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Auto repair receipt for organizations

look these shops they just don't care I got stuck with $120,000 doctor bill because the shop that I work for decided to cancel my health insurance the night before I had a major surgery I didn't think it was possible I ended up getting a lawyer and they said since I wasn't working for the shop for quite a year they could do what they please I already paid for the health insurance that full month and since I had my surgery the last day of the month the shop did refund me for that one day uh of in insurance that I paid for they didn't say they were going to do it they just canceled it on me so it was a big surprise 5 weeks after my surgery I got this bill uh luckily I was able to get some things sorted out and I didn't have to pay quite the $120,000 so right there just goes to show you that a lot of these shops they don't really care about their technicians they just want to make their money and that's it so I'm going to talk about why I feel like a lot of mechanics are quitting the industry um I'm going to give you my experience so before I start let me tell you my background on uh being a mechanic so I've been in the automotive industry for a little over 15 years I worked 10 years at dealerships so most of it was at a new car dealership and then I did work a couple years at a used car dealership now both of those had a lot of cons there wasn't a lot of Pros to any of them uh when I worked at the new car dealership I was flat R uh so you pretty much when you didn't have work you were forced to just try to go out there and sell as much as possible regardless if Vehicles needed it so you can survive which I definitely wasn't a big fan of that uh I just didn't like trying to rip people off also I worked at usar dealership now the thing with that I was paid hourly plus a commission um the commission you would get every month if you got so many used cars out total as a shop and they would always say you would need like 50 cars and then they would only send you 49 so you never really hit that commission but when they hired me they didn't really say that they did that they just said oh yeah you get to pay the commission anyhow the worst thing about working at this Ed car dealership is we would get a lot of cars in from um auctions and stuff like that and at the auctions before people send the cars to the auctions they try to Bondo and cover over everything and paint stuff up to make it look nice um so the used car dealership they kind of knew that so they wanted to just kind of turn a blind eye to it safy it and send it out the door and let somebody buy it overpay for these vehicles that are just complete garbage um I didn't feel right about it so when I got these cars in I would always check for rotted subframes rotted frames and stuff like that but the biggest thing that I remember when I was there is I had a Chevy Malibu and the frame on the car on the on the body itself looked pretty nasty so I went around with the screwdriver and I shoved the screwdriver through the frame uh I got in trouble for that they said I forcefully stuck that screwdriver through there and it was good steel it wasn't rotted if that was good steel an old worn out screwdriver wasn't going to go through it anyhow I got in trouble for that so that was a big turnoff for me trying to work for this used car dealer and I also worked at a off-road shop as a service manager technician for a couple years which I really enjoyed that but they ended up getting sold out and uh closing down so I ended up leaving there and I also worked at a fleet shop working on tractor and trailers which that was not bad I got paid hourly but um it the pay just wasn't that great so let's go ahead and get into why I feel like mechanics are quitting this industry and this is all from experience that I have had happen to me all right let's get to the number one reason uh cost cost to be a mechanic is just outrageous uh the amount of money you get paid for the money that you are paying just doesn't add up sometimes it feels like you might be making good money but the amount of money that you're paying to do to be a mechanic is quite a bit uh so let's get to it number one is just startup uh when you start being a mechanic you need a lot of tools uh sometimes you can start out with very Basics and just keep adding but not all the time that's how it works when I first started I was a quick maintenance tech and what I did was uh pretty much everything besides Diagnostics uh so I would do breaks uh tires alignments any kind of flush any kind of suspension work I would I would do that exhaust and when I started it was only $12 $12 an hour it wasn't flat rting like that uh but I was able to get away with just having basic hand tools basic power tools and complete the job uh but I wasn't getting paid enough money and I felt like I was doing a lot more than what uh I was getting paid for which I was um so I decided to go flat rate and I got into a shop they gave me an8 raise so I thought $8 man that's that's that's a lot that's good that's good money uh not necessarily uh when I first got in there health insurance was crazy high every dealership that I worked at for a family has been 1,200 to2 Grand a month for health insurance so I have not been able to find a dealership that had remotely decent health insurance and it was super high deductibles so it really didn't help at all um anyhow the cost to start up I end up spending 10 grand to become this flat rate Tech when I first got there I worked a month I borrowed a lot of tools and the guys were like well we got this three borrow uh three strikes barring tools so you can borrow a tool three times and then once you got to Barrow it for the fourth time you need to buy buy this tool so which only makes sense because you're spending money on your tools to make money they're not spending