Be foolproof vs unscrupulous casa mechanics

By Tessa R. Salazar
Philippine Daily Inquirer

TIMES are hard, And some carmakers may be neglecting their technicians-the heart and soul of the casa business — but does that give a struggling or underpaid casa mechanic a license to, well, fool you? Let’s turn the question around: Will you give the opportunistic mechanic a good enough reason to put one over you with your cruelty or gullibility?

The truth is, not all casas are equal, and not all casa mechanics are honest. If you do an informal survey of your trusted friends (those who do tell objective tales), chances are they will share with you a number of several horror stories, and not of the paranormal kind, but of the purely human ones.

Some mechanics the Inquirer Motoring has talked to said they had yet to encounter colleagues cheating their customers, and as long as there is no proof, they would consider these tales as just tall ones, pure hearsays. You be the judge, dear car owner.

But in the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt if you “foolproofed” yourself from such unscrupulous acts, would it?

Interviews with several car owners and colleagues in the motoring industry who have maintained and had their cars serviced in casas have revealed common-sense tips on how not to be “taken for a ride” in the service bays.

The first line of protection is to keep the work the mechanics are doing well within your sight. Some dealerships provide viewing decks of the service area, with comfortable lounges. However, not all casas will afford you this advantage, and, admittedly, it is actually dangerous to loiter around the service bays, what with all that heavy equipment, oil slick on the floor, and loose parts lying around (And you have to actually respect the sign that reads “authorized personnel only”).

So, if you can’t be there, do the next best thing: keep in touch with your technician/s and/or service bay managers. But don’t be the nagging type.

Be friendly with them. Engage in light chatter. Try to get them to warm up to you so they’ll open up to you.

Generous tip

Make them feel that you’re treating them as respected professionals. And after they get the job done on your car, don’t forget to give a generous tip. They will remember you, so that the next time you bring your car in, you’ll be treated not like just another customer, but maybe like an old acquaintance, and then they will personally see to it that you won’t be shortchanged.

Aris Ilagan, a columnist of Top Gear Philippines magazine, recently wrote about some mechanics confessing to him how they cheated on their customers.

Aris said he would personally talk to the mechanic assigned to his car. If he did sense that the mechanic was underpaid or was treated shabbily in his job to the point that the mechanic would pull a fast one on every customer the casa assigned on him, Aris would waste no time telling him pointblank: “Pare, ‘wag mo na akong taluhin, help me with my car, ayusin na lang kita. (Friend, instead of shortchanging me, just help me get my car fixed, and I’ll take care of you afterward).”

Ilagan, who earned his automotive know-how in the machine shop in Don Bosco Technical Institute Makati, and whose brother is an automotive diesel mechanic, would also ask the mechanic not to change the parts of his car that were still running good.

He also notes one advice from a colleague: This friend would ask the mechanic to survey the prices of certain parts outside the casa (which would usually turn out cheaper), and smuggle that part inside the casa.

How would the mechanics do it? Aris said that the mechanics would road-test the cars, and while at it, would change the parts outside. These mechanics know where to find quality yet low-priced parts outside, he said.

Ilagan said he had looked at the profiles of many of the mechanics he had talked to, and many of them were contractual workers for six months at a time, which meant they had no security of tenure.

‘Transparent’ casas

Some car manufacturers nowadays, however, have been proud to say that their service bays have become “transparent” areas.

These casas have designed their service area as customer-safe, which means the car owners can freely roam inside designated areas of the service bays to accompany their mechanic as he or she went over their cars.

Take, for instance, Motor Image Pilipinas, the exclusive dealer of Subaru in the country. Motor Image stressed that it was fully aware that many Subaru owners were car enthusiasts, and were therefore meticulous in almost all aspects of the driving experience, especially the maintenance and servicing ones.

Subaru Impreza STI 2007 owner James, 36, (who wouldn’t want his surname printed) made some modifications in his car recently, with Motor Image Pilipinas performing the installation work for him. He said that he worked side-by-side with the mechanic during the process.

Establish trust with customers

Subaru car owners are also free to look at their cars even during regular servicing, said Motor Image Pilipinas’ Ariel de Jesus. He said this would be an opportunity for them to get more educated about the car, and a chance for a young car company like Motor Image to establish trust with the customers.

A car industry member who refused to be named said other casas refused the owners to stay with their car as it was being serviced because of one sensible reason: loitering around the casa could be dangerous.

Some Mitsubishi casas such as in Makati, Paco, San Fernando, Balintawak and Cebu encourage owners to watch their cars while being serviced through viewing decks.

Ford service bays, for their part, ask customers to be present at the interactive reception process as part of what it terms its “quality care” process. Customers are asked to stay while their cars are inspected by the technicians. The service adviser would then point to the owners the worn-out parts that needed replacing and parts that were still in good condition. The majority of Ford dealerships were also said to offer their own viewing decks.

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