[blueturbofly]

my son and i walked out of work yesterday- the office girl was / is being a cu*t and i would not stand there and let her talk down to my son or i in that manner.
so i called the boss, told him what is going on, then locked up the back of the shop, shut off the lights, my boy and i grabbed our lunch boxes and left.
all i said to the office girl- '‘you can lock up’'-i didnt even look at her, i just said that as i walked past her office.

sent out almost 15 job applications to other places already.

she kept coming at my son , now at me, for minor mistakes in the invoicing-WE WERE NEVER TRAINED PROPERLY ON HOW TO RUN THE FRONT OF THE BUSINESS-its not hard to do, their will be mistakes made- but dont keep nipping at my heels about an invoice that isnt correct. the customer ha s paid the bill, but she wanted me to call them up and ask for ANOTHER $400- we didnt go into the negative fixing item for customer, we made money, but she wants to charge MORE- that doesnt always work.
a happy customer is good for business.
a customer that gets ripped off is NOT GOOD for business.
no customers is bad for business- figure it out.
There is a balancing act, between repairing stuff and not getting work- you get too expensive on your parts and labor, people will go somewhere else- this office girl doesnt get that. the boss does….BUT….
there are alot of other issues that she complains about- always complaining about pricing, and getting mad that we sell parts with no part #s-
UM
I AM NOT GOING TO LOOK UP A PART # FOR A RANDOM NUT, BOLT, SCREW OR PART FROM A USED PIECE OF EQUIPMENT- SHE CAN DO THAT. she apparently knows the pricing and inventory system off the back of her hand. she can do the invoicing and scare people away with estimates. but she is only there for two days a week- so if that stays the same, people will be waiting forever to get their items- because according to her , we cant fill the invoices out properly- so she can do that as well!!

then she went on a rant about my son reading '‘her’' e-mails- um they are not in your name, its in the company name, and we need access to that , when outside companies send us diagrams and repair procedures-she can suck an egg on that one.
then tried blaming my son, for trying to open a certain program- we dont use '‘her’' computer-bitch
she talks down to us, and anyone else that has worked there-
and that is why the other parts guy left-easier to leave, than stay at a toxic work place

my son is so far behind , on the electrical / air tool side of the business- and i am getting behind as well.
my son was thrown into this job, and has told the boss numerous times that he is not a people / public person, and would rather be in the back fixing tools than dealing with the public. even i know this and have told the boss as well.

we left work around 9:30 am. boss called me around 3:30 and told me to come back to work on tuesday (its a holiday long-week-end) so i get friday off to look for different jobs.

my dr appointment earlier this week wasnt the greatest, my blood pressure is still high from the last time, and now i have been prescribed blood pressure lowering pills- just great, i wonder why??????
my son also has a stress rash , possibly from this job …. its not worth it.

i just want a job i can go to and not have to worry about the front-end of the business-there are people better suited for that position.
me? i just want to turn wrenches and fix stuff- and make people happy doing it.
if they do get a new parts person, it will be my son (and i) that will be '‘training’' them- showing them what little we learned from the previous parts person-

[Walt]

So that must have been a frustation day.
Glad you and your son left together

Good luck with the job applications.
And enjoy your time off

[DrelvisGTi]

G’day Mate,

Sorry to hear about the drama.

I do believe however that you are more than ready to start out on your own. This thread alone attests to your dedication to the cause of small engine maintenance and repair!

My advice would be to start small. Use social media to build and then retain your customer base. You are a very lucky man in that you have a son who could help!

Believe it or not, people do already know about you and will want to utilise your skills further! (Especially now that you removed yourself from the toxic environment that was your former workplace.) You also have the advantage of being able to pitch to your customers the benefit of dealing with a ‘Family Business’…

Customers are not stupid and many these days are looking for a better and more wholesome alternative- even if it costs slightly more. (I’m from Western Australia and if practicable, I would get you to fix my Stihl engines if I ever needed…)

Please keep your chin up and I wish you all the best!


Cheers,

Drew

[blueturbofly]

thanks guys ! just puttering all week-end on stuff, keeping my mind and hands busy- i dont know what to expect come tuesday.

had a call back about the one job- $85 ~ $95k per year, benefits, dental, pension plan….
and this other workplace is only 5 minutes away from where i work currently- nice!

