What's this all about?

So I had a customer bring their car in to our shop this morning for a second opinion on a potential fix of a rattle she was encountering.  I was so disgusted by the lack of ethics from the initial shop that I briefly posted about it on Facebook (you know what Facebook is, right? it's a passing fad) and it was suggested to me that I go ahead and start blogging about my experiences.  The experiences of an automotive shop aren't necessarily limited to blasting other shops, that's certainly not my intent.  The automotive industry is already tainted by bad eggs in the basket, but I feel its important for the public to know what to look out for in order to avoid being misled by corporate greed and a lack of ethics that's so rampant in the industry. This blog, though, will also include the day to day stories that also involve customers, venders, meth heads, the taco guy, and the occasional exploding battery.  I debated with myself whether this would be a good idea or not since the potential readers of this blog could, in fact, be the subject of a story or two :)  Do I want to risk offending a friend?  Have I really ever cared about that in the past?  Of course I have, but I believe that my friends and family understand that it's all in good fun and if FOX eventually wants to make a reality show out of it, so be it.

I'm the Service Manager of an independent automotive repair facility owner of a transmission shop in Pflugerville (see that! i've moved up in the world!).  If you drive a car or truck, there's a good chance that you'll run into someone like me at some point in your life.  Do your best not to end up as the subject of one of my blogs.

This isn't meant to make fun of anyone or to slam other business entities.  I honestly love all of my friends and customers.  This is a career that I chose because I never stopped playing with cars.  I race them, I break them, I even fix what I break at times!  It's a passion and I want to make sure that each job is done correctly and efficiently every single time.  When we started this shop back in 2004 we were asked what our Mission Statement should be.  I had to think about that for a little while before I jotted down any plain jain motto.  I thought about my experience working at a dealership, at previous independent shops and wanted to piece together the bottom line of what I wanted to bring to the community.  I came up with the following, which still holds true.

To Return the TRUST Originally Instilled by the Family Mechanic Through Honest, Ethical and Thorough Workmanship

That mission hasn't changed in the past six years and I believe we're doing our part in bringing back the family mechanic that you can call your friend, or at least bring a 4-pack of Red Bull and a box of breakfast kolaches.
 
This blog is more of an avenue to share experiences that will hopefully teach you a little something about our illustrious industry or even make yourself giggle a little bit (even if it means laughing at yourself).  Sometimes it will be a post about a funny moment in the shop. Sometimes it will be a rant about the service industry as a whole.  Regardless, I hope that you will enjoy reading my tales from the shop.