Christy, from Christy’s Coffee Break is having a contest about Random Acts of Kindness. This is not something I did recently, it was several years ago. However, this incident is true and merits being told. It’s a day I’ll never forget and it changed me as a person. So, this isn’t an official entry. I simply dedicate this post to her and all the great people who are participating…a gift from me to all of you!
Working in many different types of sales jobs, I have learned first hand what money does and means to people. We all need money to live, unless of course we choose to live in the wilderness. I wanted to share an incident that happened to me that we can all relate to. It is my hope that we learn something from this! Lets get right into the subject at hand.
One of the highest paying jobs I had was being the manager of an AAMCO transmissions shop. For those of you not from America, AAMCO is a national chain of automotive transmission repair shops.
I know nothing about transmissions and at the time, knew nothing about sales; this is why they hired me, I was a blank slate – the unshaped clay from which they could carve a cut throat salesman. All stores in the chain pay the manager the same way, twice a week.
I was paid $500.00 every Friday (base salary) and then paid my commission check every Monday, which was usually around $1500.00 – great pay for such an easy job. I raised the store’s weekly gross from $7,500.00 per week to over $28,000.00 per week in the first two months. This wasn’t enough for the two owners, they wanted more.
I received several death threats from irate customers but the owners said it was normal and I needed to toughen up! It took me a little while to realize what was really going on; they were ripping people off.
Doing The Right Thing
A woman came in with seven children, I knew she was stressed and could sense that she had serious financial problems. She told me that her husband had left her and she was working two full time jobs to take care of her children.
It just so happened that this was the 1st time my boss let me run the shop completely by myself. Her vehicle had been towed to the shop and I made it a priority to get this woman’s vehicle repaired quickly. The head mechanic told me that she had a broken clutch cable! I was really happy that I could go relieve her stress telling her the good news.
A transmission repair is expensive, between $1200.00 – 3000.00 on average. To repair a broken clutch cable is less than $100.00 – big difference! I had a big smile ready to tell her the good news, when the owner stopped me and took me in his office.
He asked me if I had told her the diagnosis, I told him no. He looked at me and said, “Bobby, you go tell that woman that she has an internal transmission problem and we need to open it up to find out what’s wrong with it.”
I said, “I cannot do that…it’s a broken clutch cable, there’s nothing wrong with her transmission. That woman is working two full time jobs and is taking care of seven kids!”
He became irritated with me, “Everybody has seven kids and two jobs, she’s playing you like a violin. That woman has money…NOW GO GET THAT MONEY!!!!!”
I walked back into my office and the children were complaining they were hungry, some of them were crying. The woman was crying, her hands were trembling as she expected bad news…I could sense that she was used to getting bad news.
I smiled and said, “GOOD NEWS! It’s a broken clutch cable…$79.00! It’ll be ready in an hour.”
She ran behind my desk and hugged me, tears streaming down her face. I felt so good that I had been honest with her…I actually cried too. The head mechanic smiled at me. He never liked me before that day. He walked over and said, “Thank God we have someone here with the guts to do the right thing.” and shook my hand. I knew I had won the guys in the shop over as I had earned their respect.
The owner called me into his office, I could feel his fury before I opened the door. He said, “You are fired. I thought you would be great manager, but you are weak and we need a winner in here.”
I was glad he fired me. I did the right thing and am proud of myself for doing it.
How They Rip You Off
AAMCO transmissions (and most all automotive repair shops) charge what is known as shop labor on every repair. This is not based on the actual work done. It’s based on a chart in the AAMCO sales book. We charged 11 hours of shop labor at $49.00 per hour just to remove the transmission and determine the problem. This is separate from the cost and mark up of all parts!
One mechanic could remove a transmission from a Toyota Camry in 15 minutes! In many cases, the entire process of removal, disassembly and diagnosis could be done in two hours. We still charged the customer for 11 hours!!!!!
This is what greed can do to people and businesses. There is no automotive repair shop in America that will charge you for the actual work done, they will always overcharge you. This is yet another reason I see money in a responsible way. People count, not money.
