If a customer has a problem with their car, it’s usually a fairly straightforward process to get it fixed. Firstly, they might describe the symptoms over the telephone and we’ll normally suggest they bring it in for a diagnosis. We then identify the problem, offer a quotation and if agreed, we’ll order any parts needed and book it in.

Sometimes though, we’ll have a customer that appears to know what they want already, and just simply asks us to price a specific job and then, once happy with the price we’ve quoted, will book the car with us to have the work completed. That’s also fine, but obviously it depends if the customer’s diagnosis is correct in the first place! Yesterday, a new customer called-in and seemed to know exactly what he wanted He said he needed new front brake discs and pads for his Passat. We checked the parts prices from 2 sources, and they were actually cheaper from Volkswagen than the local motor factors.Having agreed the labour charge (as per the ICME standard ‘book time’) he booked to have the job completed the next day. We duly ordered the parts in advance and he arrived this morning as scheduled. The technician, having installed a protective seat cover and floor mat drove the car into the workshop, raised it using a 2 post hydraulic lift and proceeded to remove the front wheels for access to the brakes. As soon as the wheels were removed, it was immediately obvious that the front brake discs and pads were not even slightly worn, and certainly didn’t need replacing at all.

So, our technician is faced with a dilemma. Does he simply replace the parts that the customer has requested, even though he knows that there’s nothing wrong with the old ones? After all, he’s already used nearly 1/2 hour of the 1 hr labour time that the job takes so he may as well finish the job. The answer I’m afraid is a resolute NO. A professional technician should always question what he is asked to do if he knows it to be wrong. Having telephoned the customer and explained that there was nothing wrong, and also removed the rear wheels to check the rear brakes, he was satisfied that no brake system parts were even close to requiring replacement. The customer seemed pleased as the job would have cost almost £200 in total, and wouldn’t have made the slightest difference to the way the car stopped!

As it happens, we did find something wrong with his car, and that was a faulty temperature sensor on the engine that caused the yellow ‘check engine’ light to stay on. The customer agreed that we should change that instead, so we did get some work from the car.

Now, had we have just changed the perfectly-good brakes, he’d probably still have been happy as he’d asked for them to be changed. Although our honesty cost us profit, it has hopefully gained us a new customer that will continue to use us and hopefully recommend him to his friends and family as a trustworthy place to have their cars repaired.

So, where do people get the ideas that their cars need new parts in the first place? The answer (from experience) is usually from having a service at a main dealer. On numerous occasions we’ve had almost identical circumstances to this, and it’s almost always that the main dealer service department recommended that the parts be replaced during the service, but the customer (wisely!) declined and asked for a second opinion (i.e. us).

There is one very simple factor involved in this, and I’ll let you in to a little secret about the motor trade and how millions of pounds of customers money is wasted every year on unnecessary repairs!

Read my post tomorrow, for a valuable lesson in not throwing your money away!

You Should Also Check Out This Post:

More Active Posts: