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Date:         Tue, 29 Apr 2003 10:08:01 -0400
Reply-To:     Ben huot <huotx@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ben huot <huotx@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Subject:      Re: The King's English
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

To conclude this thread, My dear friend Chris wrote:

>>The majority of statements from the general populous is that ALL mechanics

suck. I DONT!<<

I never said that all mechanic suck!(did I?) But I said most are crook, and it's somewhat normal! It's not even the mechanic who is a crook; it's the one behind the desk who make the invoice, in other words, the owner. Let me

explain myself:

One of my very good friend (Denis)as a 5 door garage/shop, he fix car and sell modified parts for those young guys who are in need of useless expensive gadget. The parts section of the shop is to make money because he had trouble putting bread & butter on the table with only the garage/repair section of is business (is an honest man, well he was!). I often go there to

work on my gadget (Bus, Van, car) and give him a hand on difficult engine problems (he mostly does brake, muffler, tire and basic engine maintenance).

In exchange of my help he lends me a "pit" (Garage door with a lift). A few months ago am hearing all mechanic screaming (I should say swearing), they are trying to solve a starter problem on a Honda (I was working on my Bus), so I go there and he told me that they change the starter, check wiring and the car still doesn't start. I take the used/removed starter and put it on a

12V battery, Ziinnnggggg, it does engage and spin!!! They all look at me, I said, BASIC stuff! Check what you have change/replace/remove first, if the use starter is working its not the problem. So, to cut that short. Me, and the older and very good mechanic (the only good one in the shop) found the problem, a loose wire in the relay box! My good friend Denis (the owner) said; The hell with that, I lost 4 hours on this car so I am charging him the new starter and a relay!!!!!!!!!!!!! + 4 hours! This is a classic = loose wire = put new parts.

So I said to my friend, man, you've become corrupted! He said yes. He explained to me that he was still an honest man whenever he could, that means; as long as he makes money, he would stay honest! Well, I was a bit mad at him for a wile, but he did explain to me that when you have a business like a garage you often loose money at the beginning, just to stay honest, after a wile, you are getting tired of fixing small problem for a few penny. So once in a wile you need to be a crook to compensate! And it's very easy to be a crook in the automobile business; people don’t know a thing about their car.

The conclusion (his conclusion), he said: Ben, if my mechanic had found the real problem in 15 minutes or half an hour, I would have charge the customer 1/2 hour, but the first mechanic lost

3 hours because he failed to see/find the real problem at the beginning and change a perfectly working parts for nothing. Good mechanic are hard to find, if they are good, they are expensive! Expensive mechanic cost me too much!

Cheers, Ben http://pages.infinit.net/eurokit/


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