The Automotive Experience pt2

Being a woman working in automotive makes me a target..... for jokes, pranks and all around male fun....

Sometimes.... I was included in jokes on other people but mostly... the joke was on me.

Quite often I was the victim of the ultimate fart.. Yep, one of the guys on many occasions would come in my office, let one rip, leave and shut the door - and hold it shut of course.. Or they would find a reason to call me out to the shop just so one of them could jump out of a box and scare the life out of me.

One time they put a tire sticker on the top of my head which of course stuck like glue and then switched my tea with coffee.. Very funny guys..

When I was selling my car, I took pictures and created a listing on the auto trader. Moments later I received a call on my cell phone from someone who was interested in buying - said he'd be there in 5min to take a look at it. I went into the shop and told the guys how I already got a call on the car. One tech makes a bet with me that the guy wouldn't show up. I fell for it hook, line and sinker.... They had called me from the shop for a laugh and a free coffee..

They put a dead mouse on my desk and even set off fire crackers in my office.... Oh and let's not forget the hose incident? When I got soaked on my way to talk to a customer?

But I have done it to myself.

• It was really busy, the shop was full, the office was full and the phone was ringing off the hook. So, I answered the line and the customer asked to speak to "Luke". I put them on hold, picked up the next line and said "Thank you for calling Luke." Now, I'm quietly laughing to myself when I pick up the loud speaker mic with the intention of paging "Luke, line one" and in stead I said "Hello?" Figures the place was packed when I did that.
• I went in the shop one day asked very loudly if we had time to cut the nuts off this guys pipe?
• I told a customer once we would do a brake insextion on his car. He didn't hear me say it and was a little irritated when I wouldn't tell him what was so funny.
• Then there was the time I told another shop which dropped a car off that they could pick it up in the nude (instead of noon)
• Once, I called myself..... I worked between three shops in the same franchise so I sometimes got numbers mixed up. I was trying to call another shop but instead called the one I was at, so of course the other rings. I hit the other line so I could quickly say "please hold" and go back to the other call except when I did, whoever had called had already put me on hold.... Then it clicked...

You have to be thick skinned to work in a shop - especially if you're a woman... But I like working with men. They're not as sensitive as women, they can take a joke and they never stay mad at you. But it's not easy...Men tend to yell louder when they're mad and have a tendonsy to be obnoxious and rude. My advice is to take it with a grain a salt and above all else remember.... There's no crying in automotive. If you can't hack, get back in the kitchen.. lol...

Till next time...

The Automotive Experience pt1

So, like I've said before, I've worked in automotive for awhile and have come up with a few little stories I'd like to share - some good, some bad and some funny... Enjoy

So here's an acutal conversation I had to have with a customer. First I called him and told him to come to the shop and it went something like this;

Customer enters office and says, "So.. What did you do? Set my truck on fire?"

ME: Well, do you have a sense of humour?

CUSTOMER: No

ME: Well, We set your truck on fire.

Lol... The guy laughed. It was an old truck with a bad oil leak, a hood that wouldn't open and broken studs in the manifold. We took the proper safety precautions but sometimes these things can't be prevented. As it turns out, his truck was running better when he left... We fixed it.
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We had a situation one day when we replaced a fuel filter and did exhaust in the same bay later on. There was a small ball of fire, so weeks later, we hire a new tech and he repairs a gas line and hours later, pulls a car in for exhaust in the same bay. I tell him the story of what happened before - He lights a torch and says there's only one way to find out if there's still gas on the ground.... You guessed it - Big ball of fire. Even blew the office door open and burned the hair off the tech's eyebrows... lol.. Sometimes it hurts to be right.
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No technician wants to be followed around the shop and one of my techs was having a particularly bad day when young kid brought in his "Honda". You know the kind I'm talking about. To him, it was a real hot rod; to us; its a Honda.... We had replaced his rear brake drums a few weeks prior and now this guy is following the tech everywhere asking every question under the sun so when he asked the tech why one drum was starting to rust, the tech very bluntly turned around and said, "I don't know man, maybe a dog pissed on it!"
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One day my manager poked himself in the eye with the arm of his glasses. He comes in the office with his eye closed and his head tilted. I asked what happened? He opens eye and..... well ... I could tell he did something to it.
He feels so stupid that he goes to the hospital and tells them it was an exhuast hook so he wouldn't have to tell them he works in a garage and put his glasses on too fast! lol
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Has your car gone ever gone "ka-lay?"
I know a lady who's car did just that! She turned the key and the car went, "ka-lay, ka-lay, ka-lay." I had a tech standing next to me when she said this. He giggled and said, "Sounds like you have a broken ka-lay."
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If you look a muffler new or old you will see that they all have one thing in common.... drain holes!! Mufflers are designed like this so the condensation produced in the exhaust has somewhere to go. Without them, a muffler would rot from the inside out.
So, you can imagine what I thought when a customer told me she wanted her money back cause her brand new muffler has a hole in it. We explained it to her and even showed her other cars and mufflers... Didn't matter..
She choose to void her warranty and had us weld the hole shut.
You know what they say - The customer is always right!!       Even if they're not!