Alan Ollie
Forum Replies Created
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My new site should be up before the end of the month. I hired three companies, all promised speed. I threw $ in the garbage. So we did it ourselves. This is without a CDN or tweaking it yet.
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I am in south FL its HOTTTTTTTT and humid. I have a friend with a shop he just built. He is 10,000 sq ft shop is air-conditioned. He said he had no problem hiring techs ?
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[postquote quote=114284]
Check out https://arsloaner.comwe use them never need to go out and check gas we have telemetry hooked up and we can read the gas and mileage through the OBD port. Great program and inexpensive pays for itself easily.
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up 16%
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Your the best. Thank you for getting my books to working accurately.
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Looks like we will be holding even with 3 losing months.
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[postquote quote=65493] UPDATE 12-8-2020
After 6 years, we do 1-2 alignments a day on high-end German cars. We now charge 149 and 239 for alignments. We rarely have comebacks. I can’t say anything bad about the System. I replaced the camera batteries a few times cost apx $30 ea. Another cool thing about Gregg Smith equ is they stock all the parts for the system in the USA and they will give you a camera a loaner if needed. We have dropped them many times I know about and they keep on working I can only guess how many times I don’t know about it.
https://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-Platinum-601-Alignment-System
https://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-Alignment-Calibration-Bar
About once a month we send out an ADAS car. I had a mobile ADAS guy come to my shop. After watching him, I keep sending out cars till my crew has the proper training.
I updated the year make model specs database 2 times apx cost $400 each time.
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DECEMBER 6, 2018 AT 4:59 AM#75316
ALAN OLLIE GELFAND PRES.PARTICIPANT
The first thing I did was send my alignment tech to Gregg Smith Equipment in Atlanta for training. The rep comes by two times a year and checks our calibration. It is rarely off. Plus, we have the calibration bar and check our machine every few weeks. The service is outstanding. The tool is so simple if you run over a camera.We bought an Atlas Edge 601 Pro 8 Camera Alignment Machine With FastClamps
$16,595.00 With a 5-year old Hunter rack. We had the cylinders rebuilt and the turntables rebuilt at the time of install. Total cost 4k so for under 20k .Please do the math we charge an avg $110 for an alignment. We just paid off the $490 a month lease and did about 2000 alignments with no equipment failures. 660 alignments per year $110 = $72,600 gross per year we grossed $200,018 off a 20 k investment.After three years, we did 2-4 alignments a day on high-end German cars. We rarely have a comeback.
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Who lets there customers bring parts? Not us. I have learned even when you are having a slow week, take the symptoms from the customer not any kind of diag info. If your customer does not trust your shop then either your SA is doing something wrong. Or they are a C-D customer and should not be your client. That’s my take . Most customers who would buy that device most likely either are curious or they have to much time on there hands . Let us fix your car and the customer should do his profession. I wouldn’t want to defend myself for a lawsuit so I said the lawyer want to look at his car Fixit device. They charge more per hr than us ????
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What is a generic obd code going to tell anyone? People come in every day with codes from Autozone. I explain that could be true or a false positive. But it shows no values or does any testing to pinpoint the issue. Most of the customers who come in are C or D customers. It’s your job to educate and sell testing to find the root cause. just saying Ollie
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We polished our floors up front and epoxied the floors in the rear 5 bays. I did the epoxy ourselves. I had a sandblasting company clean the floors it is outside so it made it easier. Then we bought Industrial Epoxy from EB Epoxy. Ask them what to use they make the epoxy there in Fort Lauderdale Fort half the price of any other epoxy. If you check them out you’ll see they make the Epoxy that glues bridges together. It lasted 5-6 years looking perfect. Now 14 years later it looks fairly good but not shiny. $800 for sandblasting 2000 sq ft. 1800 for epoxy 14 years ago Apx 2 days of my life rolling it on. One trick I learned is to mix the epoxy 3 hours before you want to use it it goes on thicker.
The front 3 bays I had ground -4 year’s ago apx 10k and they looked great for apx 10 years.
