My starter motor decided to break on Thanksgiving while we visited family in NJ.
I live in NYC and as you can imagine, I have no place to park a disabled car. I would have done the job myself otherwise. Emergency repairs are big pain for city dwellers. No shade trees available to jobs which take more than a couple of hours or to park under for a couple of days. Logistics are bitch. On top of that, I don't have another starter handy and it was cold... below 20 degrees outside.
So I remembered that there was a Rover independent shop in north New Jersey just about 10 miles from where my car sat. I look on the handy "mechanics in your area thread" in the "General info" section of this site and I arranged a tow truck to pick up and drop off the truck at vinne Tarrone's shop, "Rover Specialist" in Garfield, NJ. vinnie was a pleasure to deal with on the phone and all went smoothly. So far.
I'm in no rush. I don't use the truck very often during the week. No pressure at all to turn this around quickly. Of course every shop rightfully wants to move cars along and get them off the lot.
I was pleasantly surprised when Vinnie called me on Monday morning to confirm that the starter had crapped out. He had a replacement in stock, the truck was on the lift, and could do the work immediately.
"Great," I said, "how much will it cost?".
Here's where it goes all wrong.
"$625 (with tax),"
"Wow, Vinnie, I'm surprised. How much does the starter cost?"
"The starter is $275"
"OK, how many hours do you need to do the job?"
"Two hours"
"Wow, $300 labor is basically what I'd expect at the dealer"
"Well if you want the work to be done right, that is what it costs"
"Yeah, but Vinnie, I want indy shops like yours to make money so that they remain in business, but I also expect a less expensive experience than the dealership" given your lower overhead.
"If you want to tow the car out of here I can take it off the lift, I won't charge you for the diagnosis, but it needs to be out of here today or I'll charge you storage"
"The labor operations time manual only calls for 0.7 hours"
"That was in 1997 when they used to have good mechanics working on these cars"
"so you're not a good mechanic?"
"Do you want me to to the job or not"
We then negotiate a small discount for cash payment, after he tells me he won't take a credit card.
This guy is going to run himself out of business with this attitude, and I'm glad to help. At the end of the day it was just a couple of hundred dollars so I'm not going to be hurting. The real issue is his blatant abuse of an "out of towner"
I paid, picked up the car and will never go back.
He did take the time to install his own license plate frames on both the front and rear of the car. I guess he charged me for them. Needless to say they are gone now.
This is a warning about this shop.
ROVER SPECIALIST, in Garfield, New Jersey is not an independent shop that I can support and will never go back. I recommend that all steer clear of the place and Vinnie Tarrone unless you are willing to pay a premium.
I live in NYC and as you can imagine, I have no place to park a disabled car. I would have done the job myself otherwise. Emergency repairs are big pain for city dwellers. No shade trees available to jobs which take more than a couple of hours or to park under for a couple of days. Logistics are bitch. On top of that, I don't have another starter handy and it was cold... below 20 degrees outside.
So I remembered that there was a Rover independent shop in north New Jersey just about 10 miles from where my car sat. I look on the handy "mechanics in your area thread" in the "General info" section of this site and I arranged a tow truck to pick up and drop off the truck at vinne Tarrone's shop, "Rover Specialist" in Garfield, NJ. vinnie was a pleasure to deal with on the phone and all went smoothly. So far.
I'm in no rush. I don't use the truck very often during the week. No pressure at all to turn this around quickly. Of course every shop rightfully wants to move cars along and get them off the lot.
I was pleasantly surprised when Vinnie called me on Monday morning to confirm that the starter had crapped out. He had a replacement in stock, the truck was on the lift, and could do the work immediately.
"Great," I said, "how much will it cost?".
Here's where it goes all wrong.
"$625 (with tax),"
"Wow, Vinnie, I'm surprised. How much does the starter cost?"
"The starter is $275"
"OK, how many hours do you need to do the job?"
"Two hours"
"Wow, $300 labor is basically what I'd expect at the dealer"
"Well if you want the work to be done right, that is what it costs"
"Yeah, but Vinnie, I want indy shops like yours to make money so that they remain in business, but I also expect a less expensive experience than the dealership" given your lower overhead.
"If you want to tow the car out of here I can take it off the lift, I won't charge you for the diagnosis, but it needs to be out of here today or I'll charge you storage"
"The labor operations time manual only calls for 0.7 hours"
"That was in 1997 when they used to have good mechanics working on these cars"
"so you're not a good mechanic?"
"Do you want me to to the job or not"
We then negotiate a small discount for cash payment, after he tells me he won't take a credit card.
This guy is going to run himself out of business with this attitude, and I'm glad to help. At the end of the day it was just a couple of hundred dollars so I'm not going to be hurting. The real issue is his blatant abuse of an "out of towner"
I paid, picked up the car and will never go back.
He did take the time to install his own license plate frames on both the front and rear of the car. I guess he charged me for them. Needless to say they are gone now.
This is a warning about this shop.
ROVER SPECIALIST, in Garfield, New Jersey is not an independent shop that I can support and will never go back. I recommend that all steer clear of the place and Vinnie Tarrone unless you are willing to pay a premium.
