# Fed Up With Dishonest People



## rusty (Apr 18, 2012)

I arrive at 8:00 am, inform the service manager the truck is here for its yearly safety inspection. He asks me to sign a work order, I smile and say no, I'm only here for the safety any additional repairs would be done by me at home in my own shop.

He forgot to convey this message to his mechanic who rejected the safety over two universal joints he claimed were bad, no problem I purchase a pair of jounts and head home. Moments after pulling into the yard grab some tools and my cat bar, give the universal joints a work out with the cat bar and find no play. tight as new. 

So I take the joints back and get looks and questions as he knows the u-oints are the right ones as we had to phone International for a line setting ticket to get the proper numbers. 

I just told him there was nothing wrong with the ones on the truck and that I would be taking the truck to another shop to complete the inspection as a seconed oppinion was needed. The air has changed from friendly to heavy overcast, they've been caught in a scam.

Why does the employer have his employees stealing on his behalf, is job security more important than a mans morals. 

Scrap yards are notourious for their scale man cheating on weights and by the end of the day he has stolen enough to cover his wages plus some extra gratuities for his employer. 

When I was apprenticing for my automatic transmission repair ticket, the counter guy and the manager would laugh over coffee how they had gained an inessesary transmission job by showing the customer an oil pan with filings and bagged out clutch frictions laying on the bottom. A simple band adjustment or modulator replacemmnt would have solved the problem for under a $100.00 instead they hose the guy for $1200.00 and to top it off get another $300.00 for a life time warrenty.

A full rebuild master kit for most transmissions back then was like $35.00 / $40.00 tops, the master kit came with new clutches, steels, sleals and bands the modulator was extra. A good floor man can re and re a transmission under an hour and bench time is an hour. The transmission spends half an hour in the power washer. Shop time was billed out at $50.00 an hour, they made a killing on each job they sold.

Truth be known that oil pan probably would not even have fit the customers transmission it was a show and tell peice kept under the counter for those ocassions. I knew of its existance.

A buddy of mine pumping gas one day told me how good this job was and that he was skimming the price of a quart of oil making more money on the skim that wages. He would pull the dip stick wiping it clean then holding a finger so that the stick could not reach all the way in, bringing the stick back out would show the engine was low on oil. After showing the customer the stick at the add mark would make aniother quick sale.

He kept an empty oil can handy, then insert the oil spout into the already made hole then pour in a make beleive quart of oil pocketing the money. I suppose there is some merit to having self serve stations, the gas companies hate competition.


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## element47 (Apr 18, 2012)

Rusty, when the financial elite of the country are engaged in government-protected fraud, then, when the Congressional parasites threaten to get tough on them by writing new law, they (the fraudsters) hire lobbyists to write the new laws effectively memorializing the loopholes and exceptions the fraudsters want; when the SEC and the CFTC are effectively captured by entities they are supposed to regulate...in other words, when fraud at the very top of the food chain is enshrined and protected by the regulators who won't even enforce their own or their predecessors' laws....I am very, very understanding of the rank and file feeling no remorse whatsoever over attempts at fraud. I mean, I decry it, I think it's despicable. But as they say, the fish stinks from the head down, and when we have the very highest levels of government engaged in massive, systemic fraud, I understand why (though I do not approve) many people seek to defraud others. It sucks. Our society has become criminogenic. And your example is petty stuff. As the economy worsens, I suspect this will become far more common. But our so-called leaders lead with their actions, and they are busy whipping up class envy anyway. The only way you go to jail in "the new normal" is if you fail to steal eight digits.


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## oldgeek (Apr 18, 2012)

Rusty, SADLY I am afraid that is business as usual for the majority of our world now days.
My brother and I now own/work our fathers 30+ year established service business. We live in a retirement/vacation hot spot, and it is amazing the number of "companies" that come here just for the summer to RIP PEOPLE OFF. Then at the end of summer they leave. Even most of the big, franchised companies have no problem with doing unnecessary repairs/replacements of peoples systems. And guess what? The elderly are their FAVORITE customers. They shamelessly take advantage of them just to make a dollar. My father taught me and my brother honesty in business, and we are NOT going to screw up his life work. My father did not get rich by any means, and sometimes it is difficult for me and my brother to stand by and watch these crooks get RICH.
I am sorry to say AMERICA is BROKEN in my opinion, and I have no idea how to start fixing it.


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## dtectr (Apr 18, 2012)

Many struts are sold by a similar con - the salesman (let's call him what he is - for them to rightly be called "customer service"they would actually have to serve the customer) brings in an unattached strut which magically has a little oil on it ("hydraulic fluid from a leaking seal") rests one end on the floor and then pushes down with his body weight (this works better if you are small to medium build, ladies would kill at this). The strut body depresses (of course, as the spring supports the vehicle's weight, actually all 4 do so, the hydraulic shaft is for a smoother ride, less sway ) and he/she says with wide, sincere eyes, "this is supposed to hold the weight of your car (2-4 tons). I only weigh 150 pounds blah, blah, blah."

