Should I buy a plane?

[Deleted]

I dont know how to fly....but I want to buy a plane.

Thats how I think of my most recent experience with a customer. This lady wants me to fix her scooter because it wont start.....

This woman is a 'it just needs a simple quick adjustment on something I am sure...should be a fast cheap easy quick fix' type person. In other words, thats how she wants things to be.

So I go get it and bring it home. It starts fine.

I keep starting it and every 5th or so try it will just 'click' so I put a new starter relay on it.

I take it back to her and she pays me. A little while later she calls me and says it wont start. To make a long story short, this person knows n o t h i n g. She has no clue what any of the buttons do. None. She is also scared to push any of them for fear she might do something wrong...like it may explode if she pushes the wrong one.

'After you left I went in and had dinner. I came out to ride around the block and the scooter will not start'.

Her tone was like its the scooters fault or my fault it wont start but she forgot to hold the brake. She goes and buys a scooter when she has literally not the first clue how to so much as blow the horn. This is like going and buying a plane...when you dont have the first clue how to fly.

I did get kind of frustrated with her on the phone and I was short with her but I dont know how to deal with someone like this. I am a mechanic not a drivers ed. teacher. Its not the bikes I am finding challenging, its the idiot public buying them.

[Deleted]

Another funny thing. She had a replacement key on the key ring with the original bent key still on the ring too. At first I couldnt get the key to turn and I didnt try the other key because it looked like a car key. I finally figured out the original key was bent.
When I took it back I say 'you need to just take this key off and throw it away it is just causing confusion by being on here'. So she takes the key off the ring and did just like i said..threw it. lol. Literally she stood right there, took the key off and throws it in the bushes. I swear. Also when I opened the seat there was a half eaten pizza under there. I started to take a picture.

[slawenm]

I find these kind of people lighten up my life, I work for a company that provided repairs to landlords who let out flats houses etc, some of the stupid tiny simple jobs we get called to amaze me.

and these people even if you tell them on over the phone how to turn their hot water back on etc, they are still willing to pay a fee for you to come and do it when it sometimes just flicking a switch on. not much money in the tiny jobs so sometimes its a pain if they still want you to go sort it out. simply amazes me every time it happens

[Enviromoto]

I carefully screen my customers. If they start with the "Im no mechanic but it shouldn't be that much" rap I'll send them to a big four dealer. Next time they won't have that smug attitude.

[90GTVert]

I hate intermittent problems. They can be such a huge pain to figure out at times. You can't test, because it never fails that it works properly when you try to get a meter on it or whatever the case is. You don't wanna send it back because it's gonna do it again. If I couldn't find anything that was definitely the problem, I always told the owner that I "think" this is the issue, but I'm not sure. Depending on the problem and the cost, sometimes I recommended replacement, sometimes I said they'd be better off leaving it and if it continues then get back in touch, but save your money for now unless it really bugs you.

Owners are what made me quit. Some are cool, some really aren't. Two guys brought me a scoot they tried to fix. The problem was likely a dirty carb, but they replaced the carb before seeking help. Well, it ran crappy with the new carb. I rode it, realized it was lean, swapped in a larger jet, good to go. I told them sometimes jet sizes aren't the same in every carb you buy or if you've swapped if before you gotta swap it into the new carb. They listened and I think they learned something. I may lose business that way, but I respect the people that are willing to learn from mistakes and admit their level of knowledge. The folks that tell me what the problem is and how cheap it should be or when I should work on it or basically how I should do my job annoyed me. Put an ad up to hire a mechanic to work for you and then you can boss them around. Funny part is, the same customers that annoyed the crap outta me are some of the ones that keep wanting me to start working on scoots again. One stops by from time to time if he sees me outside and asks questions, which I do answer, till he starts asking if he can bring his scoot up. I think people just push you and cry to you and bitch at you hoping they'll get more for less, even when they don't even think they deserve. The old, "Well, I had to try." It gets old fast.

