Hiring people is absolutely one of the most infuriating time sucks I’ve ever participated in. And I can’t shake the distinct impression that I could get a similar result picking at random.
And the problem with hiring people you know is that some % of them are covertly huge pieces of shit, and finding that out about someone you give more leeway to is expensive.
Hmmm…
I need to give a reference for someone and my honest assessment is that he is a 100% lock B+ player, but a 0% lock all star. If you’re on the receiving end of that, how do you take it. Positive, negative, or neutral.
Depends on the role and the company. Sounds pretty great for someone in at least certain customer support or marketing roles, much less enticing in sales or R&D, although R&D needs some ordinary folks to just push shit along too.
It depends on my other options obv 
but FWIW I don’t believe your assessment.
Most hiring managers don’t explicitly think probabilistically but they are extremely risk adverse.
Anyway, the reason I don’t believe your assessment is I don’t think anyone is ever a 100% lock, people perform differently in different teams/environments.
How about 99%/0%
I’m going to leave the 0% part out, but I thought adding it might give my 100% (now revised to 99%) more credibility.
Honestly any hiring manager that won’t snap take a lock B+ really needs to rethink the entire role. B+ in role context obviously, but when you have roles that need anything over an A- you have serious key man risk, and you’re basically making the people who can succeed in that role into partners.
It’s exponentially easier to find B+ people than it is to even find A- people.
This is something I’ve had to give a lot of thought to because of the nature of my industry. Hiring people to train into this nightmare sales/ops/negotiation role and having to constantly figure out how to pay new hires as little as humanly possible because 80%+ of them aren’t going to work out. This is balanced by the fact that if you do actually manage to be part of the 20% that sticks what you get is a shockingly decent upper middle class career.
Building out a new sales organization in the middle of a major sector downturn is shockingly difficult lol. But it is feeling a bit like it’s turning a corner the last few weeks, so hopefully I’m pulling up to the reward.
So I was running through the list for the other mechanic to check out, and I noticed that there was another thing that I could do myself. The dealership said there was “no coolant detected” in the coolant system and wanted to charge me $190. Well, antifreeze is like $25 and I am pretty capable of opening a reservoir and pouring it in.
So I pop the hood to check before I go buy it, since there’s a good chance these motherfuckers are full of shit. I look, and there’s one problem. I don’t know where to pour it, since the coolant is slightly above the fucking FULL line. Lying scumbag assholes! Which is a good break for me, since it increases the odds that nothing further needs to be done.
I wonder if they were going to actually give me new coolant for $189, or just pretend they did since it was full anyway?
Depending on the vehicle, draining and filling what’s in the radiator and the reservoir is simple on most cars. For ~ $40 you can buy a special coolant funnel that allows you to refill it directly in the radiator while the car is running so you can eliminate any air bubbles.
Also, you can test for a leak in the cylinder by buying another kit ~ $50 that hooks up to the reservoir and uses some kind of liquid that will change color if there’s a leak.
I have been youtubing alot lately since I have a vehicle that I suspect has a cylinder issue.
Your coolant is probably full but fwiw there are two places you might be talking about when you say you found the place to add coolant, only one would be the place you’d actually add it, you’d want to add a mix of distilled water as well, you’d want to ensure there’s no air in the lines which is not really possible without tools, and adding coolant would be the least of your concerns if you were truly empty. Bottom line, pay professionals for legitimate coolant issues.
Yeah I’ll have the recommended mechanic confirm it’s ok, but given that I didn’t overheat in extended bumper to bumper traffic in 115 degree weather and the reservoir where all the guides say to check the level is showing it full, I’m 99% sure I’m good. If it wasn’t getting into the radiator, I assume I’d have overheated.
My guess is that they lied about that and the valve and timing covers as well as the need for new tires, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the drive belt should be replaced and the tires should be rotated.
Depending on frequency and distance, this isn’t necessarily true.