[blueturbofly]

more from the shit show- boss called me yesterday, told me he is bringing the old parts guy , and his brother, in for today to help catch up on stuff….for just one day? Today is a provincial holiday- nobody else is open, even mail and ups/ fedex are closed….
the old, inferior, inept parts guy, along with his brother, are coming back? what? the 2 guys that COST you money, not make you money, you are brining back? WTF!!!
and the inept parts guy wants his old wage back (which is more than what my son, or myself, make) so he can sit there at the computer and do the job wrong? what?
my boss obviously had a knee-jerk reaction. but not a good one-
why not ask your two employees to come in? the two employees that actually care about the place. not the two old geezers that take up space and order the wrong parts…?
oh well. not many other places are open today, and my boy and i have changed enough stuff around at work , that the old parts guy will be confused. we threw out the stupid indexing system for the '‘waiting for parts’' invoices- there are now 12 bins on the wall for the appropriate invoice to be filed in-be it by major brand, or gas / electric / pneumatic / other
the old file folder set-up they had was….dumb- you could easily loose or overlook invoices in that folder- you cant overlook a clear bin hanging on the wall with invoices in it. easy peasy.

also removed a stacking tower that was sitting on the desk-that was full of old customer photocopied invoices, some dating from 2011 !!! my son sent them thru the paper shredder, some of them still had credit card #s on them!!!
and old sales brochures, magazines and books- tossed those out- almost everything is online now-
cleaned out a bunch of garbage and mystery parts from the desk…

the old parts guy will be so confused. good.

[Walt]

had a call back about the one job- $85 ~ $95k per year, benefits, dental, pension plan….
and this other workplace is only 5 minutes away from where i work currently- nice!

This sounds great
Is there space for your son to?

Good luck for today

[blueturbofly]

majority of these jobs want you to have your own tools. i would have to spend almost $20k to '‘update’' my tools , so i can work on the new stuff.

there are alot of things that have changed in the last 4 years when it comes to working on brand- new vehicles and heavy equipment. alot of electronic technical stuff. expensive scan tools

my father-in-law had a massive heart attack on thursday, and passed away saturday afternoon. so the wife and mother-in-law are looking after the estate as of monday-
he was over 1000 km away and living easily on his own-but his health quickly deteriorated due to prescription pill abuse.

my job hunt will wait for now.

plus, its better at work already- new parts guy seems decent, and the office lady will not talk to my boy and i- and thats okay with us.

[Walt]

Ohw i did not know that.
When you could affort that kind of money.
You could proberly start for your self

Sorry for your los.
Good luck with the funeral.


Great to hear there is a new parts guy.
Must be a strange situation when there is somebody who does not talks to you
But better for you guys

[blueturbofly]

well well- the accounting / office girl quit on monday? the boss isnt sure as she is not answering his phone calls or text messages…

my son is fairly computer / pc savvy- he went on the computer and was doing some maintenance / file clean-up / organizing incoming emails into separate folders, according to the major parts suppliers we deal with-
so if say, dewalt sends us an email or diagrams thru email, it goes into the dewalt folder on the computer- that way you dont have to dig thru all the emails when looking for a specific one, if its dewalt, it will be in the dewalt folder .if its honda, it will be in the honda folder. milwaukee in the milwaukee folder.
pretty simple , no? my son made it easier for the new parts guy- sometimes we get online parts requests as well, and those go into another folder- so once again you dont have to scroll thru every email to find it….

but no, the office girl didnt get it. she questioned my son on what he had done (she was accusing him of deleting emails) in front of the boss, parts guy and myself-
he calmly explained to her what he had done, and how it makes it easier for the parts guy and us in the back.
then she again accused him of deleting the emails. he told her again that there are now folders for each company that we deal with, click on the proper name folder and all the emails are there….
she turned her nose up and walked away , back to the office-
all 4 of us guys were stunned at her reaction and accusations- then a few minutes later she chewed out the boss, told him that my sons tone was '‘sarcastic’‘ and then asked the boss what he was going to do about it….then she finished payroll and told him she had had ’‘enough of this poor treatment’' and left.
ummm poor treatment? you are the one always coming after us !

so my son went on the two computers and removed her remote access. we noticed she had logged on the next day in the afternoon- but cant get into her office computer because she changed the password.
she is accusing us of '‘ sabotaging ’‘ her….i think she has been a problem for awhile now, and she couldnt handle it when ’‘men’' changed items on the pc , to make it easier-
and i know she looks down on us, because we just fix stuff- she has a terrible attitude towards men in general. she has voiced that many times.

so, the boss has to find a new book-keeper. there are lots of them out there, just to find one that fits the company.

the boss was sideswiped by her comments , that my son was sarcastic towards her- but at least there are 4 witness to her immature behavior, and that my son wasnt sarcastic when he told her where the files are and how they are labeled.

geeze, even i understood what he did, and i’m just a grease monkey!!!!

[Walt]

Whoaaaw what a story.
Happy weekend