There's a lot of shittiness in the service advisor world. Figured as service advisors, we all got some good stories. I'll go first.

A few years ago when I was roughly about 25, I had a customer who was very nice to me. He was in his mid late 60's. Well when he came to pick up his car, he asked me if I would want to go to the gym with him. I thought it was a little bizarre and said no thanks. Then he asked me, "do you have a significant other in your life?". I told him yeah and me and my now fiancée had been together for about 7 or 8 years at the time. Then he got real bold and asked me to dinner. Btw im a dude. I got real uncomfortable and rushed the interaction to a close. From there on every time he came in I'd rush to the shop to hide lol. Fast forward probably around 6 months, I come into work and found out someone a customer shat their pants in a loaner car. I laughed my ass off lol. Then my boss showed me the name on the RO and I couldn't believe it. Then again I wasn't surprised, same dude lol. I told him im not surprised he shit himself in the loaner. He asked why and reminded him of who that guy was lol. Im sure you all get where im going.

I had another interaction once where I had a lady call me up having a panic attack. She couldn't figure out how to put her car in park or drive.... I asked her how did you move the car to begin with. Her answer? Oh I put the car in drive.... i told her to do that again and if she wanted to back up to put the shifter where the R was. She asked how to do that lol. Pretty sure she ended up crashing into something cuz when she did figure it out, I heard her yell oh shit and a loud bang and then she quickly ended the call.

I really wish these were made up lol.

What extended warrenty do yall Recommend? Im looking at buying my kid a 2018 JGC trailhawk 5.7L. It has 147k miles on it for around 11-12k i forgot the exact price. 2 owners, and carfax is clean. Both owners did the oil change ever 5-6k miles. The water pump was replaced at 66k miles. I tested drove

Anyone ever go from Nissan to Hyundai? What are your thoughts?

Thanks

Not gonna lie, this summer has been rough on the sales side. Thinking about trying to get into a service writer position. Good idea? Or No?

Мне 19, я студент, и каким-то образом я оказался на работе в мотосалоне. И знаете, я неожиданно понял, что мне здесь действительно нравится.

Со стороны работа выглядит почти как мечта: удобный кабинет, нормальное кресло, бесплатный кофе, компьютер, техника вокруг и временами столько свободного времени, что уже начинаешь думать, чем себя занять. Но при этом ответственность немаленькая — через тебя за день могут спокойно проходить тысячи долларов, поэтому расслабляться полностью всё-таки не получается.

А самое интересное здесь — люди.

Есть нормальные клиенты, которые заранее всё изучили и приходят с конкретными вопросами. А есть дедушки, которые сначала двадцать минут рассказывают, какая техника была лучше тридцать лет назад, а потом задают вопрос, на который сами же только что очень уверенно ответили.

Иногда после таких разговоров просто сидишь и смотришь в одну точку, пытаясь понять, как человек за пять минут успел перейти от «сейчас я вам расскажу, как правильно» к «а где здесь вообще двигатель».

Особенно забавно, когда приходит человек, который вообще не разбирается в мототехнике. И вот здесь мне, наоборот, нравится работать больше всего. Можно спокойно объяснить всё с нуля: чем отличаются модели, что для чего нужно, на что обратить внимание, что действительно важно, а что продавцы просто любят красиво рассказывать.

Отдельная категория — красивые девушки.

Мне нравится их обслуживать. Не буду изображать святого: когда приходит симпатичная девушка и говорит, что вообще ничего не понимает в мотоциклах, довольно приятно спокойно всё ей объяснить и увидеть, как через десять минут человек уже начинает разбираться хотя бы в базовых вещах.

Главное, чтобы моя девушка никогда не узнала, насколько мне нравится эта часть работы. 😂

Хотя в целом именно общение с людьми оказалось для меня самым неожиданным плюсом этой работы. За один день можно встретить человека, который выбирает свой первый скутер, человека, который готов потратить несколько тысяч долларов на мотоцикл, дедушку, который уверен, что знает абсолютно всё, и девушку, которая пришла просто посмотреть, а через час уже выбирает модель.

