Matt

 

I don't know where to go with this. If the boss says send it back to MTH ,then why do you bother? Not being critical here but perhaps you are wasting your time and your efforts are not appreciated. . Maybe you should just fix trains on your own from home. 

 

Dale H

Sucks for your customers, Sucks for you. More importantly your boss may find out the hard way that customers return because they know they can get engines fix without the hassle of shipping back to a manufacture. By the way I surprised this hasn't been deleted yet.

Wow Matt, that's not really a good sign. I would think Your Loyalty and Integrity would be appreciated in a Special Employee Pricing. How long have you served this store? Repairing today's highly electronic trains is no easy task. I would feel insulted if there was no special deal for a great employee....You are a super guy....Take Care.

I do fix trains on my own from home but i take care of my customers. You buy it from us we should take care of it. He told me to send em to MTH , thats gonna do more harm than good. Plus I have a huge pile of returns that need looking at that are past the Lionel warranty terms so those will require shipment to lionel plus we will have to pay

Matt,

 

I venture to say that the customer service you have provided for the store is the main reason why the customers buy at the store in the first place. You have been doing this on your own time, and it is a shame that you have not been compensated.

 

I wonder how many of the customers whose trains you fixed would not have been more than happy to throw a few dollars your way had they known that the work you did for them was your own time; I know I would have.

 

After people catch on that the trains have to be sent to MTH or elsewhere for repair, just the same as if they had bought the trains online but at a lower price, the store is going to lose a lot of customers.

 

Best of luck!

 

Just my 2¢.

 

Alex

 

Even if I did no extra work I would expect an employee discount.  That used to be standard.  I still get it at my airline - free travel when there is an empty seat, for the rest of my life.

Matt,

 

Not sure if this affects his rationale or not, but didn't your hobby shop just have a theft of around $4k?  I am in no way defending him for you didn't say free, but at costs.  He should at least acknowledge that and see what benefit you are providing him and the business.  Like you said, maybe not work for free anymore.  But I am wondering regardless if there was insurance claims or what , if indeed he is not trying to make up that money and it is causing him not to think about some things that could be considered no brainer.

 

Hope all is well.

Matt, bosses are not hard to find.  Good train repair tech guys are a bit more scarce.  That guy is crazy not to do the right thing for you.  Let him start eating postage to MTH and if he had math in school, it will not take him long to say ooooops, what did I do with Matt.

Too bad the boss doesn't appreciate your efforts. 

Hi Matt - One of the reasons I have been using my LHS for over 21 years is service, even the simple jobs like changing traction tires. Plus I always purchase something when I am in the store. Elmer is the train tech & Bert is sales. They are about 60 miles from my train room.

     I would guess your service talents, also brings in foot traffic.

Talk to him again. Good Luck

Gary • Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Railway

You no longer have any question of your value in your boss'  eyes!

 

Color me gone.

Your mistake was doing free work in the first place. It is not appropriate for an employee to eat warrantee work time.

Just because you work there doesn't mean you have to buy there. Find yourself a better deal with someone else. 

 

My LHS no longer does repairs. The owner of the shop, which is also a hardware store, says it is a losing proposition. The repairs take time and he does not get compensated from the manufacturer for warranty repairs, only parts. Now all repairs go back to the manufacturer. Looks like it's a trend that will continue unless the manufacturers want to take steps to change it. Not likely.

I never had to get something fixed under warranty and really don't know the warranty policies of MTH or Lionel.

 

If a problem engine has to be sent back to the company (policy?) why are there even "Authorized Service Techs" anymore?

 

If what I've said isn't accurate, what determines if an engine gets serviced by a LHS AST or if it has to be sent back to the company?

 

If warranty work is performed by a LHS AST, does the company compensate the LHS for the time spent repairing the item?  If not compensated, why do it (other than it's the RIGHT thing to do)?

 

When LHS ASTs do this work, is the company made aware of these repairs (warranty or non-warranty)?  Do they actually know how much of their stuff is having to get fixed or do they think they're products reliability is better than it actually is?  Can you imagine what kind of cars we'd be driving if none of the dealerships reported repair work back to GM or Ford?

 

My dad (carpenter) used to do jobs for people in our neighborhood for cheap.  He ended up working his butt off for pennies until my mom put her foot down and demanded he start charging what his time was worth.  His workload soon dropped down to a reasonable amount and so did dad's (and mom's) headaches.

I have3 a really big problem with being there for a customer when he is handing me money but when he has a problem with something I sold him telling him I wont help him. Not that I cant help him but that I wont help him. Making the owner the bad guy doesn't make it any easier. But I am also not a charity, I don lots of volunteer work but fixing trains isnt one of those. These people are my customers although one guy in particular seems to break an unusually large number of trains, they are loyal to us we should return the favor. I just cant keep fixing all this stuff for nothing any more. I have lots of other things going one and right now I dont have enough time in the day to fix the paying customers trains in a timely manner

  The theft isn't a concern I can figure into this directly.

A loyal employee deserves a discount..within reason.

Cost is for close friends, and family..that you can say no to! Because...

  On brand new items that should sell pretty easy, "cost" is a chunk of expected, possibly actually counted on profit now gone. You would have to pre-order some of those, or take a much more limited discount.

Older stuff? I might be happy to move things along at a large discount.

   

I once gave at cost discount to my employees.

Till I found out some were reselling books outside the store, to some of my customers.

Those I kept, got a little discount over all but the very best of high volume customers. Oh, those honest ones got a raise too.

