Comment by artag | Hacker News Reader

Comment by artag | Hacker News Reader

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"doing jobs that become much harder because of location, etc etc all for 30% less money" --- our mechanics make $75 an hour flat rate. That's 3x what they make at their respective dealerships (on an hourly basis). The fact that master technicians (all 8 ase certs, 20+ years of experience) from mercedes, ford, nissan and toyota are offering mobile car repair services and have already finished over 1000 repairs on our platform is probably a good indicator that not every mechanic thinks the way you do.

I am not claiming that you are wrong or that YourMechanic will succeed (only time will tell).

p.s. Of the 1000+ cars we have fixed, not a single customer ever came back to us claiming that our techs made the dents, scratches, stole stuff etc. I am sure we will one day run into some of those interesting people. I may be cynical and/or naive, but I happen to believe that most people are basically good.

I do hope you succeed. Congratulations on repairing 1000 cars. What sorts of repairs were they? If you pay your mechanics so well, how does the business itself make any money? Other questions that spring to mind: What equipment do they have, what repairs do you specifically avoid, How do you source parts, what happens to flat rate when the part is wrong? I looked at your website last week and don't recall seeing this information.

I have not met a shop yet that hasn't had a ridiculous customer complaint. You seem to be lucky, for the rest of the industry it is always 1% that drives you crazy. By that math you should have had 10 unreasonable customers by now. I also believe that people are inherently good. I did $2,000,000 in sales of $50 tools with Snap-on and only ended up with $6000 in bad debt on what where essentially handshake deals. A loss of $3 per thousand.

Also if you would like to have a non-public discussion, you can email me at gregpilling @ gmail.com

All those things you have listed (types of jobs to do, types of jobs to avoid, sourcing parts, not ordering the wrong parts, making money after paying mechanics really well) were all big challenges. It took us a while to figure those things out and now its our competitive advantage. There are still occasional problems, but we are getting better at it every day. Our model assumes that 2% of the customers will have unreasonable demands / ask for refunds etc. Happy to chat anytime art @ yourmechanic.

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