rockjock

I think the purpose of Book time vs what someone can do it in time is becuase like a few have already said-
there are a lot of techs out there-most can do it in 7-8 hours (they may not get the experiance and learning time that others have had so far) and those that have the prev sentence can do it in 4-5.
Its a business. I dont "need" to charge someone 23.25% but if they take it great-its not our job to protect people from not shopping...

FrankW

exactly, however this leads me to question the ability of the tech that takes 7-8hrs on an actual 4-5hr job.

this also brings me to a issue with the power-tilt feature on the steering wheel which someone and I also had issue with.

my indy tech was able to replace the little rubber link with metal ends for the tilt gear in less than 45min which most of it was waiting for the dealership to deliver the part. He ended up didn't charge me anything because it took him no time at all and the part is very cheap like a dollar or two.

$900 to fix is ridiculous.

moosejaw

Lets not kid around i think most techs can do the job in 4-5 hours 6 tops.
Can you paint a room? You think it would take 3 hours. Can you imagine someone who doesnt know how to paint taking 6 hours to do? Not the same task or science. But if it takes Person A to X Hours complete a task and Person B to complete 2X to complete same task, you dont think there would be a problem? In the real world such a scenario would not exist let alone take place.

You think MB would hire someone who is as slow as book time? You think they would last long? Highly competitive environment the workshop is. The two techs who are just doing their job and trying to squeek out a living and they seem to be real good at it. They are not NASA engineers, they are not extremely gifted individuals who are able to fabricate flux capacitors like it came off the Keebler cookie assembly line.

Businesses are built on success of its workers, not the failures

AMGC43C55

it takes me 4 hr to do the job because i have done it over and over and over.
i did not make up this pay plan this is how it had been for 50+ years for BMW, VW, AUDI, FORD, GM, and all the others. may be i sood just get payed only 8hr a day , but i will take the full 8hr to do the job but that will not make the shop money. and when i have no cars to work on i am not getting payed. mercedes gets the laber time by haveing a tech do that a job 3 then thay set the time.

moosejaw

When is there ever a shortage of cars to work on? Dont complain about something that is never going to happen. Every day i drive by MB of Miami and the line up at the service bay spills out on to the main road.
I've built three MB Dealers in the south in the last five years. I know your workshop inside and out. If you are worried about job security I can personally assure you even at your shop prices there will never be a shortage of cars to work on. Hopefully they will all be warranty cars that come out of your companie's pocket and not the likes of our OP.

AMGC43C55

our shop avg about 100 to 120 a day but some times i look at the service drive and turn around and go to the beach because it is empty but that is some times. right now most of the tech went home at 12:00. but i have tow big jobs so no beach this week.

blahuh

I am adding my two cents one last time on this, gone on way too long. To say that an 8 hour book job should take almost every tech 4-5 hours is just plain wrong. Most MB times have steadily been going down with every new model, engine, transmission or interior change since I started 4 years. There are some jobs that MB says takes 8 hours and guys can do it it faster. There are also a lot of other jobs that even good tech's struggle to make straight time. I personally know many techs that struggle to make straight time and they have been doing this for as long as I have. No I am not a NASA engineer, and no I do not fabricate flux capacitors, but I do not have the easiest job. Yes there are a lot of known problems that most people can figure out by looking on the internet, but there are a lot of problems that take experience and know how to diagnose. I chose my profession and I love it, but it really bugs me when people think they know more than they do and think my job is incredibly easy and can be done by anyone. I know personally it cannot, Ive seen many many techs come in and get fired or quit because they do not have what it takes.

rockjock

[quote=moosejaw;3678577]When is there ever a shortage of cars to work on? quote]

Ummm-yes there are times that there is a shortage in the service dept-either customer cars or techs-
lets not forget how warranty pay works either-book says bill the customer at 4 hours-MBZ may only pay it 2.5 hrs under warranty.
Lets also not forget that its (1) a capitalist nation we live in (for the time being at least) and (2) you can choose to go whereever you want to get the work done-but how many of you take advantage of the $19.99 oil change at Jiffy Lube? Oh wait-we all agree that the techs there are retards and will mess even an oil change up-maybe thats why they dont charge as much, or pay as much......

willc55

The issue is not the fact that you charge $120+ an hour for your services, it is that you bill for 8hrs when the job takes you 4 hours, which in any other industry would be unacceptable.

rockjock

If you guys really have issues with someone over billing you becuase someone else can do it faster-wow.
Lets look at construction. Do you pay the roofing co by the hour, or the whole bid? What if it takes one company a day, another 3 days? Should their bid reflect the diff in time?
its how the dealer makes money. Charge the customer for 8 hours, and see if someone can do it jsut as well faster, so they can move on to another customer car......
I havent been around all that long-but thats how its been in the auto industry for a long long time.

AMGC43C55

this is how it works if you don't like it fix your own car, and when you can't fix it just ask a tech a jiffy lube.

TemjinX2

let the thread die already.

Quadcammer

I think a lot of views in this thread would change after you get a $900 labor bill to change a control arm because the bolts were rusted and needed to be cut, a bushing was damaged and couldn't easily be pressed out, etc.

The flat rate system is designed to be fair to both the customer and the tech. They don't build 4 extra hours into each job just for the hell of it, and the dealer does not set the times. I believe they have a factory tech complete the job, add in a little bit of time to account for variability (about 15-45 min depending on job) and thats the time you get.

Just as much as it sucks to have to pay 4 hours of labor for a job that was easily done in two, its just as upsetting to get a bill for actual time when the tech struggled for whatever reason. What if he worked slow on purpose? What if you got the rookie in the shop who had to follow every step in WIS page by page instead of doing it by memory.

Flat rate is effective.

rockjock

Bump!