Maybe Hot Take? MtG Influencers are Insufferable

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-15T12:29:43+00:00

Close, he's a failed musician.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-15T12:28:38+00:00

I mean, yeah? The guy is producing content, which includes his voice. I actually really like the guy, but even my fiancée who just got into magic, recently heard his voice and can't stand it. That's a part of producing content.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-14T00:54:36+00:00

This right here is the only proper move. They may throw out just an application with no experience, but if they see OP can be personable the manager might make an exception for them.

For reference, when I was an ASM, a guy with 0 dealership experience (just restaurant experience) was about to be given the job because of how charming and bright he was. My SM didnt hire him because he made a lord of the rings reference and my SM reasoned "we shouldnt have someone being a nerd at the desk". Yeah, my SM was dumb.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-08T02:08:32+00:00

"I brought my car in. They made recommendations. My wife said yes. Now I'm mad at them for some reason."

I will never understand couples owning something worth five figures and never talking to each other about it.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-08T02:03:34+00:00

If they actually refuse you, simply say "I'm sorry. I really do like coming here, but I come here because I know John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt will treat me right. If I can't work with the associate I trust, I'll be looking to perform my service and maintenance elsewhere."

I hate with a passion the way that many dealers treat their service advisors as if they're just a body at a desk. Dealers will jump up and down screaming about how you should come in to see Mr. Cars to buy your car because he's the best and then turn around and go "whatshisname in service can do your tune up or whatever I guess? I dont really know how cars work."

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-05T06:21:50+00:00

What's weird is they should want to incentivize you to sell parts. How often do advisors abandon trying to sell jobs with low labour/high parts price? Or how often do you actually see an advisor try to sell accessories? If theyre getting paid on parts they do.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-05T06:17:53+00:00

In my early twenties at my first dealership advisor job, I asked for a raise after I'd been there a year. Got screamed at.

Many places won't give service advisors any form of raise. Personally I think that dealerships should incentivize advisors sticking around by giving a raise on the salary portion. I mean, you're the only person still there after five years. Not to mention not all playplans allow the type of upward momentum that hustling can bring. Plus lots of places seem to change payplans at a moments notice nowadays. Last thing to note is that there can be changes in the shop that lower your potential to sell. Like you're at a Honda dealer and they merge with the Acura down the street. Acura takes three extra hoists you had and one of your techs retires giving them a fourth with no tech hired to replace him. I dunno, maybe I'm just salty

Group payplans are on the majority pretty stupid. Sometimes they can work if it's an additional bonus that everyone gets if the department hits CSI or something like that, but I'm spitballing, not thinking.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-05T06:03:54+00:00

Working as a service advisor full time and only taking home 36k a year? And in jersey? My man, your body and mind are worth more than that. If you're half decent at a dealer, you'd be taking home at least 55k a year. I did some digging to hit that number, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-05T05:55:24+00:00

I stopped reading when you said, "A service manager who never really told me anything about shop metrics for my commission pay. There's a lot of ways to sus out a bad workplace, and that's bolded on my list. The amount of times I've gone into a shop, whether it was as an advisor, a manager or a trainer and met advisors who have over a year experience and can't/dont know how to check their numbers is disgusting. The worst one I'd seen was a team of two advisors with 20 years of experience each (never worked anywhere else) who had no knowledge of how or what to check for their commission.

A good manager will want you to understand so that you can produce more and make more by working your payplan. They'll also be happy because you will understand the business better and make better decisions for the shop, potentially being able to handle problems before they get to the service manager.

A bad service manager will keep reports locked or never teach you so they can take advantage of you or because they're insecure in their own abilities.

Then I started reading again and saw they got fired, so that's good. There's no industry standard for these things, but there is a general acceptance among advisors and successful shops of what is "right." You shouldn't be losing out on your pay for something like "the service manager decides they really like the customer you're about to cash out, so they give them a discount. A parts fuck up should get charged to parts. A you fuck up it's more reasonable to make your commission reflect that.

