When the boss (Mr. Beers) called yesterday to discuss this matter, I told him it was his fault for failing the lady in the first place.
(Topic ID: 209426)
Indianapolis, IN
Quoted from o-din:Is it actually "hood" or "head"?
Quoted from AlexF:I can't believe you could be so detached and unconscious.
Darn Pinside!
The bottom line is that if you are involved with any situation where any random person from the "general public" can interact with you, you are going to see stupid shit from time to time. Because there are a lot of idiots out there. A whole lot.
Quoted from xsvtoys:The bottom line is that if you are involved with any situation where any random person from the "general public" can interact with you, you are going to see stupid shit from time to time. Because there are a lot of idiots out there. A whole lot.
Isn’t watching them what kills the boredom though? 
Quoted from xsvtoys:The bottom line is that if you are involved with any situation where any random person from the "general public" can interact with you, you are going to see stupid shit from time to time. Because there are a lot of idiots out there. A whole lot.
So true! With all the great reviews, we do occasionally get an unsatisfied customer. The best one was Fahred who had some $100,000 sports car missing the original VIN tags and he was bitching about why it was taking so long, but that review looks to have been scrubbed.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/express-smog-check-la-habra-3?sort_by=rating_asc
Quoted from o-din:I manually tried to open my hood and felt with my fingers for the level. Was too tight to find the lever.
"Can I borrow some sort of tool that will help me unhook the lever?" ..as he stared at me reclining back on some equipment.
"What kind of tool?" he asked.
"One that might help me unlock the lever" (really?)
"Do you want a screwdriver?", he asks followed by, "do you think that will work?".
"I don't know", I replied. Can you handed me the screwdriver adding,
" if you can't get your head open and I won't be able to read test your car". With a matter of fact look he reclines back on his equipment to watch me.
I continued by angling the screwdriver to one side attempting to lift the lever from inside my head.
" hey it looks like you need help. I think if I go inside your car and pop the hood while you move the lever it might work", he says. It did.
Her review sounds like the dialogue to a 70's porn flick.
Quoted from Pinballlew:Isn’t watching them what kills the boredom though?
One of my stores has a Little Ceasars in the shopping center.
Watching the gang bangers borrow money from their Mom to get a $6 pizza always makes my day.
Little Ceasars isnt a bad place for a lunch on the run but I see that their average customer seems below average to me.
I feel some empathy towards the employee's there...
Quoted from RTS:But the review is far more damaging to the waiter and his livelihood, whereas the reviewer enjoyed some free drinks, has a story, and doesn't think twice how it affects the waiter's life.
Yes, in this instance, the reviewer is a complete asshole.
Quoted from Magic_Mike:Her review sounded like the dialogue to a 70's porn flick.
" if you can't get your head open and I won't be able to read test your car".
What is really disheartening is when people say they are going to write me a great review and never do. 
Quoted from o-din:" if you can't get your head open and I won't be able to read test your car".
I used to date a girl like that.
Always wanted me to pop her hood, but never could get inside her head.
Quoted from pinballinreno:These days I refuse to be abused by them, in spite of their cowardly internet reviews.
That's my feeling. I'm sitting right there. If they have a problem worth running to the internet with, why not tell me so I can remedy things, if need be. I welcome customers walking in. And let them know if they have any questions or problems, please let me know.
Like the moron on Reddit that wasn't happy with me. Even though he hasn't been in my business for three or four years. And helps run pinball tournaments at locations in my area. Nothing like posting biased BS on the internet.
LTG : )
Quoted from LTG:I'm sitting right there. If they have a problem worth running to the internet with, why not tell me so I can remedy things, if need be.
This lady was already fast fingering her phone before I even came back in to tell her about her hood.
Usually on a bad review, you can check their other ones and they are all the same, but I was her only one.
"What man reclines back to see a women struggle?"
I guess that's me.
Quoted from o-din:"What man reclines back to see a women struggle? How insignificant must you feel to be so detached and unconscious. I write to you so that you may decide to be more polite and helpful with your future clients."
Are you sure you hadn't met this lady before?
Quoted from fosaisu:Are you sure you hadn't met this lady before?
A scorned lover perhaps?
Leduc, AB
Quoted from o-din:You're reluctance to help me open the hood of my car is disgusting.
If you, the technician, damaged a customers car further, who would be responsible? Like, if the hood would not reclose what then?
You need some sign stating "we can/will refuse service, for any reason". Do you guys lean over smashed up fenders? Risking a cut?
