Unfiltered Story #57007

(The dealership I work at has two different unaffiliated car lines under one management team – I work for the smaller one more obscure one, which has notoriously poor support from corporate and because it’s not a very large manufacturer not many people know the cars well. While I currently work as a Service Advisor I did start my career as a mechanic – my manager loves it, as many of the old-school types of customers don’t expect to have a female advisor who can easily handle the technical questions they throw at me but end up being delighted. Word has gotten around, and now I sometimes get calls from random shops and car owners, not always even in the same state as us, to ask questions. Depressingly, some other calls with questions come from more.. Interesting sources. I am talking to my best friend at work – he works as a mechanic for the other make, and I’m explaining how different things are between the two.)

Me: It’s absolutely ridiculous. There’s one great guy in Technical for the electric cars, but everybody else has no idea what they’re doing. The shop line gets calls FROM Technical Support asking them how things work on the cars so they can answer other dealerships’ questions.

Him: NO.

Me: Seriously! Sometimes they get mixed up about who asked what, because they’ll call and be talking to [coworker] and ask him about a system or a symptom and he’ll have to tell them, ‘Uhm.. That’s my problem car. We submitted the ticket to you because YOU’re supposed to know how it works. You asking me how to fix the car I can’t figure out is not going to help anyone.’

Him: And I thought the [other make] Techline guys were bad.

Me: Sometimes they call me directly and ask me technical questions. I’m not even a certified mechanic for the brand. But CORPORATE is calling and asking ME. THEY built the car!

Him: Yeah, but you’re smart as h*ll. You should apply for a job at corporate! You’d be running the place in weeks!

Me: Sometimes I joke about doing that – it seems like people can be REALLY bad at their jobs there but never get fired, which sounds appealing. But.. I’d have to live in Detroit..

(HIs eyes get very, very big.)

Him: NEVER MIND. I know a few guys from Detroit.. They all got shot at least once by the time they were sixteen. I like you – I don’t want you to get shot. Guess they’ll just have to keep calling you instead!