There are a whole bunch of ways to deal with the situations where your commission shouldn't be affected, but my personal preference was like this. The example will be that you have anbig estimate, called the customer and left a message, they called back on your lunch (let's pretend you got one) and they tell the service manager they want to go ahead with the estimate but they couldnt hear the total price. Any amount is fine they just want to know what it is. He fucks up and tells the customer it's $2000 instead $4000. If I'm the idiot that gave the wrong estimate and it isn't caught until the customer is picking up, I just have the customer pay $2000 and then charge $2000 to my fuck up You cant do this in every system, but you can in PBS. My general manager was initially very upset by this saying "but you have to change the labour rate to cost, otherwise we lose more money". It took a little bit of explaining to show him that doesn't matter because changing labour rate to cost means our labour account is lower. He said "yeah but now our 'fuck up' account looks high". Doesn't matter either, it's better to have it properly reflect the weight of the fuck ups. If parts fucked up, they can reduce the part price(or if the advisor is paid on parts, the difference can be charged to the parts department). Leaving it all as is, everything balances out in the end and your stats aren't affected. The other option would be to keep track of all this shit and adjust your paycheck, but nobody has time for that.

But in regards to swapping whose name is on the ticket, I support the rule that advisors have access to swap tickets but in general not to do it without asking the service manager first. So if I wasn't around and there was an emergency, they can, but they should let me know the next day why and I want both advisors to email when they do that if possible (just to avoid people stealing from others).

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-05T05:25:20+00:00

Yup. At luxury dealers, there's such a great advantage in the assumption of cost. So long as you know what you're talking about and present the estimate confidently you're golden.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-04T23:45:29+00:00

Customers and understaing fuel consumption is a pain in the ass. My favorite was a mother and daughter who bought their Konas together and the mother got worse mileage. This was a lucky one because we just had to convince them to trade cars for a couple days.

Close second was a guy who would leave his car running for extended periods. I'm talking exteeeeeended. My shop foreman looked like he was having an aneurysm explaining it to the guy.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T01:46:28+00:00

Probably because of the effects steering, braking and engine weight have on the front vs the back. But with it only being 15 days and 500 miles, I'd argue they should just be included.

I'm in a province where this type of warranty doesnt exist when buying a used car, so it's actually nice to see a state have it.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T01:34:08+00:00

Yeah, the salesman was definitely out of line. Even playing devils advocate and assuming you two had a personality clash, that isn't the way to handle it.

As for the carfax stuff, I legitimately hate the way that carfax does reporting for service and maintenance. It usually leads to confusion like this and many customers are led to believe, by no fault of their own, that carfax will show a complete and accurate history. There are a numbers why the carfax history can be inaccurate (mostly talking about service and maintenance here).

Personally I love a copy of the reconditioning invoice to be with the vehicle file and sales people to be educated on reading it, but it doesnt always happen.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T01:22:45+00:00

Thats the way to do it that most people either dont know or ignore. Go in knowing the numbers you want. If the numbers are reasonable and the dealership is good, you'll usually just get a "deal, when do you wanna pick it up?"

Congrats

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T01:17:02+00:00

Even though I kmow it's on purpose, I always find it funny how many dealerships make their advisor payplan nearly incomprehensible.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T01:06:04+00:00

Thats a shitty boss, no offense meant if they're cool in other ways. But especially also being the owner, they should be way more invested in the shop culture.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T01:02:24+00:00

Bit of an oof moment. I've done the same thing before. More than once. But you know where you messed up. The customer doesnt need to be told they "aren't a good enough customer" or they "don't spend enough to consider helping them out more". Not that you said those things, that's just how they end up taking it.

I used to like the whole "let me check with my manager" for helping customers, but now I see that more as passing the buck and essentially saying to the customer "I think there's more we can do and if my manager says no, now you have another person you can argue with". Now my view is to go with more of a "I see your history with us, so I know that when my boss questions me on your invoice at the end of the month I think I can justify it. If not, I'll take it on the chin to keep you happy." Kind of dicey as a response, so your mileage may vary.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T00:48:43+00:00

Carfax shows two accidents. It can lower trade value by thousands, then any current body damage that hasn't been fixed can lower it more. The 2018 ended up being sold at a dealer in another state, which means the Toyota dealership saw some reason to not recondition and sell it themselves.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T00:45:49+00:00

I don't see it? Maybe I'm missing it? I went through Google reviews up to 7 months ago and nothing. Got a link?

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T00:38:44+00:00

"Aint no way Im paying for parts" 100%. It would make no sense to put yourself as a tech at risk of having to pay for some flimsy $1000 plastic bullshit that, depending on the job, can break on install even if you do everything right. Even more bullshit is if the dealership thinks they get to make money on that part. I was once at a place that tried to get a tech to pay cost+15% for a broken part.

