Re: Advice Needed: Issue with Mechanic

Posted by NCWayne on July 07, 2011 at 08:42:04 from (98.21.228.208):

In Reply to: Re: Advice Needed: Issue with Mechanic posted by LJS30 on July 06, 2011 at 22:50:57:

I understand where your coming from and to answer your question, no it wouldn't hurt my feelings if a man offered to come pick up his machine after I got done with it. In fact most jobs I take on like that are both brought to me and picked up by the customer. Heck in the end just them picking it up saves them the cost of my time and fuel to deliver it.

As far as the time it has taken to get it done, I don't know that much about the car repair world but the tractor repair world, at least as far as my business goes, is a whole different ball game. There are so many different variables when it comes to getting work done 'back burner' it's not funny. One is the sheer volume of the daily jobs already commited to and the consequenses/cost of not getting them done ASAP, along with the fact that the volume is subject to change on a daily basis. Most of my ongoing/full paying customers use their machines as part of their business and every day their machine is down it's costing them money. I mean I may be working on a machine for one man when another man calls with a machine down on the job that's holding up a whole pipeline crew, etc. In cases like that everything has to be prioritized based on the immediate need, the cost to the customer, and just the problem in general. Basically if machine A is down and costing the customer $10,000 a day and holding up a pipeline project then his machine is going to take prioroty over the guy that is just using his machine to clear a vacant lot and not holding anyone else up.

Typically the guys I work for understand this and have no problems with it. In my case some of my customers do drilling and blasting on pipeline right of ways, power line right of ways, etc. If one of them calls and a machine is down and setting on a loaded shot them I have no choice but to drop whatever I'm doing and go get him going. Often that involves a temporary fix to move the machine away from the explosives so they can do the shot, but that, in turn, also results in another trip out to do the permanant repair. In other words it all works out to not one but two days work thrown into the middle of a schedule that is already full. Then when you get out to the jobsite, 40 miles in the middle of nowhere, to do the permanant repair and get rained out, find that the new part isn't right, find there are further problems that didn't show themselves until the main repair was completed and the machine was again operational, etc, etc, etc, it makes things even worse. Basically a two minute phone call about a broken machine can easily turn into several days worth of extra work that was not planned for. Often those days are from daylight to dark and in the 90 plus degree summer sun, with no shade even close, when I get home at night going back down to the shop for a 'back burner' project the guy was in 'no rush' for is the least of my worries.

With the economy being what it is things have slowed down alot for me compaired to two years ago.. At that point in time I kept about a three month backlog of ongoing/'pressing' work needing to be done, on top of frequent calls when a machine went down on the job somewhere. As it stands now I've still got that much backlog, if not more, waiting on me. Unfortunately the difference now being that my customers are just trying to come up with the funds to get everything done. Even so when the money is right they typically have an upcomign job, etc and therefore a real need for the machine so when they do call they still want everything done ASAP. Again when you've already got several things scheduled and something else gets thrown into the mix, it makes scheduling everything a little crazy. Then throw into an already crazy mix a call like I did this morning saying that the parts didn't come in as planned for the job I has scheduled for today. When that happens the whole crazy schedule you thought you had just goes further out the window.

I know it still probably doesn't sound THAT bad or THAT complicated but with equipment something simple like the parts not coming in this morning create a huge ripple effect. As it stands I've been setting here this morning doign paperwork, goofing off on here, and mainly just waiting on the parts. I knew I wouldn't have time today even start to do the other job I've got to get going so my only choice was to kill time til the parts got in. Now I find that I don't have parts for the one job I had planned so now if i want to have something to do and earn a living today, I've got to go move a bunch of stuff around from a third job to make room to park a tractor that will be setting for a few weeks while I rebuild the motor and replace the clutch. Even then I'll probably have time to basically just get started on splitting the tractor today and then have to pull back off of it to go do the job I had planned for today when the parts come in tomorrow.

Ok, I know that's kind of long winded but hopefully you get my point. I don't know anything about the guy your dealing with but if his business is anything like mine, for a back burner job that your in no rush for setting three months, it isn't a big deal at all. In fact I once had a large commercial mower that was a 'no rush' project that sat for close to 8 months before I was even able to get it in the door and get the work needed done on it. In that case it had to come inside to do the needed work and it simply took that long for the me to get the shop emptied of the 'full price' jobs to make enough room get it inside.

In the end, IF the guy was good to his word to the point of getting your machine fixed, I wouldn't be too hard on him about the time frame.....Unless you know and can prove he was knowingly and purposfully screwing around with and/or flat out lying to you. Otherwise, yes, he does sound is guilty of having somewhat poor communication skills or a 'shorter fuse' than most. Regardless the lying, etc I personally can't and won't put up with myself but if it's nothing but communication ussues, then the way I see it you didn't take your machine to him for his communication skills you took it to him for his mechanical skills and IF he followed through with that part of the deal then all should be OK. Worst case tell him in a nice way that things didn't go exactly like you had planned and that you got a little upset over the deal, and hopefully he'll be able to learn from the experince and do better the next time.

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