Trouble getting parts

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Give me some ideas here. Most of you know that my full time job is working at a shop that specializes in automotive heating and ac. So when a customer brings on a car for repair and say it needs a condenser... I cant get one till the following day many people walk after hearing that.

We dont have any real parts houses here. Just az,pb,oriley and Napa. They all seem to stock the same parts so no matter who I call its going to be next day.

Stocking parts wont work. I do not have room or $$$ to do that... there may be several options.

A civic lx may use a different compressor than a civic dx.

There are 13 different radiator options for a 1995 chevy truck! I cant stock that many,if I stock what I think will sell It never sells.

I'm guessing that most people work "down the hill" in the los angelas area and decide to take the car somewhere near work where it can be fixed that same day.

I cant pre order stuff because I don't know what the car needs till I see it.

Ideas???
 
I'm surprised that it's common to be able to get a car fixed the same day. Around here, you would make an appointment for a couple days later.
 
One thing is maybe try changing up your sales tactics to try to weasel them into waiting until the following day? I don't mean that in a bad way. Offer an incentive?

A buddy of mine is a mechanic and uses Parts Authority and rarely has parts availability issues, but that's in the big city. Even Auto Zone sometimes buys parts from Parts Authority when they can't get them or it's cheaper.
 
Probably best idea is to:
a) email Jeff Bezos (Amazon) about your plight. If you're suffering, many others are in the same boat.
b) develop a relationship with someone who'll drive parts to you (Uber, Lyft) same day,
a supplier that has the stock, then tell your customer it'll be $ for two-day repair
or $$$ for same-day repair.
Who knows, maybe the logistics you develop you'll eventually make a part-time job out of.
Maybe a hospital has a driver who does daily runs of lab samples, that you can use during the deadhead half of his run.

There's several radiator supply shops near me, but they are in stiff competition with each other, and don't really stock the best, rather they stock some cores and braze together something that fits pretty poorly. Then, you're dealing with dissimilar metals, so your next radiator's going to be much sooner than the OEM.

I'd like same-day radiator service, but I don't think there is such a thing unless you're at a dealer's service dept.
 
Charge more for diagnosis. Waive some (or all) diagnosis if they follow through with your recommended repair and leave car with you to wait for the part, or prepay for ordered items if they want to leave and come back for repair.

Get them to commit to the repair.

That's really all I got considering you're at a disadvantage as far as parts availability.

You don't have world Pac, IMC, or some other big name parts delivery network to work with?
 
Have the number of the local enterprise car rental handy and tell them they can call and get a cheap rental. I've seen that at the local mechanic. I also surprised that those local parts places don't deliver. All the shops around here typically have the auto parts places doing same day delivery. But maybe you're just too far away for that.
 
Can you get a loaner car to give out? I was offered an old beater once and I took it.....better than being without a car and I knew the guy was good enough to wait for.
 
Surprised to hear that. There are parts places around me with about a dozen little cars each to make parts deliveries throughout the day. Maybe there's more money to be made as a parts seller with same-day delivery than there is as a repairer.
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Surprised to hear that. There are parts places around me with about a dozen little cars each to make parts deliveries throughout the day. Maybe there's more money to be made as a parts seller with same-day delivery than there is as a repairer.
all the parts places deliver. But they cant deliver today when I cant get parts till tomorrow.
 
Originally Posted By: zrxkawboy
I'm surprised that it's common to be able to get a car fixed the same day. Around here, you would make an appointment for a couple days later.
people here expect to have it back the same day. They make an appt. I check it out but cant get the part till tomorrow.
 
Originally Posted By: Seventh


You don't have world Pac, IMC, or some other big name parts delivery network to work with?
nope. 1800 radiator does deliver. But they leave los angelas @930am...if a customer shows up @ 931 the 1800 truck has already left.
 
Originally Posted By: zrxkawboy
I'm surprised that it's common to be able to get a car fixed the same day. Around here, you would make an appointment for a couple days later.

It's the same thing here, even doing it myself. Even a brake job requires parts from both ends of the darned country.
 
Vertical integration. Open up a store that only stocks and sells Automotive HVAC parts. Problem solved.

LOL JK

Like the others have said - I'm surprised that your customers are expecting same day service on that kind of work. Is some larger shop in the area creating this expectation (but charges an arm and a leg for it), so they come to you expecting the same service but a lower price?

Here is a quick read that may help you out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_advantage
 
Have a loaner car available and tell them you will have their car ready to go the next day. People are impatient, but if given a loaner car they might be willing to wait. You dont have many other options. Build your business by word of mouth and you wont need to worry about things like this. If you have a reputation of doing great work and being reasonable, you will always be busy and not have to worry about ppl taking their business elsewhere. Work on your reputation and you wont need to worry about losing business to another shop.
smile.gif
 
I never expect a non-basic maintenance part for any of my cars to be available on a walk-in basis.
 
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
I never expect a non-basic maintenance part for any of my cars to be available on a walk-in basis.


If you're in a hurry, you can always go to the dealer. Most of the time they stock it and if they don't then you can just mail order it.
 
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