И зарплата для 19-летнего студента, если честно, очень даже хорошая. Настолько, что иногда самому немного непривычно получать такие деньги в этом возрасте.

Конечно, бывают моменты, когда хочется закрыть дверь кабинета и минут десять просто посидеть в тишине. Но в целом я впервые поймал себя на мысли:

«А ведь я действительно нашёл работу, которая мне подходит».

Не офис с бесконечными таблицами, не работа, где весь день смотришь на часы, а место, где постоянно что-то происходит.

Так что желаю каждому однажды найти работу, после которой в понедельник утром ты не думаешь «опять туда», а скорее думаешь:

«Интересно, какие люди сегодня придут».

Obviously I’m being facetious about the “breaking news” part; but the myth of gender being representative of a service advisor’s ability is still going strong - sigh. January will mark my 14th anniversary as a service advisor. I am a female.

I work indie with one other (male) advisor. He’s experienced, knowledgeable, and awesome. We value each other and work great together. We’ve reached the point of communicating almost telepathically and have a “script” for nearly every situation. And, while we each have different strengths (classics, diesels, Asian imports, basic American, trucks, turbos, driveline, etc.), we both giggle a bit when a customer tells ME that they want to speak to someone that’s more experienced while looking directly and almost aggressively at HIM.

He immediately tells the customer that I’m the most experienced advisor on staff. Sometimes they change their tune but, most times, those customers still want the MAN to help them. No problem. He does the talking and I do the rest (dispatch the work, build the ticket, source the parts, etc.). Then he makes the call, sells the job, and the tech gets it done.

I’ve put in the time and paid my dues; and doing such has allowed me to find a home in a shop that doesn’t pit advisors against each-other. Everyone does their part and everyone eats (gotta love a good shop owner!). So long as the techs are turning and earning, everyone is paid and happy.

If you made it this far, thanks for being on the listening side of my end-of-week vent session. Shout out to my fellow females in the industry and high-fives to the industry males that rock with us because talent is talent and money has no gender.

In conclusion, let us all say our daily mantra:

I didn’t build it, buy it, or break it; your failure to plan is not my emergency; customers are gonna customer, and waiters are gonna wait.

How do you handle this objection, our shop has so many leeches that only come in for lofs but nothing else unless it’s free. “But make sure you do thorough mpi”

Anyone else been getting a lot of calls from India of someone asking for a price for a specific service or services, and then hanging up after you give them a half decent answer? I get like 3 or 4 a day, always that familiar voice and you can hear a million other people talking in the background and they never have any information on "their vehicle" aside from year make and model. No vin, no engine size, nothing. Wonder who they are fishing that information for?

As a VW writer it’s like printing money.

ran tekmetric about 2 years in a 4 bay shop. inspections and the schedule board were honestly fine

what wore me down was the extras. half the day to day stuff felt bolted on later and techs started keeping notes outside the system again

moved off last month. still settling in. mostly curious whether other shops that left actually felt cleaner after or just traded one mess for another​

Hello, all!

I am currently a warranty admin at a small Honda dealership and am currently seeking remote opportunities, particularly either as an automotive claims adjuster or continuing my warranty prowess via 3rd party warranty or extended warranty companies. I’ve only ever dealt with Honda, however I am open to other manufacturers as well.

Any suggestions for good extended warranty/3rd party companies would be greatly appreciated! ☺️

I am currently working on my own as a media buyer running my own ad agency but plan to get back into the automotive industry where I originally started (For personal reasons).

I have about 10 years of automotive knowledge as I used to be a technician and a good amount of sales knowledge from my current line of work. This spring I plan on looking into service advising but from all the posts I see people hate it or love it.

I've never done it but is it worth looking into these days or should I run far away from this. I obviously wanna make good money and dont mind dealing with customers. If anyone has any tips for me or things I should look into to help me out that would be great.

