I had about 20 years in with ctc as a class A mechanic . It did not take me long to discover that the managers in the shop were a waist of time and the owners of the stores were even worse (the 3 I worked for anyway) , I always dealt with my customers in person , I always had a great relationship with my customers and they would always ask for me and only me when they needed repair . I would always bring the customer out to the car and show what the car needed before the repair and explain why it was needed . I would give total price and stick to it. About the only complaint I would ever get was customers would sometimes ask why they were charged more time than the car was in the shop ,but once I explained how the flat rate system worked they were OK with it . ctc labor quotes are mostly from the mitchell labor manual ,all quotes are based on the average mechanics ability .If the mechanic wants to spend the time and money to educate himself and buy the tools to make himself able to do the job faster why should he get paid less for the job. Without a labor guide he would simply be getting paid less for doing the same job if he works faster . From what I have seen about 30% of mechanics can not even do the job in the flat rate time , about 50% do just about the quoted time , and then you get the real mechanics that know what they are doing and can cut flat rate in half or even less .The bigger problem I have seen was work being done that was not needed at all. Though myself I think ctc is a terrible establishment I think any customer should know and feel good about the abilities of there mechanic regardless of where they work,ask for the same mechanic when you find a good one . and if the mechanic can do the job right in way less than flat rate you have found your self a good one . the only reason I left ctc is because the other mechanics were pissed because all the customers were coming in and asking for me so they went to the owner whining because they were not making any money and I was making 80 hr in a 40 hr week , the owner in his wisdom stopped the customers from being able to ask for me . My customers would no longer come to ctc unless I worked on there car so I had to start working on there cars from home . now I have my own business and ctc is down to one mechanic .
