I remember as a kid taking my dad to help me talk a body shop into redoing the paint job they botched on my 66 Mustang I had saved two years to have done. That and get them to also redo the vinyl roof. Instead of the OEM pebbled material I specified, they installed a smooth padded one that looked like it was meant for a 1980 Lincoln Town Car.
So there I am trying to be all growed up and professional and pointing these things out in a calm way to the shop owner who obviously thought he'd blow me off. I had it all worked out how I was going to start nice and friendly, compliment him on his body work (which was crap too but I needed to get off on the right foot) then depending on his responses slowly escalate to the BBB, small claims, spreading the word around town etc.
I had hardly opened my mouth when my dad stepped forward and said "Listen, how about you redo the paint properly on your own dime and we'll pay you to redo the roof properly. That fair?"
I just about sh*$ myself. It was the last time I ever took my dad anywhere near a negotiation.
Sometimes you can learn by watching how badly someone does it. :D
Anyway, Lanse, I've had more than a few other opportunities since then to rectify crappy work, service, whatever. I find you can get a long way by starting with a compliment, no matter how idiotic it feels. "Hey, I really liked how you guys got right on this job quick" or "My friends and I have used your stuff for years now..." or "I had been hearing great things about your shop and had to try you guys out..."etc. etc.
Then you work in what your concern is. Not like it's the end of the world but more of a minor issue you know he wants to put right.
If you get them off guard thinking you basically like and respect what they do (takes holding your nose sometimes) they often find themselves helping you out on the "minor" issues you bring up before they know what they're doing.
Just as a minor example, I once had the owner of a car dealership personally drive a free shop manual to my office across town in rush hour because I complimented him on his friendly, knowledgable parts counter staff (who had nevertheless managed to lose my order for the manual not once but twice over the five weeks I had been trying to get it ordered).
If I had started by telling him what a twit he was for running such a half-arsed operation and hiring a bunch of knuckleheads who couldn't fill in a piece of paper properly -- although true enough on both counts, I doubt I'd have got myself that $80 book for free.
A little more serious, once I got a marina to waive a $1200 salvage and repair bill because they had bungled the job (taking far too long, further damaged the boat, were clueless dealing with the adjuster, etc.). Certainly not $1200 worth of bungling but they annoyed me enough to go after them and by working them a bit and playing on what they thought was their great reputation I made out pretty well.
I'm not saying it will work every time. I've struck out big time as well and there are definitely people who would rather slit their wrists than apologize or take responsibility for cleaning up their sorry messes...but it's a place to start.
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Today's Featured Article - Usin Your Implements: Bucket Loader - by Curtis Von Fange. Introduction: Dad was raised during the depression years of the thirties. As a kid he worked part time on a farm in Kansas doing many of the manual chores. Some of the more successful farmers of that day had a new time saving device called a tractor. It increased the farm productivity and, in general, made life easier because more work could be done with this 'mechanical beast'. My dad dreamed that some day he would have his own tractor with every implement he could get. When he rea
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