ry. The young mechanic. He finds the leak (oil pressure switch) and changes the part. He's not there when I come to pick up the car. I eventually find the key stuffed up the exhaust and drive off. Twenty metres down the road, the oil light starts flashing and an alarm sounds! I pull over and check the oil. All seems OK, so I drive home.

We are due to leave for a holiday in two days so I forget about it. When I

We have all had an experience where you get bad service or a bad product. Let me tell you about my recent experience, and we'll have a look at what we can learn from it.

My car had a problem. Broke down in fact, so it was a large problem. The clutch was not working. I got the car to my mechanic. This guy has been my mechanic for about six years. I had followed him through each of his business moves. He knew my car well, had always done a good job and had very reasonable rates.

I could only say good things about this guy. I had no intention of changing my mechanic.

So back to the car. The car is a European brand. Good cars, but no longer sold in Australia. This can make getting parts difficult, but not impossible. My mechanic had had the car for two days. I had not heard from him, so I gave him a call. He told me it would be ready the following afternoon. That did not happen and it turned into the next afternoon. That did not happen and so it went over a weekend. Then nothing on the Monday. Each time, I had to ring him to find out what was going on.

He did not call me.

After nearly two weeks, the car was ready. When I went to pick it up I was a bit shocked by the bill. Nearly $2000. It turns out that to fix the clutch was going to cost around $1000, but something else was wrong as well, so he decided to put in a new gearbox! I really would have liked to have known this. I was told that it needed a clutch kit only.

So anyway, I take the car home. A few days later, I notice an oil leak. It's quite bad, but it's now Christmas, so it will have to wait until the new year. Someone finally turns up in the second week of January. The young mechanic. He finds the leak (oil pressure switch) and changes the part. He's not there when I come to pick up the car. I eventually find the key stuffed up the exhaust and drive off. Twenty metres down the road, the oil light starts flashing and an alarm sounds! I pull over and check the oil. All seems OK, so I drive home.

We are due to leave for a holiday in two days so I forget about it. When I

car well, had always done a good job and had very reasonable rates.

I could only say good things about this guy. I had no intention of changing my mechanic.

So back to the car. The car is a European brand. Good cars, but no longer sold in Australia. This can make getting parts difficult, but not impossible. My mechanic had had the car for two days. I had not heard from him, so I gave him a call. He told me it would be ready the following afternoon. That did not happen and it turned into the next afternoon. That did not happen and so it went over a weekend. Then nothing on the Monday. Each time, I had to ring him to find out what was going on.

He did not call me.

After nearly two weeks, the car was ready. When I went to pick it up I was a bit shocked by the bill. Nearly $2000. It turns out that to fix the clutch was going to cost around $1000, but something else was wrong as well, so he decided to put in a new gearbox! I really would have liked to have known this. I was told that it needed a clutch kit only.

So anyway, I take the car home. A few days later, I notice an oil leak. It's quite bad, but it's now Christmas, so it will have to wait until the new year. Someone finally turns up in the second week of January. The young mechanic. He finds the leak (oil pressure switch) and changes the part. He's not there when I come to pick up the car. I eventually find the key stuffed up the exhaust and drive off. Twenty metres down the road, the oil light starts flashing and an alarm sounds! I pull over and check the oil. All seems OK, so I drive home.

We are due to leave for a holiday in two days so I forget about it. When I

it would be ready the following afternoon. That did not happen and it turned into the next afternoon. That did not happen and so it went over a weekend. Then nothing on the Monday. Each time, I had to ring him to find out what was going on.

He did not call me.

After nearly two weeks, the car was ready. When I went to pick it up I was a bit shocked by the bill. Nearly $2000. It turns out that to fix the clutch was going to cost around $1000, but something else was wrong as well, so he decided to put in a new gearbox! I really would have liked to have known this. I was told that it needed a clutch kit only.

So anyway, I take the car home. A few days later, I notice an oil leak. It's quite bad, but it's now Christmas, so it will have to wait until the new year. Someone finally turns up in the second week of January. The young mechanic. He finds the leak (oil pressure switch) and changes the part. He's not there when I come to pick up the car. I eventually find the key stuffed up the exhaust and drive off. Twenty metres down the road, the oil light starts flashing and an alarm sounds! I pull over and check the oil. All seems OK, so I drive home.

We are due to leave for a holiday in two days so I forget about it. When I

lutch was going to cost around $1000, but something else was wrong as well, so he decided to put in a new gearbox! I really would have liked to have known this. I was told that it needed a clutch kit only.

So anyway, I take the car home. A few days later, I notice an oil leak. It's quite bad, but it's now Christmas, so it will have to wait until the new year. Someone finally turns up in the second week of January. The young mechanic. He finds the leak (oil pressure switch) and changes the part. He's not there when I come to pick up the car. I eventually find the key stuffed up the exhaust and drive off. Twenty metres down the road, the oil light starts flashing and an alarm sounds! I pull over and check the oil. All seems OK, so I drive home.

We are due to leave for a holiday in two days so I forget about it. When I

ry. The young mechanic. He finds the leak (oil pressure switch) and changes the part. He's not there when I come to pick up the car. I eventually find the key stuffed up the exhaust and drive off. Twenty metres down the road, the oil light starts flashing and an alarm sounds! I pull over and check the oil. All seems OK, so I drive home.

We are due to leave for a holiday in two days so I forget about it. When I return I ring the mechanic and tell him what has happened. It takes another week and a half to fix the problem. Then when it is ready, I turn up to take the car and find it on jacks! I ring in the morning, he apologises, but says it will be ready that afternoon. It's on jacks again!!!

Now I am really mad. I write a terse note and shove it under the door. The next day I don not hear a thing! So I ring him. He does not seemed phased by what's happened at all. He says he'll deliver the car. I give him the address. Later that afternoon, he rings me because he's lost the address. I give it to him again. Finally he brings it home, but to the wrong house, five doors down the road. So, I have to talk to the neighbour about getting my key out of their letterbox! To his credit, he did not charge me for any of that work, but I expected that anyway.

That was four days ago. this morning while dropping off some paperwork. the gearbox fails on one of busiest roads in Sydney.

You can imagine my reaction...

Beyond all the mistakes he and his co-workers made, the thing that annoys me more than anything is the lack of communication. If he had just told me what was going on, the experience would have been much better. You must talk to your customers.

We all make mistakes during our business life. We upset clients and make their lives a misery for a small amount of time. But, if you communicate with your client properly and educate them about process and time, you will hopefully have your client at the end of it all.

Remember that if you lose a client because of not handling a situation properly, it will cost you dearly. Repeat business