I know BAIC has alot of members that always blame shops for issues or have expectations that are never met because they believe stuff they see on the internet more then what shops and technicians tell them. I just got done watching this video by Vinny Ten from Vinny Ten Racing over in New york and I swear that everything I heard him say on the video are things BAIC members should rethink or research before modifying a car.


Feel free to embed the video if you can manage to get a link.
LINK:
Vinny Ten Calls Out Fake Shops, F****d Up Cars & Frustrated Tuners!

 

Dude +1

 

Yea I can't stand it when people don't do research and have high expectations then when they are not met they bash the shop.

 

Very good video. Thanks for the post.

 

+1!!! Great video, Vinny says it like it is!!

 

a bit long and redundant but the main point is def. valid. I never buy anything or spend money without doing my proper research

 

I get this everyday! I'm a young service manager at an independent shop and we always get people who do internet diagnostics and come in telling us to replace that and do this. They also don't understand how much money it takes to run a shop and why shop rates are so high (our $115, low IMHO). Why they are charged a full hour (what it calls for) if my tech took 45 mins, people still don't understand how the industry works.

Worst part of the job is when the customer comes back flipping **** because we fixed their brakes and now their transmission or whatever took a dump a week after, trying to explain to someone who knows nothing about cars that we did nothing wrong and they're totally unrelated. The stigma behind the auto industry is that we're grease monkeys and we're out to make a buck and screwing people who don't know better.
When in fact most technicians have to go to school these days and Vinny is right, cars are so much more complicated these days.

sorry /rant

 

Not to mention any names here, a local shop did some major engine work on my car and totally screwed it up twice! It was a well known shop that advertises here on i-club. I went in to get the head gasket replaced, drove it for 1 day my belt pretensioner failed. Valves got bent on 1 side. Back at the same shop, replaced the valves, another new head gasket. Drove for another day, engine light came on, some power loss. Took it back to the same shop, they couldn't figure it out. Took it to a second shop, where I should have gone in the first place, they looked at the same side that the valves were replaced, and they fold the variable valve controller was replaced with the WRX version, not the STi! I spent over $4000 for their mistakes.

Sorry also! /rant

 

There are both ends of the spectrum. There's no point in saying it's one or the other. So Vinny is giving just one side of the spectrum.

2 of my friends independently had the similar experience you describe above. I don't understand how they keep their reputation.

At the same time, there are people as Vinnie describes who are making bad decisions, out of whack expectations, and letting inappropriate people work on their cars.

Historically (and currently) there have been "bad apple" mechanics who intentionally screwed people over and gave automechs a bad name. This is who to blame.

 

i had a very well known vendor on here mess up a radiator install - didnt trim the main hose right and it got chopped up by the fans, lost a lot of coolant and blew my headgasket

didnt call them out, didnt post a rant on iclub, i just have NEVER been back and take all my business elsewhere

edit: video didnt work, says you gotta have vimeo plus?

 

A big problem I always find is that people can't post up the name of the shop they are unhappy with because fan boys will jump all over them. For someone who does not have time to go to meets I look to i-club for reviews. So when I read that someone had a bad experience at so and so shop but they wont say the shop name it does nothing for me. So in the end all i read are positive reviews and unless I go and pay money for something to be done I dont know the real truth.

I mean i can say I didnt have the best experience at Garage1 recently and I will post a review up shortly

 

Great video anthony!

 

I have no problems calling out shops. I call Cobb out for being a ****ty shop all the time. I've called Clark Turner out. And FIS (now defunct) has had people turn away by my experiences as well. Subaru of Plano? Forget em. My mistakes in trusting shops have cost me more than most (engine #8 in progress). You find a good shop, you stick with them.

 

+1 nothing like getting prank called. Anyways for the rest of you I think you guys need to get real and take a better look at more of the performance car shops e.g. get off the crack pipe.

 

gotta pay to play. very true when you consider money pits...cars.

also in my eyes, its better to learn the hard way than to not learn at all and diffuse the situation by playing the blame game.