Ghost issues

[dlcwent]

Hey fellow techs. How do you handle a customers problem that you can't find? How many times do you hear "it was doing it until I got to your shop".So you try to duplicate the complaint, but can't make it happen. Then you see them a month later and they tell you it was such and such and the shop down the road fixed it. Not a common problem for me, but it has happened.How many hours are you supposed to keep trying to find something that just isn't there when you're looking for it?

I tell customers that time=money and most of them are willing to set a dollar limit on the diag. But it bothers me when they set a limit of time with my shop and go somewhere else and either the "problem" occurs for the other shop or they give them more diag. time.

Yeah..I know the other shops techs must be better.

Anyway how do you handle ghost problems. And let me beat you to saying "call the ghostbusters"

 

[ncautoshop]

It's just part of it. You can't please them all. I'm a shop owner and it's extremely disheartening and frustrating but it is what it is. The best thing you can do is sell test not diag time

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[laser3kw]

maybe they're trying to get you to go for a ride....
to a nice secluded spot.....
were no one can hear you scream..........

 

[T-Mac]

First step of diag is verify the condition-if you cant do that anything you recommend is just a guess!When you explain to customers how expensive guessing can be they usually understand.Most often I tell customers to swing by when its doing it or have a service writer drive it home with the customers approval.I have had bus issues on vehicles that took weeks to verify.Dont sweat it-I would rather be careful than wrong.

 

[JCQuick]

I have a BIL that has a lease mercedes every time he has to go out of town he makes up a problem with the car takes it in to the dealer gets a loaner car and drives that out of town.
I'm sure there is a tech that hates to see him pull in the drive

 

[James E]

I'm gonna play the devil's advocate here and say that from the customer side, there is nothing more frustrating than having a problem, taking the car in for service (which is a PITA, setting an appointment, time off from work, getting a ride, etc.), leaving it all day and then coming back to get it and finding a "could not duplicate problem" on the ticket.

I started smelling anti-freeze around the radiator of my GX-470 and had the service department bounce it back twice before I finally tracked down the leak myself, showed the service writer and told him I was keeping their loaner until they fixed it.

I am fully aware that 9 out of 10 customer complaints are probably vague, bs issues, but when you are really aware of what your car is doing and the expert tells you you're crazy, that's seriously annoying.

As for customer cars breaking right after a service for something else, that happens ALL the time. I don't know why, but it does. Must be some cosmic thing that's out of our control.

 

[ffjosh]

What I hate is when I have a issue (I cant fix) and when I take it to the shop it "fixes itself)they can't duplicate it.

The minute I get it home it happens again.

My friend has a small stutter/idle problem with his car sometimes. No codes, replaced every electrical thing he can replace. All the shop did was reset the computer and it fixes it for a month or so.

So not he just takes the battery terminals off and touches them together.

Works but frustrating.

 

[T-Mac]

I'm gonna play the devil's advocate here and say that from the customer side, there is nothing more frustrating than having a problem, taking the car in for service (which is a PITA, setting an appointment, time off from work, getting a ride, etc.), leaving it all day and then coming back to get it and finding a "could not duplicate problem" on the ticket.

I started smelling anti-freeze around the radiator of my GX-470 and had the service department bounce it back twice before I finally tracked down the leak myself, showed the service writer and told him I was keeping their loaner until they fixed it.

I am fully aware that 9 out of 10 customer complaints are probably vague, bs issues, but when you are really aware of what your car is doing and the expert tells you you're crazy, that's seriously annoying.

As for customer cars breaking right after a service for something else, that happens ALL the time. I don't know why, but it does. Must be some cosmic thing that's out of our control.

If I get a repair order with an issue that seems vague or BS I always talk to the customer directly.The more people that get between me and my customer the more chance there is for misinformation.Just went off on the owner last week for giving me a car with a "rear diff issue"when after talking to customer it ended up just being surface rust on the rear rotors from sitting for a month-He had them tow it in and had the customer scared that their rear diff was going to explode!

 

[volleyball]

If some other person fixed it, they either had knowledge of the problem or it happened while they were there.
Since everyone seems to carry a phone, maybe having them call while it is happening will help narrow it down.