Explaining what is wrong with your vehicle can get confusing. Nancy breaks down 5 statements normally made to mechanics and service advisors and how you should actually explain your issue!
Transcript:
Are you guilty of taking your vehicle to your technician and just saying, “There’s a noise” or, I have a problem, just fix it.”
Hi, I’m Nancy at Kneble’s Auto Service Center. Now that’s okay, but here are five suggestions to convey your problem better when talking with your technician.
Number one, customers come in stating, “My lights on, on my dash and it looks like a squiggly line.” Or they say, “My lights on, I don’t even know what it’s for.” I recommend referring to your owner’s manual.
So you can tell your technician the name of the light that is on such as, “My traction stability light’s on.” Or, “My tire pressure sensor light’s on.” Or, “My check engine light’s on.”
Because each of these lights referred to a different system in the vehicle and it will help your technician to know what system is faulty.
Number two, I often have customers say to me, “I have a noise.” And that’s all they say.
I recommend being able to describe the noise and tell what area of the vehicle you’re hearing this noise and what you’re doing at the time this noise is happening. Such as, “I was making a sharp turn.” Or, “I was braking.” Or, “I was going over bumps when I heard the noise.”
Number three, another frequent complaint from customers are, “My car won’t start.”
Since many problems can cause this, we recommend explaining exactly what were you trying to do when the car didn’t start. Such as, “I was turning the key in the ignition and all I heard was *click, click, click*.”
Or, “I heard a grinding noise when I went to turn my key on.” Or, “I didn’t hear anything. When I went to turn the car on, there was no sound, but I noticed the lights were on, on the dash.”
Now, these comments helped your technician when diagnosing the problem.
Number four, all too often, customers come in and say, “My brakes don’t work.”
Well, what does that actually mean? Describe what you were experiencing when your brakes were not working.
Like, “My brake pedal went to the floor when I tried to stop the car.” Or, “I heard a grinding noise when I went to apply the brake.”
Or, “I heard a squeak as I was slowly going into reverse turning the wheel.”
I cannot emphasize enough to be specific with your complaint.
Number five, finally, it’s summertime and we hear, “My air conditioning doesn’t work.”
Well, give us more to work with. Like, “I have to put the speed on high for the air conditioning to blow out cold air.”
Or some people may say, “When I turn my air on only hot air blows out.” Now, any of these scenarios can happen to you.
So once again, I would be specific when you drop your vehicle off for repair, as they will help diagnose the problem. Now, you may not think something is important, but it can turn out to be very pertinent when tackling your problem, so give us as much information as you can.
Thank you for watching and check out a new video each week where we discuss a different topic every Wednesday at 12:30.
For your convenience, you can schedule an appointment with us online through our website, or give us a call at (609) 625-3286, where we are located at 5473 Somers Point Road in Mays Landing. See you here.
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