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Employee clocked out at 11:01am
Jul. 9th, 2001 11:40 am"Those words ended my brief employment at Pep Boys.
I've been stressing over this job, and going steadily nuts over the apparent lack of ethics on the part of many (if not most) of the people who work there. Today I just couldn't take any more.
I had just gotten a chance to take a car out for a test-drive after we finished work on it. A really nice 1977 Nissan 280Z convertible. These are fairly rare cars, and the chance to get paid to take one for a spin delighted me. On the way back to the shop I was even composing in my head a LJ post about how my job wasn't all bad.
Well I returned to the shop, parked the car, and went back to work on the other car I had been tinkering with, a battered Hundai that wouldn't start. The battery had tested as dead, and the battery terminals were both really loose. So I had before taking the Z out removed the terminals and reinstalled them correctly, and put the battery on a charger. Well I returned and tested the battery, which came out fine, then I did a starting test and that came out fine, I was attempting to do a charging test (and having a slight problem with the manual tranny sticking in gear), when a mechanic came up and demanded to know what I was doing.
Seems he had already sold the customer a new battery, terminals, and alternator and was planning to install them as soon as he finished the car he was working on. At this point I knew the car didn't need a battery, needed one maybe both terminals. And he hadn't run the charging test which would have told him if the car needed a alternator.
When I tried to ask him about it he got really angry with me and told me 'I don't ask you about what you've sold on your cars, so stop asking me about mine.'
I talked with the assistant shop manager and another mechanic and the general concensus was 'Yeah there are people here who regularly cheat the customers, but as long as you aren't doing it, why do you care?'
I wandered around for a bit trying to talk to other people there about it and everyone seemed mistified that this was a big deal to me. I got steadily more upset and frustrated, decided I was going to quit after today, then decided I couldn't wait that long, and punched out and left quietly.
Tonight I'm going to write a letter to the shop manager (who is one of the people who regularly cheats customers) explaining why I can't work there and tendering my resignation. I'm going to bring it in and hand it to him tomorrow before the rest of the shop crew gets there.
I've been stressing over this job, and going steadily nuts over the apparent lack of ethics on the part of many (if not most) of the people who work there. Today I just couldn't take any more.
I had just gotten a chance to take a car out for a test-drive after we finished work on it. A really nice 1977 Nissan 280Z convertible. These are fairly rare cars, and the chance to get paid to take one for a spin delighted me. On the way back to the shop I was even composing in my head a LJ post about how my job wasn't all bad.
Well I returned to the shop, parked the car, and went back to work on the other car I had been tinkering with, a battered Hundai that wouldn't start. The battery had tested as dead, and the battery terminals were both really loose. So I had before taking the Z out removed the terminals and reinstalled them correctly, and put the battery on a charger. Well I returned and tested the battery, which came out fine, then I did a starting test and that came out fine, I was attempting to do a charging test (and having a slight problem with the manual tranny sticking in gear), when a mechanic came up and demanded to know what I was doing.
Seems he had already sold the customer a new battery, terminals, and alternator and was planning to install them as soon as he finished the car he was working on. At this point I knew the car didn't need a battery, needed one maybe both terminals. And he hadn't run the charging test which would have told him if the car needed a alternator.
When I tried to ask him about it he got really angry with me and told me 'I don't ask you about what you've sold on your cars, so stop asking me about mine.'
I talked with the assistant shop manager and another mechanic and the general concensus was 'Yeah there are people here who regularly cheat the customers, but as long as you aren't doing it, why do you care?'
I wandered around for a bit trying to talk to other people there about it and everyone seemed mistified that this was a big deal to me. I got steadily more upset and frustrated, decided I was going to quit after today, then decided I couldn't wait that long, and punched out and left quietly.
Tonight I'm going to write a letter to the shop manager (who is one of the people who regularly cheats customers) explaining why I can't work there and tendering my resignation. I'm going to bring it in and hand it to him tomorrow before the rest of the shop crew gets there.
I feel like I should be proud or something, but I just feel like shit.
P.S.part of why them cheating the customers pisses me off even more is that the people who come to us are overall not well off. These people can't afford the sorts of repairs they're pawning off on them. But Pep Boys doesn't care as long as they suck as much money from the customer as possible."