If I were to do it over I would do what Home Depot does. They have a company come in at night and grind and polish the floors. Then they use a water based sealer.
the first time the company told me its a expensive job after that every 5 years its 1/4 the price .
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Many of you won’t have a need for finding the long +4 zip code for an address, but some may.
Here’s a way to find the zip code +4 for any address.
free
https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookupAction!input.action -
Thank you to everyone who has sent private messages. I have been speaking with a few. Ollie
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I have been with Bill Haas for over 2 years. I never made so much money in the last 15 years. Bill is No BS, Just teaches it like it is. Thank you Bill and Sara for making it happen. Ollie G
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You’ll always have the price shoppers. Those are not the customers that are going to give you good reviews and be in for the long term.
We have noticed more and more lately people saying stuff to us about they saw the part online for this or that price. But if you want the expertise, warranty and peace of mind you have to buy the parts from us.
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Has anybody had any experiences with the new open the platform. The gentleman calls me all the time and I was planning on doing it but I don’t like change too much.
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Yessir!
I’m still tracking for a record year, but my period 8 and 9 were both off by a tick or two from 2018. I too am certain we will see a positive upwards trend as we go into travel season.
We are starting it improve
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I hade it years ago. Seemed like mostly price shoppers. Many people wanted tech help. But I do like the idea.
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Oh yes, I forgot to mention at least 10 times the bank paid us our $125 a day storage charges, administration fee, and for the repair, so that’s another $15,000- $20,000.
That’s not my business model but I’ve been too nice for 15 years. And space is at a premium.
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I’ve had over 15 cars at my shop this year. If the car is left more than two weeks after you’ve notified the customer pick up in Florida you can file a lien. I use a company that specializes in liens. You have to know the rules but we have gotten many cars that I’ve sold for $5000 -10,000. I’m stuck with a couple of junkers that aren’t worth the 300 to 400 dollars it cost for the lien.
In the 20 some years I’ve been in business in the past 3 to 5 years I filed more liens than I have my whole life time. [attachment file=”23C0234B-5638-4CE3-B5C7-4DAAE7B85E75.jpeg”]
I have a rule if the customer thinks they can come up with the money to fix it and they are calling me back when I notify them and don’t act like ghosts I work with them and don’t file a lien.
PS: Look out for repo trucks trying to go near lot, we have a nice fenced-in acre lot . Sometimes there’s big bounties on these cars and the guys really want them, so block the car in well .
I want to lien file you do not have to talk to the customer or to the bank. So that’s why I use Rainbow Title in Hollywood Florida, she handles everything and I don’t have to worry about anything.
In this world it really sucks people can’t afford high-end European cars they buy and can’t afford to fix them.
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Another good idea is you can buy a list of everybody who got traffic tickets for some weird reason personal identifiable information is available right there. It’s very inexpensive you could also get with some law firm’s and get their old data because they don’t use it except month after the person got a ticket.
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First thing I did was send my alignment tech to Gregg Smith Equipment in Atlanta for training. The rep comes by two times a year and checks our calibration. It is rarely off. Plus we have the calibration bar and check our machine every few weeks. The service is outstanding. The tool is so simple if you run over a camera. We drive to a Gregg Smith store in Miami and pick up a part.
We bought an Atlas Edge 601 Pro 8 Camera Alignment Machine With FastClamps
$16,595.00 With a 5-year old Hunter rack. We had the cylinders rebuilt and the turntables rebuilt at the time of install. Total cost 4k so for under 20k .Do the math we charge an avg $110 for an alignment. We just paid off the $490 a month lease and did about 2000 alignments with no equipment failures. 660 alignments per year $110 = $72,600 gross per year we grossed $200,018 off a 20 k investment.After three years we did 2-4 alignments a day on hi-end german cars. We rarely have a comeback.
https://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Alignment-Machine/Passenger-and-Light-Truck-Alignment-Machines
For all the Blue haters. Blue is the new Red. Ollie G
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This snap on tester seems to work great for us. We print every customer’s results.
