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well i thought this would be a intresting and stress relieving topic. im not going to lie i feel used by my friends family and girlfriends family espically them 🙁 .they treat their cars like junk then when they break who do they call me? then talk bad about me or the work i do. then the kicker is the people in your family who only talk to you when they need something lovely right? anybody else go threw this?
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From time to time people come to me about their vehicles, and i say to them every-time, “you can’t pay me enough to work on your vehicle”
I wont work on their cars, i might help them figure out what may be happening to it, but thats it.thats hard for me to do. because they are my friends and family :pinch: im just wondering because me and my gfs dad cant seem to be civil do i stop fixing them ? because its not the machines fault after all you know
Either you keep fixing them, or stop.
I stopped because i rather not work on their cars for basically nothing.[quote=”fordranger” post=39209]well i thought this would be a intresting and stress relieving topic. im not going to lie i feel used by my friends family and girlfriends family espically them 🙁 .they treat their cars like junk then when they break who do they call me? then talk bad about me or the work i do. then the kicker is the people in your family who only talk to you when they need something lovely right? anybody else go threw this?[/quote]
Do you work as a technician at a service facility?
However to answer your question from my standpoint, i only work on a select few peoples vehicles outside of work and will not take on big jobs.
And i know how you feel regarding how certain individuals only converse with you if there needing there vehicle’s serviced. It can be frustrating 🙁
Man up. You’re not obligated to fix anyone elses car just because you know how to do so. They are just as responsible for their own car and affairs as if you were in a different profession. Do they provide the same help when you need it? What do you owe them? Anything? What do you have to loose by telling them no? They stop bothering you? Instead of only talking to you when they need something? I’ve been in similiar situations and you usually compromise your own time and happiness to try to help someone else who often time will not return the favor if your in need. So I only help the people I feel really deserve it. The people that are there through thick and thin. Outside of that give them your 2 cents and Sorry but I’m busy! banana:
That’s a difficult situation but if you feel uncomfortable with it you’re really the only person that can change it. If they don’t like it they weren’t your friends in the first place. As for the family well, not much you can do there but they’ll get over it.
Hi Fordranger! 🙂
I understand your situation, I myself feel the same way sometimes when family or friends ask for my help (I work in the IT repair sector by the way).
But then again, if I don’t help them I feel bad when someone takes advantage of them , or even they try to fix by themselves and then get even more in trouble, so my thought on this “problem” is: follow your karma!
I mean, only you really know how much it weighs on your soul to help them, and how much it weighs to NOT to help them.
A the end of the day, when you go to bed, how do you feel if you’ve not helped them? 🙂
I really believe in karma, if you help someone when he’s in a moment of need, someday someone other will help you when you’re in trouble! 😉
I’m not saying it will happen tomorrow, maybe it will happen in a year or in 50 years, but it WILL happen.
And by the way, as Eric himself told you, when your family is involved, there isn’t much you can do.
Or maybe there is! And I mean, the one thing you can always change is your point of view!Live long and prosper (as one wise Vulcan used to say), and STAY DIRTY! (as one wise Earthy says 😉 )
10nico
[quote=”fordranger” post=39209]well i thought this would be a intresting and stress relieving topic. im not going to lie i feel used by my friends family and girlfriends family espically them 🙁 .they treat their cars like junk then when they break who do they call me? then talk bad about me or the work i do. then the kicker is the people in your family who only talk to you when they need something lovely right? anybody else go threw this?[/quote]
I think many of us feel this way as technicians. I can relate to you because when I first started off in the field I wanted to help everyone that I could. Including family, friends, relatives. I used to do a lot of side work on my own time just to help friends out to save money & charged nothing.
It came to the point were they were used to me doing it and expected me to do it (For free) and that’s were it became the problem and I decided to use the same quote as another member on this forum “You couldn’t pay me enough to work on your car” or used my second favorite quote ” I don’t have the proper special tool for this job”
You need to stand up for yourself just do the work on your girlfriends car & your car. When your friends & her family ask you todo the work you need to say no & bring it to a mechanic especially if there talking crap behind you back & trying to be critic’s about the work you do. It’s funny how it works like you said “They only call when they need a favor” because your story about this is one of my own. You just got to say No and it really is hard to say no sometimes.
It needs to be done though because you’ll get screwed in the end. I’ve had it happen twice to me I try and be a nice guy but even my own friends have screwed me. I really don’t want this to happen to a fellow ETCG member. They’ll ask you todo the work and “Buy” the parts. You’ll finish the work and they will come by and pick up there car and tell them it was (For Example) $100 in parts and let’s say you charge them $50 for labor. They will say “Money is short, I forgot my wallet, I get paid friday” can I pay you then. I was dumb enough to say “Yea thats fine” and to be honest I never got any money to this day and its been over a year. This happen to me when I was working Flat Rate & shop hours were minimum so the $100 dollars that I put down to buy his parts vanished and at that time money was very tight for me.
