When Rearz changed the "advertised capacity" of their diapers overnight I was the one who called them out on the "false advertising" and I never did get a straight answer. The answers I received (the post is here, somewhere as this was right when they started making those RIDICULOUS claims about the diaper capacities) with one of my main points being that stock that had already been on hand was instantly advertised with capacities that are so far from "REAL WORLD" that it would be 100% IMPOSSIBLE that the diapers already in stock "somehow" gained 50% more capacity just by sitting on a shelf.
I HATE deceptive business practices and I've been in the automotive aftermarket my entire life including as a business owner until my disabilities (I am a significantly disabled veteran) forced me to sell my shop. When I was in business, we won "Best garage in the valley" 18x in 27 years yet we NEVER advertised (* I did sponsor several youth football and wrestling programs as well as coached both sports for decades, so if you want to consider that as advertising, that was the entire extent of me doing so*) and we were consistently booked 5-7 days in advance (could had been far longer but people tend to forget or have the work done elsewhere when their appointment is pushed out so far) and my entire clientele was damn near 100% based on word of mouth. I admit, we were not a "huge" shop, just 5 bays, 3 top tier technicians/mechanics (I prefer mechanic honestly) with 1 full time "B" tech to handle all of the minor jobs such as oil changes, tires, exhaust system work etc. that would take one of the top tier techs off of whatever work they were doing. The system worked INCREDIBLY well and we would often stay well past closing time to get every single vehicle that was scheduled, along with break-downs/tow-ins out the very same day as i only had room for 27 vehicles on my lot, including in the bays. We usually had to park our own vehicles around the corner from the shop due to a lack of space. I take my profession INCREDIBLY serious and HONESTY was our strongest suit as I DESPISE the endless amount of *most* chain stores that sell parts that aren't needed or have NOTHING TO DO with the problem the car/truck was brought in for in an effo4rt to sell all of their highest profit services, often without authorization or more frequently by using "scare tactics" to scare the customer in to authorizing work that in many cases either wasn't needed, not done properly, using the cheapest (I.E. low quality components that don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of lasting the life of the vehicle. I went out of my way to assail those businesses that did that because mechanics are one group of professionals (there are a LOT of true professionals doing this for a living but we're grossly overshadowed by incompetent, dishonest, uneducated "parts changers' which infuriates me as to this day, despite no longer owning a shop or being able to do this every single day, I still attend classes/schools, seminars etc. in an attempt to stay as current as I possibly can even though I can no longer justify the cost of much of the equipment needed to properly diagnose many newer vehicles. My point is I feel responsible to inform customers, friends or someone I don't know asking me where they ought to go and I only will ever recommend someone I trust to work on my own vehicle though to this day I have never needed anyone else to diagnose/repair my own vehicles. Dishonesty/incompetence and ESPECIALLY "LYING" (deceiving customers IS lying!) infuriates me and is perhaps one of the largest barriers in TRUE PROFESSIONAL being paid what they are truly worth! A great example is when I do work today, I won't even CONSIDER unlocking my tool box for a penny less than $50/hour and that's on standard issue, easy to do jobs. I charge as high as $150/hour to do electrical/computer diagnostics as that's the only way to make back what I've spent to date on my never ending education. That's not to mention I spend HOURS per month reading every single bit of information I can find to enhance my own knowledge. Some people claim my pay demands are insane yet I have to turn down roughly 2/3 of the requests for work I receive and I pretty much pick and choose what I will work on. IF my demands for pay were truly outrageous/indefensible, I would NEVER have dozens of requests per month, every month, as I have had non stop for the past 8-10 years since i had to sell my shop.
My main issue is that you can have 50 truly educated/trained automotive professionals and 10 who aren't and the 50 will be painted with the same shit covered brush in a customer's eyes due to the 10 who are anything but skilled/trained/educated/experienced fucking people over. Auto/truck/equipment mechanics all have a relatively HORRIBLE reputation (in general to the average consumer) that we did nothing to deserve but "perception to a customer IS reality" and until this industry MANDATES training/schooling/CERTIFICATIONS & finally LICENSING, this problem will never go away. It amazes me because electricians, plumbers/contractors etc. all have to be licensed to work in different towns/cities yet very little they do has to potential to harm as many people as incompetent mechanics yet ANYONE with a wrench can claim to be a mechanic!
Sorry for my rant. I just got home from a bunch of appt's and I'm not in a great mood. I just felt this needed to be said again.
With all of that being said, when companies decide to promote dishonest information, I point it out as i find it. I welcomed a discussion with whatever rep it was who replied to the posts I had made but none of my direct questions were ever properly or fully addressed. I'll NEVER support ANYONE who relies on deceptive practices in ANY business. I wish more people did this as then these companies would be FORCED to promote HONEST business practices without anything that skews the truth.
Maybe this is just me, but I can't help it. I DESPISE deception when it comes to taking other people's hard earned money!
CptKirk