Advanced Battery, Starting and Charging System Tester999.99 USD
Item: EECS750A -
Educate middle school and high school kids. Some will work the parts counter, Service Writers, Some techs. They might like cars. The cost of tools WTF how much $ in tools do you need to start out $1500. Then weekly you contribute to your techs tool pay.
We are having a lucky streak we have 2 new techs in 2 months. A steady flow of 2-3 calls or visits a week. Just off craigslist saying accepting a limited number applicants 4 days a week no Saturdays
No superstars but two x military guys who want to learn. Call your local Veterans administration say you are accepting a limited number applicants. Swap sides make it look like you do not need them.
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Plugs free if they bought the tires from us. Patches are $40-$50 . They must sign a hold harmless. We tell most people to buy a new tire.
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If I had a road force including a lateral force balancer it might see changes. Yes, Tom, Florida has smooth roads. I think the most important thing with extended life oil changes is people drive their cars with the tires low or at the minimum pressure. That scallops the tires. We see 1/3 of the cars coming in our shop with chopped tires with full tread. I tell my guys to fill to the maximum psi on the side of the tires. That way the next time they come in we have the option of lowering the psi if the center wears more than the other side. And we hardly ever rotate tires unless the customer asks. I tell my guys to look and feel the tires note the wear on the report.
Telling your “guys” to put in the maximum psi on the side of the tire is WRONG. Think Ford EXPLODER… “Firestone argued that Ford’s recommended 26 psi inflation pressure was too low and should have been 30 psi.” Monkeys at the tire shops just put in the wive’s tale 32 PSI. You are doing the exact same as the tires you are dealing with were not just designed for car A, but many cars… and EACH car has a recommended tire pressure…adhere to those pressures…
Here in Florida its best to set the tire 1-2 psi more than spec, MAX! We get “cold” spells from time to time during “winter” and setting the correct pressure of lets say 36 psi at time of service, because that is the cars spec…. then the next day we get a “cold” spell, and customer starts car first thing in the morning, and the TPMS light is on… and start questioning if the shop “guy” did his job right… Putting doubt in the customers mind… ” I doubt he checked my tires, I’m not going back there” OR “that bastard didn’t check my tire pressures” and comes back to the shop making a scene in front of your other customers…not a good thing.
So Alan, lesson to learn here is NOT to put tires max psi rating… put 1-2 more psi than CAR spec, during “winter” time here in FL….the other 90% of the year, put in the CAR spec
Thanks for the FYI. Basiclly most german cars are set to 38-42 . And then if we see the center wearing “this hardly ever happens” Because of the 10-15k peple go for oil changes without checking preessure. Thanks Ollie
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If I had a road force including a lateral force balancer it might see changes. Yes, Tom, Florida has smooth roads. I think the most important thing with extended life oil changes is people drive their cars with the tires low or at the minimum pressure. That scallops the tires. We see 1/3 of the cars coming in our shop with chopped tires with full tread. I tell my guys to fill to the maximum psi on the side of the tires. That way the next time they come in we have the option of lowering the psi if the center wears more than the other side. And we hardly ever rotate tires unless the customer asks. I tell my guys to look and feel the tires note the wear on the report.
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Do you guys ever need to add or take away weight on a 5000-7500 balance? For a German car, I don’t remember ever having my guys needed to change weights.
Some customers have it in there mind that they might need to check the balance.
I think its a disservice to even imply balance every 500 to 7500 miles. Does anyone have any thoughts?
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I have shown this thread to 10 people all under the age of 30 and they all agreed someone needs to make a reality TV show on how cool it is to be a tech. They are all fake and scripted anyway. Show guys closing the shop at 3:00 to go surf and having fun and after work going out on jet skis, boats, skateboarding, riding, cool bikes, etc. Just a thought.
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Most ASE techs I have found to understand how things work instead of being parts changers. I haven’t been hands-on in the shop in 20 years. I just took 4 tests and passed all. Coming from a racing background I understand how things kinda work. But the Euro cars we work on are so very different from 20 years ago. Can you say, Geek?
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I would love to hear about this tech Ollie
