Dropping off a car at the repair service shop can be a daunting task. One YouTuber is now offering some advice on how to communicate effectively with your local shop including things to avoid saying and others that you should mention. Here’s a breakdown of what they suggest.
These tips come from The Car Care Nut, a YouTube channel run by a man with a channel description that says his name is AMD and that he’s a Toyota Master Diag Tech. He appears to run TCCN Automotive in Homer Glen, Illinois. Should all of that be accurate, there’s no doubt that he’s seen all manner of customer requests over time.
Things to avoid saying in the video include “I need a tune-up” and “I don’t know anything about cars.” Each of those comes down to a similar issue regarding untrustworthy shops. The statements both infer a lack of understanding and knowledge about the subject matter. According to AMD, shady shops could use each situation to get a bit more cash out of your wallet.
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Another important thing to avoid is telling the shop what to do. Telling them that you’re a mechanic (of any skill level) and that you want x,y, and z done can lead to huge problems. Good shops will want to diagnose the problem on their own and bad shops will often simply do the repair you’ve asked for only to throw their hands up if it doesn’t fix the initial issue.
Finally, AMD offers a few tips for things to improve the experience. Firstly, be honest and upfront. You want that from your repair shop and being that way yourself improves the chances that they’ll fix the problem at hand. Being direct applies to the subject of warranty coverage too.
Not only does AMD recommend asking about what sort of warranty comes with the repairs that a shop does but he also says to tell a shop if you have an extended warranty right away. Finally, be sure of what type of parts are going into your car. Should you want original parts that will last as long as the first ones did, you might have to request them and pay for them, specifically.
Having run a shop for some time, I can confirm that these tips are solid. In fact, I’ve even highlighted some here in the past before.