There’s a statement about fast-food that I learned about in my younger days: if the bag is clear enough to see through, it is greasy and therefore tasty. So, naturally, I assumed that the best way to gauge the tastiness of a bucket of Kentucky’s best fried chicken was to see if the slightly creepy old man on the side in the seersucker suit disappeared, revealing the extra tasty crispiness of a bunch of edible bird. Health-food people might freak out at the thought, but some foods need to be greasy: burgers, fried chicken, pizza. Dammit, now I’m hungry…
Anyways, there’s plenty of things in life that shouldn’t be greasy, and the surface of brake pads is one of them.Yet, counter clerk Brandon got an eyeful of some greasy pads that came back across the counter, probably for a return. What would you tell the customer who is standing in front of you, demanding a refund?
Probably read that you put a wee smear of high-temp moly grease on the backing plates to keep them from squeaking and got his wires crossed.
Or blew up a bearing.
No biggie, stopping is unimportant.
I completely missed the closing question about what I would do if I were the counter guy.
If the customer is a regular and has a great attitude and just made a one-off “whoopsie” with these pads, I’d go ahead and give them a refund. Chances are they’re spending enough here on a regular basis that we can afford to eat forty bucks in order to ensure they keep coming back. Plus, good attitude pays.
If the customer isn’t a regular but is still pretty nice about it and honest about their mistake, I’d probably knock 10-15% off the next set and make sure they leave with solid instructions on where the grease goes. Lesson learned.
If the customer is a jerk: sorry, rules are rules. We didn’t grease your brake pads for you, did we?
totally depends if thats how they left the store… if the rest of your stock is dry then maybe you can assume this dude did something but if any of your other pads look like this…. give the nice man his money back
Look in the box. The brake grease is right there. Pretty obvious what happened… if you don’t explain to the customer how and where to apply anti-squeak grease (or they won’t listen), then don’t bother giving it to them.
Plus, I’ve never bought parts or tools from my local parts store without the counter clerk popping open the box and physically inspecting them with me.
Reminds me of an older gentleman that asked me and another tech if he could coat his brake rotors in WD-40 because he couldn’t stand the unsightly build-up of surface rust overnight. My co-worker’s reply was “Well, you could do that, but you better hope there aren’t any trees on the first turn you come to.”
Yeah no, this would be a refusal at my store, for sure. Unless I knew the guy and knew he wasn’t a moron, and had a good explanation. Occasionally used-parts-in-box happens, it’s rare though.
At the big O you would warranty the pads and grease. Then you would apologize for your help not being smart enough to tell the customer where the grease goes. Then give him a free can of brake cleaner to clean the mess. And offer him a rewards card.
Warranty exchange the pads and grease for the customer, add on a sale of a can of brake clean for the rotors and anti seize for the wheel studs. Quick tutorial on how much and where to apply them. Then congratulate original counterman on getting the add on sale, while coaching him on relaying the correct info to the customer. Hell just read the directions real quick.
1. Ask the customer if the grease was on the pad when removed from the box. If the grease pack was between pad 2 & 3 it could have popped in shipping.
2. Ask the customer if they applied the grease to the pad. If so explain they need to use brake parts cleaner and sell them a can while explaining how to remedy the situation.
If it’s a big deal with a fit/show, just exchange. If they become a problem explain why you no longer will do business.
Some counter people up seal someone caliper slide grease they don’t need, just like gasket seal that is not needed. The lessor skilled think because they need it now they must use it. Never mind the damage the did with it.
I had a counter guy try to up-sell me brake pad grease, more then the amount included in the pad set. He told me what comes with the pad set was not even enough for one, let alone all 4 pads. Ill bet his customers brakes all have poor performance.