The Random Dose of FUNNY Thread

Hah! I use the same line regarding the customer is always right until they aren't...I take pride in my customer service, I get in trouble at times for being on the customers side of things.

I get a lot of referral work, and I have a good rep in the desert racing world, taking care of company trucks, chase trucks etc. Having two of the best DuraMax techs on the west coast doesn't hurt. I have race teams that have trailered chase trucks from Vegas to San Diego (5 hrs) to have my Dmax guys work on them/prep them.

My biggest hang up with thinking about a location change is I have a hell of a clientele after 13 years at the same store, and losing my 4 weeks of paid vacation per year. If I could negotiate the vacation thing into a hire package I'm confident I could build a new clientele quick enough to pay the bills.
 
bob91yj said:
Rubicon's were sold as the top of the line Wrangler when they came out by most sales departments, ie "Denali", "King Ranch", etc. Load Range "E" BFG mud tires (even at 32 psi they rode like crap), hood stickers and a bunch of other stuff that the customer would never use, couldn't explain, but they had bragging rights with their cronies!

I had customers bring Wranglers in after the "cute" wore off, and they had to live with the damn thing tell me that it had excessive wind noise...sir, you're driving a brick with a pup tent on top, it's going to be noisy, it get's crappy fuel economy...did you look at the fuel economy numbers before you bought it, yes sir, I know it's a 6 cylinder (or even worse a 4 banger), it also weighs 4000 pounds and your engine was designed in 1932, with upgrades over the years, it doesn't even have a cross flow cylinder head, and will probably be marginal at best on a CA smog inspection 5 years from now. I can see the spot welds in the body...sir, let me show you the spot welds on the brand spanking new ones, which is the way that yours looked when it was "cute" to your wife. It rides like crap...let me show you the solid axles under your vehicle, and the Load Range "E" tires that are on it, then we'll run it across the scales and you'll realize that a 4000 pound vehicle on a 94" wheelbase doesn't equal ride quality...EVER. I could keep going across every car line I've ever worked with (all of the GM brands except Chevy (Saturn, Saab, Pontiac and Olds by default), Jeep and KIA.

Funny thing is I got called in to have a discussion with my manager's this afternoon...all the way up to the CEO of the company...those cats accused ME of having an attitude problem!:eek: It's almost a trend with me...Division Officers straight out of Canoe U (Naval Academy) also accused me of having a bad attitude in my Navy days. Apparently I've had a BUNCH of crappy Division Officers and managers, no other way for me to explain the false accusations to me.:confused:
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I don't think it's your attitude - rather, some (a lot, most?) people don't want to hear the truth.

I say that because I am like you - if you sugar coat a turd, it's still a turd...
 
I had a discussion yesterday with a millennial that thought their start time should be flexible. Some days more sleep is necessary.....
 
Al Swope said:
I had a discussion yesterday with a millennial that thought their start time should be flexible. Some days more sleep is necessary.....
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I've had this same conversation with employees in the past, blew my mind. Part of my official job function now is to remind employees that even though we're working overnight shifts they can not smoke marijuana or drink alcohol on their breaks and then return to work. This has happened at every project I've managed for the past year.
 
I don't know who is going to be working in the trades in the near future. Industrial arts (ie shop class) is rare at any high school these days. Kids are groomed to go to college, get their piece of paper 5-6 years later, and move right into their corner office making $100k a year with 30 days paid vacation.

I'd guess the average age of the techs at my dealership to be in the high 30's, finding competent apprentice level techs is difficult at best.
 
bob91yj said:
I don't know who is going to be working in the trades in the near future. Industrial arts (ie shop class) is rare at any high school these days. Kids are groomed to go to college, get their piece of paper 5-6 years later, and move right into their corner office making $100k a year with 30 days paid vacation.

I'd guess the average age of the techs at my dealership to be in the high 30's, finding competent apprentice level techs is difficult at best.
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Hmmn. Here in NY, we've pretty much done away with individual shop classes and such. Instead, we have BOCES (bo-sees). This acronym comes from Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

Essentially, this is a trade school, that's centrally located in the county. It offers classes in Welding, Autobody Repair, Automotive Mechanics, various Building Trades, Photovoltaics, Electronics Servicing, Culinary Arts, Machine Shop, Hairdressing and so on.

Kids from schools all over the county spend half a day at their own school, taking English, Social Studies, etc., then are bused to BOCES to spend half a day learning their chosen trade.

BOCES also offers night courses for Adult Ed. If you, as an adult, want to learn how to run a metal lathe or weld, this is the place to do it.
 