Quoted from fosaisu:Are you sure you hadn't met this lady before?
I'm sure. It was the boss that dealt with her last time. Speaking of which I just got off the phone with him. I told him that must have been the way it happened and apologized and said I would come in tomorrow with a smile on my face. He's laughing and says these things happen.
That's why I love my job, I have the best boss ever. It was my lifelong ambition to work for Beers and now I am where I want to be.
30+ years in the auto business and I had never thought to use vise grips on the under dash hood release cable, but that's what he said he did. I have used them on hood props, but that genius idea on the release cable never crossed my mind.
Quoted from pinballinreno:I got a bad review on Yelp a couple years ago from a customer that wanted some free stuff.
The Yelp sales team called me and asked if I would like to remove the negative rating and have them post some 5 star reviews for me.
All of this for $500 and a monthly subscription rate.
I told them to eat my shorts....
You sure that was YELP that called you or an online reputation management company (read: shady side of shade)? YELP has some pretty bizarre algorithms for what they display but I've never read/heard that you can expunge bad reviews SIMPLY by paying (usually they have to be specific violations in them like personal attacks etc)
Here's how I wish that went down. Each time she asked "Can I..." you replied "I don't know, caaaaan you?" and punctuated it by raising up a can of soda, in a cozy with the word grammar in bold black letters stamped on it, and took a drink.
I'm very tempted to do a review of this person as a human.
Quoted from Tuna_Delight:Saw this pic on your work's website. Mini o-din?
Pretty much. Reclining back watching the world struggle.
Beside pinside, I do occasionally read reviews on yelp while at work to find good places to eat or just to humor myself.
I really should have checked yelp before I stopped at the local Pick Up Stix to get some dinner on the way home a while back.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/pick-up-stix-fullerton-3?sort_by=rating_asc
Quoted from o-din:I really should have checked yelp before I stopped at the local Pick Up Stix to get some dinner on the way home a while back.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/pick-up-stix-fullerton-3?sort_by=rating_asc
Quoted from Mike_J:It's a place where imbeciles go to review and rant about things they know nothing about.
Why doesn't he just say Pinside?
John
Quoted from o-din:People love us! We are fast and friendly!
Odiner its Cali, what do you expect. I'm sure you'd get 10 star ratings here in Tejas. Nice laid back rednecks that appreciate fine work and fine folks. 
With the DB factor being off the charts the odds are against you that you'll get a few.
Have a beer, take a bong hit, relax and play some pinball! Just don't invite RD over again to destroy your screen door.
Quoted from iceman44:Have a beer, take a bong hit, relax and play some pinball! Just don't invite RD over again to destroy your screen door.
Hey! I haven’t done that in years!
Now, what I would have done in Odins position would have been to take a quick photo of the car on my phone, just to show the boss should the shit hit the fan later.
I’m not sure on Yelp if the business can respond to the customers (like on Facebook) but if you can, the boss can come on there and say “my employee acted in a responsible manner, the car was badly accident damaged and he was unable to open the car due to this damage”
This serves two purposes:
1/ negates the customers 1 star review
2/ shows the boss supports the employees.
The rise of social media spouting off is one of the reasons I quit retail back in 2012. I never got any bad reviews, but I knew it was heading in a place I didn’t want to be. 
rd
Quoted from rotordave:Now, what I would have done in Odins position would have been to take a quick photo of the car on my phone,
Come on Dave, you know I don't have one of those phones.
But how bout some reviews we can really sink out teeth into?
Don't trust yelp!
We had one of the closets of my friend's apartment in San Francisco listed as a Bar on Yelp for a few years. A random dude even called one of our other friends in NYC (who was one of the reviewers) trying to find it one day. We even managed to get it listed on a foreign Rum company's website as being a bar in the US carrying their product, by sending them photo of their Rum in it (at a very carefully selected angle). To be fair, the closet was decked out in fun Tiki Bar decor, and well stocked with rums and other tiki drink provisions. You could get maybe 4 people in it, along with the crab traps and the grass-skirted bar-table.
I think it finally got taken down a while back, but it amused the heck out of us until then.
OH! It's still on Yelp! Just says it's closed! Perhaps because the bartender moved to Portland...? Bwahaha!
https://www.yelp.com/biz/michelles-shark-bar-san-francisco-2
Quoted from o-din:30+ years in the auto business and I had never thought to use vise grips on the under dash hood release cable, but that's what he said he did. I have used them on hood props, but that genius idea on the release cable never crossed my mind.
