Don't understand some people....

I guess some people don't want to work. Had a customer call me this afternoon to see if I could make a trip to their jobsite nearly 3 hours away to make a repair to their machine. They had called a 'local mechanic' to take a look and repair it on Thursday. He told them the leak was the front main seal (B series Cummins), and that he would repair it for them on Friday if they got the parts. Parts were overnighted but he never showed back up, called, or returned their calls to him.

Funny thing he didn't bother to insure they ordered a seal with a repair sleeve for him, didn't bother to tell them he needed a front cover gasket as it has to come off to change the seal. Thankfully I was able to call and find out that the seal sent had the sleeve and that Cummins had a gasket in stock locally, otherwise their machine would have been down longer than it already has....and they need it operational no later than Monday to keep the job on schedule.

I guess it just amazes me that someone who calls himself a mechanic, or that others call a mechanic given that the guys name was given to them by someone at the job site, doesn't care enough to show up to do a job. Not to mention that had he shown up there was no guarantee that he could have done the repair given his obvious lack of knowledge about the repair he stated he would perform.


Like I said, I just can't understand some people. How can you call yourself a mechanic and not know what your working on well enough to advise your customer on parts (and obviously don't bother to even call to figure it out), and then make matters worse by not showing up and leaving the customer hanging out to dry with a broken down machine......I simply can not understand..........

If the job is in jeopardy, Rent a machine to work the job till his is fixed. Now dont tell me that his profit margin is so small he couldn"t rent a unit to keep pace. Maybe he shouldn"t be in business. JMHO. LOU

When your working in a small town it's not that easy to find a 10,000 lb capacity telehandler on a Friday and have it delivered for use on Monday. Regardless of wether my customer could afford to rent a machine, assuming they could find one, or not, that isn't the point here. My point is that when you offer to handle a problem for a customer, regardless of your profession, you take on the responsibility to follow through on your offer. If you don't then at least have the decency to let them know you can't make it, or whatever. Don't be a sorry a$$ individual and leave the customer hanging...even if the reason your doing it is you offered your services and then realized you don't know what the crap your doing. At least have the guts to call and let them know what's going on (heck at least make up a plausible excuse if you don't want to admit to your limitations)so they aren't stuck having to find someone else to handle their problem at the last second. Fortunately for the customer, in this case, I was free to get them situated, but if it had been later in the coming week I would have been 2 hours in the other direction working for another customer......Had that been the case what would have been their choices? Looks to me like their choises would have been to find another local mechanic to possibly screw them over again and cost them even more downtime, to spend thousands needlessly to rent a machine due to "mechanic" one's incompetence, let the machine set and the job get behind in order to wait on someone they trust (ie-me), or to simply let the machine go on leaking a gallon or two of oil a day both polluting the site and costing them money that would otherwise have been part of their profits.

Maybe it's just me, but as a business man none of those choices seem to be good ones....especially when the end result is costing them money because of one idiot not following through.......

You are just seeing that there are few "good" mechanics and a whole bunch of so-so mechanics. I used to get the job AFTER the other guy messed them up first as he was "cheaper".

I am glad I do not have to do that anymore. I am not sure I would have the patience to stand the BS anymore. It seems like both the customers and the shade trees guys are getting dumber as I get older.

I got a call just last week. The idiot owner of this JD 4450 tractor called and told me his power shift quit again. I went completely through it 4-5 years ago. He had ruined it by putting "cheap" hydraulic oil in it. The oil clearly said on the barrel that it was NOT for any hydraulic clutches. It eat the glue off all the clutch pads so they where no longer bonded to the metal plates they would just set there and free spin. Had to do the transmission, brakes and PTO clutch all at once as they all where ruined. This time he bought a "cheap" oil again and the clutch packs are shot again. He "saved" $250 a barrel on the oil. It only is going to cost him $5000-7500 to get the transmission repaired. Maybe even more I am not going to do it. I just do not have the time to do it with planting season right around the corner. Plus he will just tear it up again and I am taking things easier now.

Without knowing the details, he may have had a lot going on in his personal life or perhaps is flat out on another customers job.