[2strokd]

I had to "filter" some too. I didnt start out judging anyone nor do i now. I do however talk to them and listen for any of that BS. "it should be easy" or "it wont take long". That, or the first time i hear a complaint about costs im DONE with them. I do the best i can but wont put up with some BS. Ide rather sit here bored with my knowledge then listen to someone bitch about my service when im the one doing the favor.

I will also admit that ive had a couple scooters go unfixed because i determined it would cost more than it was worth to fix. Another one i simply couldnt fix. I always explain the truth though. Even if it hurts me or the customer. I barely do these repairs for anyone new tho. Most are repeat customers with decent 2T,s

[Deleted]

Turns out her son is the one who rides it mostly and he told her it wouldnt start and left her to deal with getting it fixed. It appears she is interested in learning to ride herself. I didnt know she even had a son, if I had I would have said 'perhaps your son can instruct you'. I may have lost a customer due to me being curt with her on the phone...but then again she will never find anyone else to work on it lol

Yeah intermittent probs are the worst. I am sure im not the only one here who had looked at so many cars that never do what they are saying it does while its with us but as soon as they leave with it, it starts acting up right around the corner. Just one of those things that goes with the territory. People expecting you to be an inexpensive miracle worker go with it too and thats the hardest thing of all.

[vvtr]

im always wary about people just turning up with bikes to fix after one incident....

i was replacing a guy's chain & sprox on the front when a car pulled up...
"can you have a look at my lads bike for me, it wont kick over"

course i can, fetch it round....
so a bit later he comes round with a kids motocross bike in the back of his 4x4.... looked mint & the only fault i could find was the kickstart return spring was on wrong.
took me less than a hr to fix so i rang him back to collect it....
weeks went by & i couldnt get hold of the guy... so i decided, if he hasnt come for it by the end of the mth its going on ebay lol!/

then one morning, first light, he was there at my door panicking saying he needed the bike back cos it was stolen and the police were looking for it.
i went fkin apeshit at him and got rid of the bike & charged him for the work.
later that day i had a visit from the police and got my house & garage searched, accused of receiving stolen property.
i explained what had happened and they seemed ok, but what annoyed me most was that this bike was a birthday present for a young lad and was stolen from a garage just a few streets away from my house.

to say i was annoyed is an understatement.
this guy used me to hide the bike until it calmed down a bit. ended up i found out where it had got stolen from and called round to give them the guys number.
hope they had a nice chat

regarding planes//// i was in my local watering hole chatting with a mate about a 250 rotax engine i was rebuilding, when a guy overheard us & came over....
turns out he's a local celebrity called 'microlight mike' & had a barn full of microlight planes, girocopters etc...
been flying for years but has never had a licence lol!
he said he had one there that was only short of the engine and the original motor was a rotax....
did i want to buy it for £250!!!
he said it had been crashed a few times but was still ok....

needless to say i was very tempted... i explained i had never been in one before but would love to have a go, to which he said well why dont you come round early on saturday and i'll take you up for a few hours - wrap up warm though cos its cold up there....

i said yeh sure, great.... can i get you a drink?
he said no it's ok, i'm going the bar anyway.....
got up to get a beer and omfg... he was like the most crippledest person ive ever seen!!! he was held together with screws and plates!
apparently when he goes flying he takes a bottle of rum up with him to keep warm and worries about landing later! ... he's hit power lines, trees, roofs, allsorts lol....

on further thought i declined the invitation!

[Deleted]

lol wow well im sure the rum makes for softer landings....he doesnt feel the pain as much haha

[90GTVert]

2 very interesting stories. Don't blame ya for passing on that ride. As far as the thief... just wow. Never would have expected that. I don't think I'd give anyone but the cops his number though, unless it was a friend or something. My luck they'd murder him and somehow I'd end up partially liable cause I told the person how to find the thief. lol

[aeroxbud]

Its hard explaining things to people some times. Had a lad working with me once and he had a chinese scooter that was about 6 months old. I asked him how many miles he had done and he said "6,000" which i thought was high, so one dinner time i had a look and it had 6,000 km not miles. I explained to him that as the big numbers on the speedo were kilometers then the distance was km as well. He said to me "i thought they were miles so when ever i went through a speed limit i was going much slower than i needed" lol.