part. I wonder if this is a nice customer or one who can get nasty if need be. Hopefully the latter, cause if they tried to cheat him for a measly $60 on lettering, chances are they put third world parts on but billed the insurance company for OEM parts.
Perhaps you should inquire with the customer if they told this story to their insurance company. A lot of body shops are now the 'shop of preferance' for certain insurance companies. This means big $ for them. They usually don't have to do estimates, just schedule the work and the ins. pays the bill. A lot of people will go to these shops because they don't have to go through the adjuster, estimate, etc. My ins co's shop of preference has a 5-6 week waiting list for collision damage work. This is a hard title to earn and could devistate a shop if they had it one day and lost it the next. Although this incident may not make them loose that title, chances are the insurance co will start to nose around a bit more.
Posted by Santo (Member # 411) on :
One of the Chevy dealerships in Lafayette has its own in-house graphics house. They usually don't get involved in anything more than some installs of stripe and graphics packages.
Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
Myra
Just another point for customer service! It's indisputable....CUSTOMER SERVICE ALWAYS WINS
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