Red Ring Tupperware Party, Farewell to Tuesdays (22)

Pretty awesome picture of a lion cub meeting his father for the 1st time.

http://gma.yahoo.com …-abc-news-topstories.html

Ok, that's cute!

That male lion defiantly has a defiant look. But the next one is awesome

Jon wrote in post #14898315
A whole series of dumb acquisitions and product shutdowns, starting with CEO Carly Fiorina.

And then she actually used her HP experience as part of her credentials when she ran for US Senate...

Chet wrote in post #14898526
That male lion defiantly has a defiant look. But the next one is awesome

Disney should run with that theme...

Oh, wait

nevermind

Never liked that movie. At least being pushed for very young kids, I thought it was pretty violent. And they made it seem all cute and adorable.

Harm wrote in post #14897125
No more drama today, Mel?

Very little drama for me today, which was quite nice compared to yesterday.

Storytime:

The company I work for has a few different "businesses" all connected together. We have a Ford dealership, a KIA dealership, a Carstar body shop, and Lambton Auto Credit which is a bad credit/no credit used car lot. I work in the Quicklane, which is a department within the Ford dealership.

In the Quicklane we do almost all of the repair work for Lambton Auto Credit (LAC), which includes all the safety inspections and emissions testing. Back in June/July I was given a Mazda Tribute to work on. It had a driveability issue that made it unsafe to road test. It was decided that while the vehicle was in the shop I should do the safety inspection at the same time. (I am not allowed to sign a safety slip yet, but am allowed to do the work and have the licensed guy finish off the inspection) I made up a list of issues, presented it to Hugh (the guy from LAC that approves the work), and he said to go ahead and do the work. All except a couple of issues. First issue: the exhaust had a funny noise that sounded like a small leak coming from the flex pipe, but I could not feel/see the leak. I was told to leave it until it got worse and more evident of where the problem was. Second issue: the left side rear axle seal in the differential was leaking a bit. I showed it to Hugh and he decided that I should clean it off and we would monitor the leak to determine if it was something that could be left or if it needed to be fixed. Every other item on my list was repaired, including full rear brakes.

The vehicle sold rather quickly after the work was done. But it didn't take long before the owner was complaining. He made a big ruckus about how the differential was leaking all over his driveway and there was a horrible clicking noise coming from the axles. So it was givin back to me to replace the seal, which is not a simple job. I brought it in expecting to find gear oil all over the place but found that it wasn't even dripping, just a bit damp. But I replaced the seal anyways. Never found any indication of any clicking noise. Gave the vehicle back to the customer.

Not long after he was back in complaining about this horrendous clicking noise again. I test drove it and occasionally could hear a really, really soft thumping noise coming from the back. Put the vehicle up on the hoist and checked over everything that moves. Couldn't find anything loose or making noise. Took the rear brakes apart and inspected them. One side was out of adjustment. Readjusted everything. Took it for a drive and the noise was gone. Gave it back to the customer.

A few days later he was back again. Took the brakes apart, cleaned everything, sanded down the pads to give them a better surface. Gave it back with no noise.

Few days later he was back again. This time I decided to turn the drums, even though they were brand new. Put the first one on the lathe and found that it was very much out-of-round. Took quite a bit of machining to get it true. Second drum was the same way.

