 Hi, ma'am. How's it going? Can you explain something to me? You charged me a diagnostic fee, but you didn't fix anything. The diagnostic fee. I'll tell you what guys, this is a big question that you're gonna have a lot of people ask. Let's go in to find out. Now that's the question that us as technicians and a lot of service writers hear quite often. And it's also one of the most controversial questions that there are in the independent and dealership atmospheres together is What kind of fees are gonna have to be charged for diagnostic times? Should they be charged? When should they be charged? How much should they be charged? That's what we're gonna cover in today's video. So scenario number one, customer comes in, they've got an electrical problem. My blower, it's not working all the time. It's working just when I hit bumps here and there and you know, just randomly it'll go in and out. So I need that one looked at. So at that point your service writer should, should be advising the customer on what kind of fees and what kind of diagnostic time they're gonna be looking at. The technician needs to bring the vehicle back. They need to verify the complaint. They need to diagnose what caused that complaint and then they need to get a quote on what it's gonna take to fix that complaint. They're gonna go through all of this, get that nice quote for you, and then put it forward and give that one to the customer. Customer then says, well, I don't know if I like the price on that one. I'm gonna have to go someplace else and I think I should get a second opinion, which is your prerogative. You know, you guys are allowed to do that. Not a problem. I wouldn't recommend this on, you know, a lot of smaller things, but a lot of bigger things that could be severe or major fixes. That would be a good idea to get a couple of different opinions from different shops, especially when you're in the thousands of dollar range. But then the customer says, well, I don't feel like doing it right now. And then all of a sudden they get handed a bill for $90. Well, why did you charge me that $90? That was, you know, that you guys didn't fix anything. Why am I being charged this? Well, that's the whole point of diagnostic fees. You have to explain to them that, you know, our guys don't work for free. I don't work for free. You guys don't want to work for free. That needs to be explained to the customer that the technicians don't work for free. The dealership is not a nonprofit organization. They have to be able to diagnose your vehicle, find out what's wrong with it. They have to use all kinds of these fancy tools that we're going to see here in a minute as well to diagnose your vehicle. You have to explain that to them, and then you have to charge them a diagnostic fee. Now, for other reasons and independent places and dealerships, there are different circumstances to which they will charge those fees. A lot of the time some shops, especially independent shops, may try to incentivize people to keep their business with that shop for doing the diagnostics. Once the diagnostics are done, they may have the process there in their shop that says, if you end up doing the work, then we will either waive the diagnostic fee or we will cut it in half depending on if you have to put the vehicle back together or something along those lines. A lot of the independent shops are doing that right now just to say, you know, we're relevant and we're trying to keep your business here with us. And I totally get that one. But 95% of the time here at dealerships, their diagnostic fees are going to be put in with the quote and you're going to have to pay them. Whether you have the vehicle there, whether you bring it back or whether you're not even going to do it at all, you're going to be charged that diagnostic fee. Now, why is that? Because us as technicians have to own all these things like this. Now, I am going to reference this by saying that each technician does not need to own these tools, but having some of these makes the diagnostic process a whole lot easier. Us technicians, we've got to have meters, multimeters, test pins, inspection cameras, test lights, different tools, variations of tools to be able to take these vehicles apart. Specialty, electronic things, battery testers, all these specialty tools that us as technicians are required to have. And then there's other things such as scan tools. Not every place requires technicians to have their own scan tools, but some technicians would rather not wait to have to share one between, you know, multiple technicians in the shop. They would rather have their own. So we've all got our own versions of scan tools here and there to be able to do our own diagnostic testing on people's vehicles without having to wait for the shop ones. So us as technicians have to pay for all of these. And then the dealership has to own all different kinds of things for specialty tools as well. Like, for instance, over here in our dealership one, we've got our Zeus, we've got our dealer specific scan tools, our DRB3, TPMS programming for the dealership. We've got meters for our hybrid electric vehicles, you know, all of these specialty tools and not to mention the specialty tools like these then stored up here as the dealership has all of these specialty tools as well. Tools, tools, tools, more tools, specialty tools. The sad thing is, you know, out of these 3000 plus catalog specialty tools here that we have in our dealership, not mountain bikes. Those aren't special tools. All these cases, everything that's required through Chrysler to have for specialty tools for diagnosing and fixing these vehicles properly. The dealership has to purchase every single one of these. Now this is, you know, ranging anywhere from, you know, could be four or five hundred bucks for a case, could be a couple thousand dollars for a transmission testing case. They're very expensive tools. We've got specialty electronics, testing equipment