money on their tools for you to make money so it makes sense so in order for me to make good money on Flat Rate although I was getting paid $20 an hour I had to invest and buy some tools so I bought $10,000 worth of tools I bought a decent toolbx and I filled it with as much stuff that I needed um so from there on I've had a tool bill every well it was every week I was paying a to bill but about every month I was spend anywhere from $300 to $500 for the last 13 years it wasn't until I got to year 13 to where I pretty much had everything I needed uh and occasionally I would buy tools so almost $440,000 in tools big startup cost uh not all the time you're going to have to do that when I started Harbor Freight um wasn't as big as it is now they didn't have tekon tools so if you are getting into the industry definitely looking at that kind of stuff um now that I do this for fun um I stopped buying all these tools off of the tool trucks now I used to think buying tools was an investment hear me out it's not as much of an investment as you would think it would be yes they have some really nice tools don't get me wrong it's nice that they come to the shop and they service your tools I love all that and sometimes you just you're just buying off the tool The Tool Guy um I had a Mac Tool guy that I freaking I bought off him just because I liked him he was a good dude he did me well uh when I could get deals he gave me deals um which was cool you know uh but at the end of the day you also can't spend that kind of money when you're not making enough to justify that uh so definitely check out Harbor Freight tekon buy that kind of stuff anyhow my buddy passed and this was his tool boox right well tool card here after he passed his mom tried to sell his tools back to The Tool Guy because what is she going to do with his tools you know just let him sit in the garage um well they would only give 25% of whatever he paid for these tools so you used to think like hey man I would buy a $600 wrench set and you know this would hold value for the life of the wrench that's not the case anymore it doesn't hold the value so what's the the sense of buying these very expensive tools when value of the tool isn't there anymore just go buy this Harbor Freight or tekon tools and it would get you just as far as what buying off the tool truck will anyhow that's just my opinion I got a lot of tools from a lot of different companies and I love them but if I would have gone through this know what I know now I probably would have never invested the way I did these two kind of rolling together with cost it's time also you don't get paid over time so you lose a lot of time going into these shops if you're flat rate and there's no work and they want you to sit there and wait for work uh not a lot of times you can sit there and wait for work like you can probably go home and make more money than what you're sitting there waiting for work for so um and also these shops man I pretty much work 10hour days every other Saturday at dealerships and they expected it of you and the problem is is they would force that upon you because they would only bring in so much work in the morning and then load the end of the day with work to where it forces you to stay over because man these customers need these cars right now like you can't go home you can't go enjoy dinner with your family because you know what I loaded this schedule at the end of the day because I want you to stay here because I the service manager don't have a family so you it cost you time man um and cost you a lot of money so if you're looking in to get in this industry you got to be out there for yourself uh you can't let that kind of stuff happen you know if that's happening an old guy that I worked with said that's the reason why your toolbox has wheels you know you can always find work which is true but not all the time it's good work so the next thing is stress this industry has a lot of stress a lot of stress you got stress from the customers you got stressed from the service Riders you got stressed from your um service manager and the problem is with the customers they're not properly informed by the service writers and the service writers aren't properly informed by the service managers and the service managers don't have their proper training so to explain all stuff to their service riters for them to explain it to the customers if any of that makes sense um a lot of the times the service riters were service managers were never technicians so they don't understand that side of the shop which I feel like man you should almost have to have wrenched for a certain amount of years before you can be a service manager because then you know how to treat your guys you know what's actually going on and same with service Riders man I feel like service Riders should be old technicians man um the problem is is is sometimes they don't want to deal with customers which I get it but if if you can properly inform your customers uh you're not going to have them sitting there nagging you for man when's this going to be done I need it done right now you got a 10-hour job and your service Rider just promise this uh customer that your car's going to be done in 10 minutes and it's a 10hour job like I I've had that happen I think I was doing a subframe on something and my service Rider Pro he's come out I was like man I promise this guy that his car would be done in the next hour I'm like dude like everything on this car is rotted and breaking it's not going to be done until the end of the day and sure enough he comes out an hour later he's like why isn't my car done it's flipping out and then it's like well now it's like lunch time like well you can't go to lunch like you can't you need to stay here and keep working on it I told him it would be done an hour ago I'm like I told you it won't be um so then I'm skipping lunch so that kind of stress of just