Alan

New member
I worked at the #304 shop for my 1st and half of 2nd year apprenticeship.
I have seen countless amount of bullshit during the time I worked there, but I will just give out a few examples.
A customer had a concern about his heater not blowing hot. I looked at the vehicles and determined that there's nothing wrong with it. (It was an old model caddy with auto hvac, it adjust the temperature automatically based on the driver's setting and input from temperatures sensor.) I explained to the customer and he was satisfied, until my manager, a master tech from GM, came to me and said he wanna go through the car with me. then he proceed to recommend 7 hours of work to remove the air box to inspect for restriction. all that without even over riding the computer to control the temperature and blower motor manually. good thing the customer didn't buy it.

Alberta law prohibits apprentices to be paid flat rate until fourth year. I came to me as a shock when I learned that at schoool when I had already been working there for 2 years. and the so called flat rate wasn't how flat rate was suppose to work. There were alot of work that the mechanics weren't getting paid for, such as brake, exhaust inspection. In a real flat rate shop, mechanics will get paid for everything they do, despite the shop not charging the customers.

The only people that are not being ripped are the managers, even the mechanics get ripped by the shop. All the good techs are gone, because they can.
 
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