I hope you don’t take anything personal I just wanted to tell you my story so you don’t end up taking your own money and loosing it.
It was after passing my mechanics liscence I realized I was being a sucker that way. I have the training and spent the time and effort to learn. If my mother comes to me to fix her car she pays my rate like anyone else. All is fair in love, war, and business. Mechanics is a business no matter how much we love doing it.
I’m studying for a software programming degree and fix computers on the side.
My family gets my expertise for free, because well… they’re family! When I need their help, they provide likewise. I think it really just depends upon your specific situation.
Dude, you gotta learn how to fire your customers.
It takes guts, but I have told family, friends, etc, etc literally told them to ‘fuck off’ for the amount of money they want to pay me, or the way they want to treat me or talk to me, or worse than that; the way they want to show up when I’m working on someone else’s car, and get inside my head and set of my A.D.D. and cause me to slow waaaay down or make mistakes.
You want my help? You can pay whatever I tell you it’s going to cost, or you can pay regular shop markup. You want my help? Don’t screw me over.
You piss me off, I leave your ride in pieces and then my price goes up to finish the job. Should have been more careful about how you treated me.
And I don’t want to sound like I’m unreasonable. Hell, when I did my dad’s brakes on his Toyota, the dealer wanted something like $150 in labor. I asked him: “How’s $50, and have a couple of cold beers waiting for me when I get off work?” The jerk tried to tell me that was too expensive! So I says: “Alright. How about $150 plus tax, title, license, fees, and anything else they throw at you, AND you can take it to the dealer?”
I saved $50 on rent that pay period, I caught a buzz, and I had a good time with my pops talking about hot rods life, cars, women his old Chevelle, and other stuff. He referred me to a friend of his, and I told that guy: “Bring me an estimate on labor.” He called around and gave me a paper from the cheapest shop that he could possibly find.
When I tried to undercut that estimate by HALF, he told me I was too expensive. I told him: Well, go to hell and take it to that shop, then.” So he took it to them, and they ruined his car.
All of a sudden, he wants to know how much I want to fix it. Nope! He had to take it to a more expensive shop to correct the cheap one’s mistakes. He lost the lawsuit, and is trying to trade the car in.
I made no money on that deal and in the future, that guy might be more inclined to pay me. IF he comes back and I decide to work for him. But probably not, cause he was an asshole.
The point I’m trying to make is this: *YOU* are giving these people the power to use you by not telling them: “No. You treat me like shit whenever I help you!”
Not trying to be a jerk, that’s just what I gathered from the OP
i hear yea. i remember the people at the dealer i used to work at complaing about how much everything costed. i simply stated that your car cost money to use and keep up. not keeping it up cost you more cheaping out will mess you over.so better off doing it right the firsttime.my fiances mom got burned and i got altimate pay back.my fiances mother and father have two cars. 98 ford explorer (my favorite out of the two everythings uncomplicated) and a 99 mercades c280 (their not like typical a hole mercades clients that i used to deal with). so the explorer went into a shop in chicago. they quoted 1300 bucks for new ball joints and 2 sway bar links and rotors and pads. not bad but he also payed for a full safety inspection.so i.e taking it out for a test drive. they did all nessicary repairs. i have the recomended list. no where was a hub bearing that was going to seperate. because when i got it took it for a test drive all i could hear is a hub bearing thats wanting to let go.then they didnt check tie rods. those were completly worn out.anways i did a full inspect for free like i usally do with everybody,80%of the time i get work work out of it. gave the list and took video of my diagnosis for evidence (ive had some bad coustomers b4 man). so they opt to do the work. i fix it and i think the hub bearing and outer tie rods took me a good hour at most.i got payed 100 bucks just for labor. i was going to do it free bc it their firsttime in and its not like were doing a heater core.idk about you but 100 bucks for an hours worth of work didnt seem half bad to me.im getting off track.my fiances mom was pissed that i did the work and barely charged what i charge them when i charged them a decent amount. so she approached me about it. i said heres the number to the dealer have fun with your dumb mercades and husbands sentra banana: .the sentra needed brakes its 200 for new rotors and since its a 2011 oem equipment is ceramic so i said lets go with wagner thermoquiets. (he warped the living daylights out of the rotors. i was going to charge 65 in labor. the dealer wants like 650. i get my fiances mothers c280 in friday god i hate mercades so over complicated.
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