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<center><b><i><font color="#3333ff"> Service Dealer Spotlight</font></i> </b> </center>
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<p><i><font color="#000000"></font></i></p>
<p><i><font color="#000000">Mark Giammalvo specializes in driveability
diagnostics </font><font color="#000000">at his family business,
Sam Giammalvo's Auto Sales & Service, Inc. in New</font>
<font color="#000000">Bedford, MA. </font> </i>
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<i><font
color="#000000">Mark, who has been with the business for
over 20 years, is an ASE Master Technician and Parts Specialist.
He also holds the ASE L1 certification, and has an
associates degree in business</font> <font color="#000000">management.
<br>
Mark is also a writer for Motor Age Magazine and is the past secretary of
the Alliance of Automotive Service Professionals, (AASP).</font></i>
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<center><font color="#ff0000"><font size="+4">Red Alert</font></font></center>
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<font color="#000000"> <i>(February, 1998; Page 68)</i></font><i> </i>
<p><font color="#000000"> <br>
<br>
</font> </p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#000000"> Sometimes you feel a
situation developing and you know you are</font> <font
color="#000000"> ready-physically, emotionally, spiritually-to cope with
it. </font> </p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#000000"> It was a normal, busy,
Monday afternoon, emergency appointments, missed</font> <font
color="#000000">appointments, phones ringing, customers waiting, the typical
blur of an</font> <font color="#000000">automotive shop. "Mark, service on
line 1," came over the PA system for the 74th time. </font> <font
color="#000000">"Good Morning, this is Mark." </font> <font
color="#000000"> "Hi," came a short ice breaker from my new female caller.
"I have heard a lot about your garage and I would like to get a price
for a part on my 1987 Nissan</font> <font color="#000000">Stanza." </font>
<font color="#000000">"What part is it?" I asked? </font> <font
color="#000000"> "A fuel injector, I need a price for a fuel injector," she
said. I don't know about you, but when a customer calls requesting a
price on a</font> <font color="#000000">specific part, I hear Commander Riker
from Star Trek: The Next Generation,</font> <font color="#000000"> yell
out, "Red Alert!" Generally, this type of question tells me that the customer,
or someone else,</font> <font color="#000000"> has already made a diagnosis
and/or the vehicle is currently in a shop and the</font> <font
color="#000000">customer has a price objection or is questioning the diagnosis.
I knew my next</font> <font color="#000000">statement would be crucial. So,
I fired away. "What makes you think you need a fuel injector?" </font>
<font color="#000000">"Well, my car is at a garage now and my mechanic
said I need a fuel injector. I</font> <font color="#000000"> want to
know how much you would charge to put in a fuel injector." </font> "<font
color="#000000">Miss, I would rather not give you a price on a fuel injector
over the phone</font> <font color="#000000">because of several reasons,"
I explained. "If I give you the price and you bring</font> <font
color="#000000">your car in and have me install it, there is a chance you
may still leave with the</font> <font color="#000000">same problem you were
trying to cure. Also, we never install or recommend a</font> <font
color="#000000">part unless we have performed the appropriate tests on the
vehicle and the</font> <font color="#000000">results of those tests point
to a failed part. And besides, we'd rather not drag work out of other shops
into our own. </font> <font color="#000000">As the conversation went
on, I advised the customer that if she wanted a</font> <font
color="#000000"> second opinion we would accommodate her. However, she would
have to pay</font> <font color="#000000">for the time it would normally take
us to diagnose the problem and that our</font> <font color="#000000">diagnosis
could point to the same problem, a different problem, or what we see</font>
<font color="#000000">so often now, more than one problem. I also said
that her mechanic was probably right, and that if she had been</font> <font
color="#000000"> happy with the work that he had done in the past, she should
let him go ahead</font> <font color="#000000">with his recommended repairs.
Calling around to get a price is</font> <font color="#000000">only a guess,
at</font> <font color="#000000"> best. Your technician has diagnosed
the car personally and has given you the cost, which is the actual amount
you will need to invest in repairing your</font> <font color="#000000">vehicle. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#000000"> Whether or not the injector
was stuck open, or whether it was being driven</font> <font
color="#000000">open by the computer because of bogus sensor input, I'll
never know. </font> </p>
<div align="justify"><font color="#000000"> But I do know this:
In the end I won. I didn't win a service job. I won one</font> <font
color="#000000">small victory for the automotive industry. One of, I hope,
many more to come.</font> <font color="#000000">It was a step in the right
direction. Fifteen years of automotive experience, plus a lot of helpful articles
from our industry mentors, Terry Greenhut and Mitch</font> <font
color="#000000">Schneider, came together to answer this customer's questions
correctly.</font> <font color="#000000"> Whichever shop that was with
that not-so-faithful customer . . . maybe they'll</font> <font
color="#000000"> return the automotive industry a favor someday. Wouldn't
you? </font> <br>
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