Hey gang, I searched and didn't find anything on this. We recently hired an awful parts guy. He can't tell metric from standard bolts in bins and hasn't ever heard of cross referencing filters. I think he lied on his resume and now everyone involved in hiring him is too embarrassed to admit it. First we gave him a chance, then we just started getting pissed off, but now we've realized a better solution is just to mess with him. My coworker started it when he set a spark plug on the counter and asked him to order a new "fire injector"- he called NAPA and did. Today I had him call our welding supply and let them know our plasma cutter was out of plasma. Can you guys think of some others I can try? PS Suprise! every time I go to the counter he's playing on his phone, I guess that's just the new normal
Muffler bearings, turn signal fluid, bucket of slack....
Go to kalecoauto .com for more ideas. I kept the local Napa's new hire going for 1/2 hr looking for blinker fluid, then turn signal fluid...he even called the Napa's techline.
I messed with my little brother the first time we drank together. (Quite) A few drinks in I kept telling him he needed a left handed bottle opener for craft beer.
Two foot of fallopian tube for the self inducinator.
Maybe some genuine Lucas wire harness smoke,and the real British made stuff too, not the eBay Chinese knockoff stuff.
But no one will let the guy go........................
Maybe tell him some of the stuff in the yard is hard to start and you'd like him to order a "can of compression" for you...
Actually the guy knows he is in over his head, someone needs to have a talk with him before the joking around goes to far. Truck Shop
I have actually seen cans of Lucas factory smoke. Bob
There's a whole raft of ideers in this one, including the turbo encabulator, itself...
This maybe funny to some but guys like this is a big part of why i want out of the mechanic world. I would get who is in charge of fireing and make him do his job and fire this guy.Sorry but i have to deal with guys like him every day.
If he has made his probationary period the apologists in HR will make it impossible. If he hasn't it will take a dozen pages of toilet paper to send him down the road and the person who did the hire will be insulted in front of their bosses. Since the HR person is protected as they likely have their probationary period passed, you have two options. Make the new hire quit or train him to do the job right.
I had a building FULL of them.. & the boss's just stood by & watched.. nothing got done, they didn't get better & I didn't get anymore money for doing the extra work.. so I left.. [after 20+ years, lol} They either become butt buddies w/ the management or they get alienated.. they rarely get "good". Took us 5 YEARS to get rid of the last parts idiot they hired.. AND they didn't fire him.!! He went and "FOUND" a better job.. Lol Last I heard, it didn't take the new place but a week to figure him out & sent him packin'.. Last I heard he was a "parts runner" for the local NAPA.. He "found" a better job alright.. went from makin 1000.00 aweek, sittin on his azz>> to driving a truck for afew bucks an hr. Right where he belonged in my opinion..
This is exactly what I was thinking. And Kale auto has genuine engine scrubbing shrapnel in convenient pour bottles
All kidding aside, Are you working flat rate or hourly? If you're working hourly why not have a conversation with a guy explain what hes doing wrong and maybe offer to teach him. Of course I say this not knowing what kind of person he is or what kind of time you have. We had a revolving door policy for our parts people they came they went I constantly had to teach them some were very good picked it up very well others as useless as well you know tits on a bull
Once again this forum had proven to be both hilarious and insightful. Maybe it's a side note to the Aging thread, but each year I seem less willing to put time and effort into helping a newbie, at least one addicted to their phone. As a compromise I'll try to help him as I try some of these great pranks!
funwithfuel, You must work in a very modern shop, not every shop is able to offer a "Cat scan" to locate a problem!
Yeah them cat scans and lab reports, DO add up! A woman brought a very limp parrot into a veterinary hospital. As she lay her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest. After a moment or two, the Vet shook his head sadly and said, "I'm so sorry, Polly has passed away." The distressed owner wailed, "Are you sure? I mean, you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something." The vet rolled his eyes, shrugged, turned and left the room returning a few moments later with beautiful black Labrador. As the bird's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the dead parrot from top to bottom. He then looked at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head. The vet led the dog out but returned a few moments later with a cat. The cat jumped up and also sniffed delicately at the ex-bird. The cat sat back, shook its head, meowed and ran out of the room. The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry; but like I said, your parrot is most definitely, 100% certifiably ...dead." He then turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill which he handed to the woman. The parrot's owner, still in shock, took the bill. "$150!" she cried. "$150 just to tell me my bird is dead?!" The vet shrugged. "If you'd taken my word for it, the bill would only have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, what did you expect?"
