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.

 

[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.

 

[ACORN]

Why is the parts store obligated to install your battery?
Parts stores sell parts.
Garages install them.

 

[dockmurgw]

Why is the parts store obligated to install your battery?
Parts stores sell parts.
Garages install them.

Give this man a cigar!!! I was thinking the same thing. If I needed a new battery and didn't want to install it myself...off to the garage I go. This reminds me of a recent thread where someone complained about the service at a Post Office while trying to cash a money order...something I would typically think a bank would do. Oh well, threads where retirees trash the current workforce or complain they are not getting something free (like labor) are at least entertaining.

 

[Buford57]

Thanks, guys. I was worried my blood pressure was too low.

 

[bullmack]

Bought a new battery at NAPA 2 weeks ago. Called to see if they would install it thus saving me a 2nd trip to bring the core back ($18) They don't do that any more. Not a big deal. (Yes, I could have done the swap in their parking lot) Never heard needing to use a scanner when installing a new battery. Never seen it done. Modern car computers are perfectly capable of reading a battery's output and just because a battery is new does not mean it's operating as specified.

Agree that USPS MO's should be cashed at a bank.

 

[Golphin]

They have battery stores that are set up to install your battery and they have a wide selection of batteries. Just use one of them instead of a place set up to SELL auto parts. Two that we have here in Florida are Batteries Plus and Battery Source. Both are set up to sell and replace batteries and test to make sure your old batterie is the problem .

 

[IAM Rand]

To Steelslaver's point, people don't want to work because they get paid too much. Follow my logic. The more you pay someone the more it costs other people for what they do. If they work at a restaurant, the people working there are getting paid more, the elusive "Living Wage." The restaurant has to charge more and the meal costs more. Same for the people that deliver the food and booze. Same for the people that grow the food and brew/distill the beer/alcohol.

Point to a business/service and I am sure that I can make the case for an employee making more and things costing more because of it. I am sure that there will be people that will try to tell me that there are greedy corporations that pay their rank and file employees too little and that they don't need to make as much profit. Not sure how far I can go down that road before this thread would get closed.

What I am finding, specifically with restaurants, is that the service is not as good as it was. If you have to work harder to make more money, you either work harder or go find a job that doesn't require a person to bust their butt. The wait staff around here are making a much better hourly wage so they are less concerned about tips. If you are making $15/hour, do you care about getting another $5 from a table at lunch? That $5 from that 1 table make bump the person up $1-2 per hours depending on how long that table sits and how many tables they deal with.

Bringing it back to the battery thing, if you have some part jockey standing behind the counter making $20ish per hour, do they really care about walking outside to do a quick battery swap? I would like to think that if they are not performing up to company standards that they would be in jeopardy of loosing their job but, these days businesses are hurting for people and you really need to mess up to get fired. My wife retired from teaching and didn't want to sit on her rear doing nothing so she got a part time job at a national craft store. The main manager is just awful. This manager is just coasting. So what do you think the rest of the store is going to do?

Vicious cycle that needs to be broken. If I knew how I would be president. Just sayin

 

[ACORN]

Having worked in auto parts for 50+ years I can honestly say I am not making now or ever $20/hr.

 

[Jerry in SC]

Bought a new battery at NAPA 2 weeks ago. Called to see if they would install it thus saving me a 2nd trip to bring the core back ($18) They don't do that any more. Not a big deal. (Yes, I could have done the swap in their parking lot) Never heard needing to use a scanner when installing a new battery. Never seen it done. Modern car computers are perfectly capable of reading a battery's output and just because a battery is new does not mean it's operating as specified.

Agree that USPS MO's should be cashed at a bank.

Bear in mind there are numerous USPS MO scams, I received a couple of forgeries some 15 years back. I had been forewarned. They look real.

I talked to the postal inspector and he told me it was a scheme that took advantage of naive customers. If you cash it at a bank, they can’t verify it’s authentic. If it’s a forgery you’re on the hook. The only safe method is the post office, I’ve had no problems cashing them.

 

[greenwellg]

I had a successful auto repair shop, customers loved us, honest, dedicated to the time period the repair should take. Many new customers came in with astonishing estimates and when we fixed what was necessary and gave them a schedule for the rest they became customers for life. Sold the business to a person who learned in the shop for an affordable price. Years later I stop by and hear him telling a customer that their car would "explode" if they did not do the repairs. I asked him had he ever seen a car just explode going down the highway (already knew the answer).
The wife bought her car new from a local dealership, got a lifetime power train warranty. Dealership was sold. The warranty vaporized. The did give her "free oil changes and inspections" for life. Last visit they hand her an estimate for new brakes, rotors, wiper blades and a bunch of other "fluff" that totals $2800. I pulled one front wheel, pads were 6 MM, state required 2, rotors were perfect. Kept the photos on my cell phone. When we went back I showed them to the service writer. Passed inspection with a red flag for rear wiper blade. That was not an inspection item and the rest of the "fluff" was not even mentioned.
Before I sold my shop I told a customer, " it sucks that I have to charge you $100 to make $50.50 cents after Fed and State taxes and FICA (I paid both halves).
Now dealerships are charging 3 times the labor I did. The tech gets 20% and no parts profit so finding an honest independent shop is your only option or learn to do it yourself.
I just bought a new car, versus resurrecting them for half a century.
I dodge the falling pieces and give those in front of me extra room for dodging.
Nobody knows how to drive anymore. I wrote in another post about being able to spot criminals by the way they drive, and got several insulting responses. I guess my post was misunderstood. They were driving like criminals and the stupidity is getting worse. They might as well just put a barbed wire fence around the country and call the whole mess a prison.
There is your useless rant.

 

[ACORN]

Just for the record the post office by me couldn’t cash a $100 MO.

 

[Baxter6551]

I recently had my 2020 Ram 1500 battery die for the second time in a week. After the first instance my local garage (whom I have been doing business with for 45 years - now 3rd generation - totally trust and normally does all my work) checked and said the battery was fine (14.5 volts) so the dealer should check the charging system (I had purchased the premium extended Chrysler warranty). The second time I jumped it and took it to the dealer, as the battery was a replacement for the original which died after 1.5 years (bad cell they said replaced under warranty. The replacement one had a 3 year warranty but alas, it was 3.5 years later. My extended warranty on truck did not apply to battery. They said battery terminals were corroded and damaged and battery needed to be replaced (with another Mopar battery). I asked them to use an Interstate brand as I thought two Mopar batteries in 5 years did not bode well for the brand. They said sorry, we only install Mopar. Bottom line, another new Mopar battery installed for $420….. but they waived the $175 “diagnostic fee”. Oh …and this took two days but I had dropped it off when dealership was closed and I didn’t have an appointment.
There….
My rant is over.

And … Steelslayer if I could give your post multiple “likes” it sure deserves them. Posts 6, 13 and 16 also !!!

 

[ACORN]

Just for the record assuming yours is a gas motor,a 3 year NAPA battery costs $177.99.

 

[Baxter6551]

Acorn …. If that post was for me - I know other brand batteries were cheaper. I priced them at NAPA and online when I was talking to the Service guy at dealer. At least I got the military discount.