The plastic handle will break where the end of the hood release is cast into the handle. Vise Grips will return the mechanical advantage in aid to pulling on the end of the wire. until the other end breaks off and you pull 2 feet of wire back into the drivers side of the car.
Quoted from Darcy:The plastic handle will break where the end of the hood release is cast into the handle. Vise Grips will return the mechanical advantage in aid to pulling on the end of the wire. until the other end breaks off and you pull 2 feet of wire back into the drivers side of the car.
The handle was still there. The trick is to pull the handle and clamp on the wire in the stretched out position and then fiddle fart around at the hood latch and let the car owner worry about fixing their shit later. On cars where the cable is already broken- not our problem.
We like to test as many cars as possible, but some just aren't worth the trouble. As are some customers.
I am an ASE certified master technician with 35 years in the business who has probably done more smog inspections than anybody else in California, along with countless other overhauls and repairs on all makes and models.
But this is the extent of service or repairs I do now.
Help, i got Yelped.
Isn't YELP just the "Yellow Pages" trying to hang onto its existence since the internet has essentially killed their business model of selling printed ads / listings in now obsolete phonebooks?
Further confirmation that most folks are assholes - https://nypost.com/2018/02/09/l-l-bean-ditches-its-legendary-unlimited-return-policy/
Quoted from Mike_J:Further confirmation that most folks are assholes
That may be, but for the most part our regular customers are the greatest. Anytime you offer a coupon or deal it will always bring in some undesirables.
We are in a great neighborhood with mostly newer well kept cars. It's been a long time since I got into a vehicle that resembled a McDonalds dumpster.
Every once in a while somebody famous will come in like the aforementioned Christy Mack. I didn't know who she was, but her boyfriend was quick to inform me.
One of my favorite regular customers who lives close by is an up and coming NHRA Top Fuel driver. Her parents are great people too.
https://www.nhra.com/videos/2017/ashley-sanford-s-top-fuel-debut-us-nationals
This thread was like ho hum then I started laughing my ass off in public where I was eating. That is worth money right there.
Please keep me laughing.
I also dealt with some customers in my 25 plus years with grainger industrial supply.
Im on the back cover of one of thier catalogs. That was fun, with customers.
I'm fifty now but when I was about 22 some guy didn't like me on the counter and he pointed at me and said
" and that asshole right there did this and this and this." In his defense I probably was a bit of a dick. I headed to management. I kept getting promoted. In my defense I got much better too, I always desire to help others.
Withstanding others b s is a skill. Especially when coupled with other skills.
Quoted from Mike_J:Further confirmation that most folks are assholes - https://nypost.com/2018/02/09/l-l-bean-ditches-its-legendary-unlimited-return-policy/
I had returned an item to Costco a few months ago and the rep mistakenly didn't refund the full purchase price. On my next visit, I had them correct this. It took awhile. As I'm waiting, the other rep is processing refunds for other customers. Customer after customer bringing back partially eaten or unused food. I asked what they did with it. She said most of it goes in the garbage due to the potential for tampering. If you paid with an EBT card and tell them it expired, you get the refund on a Costco gift card. Now you don't have to buy food. People sometimes suck....
Quoted from Azmodeus:This thread was like ho hum then I started laughing my ass off in public where I was eating. That is worth money right there.
Please keep me laughing.
You've got to understand I had no intention of starting this thread, but half crocked before I went to bed last night, I said what the heck, pinside would be sure to come thru and make me laugh when I got up in the morning. They did not disappoint.
Quoted from o-din:I am an ASE certified master technician with 35 years in the business who has probably done more smog inspections than anybody else in California, along with countless other overhauls and repairs on all makes and models.
But this is the extent of service or repairs I do now.
I remember the nice job you did on the daughter's Camry after she cracked up the front end because I have one just like it.
She keeps saying head instead of hood. Freudian slip? I think she wants you. She still uses a flip phone. Tell me you don't like that...
Quoted from Magic_Mike:Her review sounds like the dialogue to a 70's porn flick.
Reading through some of her other reviews, I can't imagine how annoying she must be in the flesh. I don't doubt for one second that she cherishes the smell of her own farts.
Quoted from xsvtoys:I remember the nice job you did on the daughter's Camry after she cracked up the front end because I have one just like it.
Thanks! Yeah, she did a number on that Camry. I think the airbag to the face taught her the driving lesson I never could.
I wasn't going to fix it, but nobody even the junkyard wanted to give us anything for it, and you don't just throw away a Toyota with 11,000 miles on it. It was a lot of work.
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