If the coolant is low enough, it won’t trigger the sensor that gives you the reading on your dashboard gauge for engine temp.
I was in a similar spot with a car I just acquired. There was zero coolant in the radiator. I didn’t have any obvious signs or episodes of overheating.
ETA: didn’t see where you mentioned the reservoir was full. Was just looking for an excuse to point out never to rely on the dash gauge if you have any suspicion at all. Good luck!
Thanks, yeah the reservoir was actually slightly above the full line. So I suppose there’s a chance that it’s not flowing into the radiator, but I’d be pretty shocked. The funny thing is, if they didn’t put all the other stuff that added up to $7,500 and just put the battery thing and the coolant, I probably would have signed off on the coolant without a second thought and they would have gotten me for a couple hundo extra. Coming in guns blazing for $7,500 made me immediately suspicious.
it should be illegal to tow a boat on the interstate. Get the fuck out of here.
Supposed to take the car to get checked out, and it won’t fucking start. Ran fine over the weekend, now it won’t turn over at all. Makes me think it’s the alternator and these assholes at the dealership are not only scammers, they’re also fucking incompetent. Great combination!
Now waiting on a tow truck again, if this takes four hours again we’re fucked - supposed to check out tomorrow. Already need to run good to get this fixed and get the car back today.
So the battery is dead, these assholes at the dealership told me the car needed $7,500 of work, but the battery was totally fine and tested great when the battery is completely shot.
Nobody can be that incompetent. The game was send me on my way to break down again and come back in so they can say “I told you so,” and scam me, right?
Wonder if I have any recourse for the $109 I paid them to clean the battery terminals and cable, given that any mechanic who isn’t a clown would know that was a total waste of work. I assume not, I assume my only recourse is scorchingly bad reviews.
Honestly the second you have good reason to not trust a mechanic you pull out immediately. And yeah car dealerships range in quality from overpriced but competent to overpriced scammers.
If your car isn’t under warranty you should never visit a car dealer for service ever.
By the way complaining to the manufacturer directly isn’t a waste of time, and when you get the survey from the manufacturer you can do real harm by giving them the worst possible scores.
I’m honestly pretty surprised by how bad this was. These 2023 dealers in the twilight years of the car dealership monopoly are feral lol.
Got someone arrested last night. I don’t usually try to get my patients arrested, but this guy had it coming. Came in kinda drunk. I didn’t get a BAC on him, but I’m guessing this guy lives around a .30% BAC. He’s dedicated to his craft. He’s walking in a straight line, no slurred speech.
Well he came in for help, asking to do inpatient detox. I say ‘Great, I’m glad you made that choice for you’ and then explain how the ER doesn’t do that and he need to wait until Monday morning (it’s like 7pm on a Sunday) to go to the rehab center.
He agrees to it and then says he’s going to drive home. He, no shit, says ‘Don’t worry I live close and I’ll take the side streets home.’ I tell him we can’t let him go home like that, but we can get him a free ride on Lyft. He agrees, and then bolts of course.
Security notifies PD and gives them his description. He got arrested for DUI.
Not what I wanted at the beginning of the visit, but glad he got caught.
They can absolutely be that incompetent and that’s the most likely cause. Elaborate scams would require a competence that I wouldn’t ascribe to dealership mechanics without very specific supporting info.
I’d also still be assuming you have alternator problems. It can be tough to diagnose because it could still be putting out reduced power or intermittent power and maybe it was fine when the dealer checked it. Your car won’t just sputter out and die from a bad battery though. If the alternator is good it will keep your car running until you shut it off.
Yeah this is my normal MO. But I drive a Mazda and some parts aren’t stocked by most mechanics, so under time pressure I chose the dealership - and the ones back home were fine. This one obviously not so much. That issue with parts, by the way, is why I wouldn’t recommend a Mazda to anyone. Other than that they’re fine.
Bart Scott Can’t Wait dot gif.