I worked for one of the largest wireless retailers in the US, I can't say their name but they claim to have more bars - people don't realize that they mean they have more employees in more bars in more places. 
I went from being in the top 10% to the curb because I wouldn't lie to my customers - that being the only to meet the quotas set by the board. They would figure the profit needed for the month or quarter, divide that by the number of employees and that was your quota. 
My dad was also in the service industry as was I for many years. But when you get 'dinged' for doing the moral thing, then its time to move on . He used to tell me a riddle : you don't have it at birth but it lives on after you die. It takes years to grow but seconds to kill. What is it? Of course, its a reputation and I wouldn't trade it for all the bourbon in kentucky.


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## Anonymous (Apr 18, 2012)

rusty said:


> I arrive at 8:00 am, inform the service manager the truck is here for its yearly safety inspection. He asks me to sign a work order, I smile and say no, I'm only here for the safety any additional repairs would be done by me at home in my own shop.
> 
> He forgot to convey this message to his mechanic who rejected the safety over two universal joints he claimed were bad, no problem I purchase a pair of jounts and head home. Moments after pulling into the yard grab some tools and my cat bar, give the universal joints a work out with the cat bar and find no play. tight as new.
> 
> ...


Hey Rusty,

Very deep... very deep. I know of a person that worked at a gas station/convenient store and he told me that he would put regular drinking water in the 87 octane tanks in the ground and profit when people would purchase gas. Although I wasn't vulnerable to his tactic, it made me really think when I purchase gas. I'm 46 years of age, and since I was around 20, when I learned about the different octanes, I NEVER put 87,, 89 or even 92 octane in my vehicles. Regardless of what people say, 93 octane will make your vehicle run better.

If you can't do anything about getting your money back or getting compensated from those people, just move on because they will get theirs, and not in a good way. Karma is good or bad, yet it depends on how you dish it out.

But you just taught me some things about automobile establishments that simply rip people off. That may be something that has made me ALWAYS buy a HAYNES book for EVERY vehicle I purchase. Although I'm not a mechanic at all, I've learned how to repair my vehicles at my own expense, and if I couldn't do it myself, I knew/know what to tell the mechanics.

Things will work out for you.... just wait and see.

testerman


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## Geo (Apr 18, 2012)

statistically, it happens more to women than to men. well the automotive part anyway. i have a brother that has scrapped most of his life, and he has a saying that really sums up the way he lives "its not what it is, its what you can sell it for". he feels that if he can get away with doing the wrong thing its just payback for all the bad thats been done to him. i tried to work with him several times, and each time we had a falling out because he thought i was trying to cheat him. he says i would stay up at night trying to think of ways to rip him off. i love my brother and would rather give him what i had than feel like i had taken something from him. i understand its just his nature and its best if we dont have any business dealings together. there are people in this world that will never change and think the world owes them something.


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## Harold_V (Apr 19, 2012)

testerman said:


> I NEVER put 87,, 89 or even 92 octane in my vehicles. Regardless of what people say, 93 octane will make your vehicle run better.


That's total nonsense. 

Unless you have scientific evidence to support that view, I strongly suggest you not post such misinformation. If you insist, please make it known that it is your "opinion". It certainly is not a fact. 

The benefits of higher octane are not realized with low compression engines. Higher octane fuel isn't "better", it is just "different". It is intended to prevent detonation (dieseling). Why on earth would an engine run better when the purpose is for different reasons? 

Harold


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## darshevo (Apr 19, 2012)

I feel your pain at the scale. I have a pallet scale of my own that I use in day to day business. It is a state certified unit. Routinely I find I am several lbs off from the yard when my material gets there. I try to chock it up to a difference in calibration, or dust settling on the box in transit or whatever. In reality its more likely a case where their scale is off around 1-2%. Doesn't sound like much, but across a million dollars a year in business (which may actually be a low estimate) it would mean an additonal 10k in profit.

I also had an experience at a steel yard where one scale operator would routinely come up with 3 tons on my truck in steel while another would be around 5000 lbs. I had the same thing in each load each time, and would guarantee you the truck didnt vary 100 lbs per trip. Maybe coincidence? I had to tell myself the one who was giving me 3 tons was tipping the scale in my favor so I wouldnt be pissed off enough to go in and say something. In the meantime I call ahead before I take a load in there to make sure whos running the scale.


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## nickvc (Apr 19, 2012)

It happens in all businesses big and small the real knack is to know what you have and stand your ground, the difference of 1-2% can be huge amounts of money especially when it comes to our particular materials...


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