Quote Originally Posted by mbeach
This is everywhere, not just Isuzu. It's a product of the disposable society that we live in. It's cheaper to replace a part than it is to pay a tech $60 an hour to troubleshoot and repair a part that might just need to be replaced anyways.
I personally believe that shop labor rates are getting far too steep. Some dealerships in the local area have hit 94 bucks an hour on their retail labor rates. And those aren't electrical diagnosis rates, which can range anywhere from a hundred to 125 an hour.

Quote Originally Posted by mbeach
I've already run into this at a dealership. When I asked the service manager why my 40k mile shattered swaybar endlink was not covered under warranty, I got this response: "...I'll check if you want me too, but the Isuzu rep doesn't even come around anymore, so don't expect too much to happen..."
It's a $30 dollar part -no big deal, but his attitude and indifference to my complaint was just too much. I invited him to play a tune on my hairy bagpipe and haven't been back since.
I have a hard time believing the Isuzu ZPSM doesn't "come around anymore". Perhaps this is another zone ZPSM, but I know *our* ZPSM is top-notch. Does he come around a lot? No. Can I call him on his cell and either get hold of him immediately or at least know he'll call me back fairly quickly if he's not available? Yes.

And Isuzu is pretty good, in my opinion, about "goodwill" coverage. No, they're not going to cover everyone and everything, but given the right circumstances they'll go out of their way to help an Isuzu owner.

Quote Originally Posted by mbeach
I'll give Don my business from now on.
Well, I have to admit I'm not the end all, be all of Isuzu service. In fact, I'm probably one of the worst P&S Managers amongst Isuzu dealerships. Not only do I *not* have any prior parts and service experience of any kind, I'm swamped. In other words, a lot of times things that need to get done for customers, don't. Which is why I started putting together our parts website -- it takes us out of the loop for the most part and lets customers deal -- at least indirectly -- with Isuzu itself.

It wasn't originally supposed to be this way at our dealership. We went into this with a parts counterperson (myself), a parts and service manager, a service advisor and a service tech. We quickly found out that that wasn't going to work out. We just don't have a big enough Isuzu market here to produce the kind of income to support a full staff.

Now I'm the parts counterperson, parts driver, service advisor, parts and service manager, and sometimes act in a general manager-like capacity when dealing with Isuzu. Throw in my responsibility of managing the computer network, dealing with internet vendors like autotrader.com and cars.com, and putting out fires (crisis situations), and I've got *no* time.

This all goes back to the reason Isuzu is a tier 2/tier 3 franchise. Outside of a major Isuzu market like KC, Saint Louis, etc., you just can't support a well-managed full-service facility without more popular franchises. A dealership has to have deep pockets to provide itself with a staff capable of addressing customer concerns. On the flip side of the coin, multiple-franchise dealerships are going to focus the majority of their attention to the most profitable franchises, which Isuzu wouldn't be at most dealerships. (Again, not because of product, but because of market share.)

All that said, I don't know of any other parts & service manager like myself. I'm never off work. Parts & Service calls are forwarded to my cell phone 24/7. I've taken parts calls at one o'clock in the morning and service calls later in the morning than that. If I get a customer's order messed up (and it does happen more often than I'd like) I go out of my way to correct the problem any way I can. I've driven to KC to pick up a $30 part in order to get it delivered to a shop on the day I promised rather than make the customer wait until the next day for an overnight drop-ship. It's little (well, actually big things, considering I don't have time to do this kind of stuff) things like this that I think a lot of dealership's service facilities are lacking. It seems to me that people think of their jobs as JUST jobs, and do only what's absolutely required. Anything more and you can expect a polite f-you and please call again.

I've always thrown myself into my work with almost a fanatical zeal. Maybe that's just me and I'm a glutton for punishment. I do know that the majority of my customers appreciate it.

Dayam, too long of a post...