Interesting story, for anyone picking a repair shop, or even just swapping summers for winters:
Richard L.:
my name is richard l. i am a 56 year old man,interprovincial red seal auto mechanic inspector and i am a resident of parksville,over the last 35 years i have repaired thousands of cars, i have help so many wonderful people in our town with car troubles been called honest and sincere helpful and dedicated to customer service, am a married to the most wonderful person ,i have two awesome daughters one who has just became a registered nurse the other still in university,both of them who saw mom and dad work to help our community and themselves follow in our foot steps to be helpful in life,we have had some hard times like many others in our small community,work has always been hard to find in our parts, i was so excited when finally the parksville canadian tire was going to open,after 7 long years i so much wanted to join the team,to be able to help customers in a brand new shop,nice equipment and all that comes with it,this is what happened instead,in the first week two good technicians left,one installer was fired for speaking out on a dangerous truck,we all drive on these roads no one deserve to be involved in an accident with a potentially unsafe truck,our job as tech is to keep you and your family and friends safe .the original pay rate was of 24 dollars an hr for red seal professionnel mechanics on flat rate,kind of low for red seal techs but we were starting off,a guarantee of 5.5 hrs a day for a total of 132 dollars a day, i provide a tool box with 60,000 dollars of tools to service the customers cars to the best of my abilities,and to provide quality repairs, after the first week the were happy as i stayed till 6.30 one night and 7 the next with no extra pay,i knew the customers needed the work trucks and i was the only one in the 5 bay shop for those two days,a heavy work load a new shop and went out of my way to deliver the best i could for this new store,i was told job well done richard,this happened again on two other nights,i never said anything,i just was happy to be needed and proud to once again serve the public. the owner came down after two of the other techs left because of low wages to the techs and told us he would up it to 25 an hour and guarantee us 8 hrs for the first three months,which seemed a little more fair so we accepted and carried on, in the mean time in the store other employees were fired, they seem to be trigger happy. the first week went good as we had some of the best in the corporation helping out and i am speaking of al o. ,a hard man but a fair person one in which i have much respect for,a true leader and one who was not only impressed by my efforts but told me he was happy to have me on the team,i felt like a hero,inspired and proud.the next week was quite different and negative energy flowed thru the shop,irv the service manager told me he just got hammered for poor performance in the shop,i tough to myself hmmmm heads are going to roll,and i was right just didn't know it was going to be mine,not after the efforts i had put in and the service i was giving, at 28 dollars an hour i can make good money ,but only if work comes in,if i get 41 hours i will make 30 an hour sounds good right,but hold on i don't make the quote or book in jobs that are profitable to a tech,i started to get oil changes that pay .3 of an hr in which i have to go get the car and put it up on the hoist do a thorough inspection,brakes,exhaust,spotting bad suspension,all the fluids, a battery test,a brake fluid test,a coolant ph and freeze point inspection,the vin number plate number mileage, reset the oil maintenance or attache a sticker to the window,transfer all this information into the system,and return the car outside before i am done and that my friends pays me $8.40 and takes one half hour and even if i did two in one hour my pay would be $16.80.tires pay .2 to get the car or truck bring it in and change it over with the same kind of little inspection,not good at all, the after working hard and for the company i am told we work on weekends as well,the only thing that will get done on weekends is oil changes and tires mostly.the ct tire promise of good wage is getting very dimm ,on saturday at 6 pm after staying late,tired and hungry,Irv the service manager come to me and i can see he is not happy,i did my best to do everything i could,but to no avail his goal is not that of mine,he says to me so you don.t want to work sundays,i said i prefer not to,there is no money in it for me and the young installers should be able to handle it,so your not working sundays and i again repeated i would prefer not too,so your not going to work sundays and again i repeated i really would prefer not too,i have done my time and using red seal tech to do tires and oil change on sunday and forcing them to make no money is wrong,finally upset at his condescending stance,i leave to go home, the next morning i come in a little early in hope to talk with him again to see if there are any other ways of working this out,i put on my coverall and sweep the floors open the doors and great a few early customers as i always do,and when Irv shows up,he looks at me same stance and says,you don,t get it do you,i said what ,you don,t get it,i said get what,your done your fired ,i said fired he said ya FIRED. a little shocked to say the least,hurt is more like it,how can i go from a hero to a zero so fast,what did i do wrong. considering when he hired me he never gave all the details,and sundays is the only day my wife and i really ever have to ourselves,i never said no i simply said i would prefer not to,how can a company retain professional red seal tech that go out of there way to provide the best they can,stay late if needed,help any customer who is seeking just some advice or help,and treat there staff that way. this is the worst place i have ever worked for in all of my 35 years as a tech.you bet i am upset and hurt from this. working i a shop is difficult at the best of times,helping the two young guys they hired to service your cars with no experience to make sure they do it right,in the two weeks i was there i never seen anybody come and spend time with those to young techs,how will they get better if no one helps them out,guidance and training is what they need.they get it from caring technicians who give a damm.to all the wonderful customers i had the opportunity to serve i thank you ,i will miss helping you.to the canadian tire store of parksville,flexible hours,team unity and a career time for family seems to be a little bit of a miss,to treat your older workers this way is shameful to say the least and in a community that strives to help older people,shame on you SHAME.