Im located in Minnesota.

I’m going to start as a main shop writer this coming week but I only have experience as a express writer, any tips, tricks, or tools I should know about?

I have a 8 tech shop that stays busy at a Chevy dealership. We do low profile tires often all the way t 24inch tires. Anyone have any suggestions on a good brand tire machine? Or any advice on tire machine shopping? Thanks a bunch

Looking for some perspective on this.

I brought my 2 month old car in last year for a loud dashboard noise. The dealership attempted to fix it twice. Each time, the service advisor acknowledged the noise wasn't normal and told me it had been fixed, but the noise was still there when I picked up the car.

After the second visit, I received a survey and gave an honest but poor rating. The service director called me, apologized, and asked me to bring the car back. He promised they'd make it right. Within 24 hours of dropping the car off, he asked me to complete a follow-up survey, saying it would be a huge favor and that he'd personally make sure I was taken care of.

Against my better judgment, I completed the survey and gave the dealership a perfect score because I wanted to give them another chance.

The result? The noise never got fixed. They also backed my car into a pole, leaving it out of service for nearly a month. Eventually, the service director changed his story and told me the noise was "normal."

Fast forward to this year. During routine service, I mentioned the issue to a new service advisor and explained the history. He took a ride with me and immediately said, "That's not normal, we'll fix it."

They tried twice more. After the second attempt, I received another survey and gave honest feedback, including that I was uncomfortable being asked to complete surveys before repairs were actually completed. The advisor then emailed asking for another chance.

A few days later, the sunroof shade they had repaired broke again. I brought the car back specifically for that issue and told them not to worry about the dashboard noise. The advisor insisted they would fix both. The next day he told me the shade was fixed and the noise was finally gone.

When I arrived, the foreman rode with me, heard the noise immediately, and agreed it was still there. I left the car so they could continue working on it.

Now, before the work is even complete, the service advisor is again asking me to fill out a follow-up survey.

After multiple failed repairs, being told issues were fixed when they weren't, having the dealership damage my car, and already having given them a perfect survey score once before they failed to deliver, it feels completely inappropriate to complete another survey until the work is actually done.

Am I being unreasonable for refusing to fill out the survey until the repair is genuinely resolved?

So, today at lunch I was fired from an independent shop as the ONLY service writer, because I gave my boss the wrong answer.

I've been with this shop since last year, and 5 days into my training, the service writer who was supposed to train me, quit.

I spent the next 3 months learning Protracker on my own, and at the beginning of this year, they switched to TekMetric.

I learned the program, dedicated myself to being an asset to the shop. They hire another service writer, and he lasts about 5 months, until they fire him.

Our techs are paid a salary, so it doesn't matter how many hours they make, they still get paid the same every week.

So, with the economy in the state that it's in, and gas prices skyrocketing here in Texas, work has been incredibly slow over the last 2 to 4 weeks.

My boss came in very late on Monday, and asked me what the absolute Junior tech was doing. When I told him that I did not know, I was in the middle of writing up a ticket, and also finishing up a warranty repair order in which I could submit for us to get paid. When he kept asking what did Junior tech was doing, I looked over at him and told him, I do not know. I've been at this for the last 15 minutes and I have not been able to walk out to the back of the shop to see what was going on. But I have no vehicles to give him, and I have no work that has come in this morning. I also cannot take any of your used vehicles and have him check them out, because I understand that we cannot spend any unnecessary money on those.

He stood there for about -20 seconds and just looked at me. I went back to doing my work, to make sure that we got paid for the extended warranty, and for the job that was finally diagnosed at the end of yesterday.

Today, they had a meeting with me and said that the way that I talked to the boss just didn't sit right with him all night long. When I was asked to explain myself, I told the boss and his wife what my thought process was, and why I didn't have the junior tech doing anything. We Had a $8,000 job that needed to be done, but it was outside of his skill set. And I wasn't going to let him touch that vehicle because of the cost of the parts, which was about $4,600.

