Hey all,

I have a little over 4 years advising experience with an independent shop that owns a few locations. I have been successful, my ARO is over $1,000 and my average billed hours per RO is over 3. However, I have been able to achieve this by working after closing hours, pouring my soul into daily operations, and a lot of stress.

Things are getting tense and weird company wide as inflation rises and internal issues and starting to effect daily operations. I am also having some issues with my pay structure but they are running me in a loop. We get a base salary and a small percentage of GP of every ticket we sell. We do not get bonuses AT ALL or raises. Pretty much an advisor is an advisor regardless of your numbers, experience, or how long you have been with the company. Your success is completely dependent on how much you sell. I feel like there is no appreciation for us as a team either, we don’t even do Christmas parties. When I have brought up getting a raise, they say I give myself a raise when I sell more.

I am trying to decide if I would like to switch to the dealer side of things. There is a Chevy dealer and a Ford dealer that I could apply to. Only ever working independent, they make it as if the dealer is the enemy and it sucks to work for them. But following this sub, it seems like advisors at dealers make a lot more money. For those of you that have worked at both, which one would you say is better financially and just day to day?

Man, I have so many, so I'll just start with one:

A lady comes into the service drive with a damaged front end on a Mercury Villager van. Mostly just front bumper, hood, and rad support pushed back a little. Write it up, she leaves it, and on her way.

The following week, the repairs are all done and she picks it up on Friday evening - very pleased and drives off.

The following Monday I come into to work and the boss heads me off, "Hey man sorry to tell you this, but you have a HOT customer waiting for you out front. It's the lady with the Villager."

I got out to talk to her, and she starts screaming at me how I "stole her battery and took her van to the beach." I remind her how she picked up her van last Friday and drove it off our lot and it never left our lot while we were in possession of it.

She's pointing at me, "It has nearly 100 more miles on it now than when I dropped it off and all I did was park in my driveway when I went home! And you SMOKED in it too because the ashtray is full of butts and neither me nor my husband smoke.

I walked over to the van and yep, ashtray was overflowing. I popped the hood and yep, Motorcraft battery was gone and had some used battery in it from Wal-Mart that didn't even fit the tray!

Now I am thinking I am living some kind of double life and must have blocked out the entire crime. She's still screaming at me at this time.

Boss comes out and says, "Whoa whoa whoa! What's going on here?" And she repeats the story. He stops her and says, "This guy doesn't smoke! I've known him most of his life. And if you saw what he drove, then you'd know there is NO WAY he'd take your van anywhere!"

Now I start laughing and that makes her even madder. She says we haven't heard the last of it, and she's going to sue us.

I close her hood and she drives off.

I look at my boss and say, "I really hate my job." and he just laughs (we're friends)

The week goes by without hearing another thing from her and right before I leave on Friday, in pulls her van again!

My boss sees her through the window and yells across the office, "Ready for round 2? HAHAHAHA she's all yours!"

I yell, "I swear to God this is my day!" as she pokes her head in the lobby.

"Sir, can I speak to you outside?"

I nod my head and walk out there thinking I'm going to get stabbed or something. At this point, I no longer care.

"First of all, I need to apologize. And if you have a minute, I can explain everything."

I just nod.

"I've found out my husband is cheating on me. He came home smelling like cigarettes, and he's been seeing a woman who lives near the beach. He admitted he left the headlights on in our van and killed the battery, then borrow one from her car to get back home before I did. I am so, so sorry I put you through this!"

I accepted her apology and never saw her again.

CDK Drive

I am begging. Stellantis makes shit impossible. Is there any way possible to see disposition. Or what CDJR dealers are doing to get survey count?

Is reynolds/era ignite down for anyone else?

A few months ago I left veterinary medicine and became an Express Service Advisor at a Subaru dealership. I love the job, and the work life balance is way better than I had it before.

Recently our team of four advisors has become two. One left due to our income not being what we were told when hired (commission only, told $70-90k would be easy to earn, actually making ~$40k) and the other just didn’t work out. As a result, we are fully booked every day, which is great bc it was really dry a few weeks ago. We’re open for 15-20 appts every day, depending on the day, and we also take walk-ins on top of that. Each appt slot is 15 minutes and the goal is to have the guest checked out within 45-60 minutes (hahaha).

I am currently struggling with the work load and the fact that I’m expected to give everyone 110% and my best smile (gotta get a good NPS score 🙃). I often am booked solid for 4-5 hours with guests arriving and needing checked in every 15 minutes, plus walk-ins, as well as all of the other regular stuff, like communicating with the techs and parts, giving estimates and presenting inspection results, making sure the car is washed and clean for return, and checking the guest out and walking them to their car. On many occasions I have multiple guests who can see their car is ready to go and who I have ready to check out, and then am getting pulled away to go check someone in.

