Bob Maxey Ford of Howell

Something has changed. In years past, I remember horror stories about high hourly rates and minimum charges that made a "customer pay" job a thing to avoid. For this trip, you said you had a $96 diagnosis fee and a 1/2 hour repair charge, plus the price of the part. The good news is that you hit it right on the head. Any reasonable person should walk away happy. Now let me think outside the box. During write-up, Tony asked a technician what the part I needed was called and he replied a "blen-door". If he called it right then, without looking at the truck, and that turned out to be the part you replaced to make the repair, why charge a diagnosis fee? To my mind, a diagnosis fee should only be applied if the blen-door wasn't at fault. Try this scenario - Customer brings his vehicle in for service with a problem that points to a particular part. You quote the repair and tell the customer then and there that if that is not what's wrong, he can be charged a diagnosis fee and then eventually quoted the cost of the part he needs and it's accompanying labor charge. Let's say that there was a faulty connection that caused the blen-door to be inoperable. In my scenario, the technician corrects the fault during tear down and charges the diagnosis fee plus a labor charge. The customer is delighted because you came in under the initial estimate. Elsewise, if another component turns out to be bad, you again assess the diagnosis fee, but rather than charge for the blen-door and it's labor rate, you call the customer, tell him it is now Part B, and his repair will be the cost of the part, the diagnosis fee and the labor rate to install the new part. You could also adjust the labor rate for Part B as your diagnosis fee would cover the labor to tear down and discover the real defective part. Imagine the surprise to the customer if you showed yourselves as trying to keep his out-of-pocket costs down. I'm an A Plan customer and kind of a captive audience, but I tell you that your Service Department definitely can (and does) create a positive opinion that can help the new vehicle sales side of your business. I retired after 36 years at FCSD and remember other service departments that were not nearly as good as yours. Please understand that I have NO PROBLEM with the service I get at Maxey. Your operation does a great job, but with 95% of your repair business being warranty (my guess there, I have no factual data), have you lost understanding the mind of the customer who pays out of pocket?