the customers nagging one of the stuff done right now and then your service Rider just not being knowledgeable of anything just makes it really hard and then your service Rider your service manager just not being able not being on your side as a technician like they need to understand what's going on in their shop uh they need to understand uh their technicians and their guys to be able to make the the shop not so stressful for them so just the collaboration of all of them make this job freaking stressful and even these cars depending on where you work a lot of cars where I'm at they're constantly they're rusted man you're using heat stuff's breaking uh you're dealing with just a bunch of crap and unfortunately you know that's just the way it goes but it wouldn't be so stressful if deadlines weren't Set uh that are unrealistic and if you weren't getting paid flat rate you were getting paid a certain amount so you know you can get the job done at a reasonable time and you're getting paid and you don't got somebody out there nagging you so there could be a lot that could be done to make this job a lot more enjoyable next is physical tool this job kicks the crap out of you um I am 33 years old let me tell you the issues that I have going on uh I have carpal tunnel so the years of running impact air hammers uh you know getting your hands jammed down in these tight spots trying to get another Bol in man that all caused carpal tunnel um I have neck and back problems there was a guy that cleaned up transmission fluid but didn't actually used degreas to get it up so the shop floor was super slick I slipped on it and I fell I hurt my back I hurt my neck and that was really early in my career so I've been dealing with this problem for a long time also I tore my right uh Rotator bicep and I jacked up my clavicle just from over the years of uh setting gears uh doing heavy work you know and the the crappy thing is like I know I messed up my shoulder from working on these cars but I still wasn't able to get Workers Comp because it was over the years of doing it uh so I was out of work for a little while why I had that surgery and didn't really uh I put my body on line for the company and you know I paid for it not them so anyhow and then last uh the last year I ended up having a hip replacement um so you know you get them paid and and even when you see I work flat rate for the beginning of my my years um so I was always in that flat rate mindset like Works in here I got to hurry up I got to get this thing in and out the door best as possible without having a return so I put my body in positions to where um I now regret you know I've have all these problems uh and if I were have just slowed down and kind of thought out what I was doing maybe I wouldn't have such a hard time with my body now at 33 years old so I have a I got a full hip replacement and I definitely I definitely regret it uh so puts a big tool on your body cuz you know you're you're being flat rate you're wanting to make money so you don't think about yourself you're thinking about trying to make money trying to support your family try to pay your house payment try to pay your bills and you don't feel the pain while you're working you feel it when you get home when your body is just wrecked because your adrenaline is low and you're just sitting there like man my day was miserable and now my body's killing me like that's what happens uh especially being flat rate like you don't think about your body until it's too late um but also uh you're around chemicals all the time like breathing in you're touching you're grabbing whatever uh you know you're hearing got impacts and air hammers going so you got to make sure you're protecting your ears uh your eyes like you always have something floating around the shop chemicals uh fluids dripping out of cars you're cutting grinding something breaks you know you can get something in your eyes you got to make sure you have that eye protection um and also um knee protection I'm lucky that when I first started one of the guys showed me from neon on c for over 20 years he had so much water built up in his knees uh his knees were trashed so I automatically when I first started that was probably the first six months of me wrenching uh I bought a knee pad and I've been using that knee pad ever since I don't care what anybody said to me I was not going to have knees like him I didn't care how many people tried to you know make fun of me because I'm kneeing on a pad blah blah blah blah you know I seen his knees just wasn't happening so this job takes a tool on your body could be just lack of care from the companies uh you are the lowest man on the on the list if you're a technician the freaking car the car wash guys are above you it's just the way it is um shops are always unsafe work conditions um there was a time I needed my lift fixed it went a year because it wasn't completely broke down yet it went a year before they fixed it and man that could have been bad so unsafe for conditions and then when they're supposed when they're supposed to have specialty tools for their technicians a lot of the times they don't so you're you have this job you got to get it done you got to make money on it so you're either trying to make something work which is taking way more time than what it needs to take because you don't have the proper tools or you're going out and buying the proper tools so they they just don't care and also like I've worked for couple shops that would let you work on your cars when you were slow they didn't mind but then I also work for some shops that were like no you have to pay to work on your car um that right there is like man you have me sitting here doing nothing I want to pull my car in doing oil change tire rotation maybe doing alignment if I have time whatever like you're not paying me to be here but I'm sitting here but they still want you to pay them