 

 

 

quote:

 These people are my customers although one guy in particular seems to break an unusually large number of trains, they are loyal to us we should return the favor.

 

That is a business decision that the hobby shop owner has already made. He has been taking advantage of you. He may find that his business suffers because you put a stop to it. That is his problem, not yours.
I don't charge anything to fix trains for friends, just parts at actual cost, and I don't even get reimbursed for parts from family. Customers get charged.

I order and pre-order all my own stuff, I can honesty say that I paid my own salary for the first three years I worked there. Ive been a pretty loyal customer to my store for quite some time. I fix a lot of stuff for the store and put a lot of items back into sell able inventory. Not to much to ask to buy a locomotive I ordered for myself at cost when I've spent dozens of hours of my own time saving and making you money. I wasnt asking to get paid, I was simply asking that he not make money off me every once in a while. His response was "tell them to send it back to the manufacturer". The store is not counting on my money to keep the lights on, I dont really buy stuff there any more because I already have tons of stuff and because I can get a better deal elsewhere.

That's a shame Matt.  I'm more than a bit surprised that the store doesn't recognize your contributions.  I do have to say that working for nothing for someone that doesn't appreciate it probably isn't much of a return on the time invested.  I can't say I make much on train repairs, but I rarely work for nothing.

He repairs my trains. That's why I buy from him. Oh I'm referring to my local train store.

I have to ask. Is this part of your job description, to do warranty work? If not, sit down and re-negotiate with your boss.

Matt,

 

Sorry to hear.  How close are you to Mercer?

 

Dave

 

Josef, it is just part of good customer service.

I spent the bulk of my career as a field service engineer - fixing complicated machines that almost nobody else could fix. I learned many things from that, but the biggest was this: No one fully appreciates the time, talent, and energy it takes to repair things. People just seem to be upset that the darn thing broke in the first place, even when they abused it.

 

To the great unwashed masses, the culture in this country at least, is that anyone can fix things. Just look at Gomer Pyle on the Andy Griffith show. he was the town mechanic. Look at the movie Alien. There was a spaceship the size of a town and the mechanic was down in the bilge, wearing a baseball cap sideways.

 

Don't expect a lot of love when you fix things. You have to do it for the personal gratification.

 

But if you are going out of your way to fix things and still getting grief from your boss, then to he** with him.

 

This has been a personal rant based on my years of experience. It is not aimed at anyone on this board, except maybe Matt's boss.

According to Google Maps, a long drive!

 

834 miles

John, is that as the crow flies?

I'm not sure what is flying Matt, but it's a long drive.

 

I presume Google Maps routes you on roads, but who knows.

 

If you just ask google how far it is form here to there it will give you the straight line or as the crow flies answer

MapQuest doesn't. They will give you pretty much "turn-by-turn" from your house to any place in the U.S.A., all by highways/streets.

Actually, Google maps gives you turn by turn, I use it all the time.  I used to use Mapquest, but I found Google Maps more accurate, at least for me.  This is the big picture, you can then get the turn-by-turn detail.

 

Turn by Turn details

 

 

Matt this is confusing.  Are the customers yours or the stores?  This situation is not abnormal especially in the days of appliance and TV repairs.  The store owners hires employee's at an hourly rate.  Doesn't matter what type of repair comes in you get your hourly rate.

 

So without more details on your contract, not sure what the issues is.  Clearly MTH and Lionel do not compensate sufficiently for warranty work, but if your on an hrly rate, does it matter if your stocking shelves, selling trains, or repairing one on warranty?  G

George, I don't repair at the store, I do all my repairs at home. That's where all my stuff is. These are all the customers that come to the store to see my n buy trains so I guess you could say both

Then I agree with the above - you probably should have not started that.  You work an eight hour shift, then go home and do free work for your boss?  Not a good idea on several levels, one of which is that you put someone else out of work.  Another is at you place a low value on your time.

That is a very long commute!

 

Dave

Not quite clear on your Warranty work. Did you volunteer to customer when they brought items in? Did your Boss tell you it was part of your job description? If not, and you volunteered, and took items home on your own. Seems you bought the responsibility. If you weren't charging for out of warranty work, or compensated by the manufacturer for warranty work, well? If it was done at the store, backroom, different matter.

 

I agree with GGG that the description of your relationship with the store and customers is confusing.  I agree with CW that it is not appropriate for an employee to have to do work without pay (may also be illegal.

 

It was written many centuries ago that the worker is worthy of his hire.  It is also true.that there are people who want to make money at others' expense and will take whatever the market can bear.  If you want to accept that, that's your problem.  As with drugs, just say no!

 

I suspect Mercer PA is too long a commute.

 

If you're retired or have other income, consider working for your self doing repairs on the side without a store.

Tell you what RJR is on to something if you can work elsewhere you may want to the repair business will find you believe me with very little effort from you you can have repair business easy you may have to look into becoming a parts supplier for MTH/Lionel to get parts at a better price as like boxcar Bill he was not a store but a parts so he didn't per-say need a storefront 

You may have to do some advertising at first but not a lot I would think. 

Either way I agree you should not be doing work for free 

I guess a home business would be better, but can one make a living repairing trains?  Seems to me that if you charge enough to make it worth your while folks will just trash their model and buy a new one.  My experience is that repairing 2-rail stuff can often result in a cost higher than the cost of another model of the same type.  Even a good paint job can go well over $300.

You notice I said if you have other income, like a pension.