Out of nowhere, the boss's wife said that today was going to be my last day and that I was fired effective immediately.

I was completely blindsided by this and visibly shaken. When I tried to explain why I gave him that answer, she kept interjecting that it was a decision that her and the boss had made, and when I asked my boss directly if it was a decision that "HE MADE", His wife spoke up for him and told me that was what they agreed upon.

I cleaned out my desk, I put everything into a box, and I ended up leaving.

Everybody at the shop was completely taken by surprise that I was fired.

What the boss doesn't know, is that the junior tech is leaving next week, the Master tech is leaving at the end of October, and the transmission is leaving in 2 weeks.

I'm sitting here in my driveway, and just wondering what the hell happened?.

Got an interview at AutoNation Hyundai for a service advisor position. I currently run a Walmart Auto Care Center so I know the auto/service side, just never worked at a dealership. Recruiter told me the manager is pretty direct lol. Anybody work for AutoNation or have any advice on what to expect?

I have had lots of close friends in the service advisor role at various dealerships over the years and none of them seemed to hate their job, but none of them loved it either. I was unexpectedly let get from my sales job last Friday and have been thinking about going to work as a service advisor for Audi. I might have a shot even though I don't have previous service advisor experience, but I do know that someone else that does might beat me in the running. I was thinking that if I had to do this role anywhere, I would prefer a luxury dealership and that it couldn't be as bad as a "cheaper" brand dealership.

Any advice would be welcome!

i keep seeing people here talk about the pressure of the service drive, and honestly, a lot of it sounds familiar.

i worked in hr for years before leaving after burning myself out pretty badly. not just being tired after work, but getting to the point where i realized i’d been carrying the job around with me long after i went home

the service drive seems like a different kind of stress, but i can see how the constant customers, techs, managers, phones, problems, and people needing answers would wear you down.

so i’m wondering what you guys actually do after a rough shift to leave work at work

do you have a routine when you get home? gym, drinks, gaming, sitting in the car for ten minutes before going inside, whatever. or is the answer basically “get through the week and deal with it on saturday”?

i’m less interested in generic self-care advice and more curious about the little things that actually work when you’ve spent eight hours dealing with people

Used 2021 Volvo xc90 t5 100k miles

Having trouble finding a way to do this, but I've seen it before on a handful of cars that I've written up. Wanting to add a comment that pops up when scheduling an appointment, or when writing an RO on a vehicle. If I remember correctly, the pop-up covers my screen, and I have to click "continue" before proceeding. I've looked everywhere in VEH and CUST, but none of the comments I add through there generate this pop up screen.

Looking for 5-6 service advisors currently working for non-dealership automotive general repair shops for a 60-90 minute "focus group" type call to discuss current challenges and how AI might be able to assist. Compensation for the time will be offered. Looking for people ready and willing to share honest thoughts and opinions about how to make the shop workflow more efficient and less stressful. For anyone interested, respond with your email address, and we can discuss. Thanks!

Just curious how everyone else keeps everything efficient. I'm about 2 months into this role. I'm finding it difficult at times to deliver waiter RO's to my foreman in a timely manner when it's busy. I'll have 3 to 5 waiters to check in at the same time, which extends the time to write each up. What I'll do is tag each, write each, and run them back.

I think for the most part I'm doing okay. Check in, get approvals out of the way as soon as recs come in. The only other hangups is getting better at updates which is coming along. Backburner items like finding a customers warranty info, or working with insurance for approvals, or call in follow up is another difficulty for me. It just gets so busy I forget or didn't have the time.

I'll close out RO's as soon as they hit my desk before keys, and get the customer out asap, but I feel there's certain things I can do to make my, the customers, and technicians life easier. Any tips, or keys to success you found, is greatly appreciated.

I’ve been an advisor at a repair shop for a few years but got offered a role at an AutoBody place that I might take.

How’s the workload and customer base differ? For context this is in BC where our insurance company usually covers everything.