[falcon]

I'll just chime in here, working as a service advisor (in a shop that dosen't technically have a manager, we all pull weight to keep things moving smoothly) I would be outright pissed if one of my mechs, let alone a FIRST YEAR apprentice went directly to the customer to tell them they need different oil after me already going through the work order with them and getting a work authorization signature. Regardless if I got it wrong or not. And to take it one step above and go to the parts department and have one of the parts advisors CALL another dealer, that tech would be on thin ice and if it was an apprentice, likely not working there anymore or moved off the bench to clean up duty for a while.

The right step would have been to go directly to the advisor and note your concern. More or less %100 of the time I will agree and allow them to do what they think is best, after consulting the customer of course, which is MY job not the mechanics. There are situations where I've had exactly the same issue with oil. Mech said it should by synth, however I was specifically told by the customer to run mineral oil but they didn't know this and if they put in synth I'd be on the hook for the cost if they made a stink about it.


Yes, by the sounds of it your service guy should have made the fix since the customer at the end of the day wanted synth (but remember the customer only said yes after you talked to them, which you shouldn't have). It should have been him, not you talking to the customer. There is an added cost of synth, and if I had a customer sign for $x for an oil change only to go back to them after the job with a higher bill because we used different oil (oil which they may or may not have known it was more money due to only the mech talking to them and not the service writer who would have told them the added costs) I would have had to still charge them for the cheaper oil because I didnt' have an authorization signature for the higher number.

Lots of things come into play, and I see it more and more on a daily basis that mechanics, even the old timers have absolutely no idea what really goes on at the front counter and how much of a dancing game it is with keeping customers happy and profits coming in. At the end of they day whether the oil was wrong, you shouldn't have done what you did. In my "professional" opinion. Sounds like you're pretty new in the industry, so take this as constructive critisim. There will be days you hate your job, I know there are for me but do your best to say yes sir and nod your head even if you don't agree. I do it all the time and it makes life a hell of a lot easier rather than stressing out over things you can't control.