I live in the Oklahoma City area. Why is it so friggin hard to find a service department that will actually work on a Saturday? All of them close at 12 even though the hours posted on their websites says 4. Then when I went to one this morning the guy said they only had 5 people working today and they only do light maintenance on Saturdays!

What a crock of crap. I guess they just expect you to hassle with them on a weekday when you have to work too.

I'd do the work myself except I'm not qualified to change a pinion seal.

 

because the mechanics only want to work Monday to Friday. i very rarely work a Saturday. i like my weekends off to spend time with the family.
why don't you take the car in on a weekday?

 

Dealerships even have life's ya know! Monday through Friday is the typical work week. Really, I'm surprised there even open on Saturday until 12, I would have been closed down all weekend.

 

Wow... tough crowd here KDOT... Then again, one of them is someone who has an adverse opinion to everything.

I agree with you bud... they should stagger their staff to accomodate those of us who work similar hours as the dealership thus making it nearly impossible to get the vehicle in for service. I understand folks wanting their weekends off, I do too, but, I'm sure that they could persuade a few guys to work a Tues-Sat schedule thus giving them Sun and Mon.

Some stealerships are like this... some aren't. *shrugs*

RP

 

From someone whos dept is open 24x7x365 if they really wanted cust service they'd be open on Sat. Those guys who work Sat could have monday off. And maybe Saturdays off would be a senority perk.


Just my .02

Edit B10

 

my boyfriend is a mechanic at the toyota dealership here...and although he'd love to have saturdays off he has to work every single one!! He gets sundays and Tuesdays off...They stagger all their employees days off. Come to Calgary to get your stuff done! haha

Alex

 

Both of the mechanics missed my point about being open but only doing selective service. They'll sell you a car or change your oil but they won't do any actual mechanic work! So much for customer service.

It used to be that you could do alot of things on Saturdays. If you're in a service oriented business (like mechanics) you cater to the customer (ie staggered work schedules etc). That way you have paying customers, they will come back, and you make money. It's a two way street and basic economics. It seems a bit backwards to me for the customer to cater to the business. Then again most dealerships just charge the book time for a job even if they do it in half the time. That's not only dishonest, it's unethical.

 

If you were to work on Saturdays would you expect to get paid more, or would you accept your regular weekly salary. Where I work (hospital) people that work weekends get paid weekend option salary, which is much more than the regular weekly salary.

I can't blame any person for not wanting to work on a Saturday or Sunday. Many businesses have to be open on a weekend (restaurants, hotels, etc.), but the dealership must do just fine by working Monday-Friday so they will probably keep it that way.

 

i've been waiting for 2 weeks to get my truck into the dealership . The dealership is pretty small and only has one mechanic and he was out last week sick and the week before that he was doing some trainging or something. I love this dealership because my family has always bought their vehicles from there but that makes me mad that they only have one mechanic. My truck goes in scheduled to go in on monday so maybe i can actually get it in the shop this time

 

I'm military. Can someone please explain 'weekend option salary' and 'overtime' ?

 

I agree with RP, that dealerships should be open Mon-Sat, and stagger schedules so some mechanics and parts people would work M-F, and some would work T-S, offering a full line of parts and services when they are open. They could vary offdays enough to keep service standards, but still be fair to employees.

The dealerships don't seem to have much of a problem SELLING you a vehicle on a Saturday, or even on a Sunday.

GEESH, those pesky customers...

I remember (not so long ago) when almost nothing was even open on Sundays, except for a few dining establishments. Even the big malls were closed on Sundays.

There has to be some kind of a balance somewhere in between those two.

 

Sure, say I make $30/hour at my normal wage. If I work in excess of 40 hours for a particular week, I make $45/hour for those hours above 40 hours. That equals 1.5x my base salary.

As far as "weekend option", if I were to work weekends only or an evening shift, I would get "shift differential" somewhere around 15-20% above my base salary.

Your retirement should trump any benefits I currently receive for being compensated for my overtime or weekend option.

 

Heck... I totally agree with that... and I'm not military. I get paid for a 40 hour week (salary) but typically work closer to 70. Seems fair eh?

 

There is absolutely NO reason why a dealerships service department can not work an 8 hour shift on Saturday and perform all maintenance/repairs that is done during the weekdays. There is also NO reason to pay anybody who works on Saturdays any extra money over their normal hourly pay or salary, unless of course it’s overtime and/or agreed to up front.

It’s called a JOB and last time I checked there is absolutely nobody in America forced to work any given job. It’s completely voluntary and when one does not wish to work the hours their employer demands there is a door one can walk out of and move on…

 

I am sure you can find an independent mechanic who is more than qualified to do the work for you an will probably charge less than the dealer. And, they will probably be more than happy to work on Saturday if they need the money enough.