Dealing with customers is always a 'process'. I ran my own small business doing Miata repairs, only Miata repairs/service/upgrades. I didn't work on anything else, (with a few exceptions for one customer and my own stuff). Because of that, I often got cars in that the dealerships had not been able to fix or find the cause of the customer's problem. Some times these came direct from the dealers on farm out, other times it was after the customer went a few rounds with the dealer and paid for some work that didn't fix their issue.
As has been said, you have to sort out what the customer knows and doesn't know too, and in a limited amount of contact time. I had the luxury of being able to spend a little more time with the customer and ask them more questions, but informed questions due to my specific knowledge of that specific vehicle. Not to mention dealing direct with the customer, rather than thru a service writer.
- The technical knowledge of those doling out advise on the forum. I've got technicians with more training, knowledge, and experience than you can imagine. Three of my guys are ASE Masters with L1, and are Platinum level factory trained (it takes years to get there) and hour upon hour every year to maintain that level of certification. In other words, it's not just a nice plaque - these guys are the real deal (and I'll admit I'm damn lucky to have them) most shops don't have one. Do I trust them or some kid with a laptop diagnosing his car?
Make no mistake, having that resource is a fantastic thing. But they don't live with the specific vehicle the customer has, day in and day out. They will never have the specific knowledge that some customers will have. The trick is getting the necessary info out of the customer, when they have it. It's a trick, because they often don't know what knowledge is going to help the tech, and what's just blah, blah, blah.
Customers do stuff all the time that completely short circuits the tech's ability to reproduce the problem, and they seldom even realize it.
Example -
Customer has intermittent function of several ACC features, at random. Sometimes the heater doesn't work, other times the dash lights don't work, wipers, random gauges working or not, sometimes everything works fine, other times multiple things don't work. Tech is unable to reproduce any of the symptoms during two test drives and in the shop with multiple start sequences.
After a couple of 2 hour labor bills for diagnostics and no improvement, customer gives up on dealer, rants and raves at service writer that they are crap and why can't they fix the dxxn car, gets all worked up and is about to stomp out calling the dealership bad names, etc. Service writer stops the customer and asks the customer to let him make a phone call first to see if he can come up with some ideas on what the problem could be from another source.
Service writer calls me, tells me the symptoms and asks if I've seen this issue before. I ask to speak to the customer, who comes on the phone. Woman owner gets on line and I ask her when she notices the issues occurring, she says random, mostly in the mornings, but sometimes after work but also mid trip times when the car is fully warmed up too. Ok, so not always cold start times. Then I tell her, you have a large keychain for the car key. She says No. Ahh, but you used to, right? She says Yes, but what does that have to do with anything? Did the problems start soon after you changed to a lighter keychain? Ohh, yes they did she says!! Bingo - worn ignition switch.
I ask her to put the Service writer back on the phone and I tell him what the problem is. He calls the tech and talks to the tech, who disagrees with me. The ignition switch is $90 for the part, about half an hour to put in, about an hour of book time. They don't want to replace the switch and have to eat it if it doesn't work. Service guy tells the customer that I think it's the ignition switch, but their tech doesn't agree. They will replace it, but if it doesn't solve the problem, the customer is still on the hook for the cost. Customer declines to have the work done.
As the customer gets in their car to drive home, then finds my business card that the service writer put in her cup holder. About an hour later I get a call. Woman recognizes my voice and asks if I'm who she spoke to about her Miata an hour ago. I acknowledge that it was. She asks how sure I am that it's the ignition switch. I told her that I'll order the part and install it and if it doesn't fix the problem, I'll give her a full refund, parts and labor.
It was the switch. I'd seen it before and it's a known set of circumstances that was not uncommon for the Miata, but not common enough that it had worked it's way to general tech knowledge. The customer did bring me the car when I got the switch in and it cured her problem. You could see on the old switch how the extra weight of a dozen keys in a leather folding key pouch wore the two contacts in a bevel. W/o the weight, it was hit or miss if all the contacts would meet or just some of them. She even brought the old key chain to show me. I did get back to the service writer to let him know. The next time I went to the dealer we had a little tech meeting and I showed the Mazda tech's the old switch and explained the symptoms and scenario.
After that, the dealership caught three more of these in the next couple of years. Not huge, but they knew what to ask and what to look for. No one ever gives the dealer the same full set of keys they might use on a daily basis. It's a hard thing to catch when you can't even duplicate the problems.