to work on your car uh that's just that's just crazy outrageous uh I I understand having an rro if something happens so you can have proof that you know you you were given the okay to work on your car in the shop and then it's covered by insurance or whatever the case may be but man making your guys pay to use a shop when you're sitting around doing nothing man that it just doesn't make sense thought the story at the beginning was bad that was only a portion of the crap that I've had to go through throughout my career um this here is the reason why I left the automotive industry um last year I I I did miss some time working uh my buddy passed away I got him a job with me he was working with me he passed away um and I missed some time working uh because of that which is you know pretty hard you don't foresee these things happening they happen and sometimes it hits you all at once and then my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer uh so I took some time off while she had her procedures and her chemo and radiation and stuff like that to be there with my mom uh and then not too long after that my brother was diagnosed with uh Kango carcinoma uh so I missed some more time uh with my BR because you know my brother was going through it and so the shop was kind of like punishing me because I wasn't at the shop I needed to be at the shop which you know I get it they need to make money but you know what none of this stuff is ever planned and none of this is wanted stuff like this all freaking sucks and you're going to punish me for being there for my family being there for my my friends and stuff like that it doesn't make sense so where I worked there was couple different tiers of how you're getting paid and the highest tier was uh heavy line so they would just all they did was transmissions and engines and I was right below that so occasionally I would do some engines and Transmissions well since I was missing a lot of work it seemed like every time I was coming in all I was doing was engines and Transmissions now I had a lot going on man and at the time man I I ended up losing it I'm like I went in there on my manager I'm like what is going on like if you're going to have me do this stuff you're going to have to pay me with these uh what the heavy line guy gets paid and then then I get told like well you got to prove yourself it's like I've been doing this for years I don't have to prove this to nobody I've done plenty of them for you guys I don't have to prove nothing like you want me to continue doing this I need paid and then my boss's boss gets involved and it turns into this huge blowout um and then and you know I'm I'm just kind of thinking I try to deescalate the situation or whatever and I was already having issues with my hip I had it replaced so I was like you know what you know I apologize whatever whatever and I went and to the doctor's on lunch and he gave me a uh a light duty slip you know I can still it said I can still do my normal work just not that that heavier stuff well they didn't like that and they said I could not work return to work until I was off a light duty and my doctor you know he did his did his thing or whatever and he said man I was having problems I couldn't even walk 10 minutes all right so my doctor is like you can go ahead uh let's get some x-rays and check this out my hip was so bad he was like I I've never done this on anybody so young but we're going to have to do a hip replacement for you because you have a lot of issues here so I told my work I was like hey you know what I'm just going to have this done well I wasted a lot of my FMLA time I wouldn't even say wasted I used a lot of my f time with my family and all this other stuff so I had like two weeks left and I can get back to full Duty um and they're like well if you can't get back on this time we're probably going to have to let you go so I just stopped her there and said you know what I'll just come pick my stuff up because I don't want to work for a company that's going to do this to somebody um so yeah now I work on uh Jeeps for fun a lot of people can't uh grapsid to this for fun but yeah I do this for fun so the biggest thing is a lot of these companies they don't they don't care man they just want their money so if you're going to be a mechanic there are a couple um shops that you can get into that are that are worth it uh when I worked on an off-road shop man it was great I had good insurance customers were great everything was great there but they ended up closing um I probably should have tried to find another shop but uh off-road shops are kind of a little further away than where I was at um so if you're going to do this kind of work definitely get into the specialty stuff uh go work an off-road shop or or a tuner shop or something like that U majority of the time the pays better better Insurance the stress level is a lot lower uh so that's that's what I would suggest uh if I had the opportunity to get back into that I probably would but I would never go back to a dealership never never in my life my kids ask me if they want to do it no I wouldn't let them so that is one that is one thing if you do want to do this look into the specialty shops well that pretty much sums it up guys so you know just the cost of entry level the stress the tool on your body the shops just not giving a crap about their technicians I mean for me if you're going to go work at a dealership I would tell you not to so that is all for my experience all these things have happened to me so I I do know some others that you know kind of enjoy it but uh so yeah just you know take in what I have told you and just uh use it as something that kind of guide you through your career but also make sure you take care of your body and go to work for you and your toolbox always has wheels on it so if you're having problems just leave there's jobs out there you guys have a good one