Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

...before the HBV debacle, I was off to a couple of mates with diagnostics, thought it worth a try - neither could reset the airbag light on my car. Took it to VX, expecting maybe £20-30 for the job. Ambled in, up to reception, "Meega V6, yadda yadda airabg light yadda reset yadda yadda". "Well, we'll have to book it in, it'll be a cost of £49.99 just for the diagnostic, before we even think of resetting it..."  
 "You are kidding me, thats extortionate"
"No sir, you see, its a half hour job, its very complex, and you're taking up the technicians time..."
"Is it heck, you unclip the fusebox cover, plug the cable in, press a few keys, reset the system and thus the light, then hand me back the car"
"Ah, but sir, it's very complex, and the technicians do have their set rate"
"OK then... I also need a radio code for it. what say you do me the airbag light, and send off for the radio code, all for £49.99"
"Ah, but sir, it's on a separate system, we can't just combine the two, even if I order it off my machine"
"I'm coming in here and giving you £50 for a fifteen minute job, and sending a card off in the post, and yu're not even entertaining the offer?"
"Sir, I can't, we are one of the cheapest dealers around, we do have set rates"...

 Translation: give us your money, we're not going to budge cause the computer says not to, doesn't matter how cheeky you try to be, we're not going to even try...

 Compare this to when I had a Corsa, went to local dealer B - ordered about £140 worth of service kit and brakes, bloke on the parts desk has a furtive look around, then goes "we'll see if we can get you a bit of discount, since you're young, and buying a lot from us"... knocked about £30 off the bill. Without me even asking.

 One meant that for the entire time I owned the Corsa, anything I needed I went there. Fuel filler, wiper arm, anything. Good customer service vs shameless profiteering... or am I just being a cheeky beggar? (After all, shy bairns get nowt...)

ETA: Sorry, with my anti-stealer rant, I forgot to ask - who fancies a meetup, avec laptop, to reset my airbag light - I'm based in Teesside, willing to travel once I've fixed the HBV and got the timing belt done...

[TheBoy]

Sorry, I have set rates

Seriously, you're too far  


And whilst we are on the subject of rates, my rates (http://theboy.omegaowners.com) are not for making profit, but purely to try to cover a small proportion of the costs associated in buying and running the equipment (a 32Mb Flash card for Tech2 is over £200 by the time you've paid import duty and courier commission, and they ain't that reliable).  If they got close to paying for themselves, I'd have about 30 of them scattered around the country....

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

PM sent.

[JamesV6CDX]

Sorry, I have set rates

It's a good job you weren't charging set rates when you read and upgraded pretty much ALL of my systems... I would have needed a mortgate to pay for it

Seriously, if ever you are near Tb, you will never, ever beat his rates... and he knows what he's doing with the diagnostic kit, moreso than many VX monkeys.

[Andy B]

PM sent.

And another to you Pete.