I agree excellent post, and exactly the same reason why I got out of the automotive business in 1999. I had had it with dealerships and shops in 1995, and ended up going to work for Zoomers Automotive in Denver building custom cars and hot rods. I was paid straight time, and there was no flat rate on those cars. However the owner still f#*ked with us over job times. He used to have us do work over, just so he could bill more time for the jobs. When he would walk up and look at something I had built, and tell me to change this or that, I would mess around for an hour doing nothing, and then he would say, "oh that looks much better" when I hadn't even touched it. One day he caught me doing this, and I told him that I was tired of him messing with us just to bill more hours for a job. I asked that he stop messing around, and if we completed something in 2 hours and he thought it should take 4, then just bill for 4 hours, and leave us alone. He started doing such!!! It was still dishonest, as he sold the jobs as straight time!!!!
I now work in the IT field as a Network Analyst, and make good money for what I do. I just got tired of seeing dishonest techs make killer money while I starved being honest. I just can't bring myself to screw customers over for my own personal gain.
I still do all my own work on my vehicles!!!!!!!!!!
They are also correct though, as I am just a parts repalcer. My troubleshooting in the area of electronics is sorely limited. I do all my own work, but still take it to the dealership for diagnostics. Everytime I don't I screw myself guessing replacing parts I don't need, and I wouldn't do that on a customers car!!!!
Funny story, a shop in Denver off of Federal Blvd. had a sign out front that said "Honest mechanic wanted for employment, apply within". They had the sign out front for over a year. I used to laugh and think to myself, all the honest mechanics must have left Denver or gone to work in another field!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!