I worked mostly in the ICU/with hospitalized patients at an ER vet clinic. I am no stranger to being short staffed and having a high demand job (with upset clients!) where I am often running behind (sometimes 15 pets by myself and one or more take 30+minutes for their treatments that happen every two hours). However I feel like I am at a 9/10 stress level every day, and I know that isn’t sustainable. Our schedule is 5, 10hr shifts, and I often do not get to leave on time and am closer to 60hr weeks sometimes (surprising that I have a better work life balance now, right?).

Does anyone have any tips on managing stress at this job? How to keep things flowing smoothly? Verbiage for clients when you’re already backed up and the wait time is actually closer to 1.5-2hrs?

I know I probably care too much, but the threat of a bad NPS score and getting penalized or losing my job due to that is really starting to make me feel overwhelmed when I’m busy. (Also got a survey recently that tanked my score bc someone else was rude to them when they got there, so I have broken trust with other advisors helping my guests). I feel like I’m drowning and barely keeping my head above water most days, but also if I’m not busy I will literally be making no money 🙃 apologies for the ramble

I worked as a service advisor at a dealer for about a year. Was very happy to leave. Worked 7:30-5:30 most days with no lunch and always caught shit for refusing Saturdays (I was on a salary the whole time. They said the salary was for 40 hours a week and if I was doing more, that would be reflected in my pay plan. They never transitioned me to a pay plan). Plus the culture of most auto dealers is pretty shitty. Now, 7-8 months later, that dealer is looking to start a mobile service / pickup / drop off service and are promising me a potentially promising pay plan with a hearty guaranteed baseline to come back and run it. Anyone with experience in both shop advising and mobile service with an opinion on whether you think it’d be worth it to return?

Honestly, most of the pay scales I see in here seem complicated compared to mine. I get 6% of gross, no special applications- 6% of everything. No base wage. 2 weeks pto- only covers at $200 per day though. Toxic environment, never know if the boss is going to be a complete ass for no reason or actually seem like hes interested in your life. I've got 3 techs, 2 of them I have to baby sit and help diagnose vehicles for, 2 of them attack each other every chance they get behind each other's backs due to lending money or otherwise to each other. Its an independent repair facility- one tech is mid 60s and acts like he doesn't know why he can only turn 20-30hrs a week and is lazy, doesnt know how to diagnose anything and has comebacks weekly whether for misdiagnosed or not getting a connection back together, missing other things on the vehicle etc. Another one that's mid 50s and body is failing him, and the mid 30s that believes everything is owed to him and is jealous of what everyone else has or does, thinks he keeps the shop open. None of them went to school but the owner, owner acts like he wants to sell to me eventually coming up on the 10yr mark we talked about in about 2 years. We have been averaging about 1.7M the last few years. Wages have been stagnant just under 100. The question is whether I'll find a better environment going to a dealership and will I do better or at least the same for wages if I do. Sorry for unloading all of the bs but I'm getting tired of it after 15 years.

How do you handle this objection, our shop has so many leeches that only come in for lofs but nothing else unless it’s free. “But make sure you do thorough mpi”

Obviously I’m being facetious about the “breaking news” part; but the myth of gender being representative of a service advisor’s ability is still going strong - sigh. January will mark my 14th anniversary as a service advisor. I am a female.

I work indie with one other (male) advisor. He’s experienced, knowledgeable, and awesome. We value each other and work great together. We’ve reached the point of communicating almost telepathically and have a “script” for nearly every situation. And, while we each have different strengths (classics, diesels, Asian imports, basic American, trucks, turbos, driveline, etc.), we both giggle a bit when a customer tells ME that they want to speak to someone that’s more experienced while looking directly and almost aggressively at HIM.

He immediately tells the customer that I’m the most experienced advisor on staff. Sometimes they change their tune but, most times, those customers still want the MAN to help them. No problem. He does the talking and I do the rest (dispatch the work, build the ticket, source the parts, etc.). Then he makes the call, sells the job, and the tech gets it done.

I’ve put in the time and paid my dues; and doing such has allowed me to find a home in a shop that doesn’t pit advisors against each-other. Everyone does their part and everyone eats (gotta love a good shop owner!). So long as the techs are turning and earning, everyone is paid and happy.

If you made it this far, thanks for being on the listening side of my end-of-week vent session. Shout out to my fellow females in the industry and high-fives to the industry males that rock with us because talent is talent and money has no gender.

In conclusion, let us all say our daily mantra:

I didn’t build it, buy it, or break it; your failure to plan is not my emergency; customers are gonna customer, and waiters are gonna wait.

Anyone else been getting a lot of calls from India of someone asking for a price for a specific service or services, and then hanging up after you give them a half decent answer? I get like 3 or 4 a day, always that familiar voice and you can hear a million other people talking in the background and they never have any information on "their vehicle" aside from year make and model. No vin, no engine size, nothing. Wonder who they are fishing that information for?