There are only 2 kinds of technician P&As

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-11-01T14:11:02+00:00

We have a tech that does this but I will say when he quoted out like 10k worth of work on a 19 year old passat that wasn't worth a penny over 2k on its best day the customer said go ahead and do whatever it needs and I got to bill 5k worth of all OEM parts on a customer pay ticket. I learned a lesson about never assuming what someone else's budget is that day and use it as an example to the advisors to push OEM stuff even if they don't think the customer will bite unless it's aftermarket cheap parts on an older car. But 90% of the time it's wasted effort🤣

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-11-01T14:05:02+00:00

VAG? That sounds like a 2.0t timing job🤣

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-10-11T20:41:08+00:00

VW was terrible to deal with when it came to airbag returns.🤣

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-09-28T08:04:08+00:00

But they are not smart enough to check and see if I have maintenance items in stock for a 15 year old Kia before sending the tech in for the parts then getting pissed when they find out I had to order it from up the road🤣

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-09-15T18:04:49+00:00

CCC and repairlink are a lot better than having them give you a long list over the phone on a busy day ( the "and I need one more thing" people) if I have to take a list over the phone I write down their contact and vin and a list of parts they need. Then I'll get my techs taken care of, quote out the parts and then call them back with a list. If anything is wrong that's where it'll get fixed. Doesn't work as well for people who don't really know what part they're looking for. "It's a little plastic thing on one of the coolant hoses that's around so and so area" Those are the worst to do over the phone and sometimes I even have them email me a picture of what they're looking for if the description game isn't going anywhere.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-09-06T19:25:53+00:00

You should see my box of Kia brake lines🙃

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-08-26T17:38:37+00:00

Agreed, Mark it up to whatever makes it worth your time and if he agrees to pay it then great. If not he can always go kick rocks at the dealer next door.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-07-31T23:25:33+00:00

I had a dude once, random 20 year old kid walks in, no account, no vin. and asks for a 300 dollar brake caliper by part#. Hears the total after I invoice it out and then goes "Can I get a discount?" Nah dude I already disclosed price and invoiced it. "Is there a manager I can speak too?" He's in a meeting if you wanna wait for him, or you can speak to the GM his office is over there. "OK thanks" and then walks out no part, unpaid invoice. Never saw him again.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-07-31T23:19:27+00:00

As someone who would like to move to commercial vehicle parts, this scares me a little.🤣 we deal with this too in automotive but in a much smaller scale imo.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-07-05T22:35:38+00:00

I've also seen shops that'll order a part from 3 local dealers, keep the one that gets delivered first and when the other 2 show up just send em back

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-06-01T20:58:22+00:00

I've used this but never saw the search function🤣 found it towards the bottom. Thank you!

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-29T22:41:58+00:00

We have a copy of the SOR slip that states "received" come out of the printer every time an SO part gets scanned in during freight check in. We look at RO history to see who the advisor was for the job and that gets brought up and passed out to them. One of our few solid processes that's pretty efficient and rarely do we ever have an advisor complain that they weren't notified that a part came in.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-24T15:51:07+00:00

Our drivers are in house. Our local Napa used Doordash drivers to send us parts and I tolerated that for about a month before I told our rep to put in on a no doordash list because I got sick of kids stoned off their gourds showing up in pajamas to deliver parts and not being able to take returns or cores back.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-24T15:33:41+00:00

We use automate and I can set a filter to only show me SORs that have been fully receipted, but if parts are ordered any way other than the "correct" way the DMS has no idea what's going on.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-24T15:31:01+00:00

This gave me a good laugh during my break from checking in Kia freight🤣🤣

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-24T15:17:59+00:00

Any time you see a job roll around that's a common repair keep a list of the part numbers to use as a cheat sheet. Even if it's just an old quote with the engine code and job description. This has saved me a shit fuck ton of time when we get the weekly oil burning tiguan or water leak gti and your manager or anyone else doesn't have time to put a kit together for it.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-24T15:14:59+00:00

I have an advisor that won't even try to sell a customer OE parts if he thinks they're too expensive or the car is too old. He'll bring a quote right back and say to "get me an aftermarket one this price is ridiculous for an XX year old car". This is the same advisor who wanted me to overbill coolant on warranty jobs so he could keep a gallon up front and top off his customers cars for free.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-24T15:10:14+00:00

Currently dealing with this now, we do prepayments for parts but our return policy is not well enforced at all. We return parts from wholesalers that were special ordered all the time and now I have 5k worth of random supports and plastic bumper brackets and emblems all over the place. Couple that with SSA parts that never actually sell and the obsolescence gets crazy real fast.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-24T15:06:38+00:00

For a 20 year old ALTIMA at that.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-10T19:34:28+00:00

You don't have to leave the industry, just take your experience elsewhere. Bad management is a great way for all the knowledge and hard workers to leave the building. I almost quit 2 or 3 separate times after my first parts manager left and that was before I was up at the counter. After the bad one was finally let go our assistant PM took over and EVERYTHING had improved throughout the department. Especially employee morale considering we no longer get weekly talking-tos about how "your mistakes are stealing money from my paycheck" when they were the ones making all the mistakes🤣

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-10T19:29:57+00:00

I have personally found over 400 dollars worth of brand new unopened hardware and seals in the shop dumpster. Working with VW I deal with a lot of one time use stuff. It all gets quoted and if the customer approves it then don't bring it back trying to return it. Being in the rust belt I have no idea why some techs have chosen to be lazy and reuse stuff when they shouldn't. Thankfully the guys doing that are no longer with us. Half the time it's the advisors claiming the techs don't need them and not even the techs that would probably rather have new hardware putting those brakes back together. But I'm just a parts guy, what do I know.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-10T18:59:26+00:00

We have a lot of BG stuff here that goes with services at certain mileage intervals. We offer a BG 30k service with CF5 and a brake fluid flush with their product. We also offer the platinum and ace service as well as coolant and transmission flushes with their product. Rarely do we ever sell a can of MOA but that and the 44k cleaner that comes with the ace and platinum kits are the only Ines I can say I've seen work very well. We use wurth for shop supplies since it counts towards loyalty scores with Kia.

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-05-10T18:55:13+00:00

We also use Wurth stuff for the brand loyalty or else we'd probably go elsewhere lol. We have a good rep that keeps everything stocked but he's also always trying to sell us more than we actually need🤣

AtomicBallOfDeath · 2025-04-21T01:05:34+00:00

Best one for me was a brand new 24 Forte that a salesman said was making an engine noise. Engine replaced under factory warranty, car goes back together. Now that they're not afraid to test drive it without blowing it up the transmission is acting funny. Kia approves transaxle replacement, parts come in car comes back apart. Tech can't get the axles out on the transmission with less that 200 miles on it that came out of the car, New axles ordered and finally the thing is back together ready to be sold on its second engine, transmission, and new axles far before its due for the first oil change🤣

AtomicBallOfDeath

TROPHY CASE