A close friend took her '05 Prius in for its first 5000 mile service. While talking with the service writer she made what she thought was a light-hearted comment about working on commission and was told by him that "we all work on commission here." This from the person with whom she (and I) will be discussing "necessary" work and repairs down the road? Hmmmmm . . . .
not sure about the service writers's pay scale, but techs are paid flat rate- that is, by the number of hours' work they complete as stated by toyota's standards. for example, the recent recall paid 2-point-something hours. the tech who does the recall will make 2-point-something hours at their specified hourly rate no matter if it takes him 20 minutes or 4 hours to finish. it's to their advantage if they get gravy work like brake jobs, but the system takes its toll with things like check engine lights and other non-obvious problems. some days, some guys may work 12 hour days and get paid for 6. other days they may work 10 hours and get paid 15. as far as bogus service goes, it does happen on rare occasion, i'm sorry to say. the best way to protect yourself is to have them show you what is wrong with the part that needs replacing, and asking for the original part back when they're done. this usually keeps them on their toes.
In California, it is quite common for service writers to be paid commission based upon the service and repair orders which they write.
not surprising, really. they're there and they get paid to sell parts and service. i figured they got a certain percentage but wasn't sure of the specifics on how their scale worked.
Yikes. So if I take them anything even slightly hard to repeat, they will no doubt dump me for the next job?
well, an irresponsible tech can just leave your ticket sit. this usually results in big trouble for the guy in question, so it rarely happens. a responsible one will trade with someone else who's willing to do the job. but in most cases they just bite the bullet and take the job and do it to the best of their ability. depends on how the ticket assignment goes too.
A friend from high school who I rarely see these days was once the Service Manager for a large Toyota dealership. He told me that a very important factor in his performance evaluations was solving customer problems correctly the first time. He was given black marks for customers who had to bring back their car back a second time for the same problem. He also indicated that, while the mechanics made the initial diagnosis of vehicle problems, he (the Service Manager) had to sign off on a diagnosis before work began. This seems to clearly place responsibility for blown (or false) problem diagnosis on the Service Manager's shoulders and also strongly encourages getting any problem solved right the first time.
most dealers are micromanagers when it comes to their techs. customer satisfaction ratings, comebacks, and time per job are huge in determining things like raises, bonuses, and continued employment. just like any other job, you just bite the bullet and take the good work with the bad work.
It is in the mechanic's interest to get the repair done right the first time. I've heard that in most shops, a "call back" is done for free, with no payment to the mechanic ($0 flat rate). The service writer will also be very interested in any service bulletins, etc., to do more warranty work on the car. It represents some significant income for the dealership as its usually work being done the customer is not even aware of. You have to take the good with the bad ... the two scenarios above work in the consumer's favor. What I think is bad for the consumer is when the mechanic gets a commission on parts replaced as well as his labor, which is pretty common in independent shops where the mechanic also has the role of "service writer", dealing directly with the consumer.