Diagnosis: with the drums being out of round like that, under slow speed, light braking the shoes would be pulled away from the backing plate and then released, allowing them to slap back against the backing plate. Noise has not returned since.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I had been in Kentucky Saturday to Tuesday, manager took Wednesday off, so I was to do his job all day Wednesday. I get there for 7:30 am, totally exhausted from the weekend. Manager (Jim) had left a note about how to take care of some of the paperwork and that he was going to call with more instructions. The Mazda was back and there was a work order written for it about loss of power and a hissing sound. Jim called and he told me that they were suspecting plugged catalytic converters. He told me to have Kevin disconnect the exhaust between the front two cats and the single rear cat so we could try and determine which ones were the problem. Kevin took the exhaust apart and had the shop foreman drive the vehicle. Determined that the rear cat was a problem, but wouldn't know for sure on the fronts until the rear was replaced and the system closed up again. Also needed the flex pipe replaced as it had a hole in it. Price from Ford for the single cat is $500, plus the labour to install it. Foreman suggested taking it across the street to the exhaust specialist for a quote from them. Their quote came in at about $500 for the cat and flex pipe, installed. I went to the GM, as instructed, to get approval for the repairs. He said go ahead, so I made up a purchase order and called the shop and told them to fix it. I got the vehicle back and went to put make up the bill, but didn't know how to split up the costs. I was told that the deal was that the customer was responsible for full labour and half parts, and that LAC would cover half the parts. (It's a goofy deal, but I stay out of that) I went to the service manager, Dave, to ask how to split it up. He started working on it, but it's not an easy thing to do, so he had make some calls to the accounting folks and Sandi at LAC. In this process it was discovered that Sandi had not been informed of the cost of the repair and neither had the customer. Big mistake. Anywho, Dave got the numbers all worked out and Sandi called the customer, who flipped out. They told me to simply collect the money from the customer and give him his keys. Sandi gave me a heads up that the customer was coming in and he was steaming. And he very much was. Started giving me the riot act about every little thing he's had to deal with and how stupid the "warranty" is (even though he was 4 days past warranty coverage). He informed me that he had already called the MTO and his lawyer. MTO was coming tomorrow to pick up his vehicle and take it apart piece by piece. And that we were going to be sued. He insisted that I show him proof of the amounts that he was paying and what LAC was covering. I showed him the breakdown and he paid his share. And went away leaving threats in his wake.

So I went to talk to Sandi about what happened on her end, and then went to Dave to talk to him about what went down. The way the information highway was supposed to happen: We diagnose problem and make up a quote. Talk to Sandi and she talks to customer. Wait for their approval. Take quote to GM and get his approval. Get repair done.
I was not told the part about going to Sandi and the customer. I just assumed that they already knew about the cost and had givin the go ahead already. Which had not happened. Hence the pissed off customer.

So, long story short: My manager (Jim) screwed up big time on the communication front. Which is not an uncommon thing. The service manager (Dave) has assured me that I was not in the wrong. But if this customer follows through on his threats my work could be brought into question by the ministry. Which is a scary thing.

Chet wrote in post #14898604
Never liked that movie. At least being pushed for very young kids, I thought it was pretty violent. And they made it seem all cute and adorable.

You can say the same thing about many Disney movies.

Chet wrote in post #14898604
Never liked that movie. At least being pushed for very young kids, I thought it was pretty violent. And they made it seem all cute and adorable.

I was in grade 8 when Lion King came out and we watched it in class. Amazing animation for the time, but it definitely is a violent movie. Full out murder, betrayal, dictatorship, oppression...

thomascanty wrote in post #14898769
You can say the same thing about many Disney movies.

True.

Mel, that sounds just like the dealer I worked for. In most cases no one wins. You should come out ok in the end. Don't sweat it.

Sounds like a big mess, Mel, but it doesn't sound like you did anything wrong. You were just doing what you were told to do.

I'm trying not too. For the most part, this dealership is pretty good at doing right by the customer. Much more so than other places I've worked. The biggest problem is my manager. He knows business well enough, but lacks in action. He's absolutely horrible at communication.

The service manager told me yesterday that he wants every single work order to be clearly laid out so that anybody can just walk up and figure out everything that's going on. Which is the way it should be, especially when people are taking time off and having to leave the job for someone else to take care of.

Three times yesterday I had customers inquiring about tires that we were supposed to have ordered for them. Customer A: no tire has been ordered as we haven't found one yet, but I had no idea as there was no paper trail. Customer B: tire has been ordered but has not arrived yet, but I had no idea as there was no paper trail. Customer C: showed up asking if we had any idea when his tires were supposed to be arriving, his tires had been sitting on our rack for a week but no one had called him to let him know. (he's the one that bought the Pirellis for the Jag)

Something needs to change.

Sounds like you need a new manager. Your front line customer service rep has to at least do his job correct.