Scott B. said:
That piece of paper might get them in the door, but few will be at $100K. Either way, when they don't work/perform, they will be shown the door.
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I've considered returning to school on a couple of occasions for a career change. The problem is I'd come out of school and start a new career making 1/3 of what I do now with none of the benefits or vacation. No thanks. A college education is not what it once was.
 
Gallowbraid said:
I've considered returning to school on a couple of occasions for a career change. The problem is I'd come out of school and start a new career making 1/3 of what I do now with none of the benefits or vacation. No thanks. A college education is not what it once was.
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True. So many kids get the piece of paper and still don't know anything. I've met many non-degree engineers that were very smart - I tried to learn all I could from them. And, every once in a while, I could show them something too!

I have also thought about changing careers - starting at the bottom would be very difficult.

However, if I could come up with the right idea for a company, and find one or two like minded folks..............
 
Scott B. said:
That piece of paper might get them in the door, but few will be at $100K. Either way, when they don't work/perform, they will be shown the door.
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Oh, I know that, but from what I see a lot of todays kids figure that's what they should be entitled to.
 
...not to mention the 10's (100's?) of thousands of dollars of debt they start their illustrious careers with...
 
@bob91yj - jeez, just go to a trophy shop and buy each of your customers a participation trophy to go along with their vehicle! hehehe o_O Being someone else with no filter on feedback, etc., I feel your pain. Folks just can't take the truth without sugar coating it these days. Your stories, no doubt true, are hilarious and sad at the same time! It's why self driving cars scare the HE!! out of me in concept and reality.
 
brentbba said:
@bob91yj - jeez, just go to a trophy shop and buy each of your customers a participation trophy to go along with their vehicle! hehehe o_O Being someone else with no filter on feedback, etc., I feel your pain. Folks just can't take the truth without sugar coating it these days. Your stories, no doubt true, are hilarious and sad at the same time! It's why self driving cars scare the HE!! out of me in concept and reality.
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My warped sense of humor is just envisioning a group of those self driving cars connected by tangles of USB cables having a b***ch session about bad human drivers
 
Scott B. said:
True. So many kids get the piece of paper and still don't know anything. I've met many non-degree engineers that were very smart - I tried to learn all I could from them. And, every once in a while, I could show them something too!

I have also thought about changing careers - starting at the bottom would be very difficult.

However, if I could come up with the right idea for a company, and find one or two like minded folks..............
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I'm in. What are we doing?
 
Gallowbraid said:
Actual picture of me fueling my Sequoia.

View attachment 38320
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For real. $100 to fill up yesterday! (of course, it's a 36 gallon tank :D)

907 Chief said:
...not to mention the 10's (100's?) of thousands of dollars of debt they start their illustrious careers with...
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This. I'm not afraid to say I've got SEVENTY FIVE THOUSAND dollars of school debt that I'll be repaying for twenty years. It's a freakin' house outside of CA. It's a down payment on a nice house in CA. It got me in the door, but I've learned everything else on the floor. I've got a MBA, but I also think higher education is a scam for those who shouldn't do it. Forcing kids to college isn't smart.

It's okay though, let's just raise the minimum wage so that jobs that teenagers should be doing (taco bell cashier, fast food, etc) are now careers to the poor. We're literally enabling poverty.
 
IMO there need to be life lessons in "responsibility".

Just yesterday I had a kid (Aiden, he's 11) that is getting $5 a day to walk a neighbors dog with me when I take my dog Penny to the dog park when I get home. Yesterday I had 7 kids hanging out with me in the dog park with my Penny and Luna (a 5 month old Weimeraner puppy), we had a blast, I threw the football for a game of 500 with the boys and the girls decided to be cheerleaders (all of the kids are grade schoolers). As we were getting ready to leave one of the girls aunt came up in a pick up truck, a bunch of the kids jumped in the back of the truck to get a ride through the "RV resort" that we live in from the dog park back to our 'hood. One of the kids that jumped in was Aiden...I called his butt right back out of the truck and made him walk Luna home if he wanted his $5 for the day.
 
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Garrett said:
For real. $100 to fill up yesterday! (of course, it's a 36 gallon tank :D)



This. I'm not afraid to say I've got SEVENTY FIVE THOUSAND dollars of school debt that I'll be repaying for twenty years. It's a freakin' house outside of CA. It's a down payment on a nice house in CA. It got me in the door, but I've learned everything else on the floor. I've got a MBA, but I also think higher education is a scam for those who shouldn't do it. Forcing kids to college isn't smart.

It's okay though, let's just raise the minimum wage so that jobs that teenagers should be doing (taco bell cashier, fast food, etc) are now careers to the poor. We're literally enabling poverty.
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Well said.
 
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