Its tough to be a one man show for heavy equipment repair, most shops here have 3-4 guys on the road to have overlapping coverage all the time.

Wayne, did you take the job? Was the previous mechanics diagnosis accurate or did the machine need other repairs as well? What caused the seal to go bad in the first place? Was it too much radial or thrust bearing clearance or a general lack of maintenance?

The local guy did them a favor not trying to work on the engine he probably figured he'd be in over his head but he should have just told them that and everyone would have been better off.

I have the same problem with most business people.
There on the spot to give you an estimate but no show when you want the job done.They say it might be a couple weeks,then 6 months later your still waiting.

I've seen this before in other situations.

Bottom line is he didn't want to do the job...

Sometimes people are afraid to say anything in fear of it making them look stupid so instead they'll just show their stupidity thru their actions and no words.

I'm not a mechanic, nor do I do anything major like that. I do my own stuff when I can though.

I work as a sales person for an electronic supply store, similar to an auto parts store, with both wholesale and retail customers. Almost daily an electrician will come in asking questions that a sure nuff electrician should already know the answer to. It scares the bejeebies out of me to know these guys are out there getting paid for jobs they know little about how to do. I understand money and trying to save it here and there, but getting what you pay for isn't as easy as it used to be.

Ignorance and stupidity are two entirely different things, but sometimes it sure is hard to tell.

I think you guys are all missing something - there is a reason that a lot of folks are "self employed" - they cannot hold a freakin job. A trained mechanic doesn't come cheap. And he usually already has a job. In my case, I was looking for folks to do some construction work this last year. Despite a very slow construction market, the guys who are any good are still busy. The only guys availible are unlicensed, working for beer money. If they have enough beer, they don't need work....

Here in the UK I run a small agricultral engineering buisness specialising in Manitou fork lift trucks and telescopic handlers. I have one skilled engineer who works on farms out of the back of his van and I run the parts department and jobs in the workshop. We try to look after our customers with good service and if we can not get till next day we tell them we do not make idle promises. Last year we picked up 27 new customers so we must be doing something right. MJ

The reality is that America has a lot of deadbeats pretending to be hard working skilled and reliable tradesmen. When the economy is good they get by because the market demand exceeds the number of skilled tradesmen. When things slow down their unreliablity catches up to them and off they go to a different line of work, until that catches up to them again. These are the guys that rarely show upon time, learn on the job and bluff their way through.

I have devoloped a group of skilled and reliable suppliers. They know I pay fairly and fast. I am too old and tired to deal with flakes, skips and pretenders.

I sure get tired of some unreliable, 3 weeks late, never returns his calls, "cash only" at the parts store, repair jockey finally showing up to do the job he committed to do a month ago, and asking me to pay him in cash so he does not have to pay taxes to support all the no account flakes on welfare.

You hit it right on the button.

That may be true where you are from, but here it is the opposite. It seems that a lot of very able bodied people here got sick of being treated badly or listening to "their" customers complain how poorly they were being treated by the office. In turn many of them have gone out on their own. In one case the electrician is a multi millionaire in less than 10 years, in most cases they are small business owners and happier now. On the flip side I have a friend who decided to be a self employed painter and he is just busy enough to buy beer, but "here" he is the exception to the rule, and that is how he has always been. Another friend is self employed carpenter part time and deputy sheriff full time and fully competent. I guess it"s what you want to see when you"re looking.

People these days are inherently unrelyable.It pays to become a jack of all trades and be able to help yourself in most any situation. :wink:

Greg
Around here spook is right On. We are an hour apart. The good guys are real busy or already left the state (Michigan) what's left were the second rate guys that want to charge full rate for substandard work.
I end up doing most of my work with a few friends, takes longer but we do it right.
Rick

That sucks to hear. On that side a guy I used to work with Got sick of it and started his own electrical business. Real likeable fella, hard worker, very competent electrician. After 4 years he couldn't pay his help, find the time to keep up with the work, pay his bills. Story is he got stuck on a couple of jobs for about $15k. He is now back working where he was before. Maybe he wasn't enough of a businessman to collect his money, or there was more to the story. Funny thing is that many people think that you are just sitting around waiting for them to call, not realizing that everyone else has things to do also. But like in the origional post the mechanic needed to tell them yes or no and follow through with it, if a regular customer had a problem come up and he thought he should do that first he needed to call them and say so.