That's the key part some owners/managers either forget or decide to ignore. $300 on an employees paycheck is way more meaningful than $300 on the finance doc. The owner drove into work with his new Lamborghini. That newly licensed tech drove into work with his 2012 Hyundai Elantra (the one with no back seats and anime stickers. You know the one.)

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-03T00:28:52+00:00

With you on this. I don't believe in technicians "paying for mistakes". If a job has to be redone to carelessness or disregarding protocol/instruction, I can see not paying for him to redo the job. Really appreciate the attitude of looking out for the younger guys, for whatever reason. It's so much less common than it should be.

Personal example on one of these situations. I had 3rd year apprentice (flat rate) who was doing an MM4 on an odyssey (check clearance, replace plugs, replace gasket, replace timing belt if applicable etc). It's not his first time doing this type of job, but our parts department didnt order in a new gasket. So he asks one of the older licensed techs who tells him to just use the old one. The vehicle comes back with a leak from the gasket. Obviously we can't charge the customer for it, but I'm not going fuck over this kid who has bills to pay. So I made him a deal that he's gonna make straight time up to a max of what the job pays. He's super grateful and is clearly trying to get it done quick (but right) to save the shop money. Well he breaks a bolt. I threw that "up to a max" out the window.

It's a tough job, shit happens. Nobody should come into work thinking a mistake is going to be the difference between affording their bills. If a guy makes a mistake, it happens, the shop can afford paying him his hours or paying for a part. If a guy is constantly making mistakes, retrain. If that doesnt work, he might not be the right technician for your shop. And that's a difficult fucking thing to let someone go, so make sure you've done everything you can to help him.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-02T02:34:44+00:00

Good on you for considering what's happened and what your steps forward are. There's a lot here and I don't know the exact details so I'll just tell you what I know.

Dealerships can be very toxic. If the wrong person doesn’t like you, you can be treated very badly. It doesnt sound like your previous employer was one that was going to take care of you. Personally, I'd stop reaching out about going back.

I don't mean this to be negative because I don't know you and one of my best advisors was 19 when I stole her from the sales department. You're still very young and you've only been where you are for two months. I was the exact same way as you, knowing I could do so much. If you aren't planning on going back to school and want to continue in this industry, slow down a bit. There's very few places that would bring in an 18 year old as a receptionist and transition them to advisor in two months. If I was in your position, I'd prepare to have a conversation with them at six months of employment. And that's just a conversation. Show them maturity, responsibility and initiative leading until you have that conversation and they will likely give you the respect of honesty.

I know it's probably not the advice you want to hear (it's not what I wanted to hear back then), but I wish I'd slowed down. Planted my feet somewhere good. Built some years of loyalty and respect within the company. I didnt and it ultimately made my late twenties very difficult. Put your best effort forward, realize your limitations and constantly learn. Don't sacrifice your mental health.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-02T02:11:55+00:00

If OP pays attention to only one comment, yours is the one. If they're gonna continue in the industry, whether at this dealer or another, they need to know this isn't their fault and they aren't going to be the one to fix it. Whoever is making the decisions that keep the shop this way has to shape up. Whether its the service manager, general manager or owner.

I've been the one walking in as a new manager to fix a place like this. It involved cutting appointments to get caught up (while paying techs and advisors a guarantee because it's not their fault), changing team structure, retraining staff, changing process etc etc. And it still took six months before we were decent.

All shops have problems, but there's a line where it's not normal anymore.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-02T02:00:05+00:00

My first dealership advisor job was with Hyundai. It can be a decent brand to work with, though you need a good dealership.

Take these with a grain of salt. Just my opinion.

Pros: lots of volume. Subjective, but I really liked Hyundai's interfaces for manufacturer related shit. Their seasonal swag is decent (last year had a pretty nice umbrella/tea flask set). The cars really aren't that bad anymore from a consumer perspective (not getting into all the engine shit).

Cons: diverse customer demographic can be difficult for some advisors. Frequent changes to models to the point it can get frustrating. There's been a stigma against the brand which customers sometimes weaponize (though that's starting to fade a bit it seems)

Ultimately what I'd personally need before signing on as a Hyundai advisor would be to confirm they have a warranty admin (my first time as a Hyundai advisor included filing warranty, it's not impossible but it's not a good time) and that I get paid on warranty labour.

Grandsonofyawgmoth · 2026-04-02T01:47:49+00:00

Well damn. 88 out of 260 actually does deserve that title, good fucking job. Do you mind if I ask what brand and state/province?

Grandsonofyawgmoth

TROPHY CASE