RAMJET

New member
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 .
 

1wildhorse

New member
RAMJET thats a really good story,makes complete sense.im so glad you disengaged yourself from the red triangle and went out on your own....im sure you do just as good if not better job now you are your own boss,instead of having to follow orders....just out of interest were you ever asked by your manager to add in extras that were unnecessary?

as a little hint to mr owner here,look,you had a seriously good mechanic,but because of the so called management you decided to release him for some spotty 16 year old that probably doesnt know which end of a screwdriver to hold....and we are supposed to trust our vehicles to your 'care'?
 

1wildhorse

New member
as you said yourself,the pimply kids were moaning that you were taking all the business cos everyone was asking for you....so the solution?instead of actually taking responsibility and RAISING the skill levels of the others to your level,and in all honesty im sure you would have been only too willing to show them how to do things properly,your managers made it so that customers could no longer ask for you by name....this speaks sooooo many volumes.....
 

Owner 1

New member
He worked at ct for 20 years. That's two decades.
Thats rare in any industry or job these days. There's got to be reasons he stayed where he was for so long.

20 years man. Nobody stays in a Terrible place that long.
 

CTH8R

New member
... 20 years. That's two decades.

Wow! And we thought CTMe/Liarguy/Moaner wasn't good at math!

Pop Quiz: How many decades is 30 years? LOL!

And let's review what the Class "A" Mechanic wrote:

I had about 20 years in with ctc as a class A mechanic ... the managers in the shop were a [waste] of time and the owners of the stores were even worse (the 3 I worked for anyway) ... I have seen was work being done that was not needed at all .. I think ctc is a terrible establishment.

But here's the only thing CTMe/Lawguy/Owner1 saw:

20 years man. Nobody stays in a Terrible place that long.

Yeah, right. He didn't mean any of that negative stuff - he posted on Canadian Tire Sucks because he LOVED the place!

LMAO!
 
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RAMJET

New member
yeah there was a reason I worked for them for so long,I made good money working for them and I was able to help people, despite the efforts of the management . it was not until they took away my customers that I had no choice but to leave. I did all my own quotes and they knew better than to try to add anything to my jobs because I would not have allowed it . but they did try to force me to do thing that were beyond my comfort level as a licensed mechanic . example ,remote car starters being installed on manual transmission ,I flat out refused to do a job like that because there is no way to be sure the driver would follow the starting procedure correctly therefor the car could be remotely started in gear causing a potential hazard . the owner of the store actually tried to force me do do this one saying I had no right to refuse work regardless of what I felt the dangers were. Also they would try to make you work on unfit cars just to make a coupple more bucks( example ,do a oil change on a car with no brakes )a mechanic can be charged with contributing to the maintaince of a unfit vehicle for doing this . They also tried to make me pay into a fund to cover the cost of all the damage to the customer cars being caused by the non qualified service people. I never damaged anything ever so I fought this one also.A part of running a automotive business is to have insurance against such damage and if you hire someone that causes more damage than they should , fire them and hire qualified help, don't come to me and ask me to pay for damages because you are to cheap to hire good help. Another reason I started working for my self was because when I started working for ctc they offered a pension ,you received 60%-70% of the door rate . now mechanics are lucky to get 20% of the door rate and there is no pension .the door rate has gone up 4x what it was when I started but the mechanics pay has only raised a couple of bucks over the same time. Here is a perfect example of ctc management we have a Christmas party the owner has a door prize of a big screen TV , who wins it the owners daughter LOL . who wins the the second prize the store manager LOL. the gift baskets that the corp sends to all the stores to be given to the employees are kept until after Christmas and broken down and sold on the floor . CTC was the worst place I ever worked ,I am not saying this because I am some disgruntled employee ,it's just a fact .It was always a crappy place to work but I toughed it out as long as I could because I could make good money and even if the management did not treat you well the customers made it worth while .And as a past CTC mechanic I would like to say thank you to all my customers that made my job bearable for all those years. cheers Roger
 

Sangria5

New member
It costs way more money to train someone new than retain good long term employees, every employer should know that
 
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