BWAHAHA!!!!! ROFLMFBO
Don't mess with him, mess with the person who hired him. You may get rid of the parts guy, but whoever hired him will just replace same for same.
This exactly is the reason I believe companies should do away with HR departments. Applicants should be interviewed by the shop boss. They "should" be able to smell out the BS much better than someone who sits in an office all day.
Not true 92.. MY BOSS was the worlds worst at hiring losers..!! I MEAN absolute worst.. I used to tell him.. YOU shouldn't be allowed to hire ANYBODY!!! & he was a bullsh*t artist himself.. but anybody that could "talk", he'd hire.. tools or no tools.. & he started from the bottom.. floor sweeper, helper, mechanic, foreman, manager, owner..
Careful with generalizations, he hired you....
Yeah but if half of what you said in your threads about that place is true, that shop was so far out in left field they were probably in the parking lot outside the ball diamond .
LOL.!!! Its the damdest thing I've ever seen.. & they're still in business.. Don't ask me how..??? They lost 50% of it the 1st time I left.. got that back .. NOW I heard they got pumps EVERYWHERE.. & a turn around is OVER 2 weeks.. on a 4-5hr job.. Cant stay in the rebuild game for very long like THAT.. 1 thing that's saving their bacon right now is> the owner of the closest competition just died amonth ago.. SO they're getting all his work.. They'll get it ONCE.. but I'll bet money they WONT be getting any repeat customers..
Late to the party as usual... I are a parts guy... I try anyway. We get bored sometimes so we prank call the other chains.... Ask him for a MAP sensor for a XXXXX Insist that it must work in all fifty states. We kept a dumb dumb on the phone for over 10 minutes trying to make sure it would work in all fifty.
From the outside looking in, many should be fired, in the end we customers pay for it all, either in wasted time and wrong ordered parts, or in price hikes on parts or labor to cover all the screw ups and wasted time, those hiring idiots should be the first to go, and those refusing to fire him should also get the ax, but in reality this will probably never happen. But let me be the first to say, we as customers watch and take notes on it all and it also reflects on who we buy from and what brand of machines and equipment we buy or who and where we get parts and supplies from and it has more to do with this exact topic than the color of the paint or brand logo on the machines themselves. I've dealt with many over the years and wondered if this person got hired and was the best applicant, how bad were those that they didn't hire. I've had to deal as a customer with many over the years in many business's that those hired were never qualified and over time rose to the challenge and turned out pretty good at their job, where others peaked during the interview and it went downhill every day on the job till someone finally had to fire them or they quit. I wouldn't waste my time jerking him around, in the end all your doing is wasting your own time and wasting your effort to prank someone who's too stupid to comprehend he's an idiot.
When I worked the truck dealerships back through the 90's, we had union parts personnel. We were flat rate, they were hourly. I could fill out a parts request, 99 9400i N14 last 6 character of the sn and what I was doing. In 15-20 minutes , ol Frank is calling me to come get my parts off his counter. If I was doing a clutch, I got everything. Loctite, brake cleaner, pilot, drivelugs if it was a potted wheel, u-joint straps, shift gasket, clutch, input shaft kit, release yoke, shafts and bushings and clutch brake. Everything I needed, like a parts professional should. I appreciated it. When your income is based on how quickly you can bang out a job, you can't afford Meatheads that got a million questions, you need a pro. Not a burger flipper that says, I'll give this a whirl. All that said, you gotta start somewhere, the employer needs the latitude to weed out the duds. You know in a couple weeks whether or not they will get it or get left behind.
I was extremely lucky to never work in a flat rate situation. I can understand the theory for it and given the right support from people like the service writers to parts men it could be a good deal but anyone along the line could really mess with you and your paycheck. Kid I lived next door to for years got into body work at one dealer and told stories about how guy who assigned jobs had his favorites. Buddies got all the jobs on the shinny new cars and trucks with the little problems guys he didn't like got all the jobs working on the farm trucks covered with you know what or the trucks that spent all winter plowing snow and were rust buckets. He stayed long enough to save up some money and started his own shop and has been doing good ever since
I worked flat rate at Freightliner for almost six years. Some one would want to stop me and BS about something. Sometimes I would explain. "I'm basically buying this story or joke from you. You'd better give me my moneys worth or else forget it." In the end I was just the old grouchy guy yelling at kids.
My favorite was," outta my way , I'm on a gainer!"