I never said that. I do think that I pay my mechanic 95% for their mechanical skills and 5% for their customer service skills. If my mechanic (who has services multiple vehicles of mine for 15 years or so) tells me it is a battery issue and he will fix it, no matter how convinced I am that the problem is with the kill switch, I know enough to say “lets fix the battery then… thanks.”
Unless you are a Customer Service Specialist who gets paid to take abuse from customers I would say most people would get upset by someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about telling them they are doing their job wrong.
As an American, it can be unbelievably difficult. Even if you manage to find a doctor who’s in your insurance network, that doctor might not be taking any new patients for months. There could be an insanely long waiting period before you can even come in for an initial consultation. Our healthcare system is awful.
All good except for that last bit. I work with electronics and damaged batteries. A damaged battery could easily cause all of these including the alarm going off while driving.
I was indeed wrong on the first point but it was only after I said that that he actually looked into the battery problem. THEN he told me after inspection about the battery so it’s not like I just made something up out of thin air and forced it upon him.
And no he didn’t fix it, considering he literally said he fixed the alarm the first time then it started going off again.
And what the hell am I suppose to say if he starts asking me “Do you know how a car battery works?” multiple times in a gruff manner? Just constantly say No until he beats me down verbally? Why would he ask me again AFTER I had already said No if I had given him the answer he wanted?
Why are you acting like I somehow kept repeating KILLSWITCH KILLED MY CAR against his better knowledge when he himself didn’t know anything until he actually took a look at the car the second time (which he really should have realized the first time if this is a common problem).
This is what I love about IMHO. You asked for other’s opinions and you did not respond to anyone whose opinion agreed with yours. Mine didn’t and you responded to tell me my opinion was wrong. Why would you post in the first place unless you thought there was a chance others would have responded differently. I would have interpreted the experience differently… because that is my opinion.
Maybe we should rename the forum to PVMF (Please Validate My Feelings).
Seriously, I could care less if you go back to that shop or not. I wasn’t there and didn’t hear the exchange… there are always two sides to the story. I interpreted it differently… that is my opinion.
You could do what I’d do (and have done) in similar situations. Answer the question in a way you believe will go over their heads.
“Do you know how a car battery works?”
"Well, all electricity works by the directional flow of electrons. The directional flow of electrons (electrical current) is very useful because it can be used to do work. In the case of a battery blah, blah, blah, blah, Ohms Law.
Come to think of it, this approach pisses people off, but hey.
And after you have agreed that it is the battery, and they battery has been changed, and the mechanic is still giving you shit about it?
Oh hey, I am a Customer Service Specialist who pays myself to take abuse from customers, and I will agree that most people would get upset when you tell them that they are doing their job wrong.
However, as a customer facing position, I give the benefit of the doubt that the customer is not trying to be a dick, and do not respond by being a dick. If they are confused about something, then it is on me, who is more knowledgeable about it than they are (which is why they came to me, rather than doing it themselves) to in good faith explain the situation in terms that they are able to understand. It feels good to treat those who are not as knowledgeable in the field that you have chosen poorly sometimes, to be sure, but then you have people going to other places where the customer service isn’t being dicks.
Two simple rules: Listen with empathy; respond with kindness. If you can’t do that, either find someone who can to face your customers, or accept that you are going to drive away many of your clients when you treat them like shit.
“Do you know how a battery works?” is a very vague question, with acceptable answers ranging from, “it produces an electric current.” to “The ions travel between the anode and cathode, creating a voltage difference that drives electrons through the wire.” or even “Very well.”
If the mechanic had felt that there was some information that the customer was missing that would clarify things, then the mechanic could have provided that information, rather than putting the client on the spot to claim or not claim to already possess this info.
OTOH, it is not without value to give him the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes people are having a bad day, and they come across poorly.
If this is a habit of his, I’d say find someone else. If this is the first time he’s been this way, I’d say give him another chance. He may even apologize for being short with you that day.
If someone hears a car alarm going off, they are likely going to look in the direction of that car alarm. The last thing a thief wants is everyone within earshot looking in his direction.
It was clear that the mechanic wasn’t actually listening to what the customer wanted, and chose to ridicule the OP.
If I have a problem with an electronic feature in my car, and I just want to have the damn thing disabled instead of repaired to the standard that the mechanic prefers (plus a heaping of jerking ness), that’s a shitty mechanic and customer service. Maybe you’d be totally happy with that mechanic, by the sounds of it, because the mechanic is always right?
Again… that is my opinion. Yours is different. I thought this forum was for sharing individuals’ opinions. I guess next time if I don’t agree with the first 10 people who are supporting the OP I will just not post if I disagree.
It would have to be internally shorted to the point the alternator was so loaded it couldn’t produce the voltage necessary. You wouldn’t be driving in that circumstance.
Remember ,while driving the battery is not the only power source, it’s not even the main power source.
Last week I was looking at a regulator driving a battery, that was swinging between 9V and 18V. The battery wasn’t any good. It’s tempting to think of charge regulators as voltage regulators, but in general that’s not how they work: when you have a battery in the system, the battery is used for voltage regulation. When the battery fails, voltage regulation fails.
So the question is, 'can you start the car with a failed battery". That’s much less likely, but not impossible.