Introduction

I should have known I was in for trouble from my first day in the business. I was 16 years old and working at a gas station in New Jersey.

The state of New Jersey only has full service gas pumps. You are not allowed to pump your own Gas.

My first job in the automotive business, I was a petroleum transfer engineer or better known as a gas pumper. Sounds simple enough but it wasn’t.

After about an hour into my first day the station owner came over to me and stated you must ask everyone that comes in for gas if they want there engine oil checked.

If they say yes pull the stick and tell them it’s a quart low even if its not.

Tell them oil is $2.50 a quart installed. Add the money to the fuel charge. Walk up to vehicle proudly displaying the oil bottle and act like your pouring the oil in.

Do not actually put oil in the vehicle. Take the top off and fake poor the oil in. Recheck the dipstick and tell them it’s now filled to its proper level.

It being my first day and only being 16 years old I complied with the large owners wishes.

I will never forget how innocence was lost on that day. I went from being a good kid to aiding and assisting a known thief.

This was also the first time anybody used intimidation tactics on me. The owner of the shop was a real big guy About 6’4 300lbs and was a master at the art of intimidation.

He would get real close to you and stare right in your eyes looking right into your soul with a very stern look and would speak loud and angry.

He used this technique on his employees, customers and even his wife that worked in the office.

Very few people had the courage to say no to him. He made a lot of money and retired at age 50 from this small gas station and 3 bay shop using these techniques.

One day my own father came in for gas and as I pumped it the owner came up and started yelling at me.

My dad got out of his car and used the same techniques of intimidation right back on the owner. He was shocked and backed down real fast.

Few people stood up to this guy and if you did he would instantly back down for a variety of reason I would later come to understand and I will explain in detail in this book.

Well after a few days of pumping gas and not pulling the oil scam I was fired. The owner counted on making this extra 2.50 per vehicle and would not tolerate any gas pumper that refused to apply his technique.

The owner of this gas station also had 3 mechanics working for him. They all had no problem using a variety of scams on their lifeblood the customer.

I remember hearing them talk about it with no remorse. They would say things like she has plenty of money or her father is loaded with cash.

Whenever someone got ripped off they had a way of justifying it to themselves so they could sleep at night.

The owner of this shop would support and encourage the thievery that was going on by awarding under the table cash bonuses to his motley crew.

I was determined to be a mechanic and I was hoping that my first experience with this gas station was an isolated incident.

So I trained hard and spent a lot of money in training and tools to be a mechanic.

As I progressed through the years as a mechanic, service advisor, service manager and service director I found that most automotive repair shops were like the first one I had seen (rotten to the core).

I don’t want to scare you or make you think there is no hope of finding a trust worthy repair center.

Some reliable honest people are in this business. And that is what this book is about. You will learn how to find the good shops and how to scare the hell out of the shops that try and screw you over.

In most cases a dishonest shop is also lacking in other areas besides truth and honesty.

You will find that if a shop doesn’t care about customer satisfaction and fair business practices.

The same shop will also not care about EPA regulations and shop safety requirements (OSHA) mandated by state and local governments either.

These deficiencies can easily lead to a shop closing its doors and also a possibility of heavy fines or even jail time for the owner.

It is very easy for an informed customer to blow the whistle on a bad shop.

How easy. Just google OSHA or EPA regulations they can point you in the direction of people that would be very interested in your anonymous tip.

In the next chapter I want to go over the ground floor basics of how this business works.

Because when you understand this foundation and it’s principals the rest of the book and the techniques explained in the book will be easily understood.

It will also be much easier to apply the solutions that this guide provides to the common auto repair shop rip-offs and scams you will be faced with.


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