Useless rant.....

[rwsmith]

Car battery conks out. I CAN put in the battery myself but the parts stores are supposed to be equipped to do it. Go to nearest auto parts store that I been using for years. Seems like there's always some problem. "I'm here by myself and can't leave the store". Today they had two people one at the register and another guy milling around. "He's getting ready to leave and I can't go outside". So I go 100 yards down the road to another parts store. They have several people milling around and the person that's 'helping' me is mumbling about 'not knowing if they can do it'. But there is ONE guy helping another customer install a headlight on a car. I wait around and when he gets cut loose...blam, blam the batteries in and works fine and we are gone. Everybody has to get paid $20/hr to mill around and let one person do the work.

I don't know why I'm ranting because we are in for more of the same and it's just going to get worse. I suppose it makes me feel better. I complained about a lousy sub sandwich the other day and I suppose I'll call the auto parts head office.

 

[silicosys4]

Put your own battery in or get used to a diminishing level of customer service.

Remember that weak men, feminism, abortion, and birth control have given us a birth rate under replacement level, genAlpha is half the size of previous generations, hard work and initiative dont yield the same rewards they once did, and finding enough people to cater to your every desire is going to get harder and harder.

We are in the beginning stages of a population collapse.
Older people are going to have to become a lot more self sufficient in the future

 

[LVSteve]

Put your own battery in or get used to a diminishing level of customer service.

On many modern cars, unless you have a scanner, you cannot just plop in a new battery. The computer has to be told that a new battery has been fitted so it can use the correct charging algorithm. It's all to do with squeezing that last 0.01 mpg out of the vehicle for CAFE ratings.

 

[LVSteve]

Car battery conks out. I CAN put in the battery myself but the parts stores are supposed to be equipped to do it. Go to nearest auto parts store that I been using for years. Seems like there's always some problem. "I'm here by myself and can't leave the store". Today they had two people one at the register and another guy milling around. "He's getting ready to leave and I can't go outside". So I go 100 yards down the road to another parts store. They have several people milling around and the person that's 'helping' me is mumbling about 'not knowing if they can do it'. But there is ONE guy helping another customer install a headlight on a car. I wait around and when he gets cut loose...blam, blam the batteries in and works fine and we are gone. Everybody has to get paid $20/hr to mill around and let one person do the work.

I don't know why I'm ranting because we are in for more of the same and it's just going to get worse. I suppose it makes me feel better. I complained about a lousy sub sandwich the other day and I suppose I'll call the auto parts head office.

This is nothing new. Training is an overhead that Wall Street doesn't want to pay for. They would sooner pay a guy $20/hour to mill around for 40 hr/week for a year than send the guy on a class for a week at $20/hr because it will be on overhead and it mucks up the metrics. It was going on in the 80s in the UK, the attitude was that training was something the employee had before you hired them. Clever trick for people straight out of school or college.

 

[steelslaver]

What cracks me up is some people believe we can bring manufacturing back. They believe all we have to do is get rid of the immigrants and take food subsidies away from those who aren't employed at decent jobs. The fact you couldn't get a battery installed is just the tip of the iceberg. When I see a job paying $40 and up running short handed, the need for more layers of supervision and QC I got to wonder just how they plan to do it. News flash the people who aren't working now are not going to suddenly become productive and Make America Great because you want them too and force sure won't work. The days when you could bet out the bull whip and force them to work are long gone and forced labor has never been a big producer of quality goods. I know lets threaten them with prison. Wait, the prisons are full and we are having a hard time staffing those. Plus, when people start figuring out that busting their hump for even $30 an hour isn't going to pay the bills and get them anything but tired. $30 x 40=$1200 then after taxes and health insurance maybe $750. $750x4 = $3000 but rent is $1500 up then another 500 a month to eat leaves maybe $1000 but even a beater car, gas and insurance eats up a good chunk of that. Clothes??? Savings for retirement???? LOL Think about it when you think some guy getting maybe $20 and hour doesn't bust his butt. I know all about promotions etc. Wages haven't kept up with inflation except for those in the top 10%. In 1972 I broke out in the oilfield for $4.80 and hour and busted my hump to get it. That was good money THEN. Now it takes $35 to buy what that $5 bought then. 3666/and there aren't may #% an hour starter jobs. But wait, I didn't have to pay mandatory health insurance, etc. In 1990 the top 1% had 22.8% of all wealth in America and now they have 30.8 % mean while the bottom 50% share has dropped from 3.5% to 2.8% as trickle down economics have proven to be anything but. A young persons chances of "working their way up" out of the bottom 50% to the promised land of upper middle is tougher and tougher. There are say 6 regular employees in a parts house and one manager. The chances of getting that managers job IF IT EVER BECOMES VACANT is a best 1 in 3 and the manager probably isn't that big of pay bump. Hard to get people too chase that carrot if the pole gets to long.

 

[Eddietruett]

One of my customers went to Walmart for the weekly grocery shopping because his wife waited until the last minute and no delivery slots were available. He had a cart overflowing with food and upon reaching the checkout, only 1 personal was open and 6 of the 10 self checkouts were operating and there was at least 10 customers in front of him. There were 2 “managers” walking around apologizing for the delay because they were short handed. He asked one why she didn’t open up a register and help out. She replied since she became a manager she didn’t check out customers any more. He asked her if she still restocked merchandise and walked away leaving his cart full of food sitting in the aisle. He went home and wasted more time firing off an email to Walmart. So far 2 days with no response.

 

[cowboy94916]

I worked for 30+ years in a manufacturing enviorment. The company got merged so many times I felt like I was a street walker. Then someone in the newest iteration of the organization structure decided our labor force was getting to old insurance and union labr cost to much regardless if we were most profitible division in the company. Bright idea 1 lets oursource. Well that bright idea turned out to be cost prohibitive. New plan ahh we have NAFTA lets move to a non union plant in mexico. Long story short they forgot it took skilled labor to keep the quality up and product flowing. Five years after l left a 100+ year old brand ceased to exist. It was one of 4 manufacturing brands locally to suffer same fate under 4 different me to like managments.
That brings me to my latest issue. I have a Colt SAA .357 I use in SASS shooting. Well the bolt is froze so I decide I want Colt to fix it. After months of trying to get thru to customer service on Monday I made it. CS rep asks what is the serial number on your saa. I reply, he says just a moment. Then I hear, sorry sir, your saa was made in 1980. Yes it was. Well our lawyers say we cannot accept any product produced before the year 2000 for service. I go oh really. And what might you suggest. He then proceeds to give me a gunsmith in California who he says can repair it better then their service department could. I researrched the company and it has a great reputation but, california, not gunna happen. So i am in process of lerning how to diassemble the Colt and hope the problem does not involve the hammer or bolt and only a spring that needs replacement. Really makess me wonder what Colt's quality and long term survival will be.

 

[steelslaver]

It wasn't the working stiffs or Joe American that decide to move more and more production off shore or to stock the shelves with goods made with foreign labor. It also wasn't them who used that cheap foreign labor in the battle to keep domestic wages and benefits down. That was done by the CEOs and Board members, all of whom are being allowed to continue unchecked and were recently rewarded with a big tax break.