Consider yourself lucky he never showed up to "fix" it. There is nothing I hate worse than going on a job and having to redo what some incompetent screwed up.

Do you notice almost all of your posts are about bad mouthing how "incompetent" someone or something is? I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt. You know how good he is because he forgot to order a part? I must be the dumbest mechanic in the world, cause I do that all the time. Things happen in people's lives that change their immediate priorities. For instance, my Grandpa passed two weeks ago, the last thing on my mind was what a customer needed and when. I know I would never hire you because of your bad mouthing of people and situations you know nothing about. Rant off.

Regardless, if something comes up and you can't, or don't want to, finish something you started, at least call the customer and let them know. My dad passed away unexpectedly but I at least called in to work and told them I wouldn't be in a for a couple days. They were very understanding and told me to take as much time as I needed. Had I not called in, I wouldn't have expected to still have a job. If you were in an accident and couldn't call would be about the only excuse for not calling.

Ok, rant all you want, I'm not perfect and I've never claimed to be, and never expect to be. That said if I am called to look at a job and expect the customer to order a part for me, I am going to insure that they order the right part. Seriously, if I came to work on your machine and told you I needed parts before I could come back and work on it, aren't you going to ask what part? Actually you shouldn't have to ask because I am going to tell you what parts you need to order for me to do the job. As it stands lately I've usually got around a months worth of work lined up, not including any emergencies that should arise. As such I can't afford taking my time to go to a job, expecting parts to be there for me, only to find that there are no parts there because I forgot to tell you to order them. If I did that to you would you want to pay me for my wasted time because I didn't tell you what parts I needed? If you want to pay m someone to be incompetence then you would be a first as I know of none of my customers that feel that way.

That said, it took me longer to drive to the job and back, than it did to do what needed to be done. I got the seal changed, and low and behold when I checked the drive line the guy told them was bad I found absolutely nothing wrong. Again, if someone told you that your machine was broken and that they would fix it for you for x amount, and you looked at it and discovered that they had lied to you how would you feel? Once again if you would willingly let someone s-c- r-e-w you over and repair a part that wan't brokem, your a first.

Ultimately I'll say this. The customers I work for call me because I've been working on machines of all types since I was old enough to hold a wrench and help my Dad. As such I typically know what I'm doing. I will admit there are times I get into a situation where I don't know, BUT I KNOW ENOUGH TO ASK SOMEONE ELSE THAT DOES, or I outright tell the customer that what they need is beyond the scope of what I have the tools to do, or whatever. Too I do not cheat my customers. If something can be resused fine, if not then I tell them they need a new one and give them the choice as to wether to buy it or not. For my larger customers I routinely call and order thousands of dollars worth of parts, on their account, without having to call to get permission. I can do this because they trust me to keep their machines in working order so they can make a living. If I wasn't able to earn my customers trust like I have, then I wouldn't be able to make a living myself.

So, if you don;'t want to call someone that knows what they are doing, someone who won't cheat you on the repair, and someone who will actually show up and repair your machine when they say they will, then you really don't want to call me, and I really won't miss the work because 99.99999999% of the rest of the equipment owners I know will already be keeping me busy anyway.

OK, my ran is over too...............

He was right on the seal being bad, I'll give him that. Thing is I can only assume he made a lucky guess, which I have to say is about the same thing I would have had to do, without actually pulling the pully off the end of the crank so I could see the leak (which I did before I went any further with the repair) given the amount of oil coating the engine compartment and the location of said oil. He was however wrong as I found absolutely nothing wrong with either of the three drivelines on the machine. The only thing I found wrong other than the sewal was a bolt missing on the bottom alternator mount allowing it to vibrate. Given the way a Cummins belt setup is the belt was still tight and working, but the alternaor was just allowed to jump a bit.

That said, my biggest problem was that you can get a plain seal for a Cummins or you can get one with a repair sleeve. Given that the seal was leaking, or assumed to be at least, it stands to reason to always get the seal with the sleeve. Wether the engine still has the origional seal and no sleeve, which means the crank nose could be grooved, or wether it had been repaired before and already been sleeved, not insuring that the correct one was ordered wasn't all that smart on the guys part. Then given that you have to pull the front cover to replace the seal, and with the gasket being coated with sealer from the factory, and really narrow, getting one off without it breaking is rare. So, if you plan to change the seal, you need to have a gasket on hand. Again not a smart move on that guys part not to make sure one was ordered.

Between that and the fact he never showed back up, called, or answered any of their calls or messages to them.....Just makes you wonder if he died overnight or simply didn't care.......

Problem I HAD was with people advertising in the local community rag sheet. They want $500 for a couple hours work, 2 guys, and it's half fast. So I quit that and went to the yellow pages to get a decent local business of the sort I needed.

Well, the local phone I dialed, listed in the YP was a rotary and the main office was many miles away. The owner had a full time job and had a couple of goons doing his dirty work. I find out later that the main goon gets 20% of what he can milk out of you and his partner gets 10.



I am talking about termites in particular in this, but applies to other things I needed done. Time is coming up for an inspection and probably another spraying and I'm calling Terminix this time even if I have to haggle with them about some kind of contract.

Mark

I think alot of people are being too hard on the first mechanic. First off, nobody KNOWS what happened to him, everybody is just jumping to conclusions that he is incompetent and never went back. Sure, a few people alluded that he could have an excusable reason for not going back but they right away point out that he never called or answered a call. Am I the only one that has had to vote a customer off the island? Dont any of you think that couldnt have happended here? To me, this situation just screams of a situation like that. Think about it folks, this contractor appears to be on a shoestring budget, with nothing in reserves (time OR money) to bring in a rental unit and they chose to call in a second mechanic from close by.... 3 hours away. It takes one of those real "special" customers to burn every bridge in a 3 hour radius.

And how do we know that the first mechanic didnt call the local Cummins dealer to see if the gasket was in stock just like Wayne did? We dont know that. Whats to say he wouldnt have just grabbed one on his way past the place? How do we know he doesnt do tons of business with them, maybe they would have dropped one off for him. The way I look at it is if it was so easy for Wayne to find the gasket, and he lives 3 hours away, it would have b een just as easy for the first guy and getting it in hand would have likely been cake.

The way I see it, the first mechanic likely screwed up by going to look at the machine. When there agreed to do the work and told the owners what things to get (although not all, as I explained above). Then after he left, he came to his senses and decided not to go back. WHY he came to his senses is of course unknown. Could have been his wife reminding him what a train wreck doing work for that contractor was in the past. Could have been a friend that reminding at how the contractor screwed him over and then bad mouthed him for years last time. Heck, it oculd have just been another drunk at the bar that told him the contractor is ready to fold and the mechanic will be lucky if he is ever paid. Really, it could have been anything but the bottom line is the first guy had reasons enough black ball the contractor and not even accept phone calls so to me thats pretty strong reasons.

In the end, Wayne did the work and I assume things went fine and was paid promptly, the sun was shining and birds were singing, bla bla bla. Even so, it wouldnt be the first case of a customer realizing his error AFTER being black balled by the first mechanic and then playing it cool with the next one which was Wayne. Contractors can be dumb but it takes a special kind of stupid to be under the gun in time and money to burn the second guy.... thats 3 HOURS AWAY. Once you burn Wayne, how far is the contractor gonna have to cast his net to get somebody there? Ya, they have a tendency to smarten up after a while.

I got 10-1 odds that say there is a real good reason that the first mechanic stood up the contractor. I got even better odds that it wasnt incompetence or a grandpa dying. I bet its a real good reason but Im sure we will never know what it is due to the distance Wayne is to the job site. Sure would be nice to know though...

How many hours on that B series? Wasn't old enough to have the killer dowel pin was it? I've heard you need the crank DRY on them or else the new front main will leak.