We've all heard stories of auto repair shops that have roped people into spending more money on their cars than they really needed. Am I right? It's why mechanics get a bad rap.
So when I recently stumbled upon this TikTok video of an auto repair shop mechanic who quit working at a shop because of shady business practices, I was pleasantly surprised. Let's find out exactly what happened here. Something tells me you'll enjoy this story.
He was looking for an assistant manager position without any mechanical work. Yes, he was a car mechanic before, but that's not what he was looking for now.
Based on that, he thought he would not be doing any mechanical work. But when he showed up on his very first day, the owner asked him to diagnose a customer's car issue.
The vehicle had a mass airflow sensor code. He told the owner that and the owner advised him to sell the woman the part. But instead, this guy decided to do some further testing. He also realized that the woman recently visited a Jiffy Lube location (which the customer confirmed).
So he tried that, and ta-da? It worked like a charm. The code went away, and the problem got fixed like that. But when he told the shop owner, the guy insisted that he try to sell the customer the part (the one she didn't even need).
He spoke to the customer, explained the situation to her, and told her it was an easy fix. He then proceeded to tell her that the owner insisted that he sell her the part and that she should just leave and never come back because the guy was a shyster. He also told her that he was about to quit.
She thanked the man for looking out for her and handed him her business card so she could follow wherever he decided to go next. And, of course, he actually quit only four hours into his first day there.
Now he owns his own shop, and he's successful because people seek him out simply for his honesty and integrity.
Many of them commented that there should be more people like him out there. I have to say I agree with them. There are so many shady businesses that it's pleasant to see that some still choose to be honest.
He too said that he preferred to work with integrity, "I owned a auto repair shop 37 Years and always tried to do the right thing and take care of my customers."
I think that's wonderful to hear.
Do you think it pays off, to be honest? Some folks on TikTok pointed out that it only takes one bad experience for a person to never want to go back to that business. So why even do shady things like that? I think good word of mouth still works better than any other advertisement. Do you agree with that?