for PCMs, ABS modules, seals, different gauges, different fuel pressure testing kits, just all kinds of kits galore. And most of them are going to be for that diagnostic procedure of these newer vehicles. Now I could go into specialty tools for just a really long time. There's AC machines, specialty flush machines, big old battery testers and tenders that we've got as well. They could go on and on. So in other words, it takes a lot of money to have all of these tools for diagnostics to properly diagnose vehicles. Between scoping and, you know, specialty diagnostic time, you've got to pull an intake to do a compression test. It also takes a lot of time. It's not like, oh, I can just plug in that scan tool right away and it's going to tell me a code and that's what I replace. Nope, that's what the guys at AutoZone do. That's not what we as technicians do. We actually diagnose vehicles and give proper diagnosis and quotes on what is going to take to fix your vehicle. If that's not the case, then you're not, you know, talking to an actual technician you're talking to a parts hanging code reader. There's a lot of those out there. Sorry to say, but the majority of the technicians, this is what actually has to go on for diagnosing and testing vehicles. Now the next question they may ask is, well, you guys are already in that area. So why do I need to pay the full fee for the diagnostic and for you guys to fix it? Now that is a good question and very relevant I might add as well. If for some reason like, okay, I had to pull the intake plenum off to do a check for the ignition coils or compression test of the motor, then one of the things that you might be able to do as a shop owner or as a foreman or as a service writer is discount that labor on the diagnostic for a bit because, okay, they might have to have that apart already to do the fix already that you're already there for. Now that's not always the case on our end. Most of the time I will get in there to do the diagnostics and then being in the Chrysler dealership world, parts are not always exactly readily available, especially when you have to use Mopar parts under warranty. So we're going to be waiting on parts for at least the day. Most of the people these days, they are running on single cars for a single person. So they don't have a spare one just hanging around. They have to have that one to be able to get home if it's not a major issue. So what do we have to do? We have to put the vehicle back together and then they're going to have to bring it back again. And I'm going to have to put that intake back on and then I'm going to have to take it all back apart to be able to do that fix when it finally comes in. So that's where the diagnostic fee will definitely be charged, at least here in the dealership. Like I said, the other independent shops and if you own your own shop, then that's going to be under your own discretion whether you want to charge the customer that amount for having to take it apart to Diag and then put it back together and take it apart again to do the final fix. The next question that a lot of technicians and other shop owners ask is that why would you charge the full price for the diagnostic? Now there are some incentives that a lot of shops try to give to getting people in. They might charge half of their normal hourly fee for diagnostics. They might try to roll it in with something else or they offer them incentives on, you know, on an oil change if they wanted to add that on as well. Some kind of incentive to offset that diagnostic fee. Now what if for some reason the vehicle comes in with multiple concerns? The customer states that, oh, my blower motor is acting up. Oh yeah, by the way, I've got a brake noise at like 60 miles an hour when I'm slowing down. Oh yeah, and when I try to open my back hatch, I hear this loud pop noise. Oh yeah, in my radio. Don't forget my radio. Whenever I try to make an outgoing call, sometimes it automatically hangs up on me for some reason. Well, all of these are different concerns in totally different areas of the vehicle. Also, that is going to be up to your specific shops prerogative on whether they want to charge separate diagnostic fees for separate diagnosing of those issues. If you have to move on to different areas of the vehicle, then obviously there's going to be more time in taking those things apart. And that's going to be kind of on a case by case basis. Now there are some shops like ours where we don't generally like to charge over the initial one hour of diagnostic time without prior consent from the customer. If we have to, you know, tear part of the dash apart to get to some place, we're going to have to get prior authorization from the customer to take this apart because, you know, we're going to be diving into this and to properly diagnose it. We've got to have more diagnostic time to get in, get to this module to be able to diagnose it properly or find a wiring issue, can bus communication issues. Those are going to be some of the worst ones that we as technicians have to deal with diagnosing because they're just, you know, elusive and they don't like to be found very often. It's just kind of a pain in the butt. So when you're talking about multiple lines, that's going to be a case by case basis on whether you're going to charge those multiple diagnostic fees for those multiple issues. For you people on the customer side of things, I hope this was a little bit more enlightening for you guys to be able to understand what goes into having to diagnose vehicles, what kind of tools and things that are required, how much time goes into it. It's not a free process. It's not like we just have to hook up a scan tool and be able to boom, magically got what's wrong with your car right away. It was that easy. This isn't a magic crystal ball that I have sitting over here. This is a toolbox full of tools, diagnostics, things that help me get through the jobs and help me diagnose your vehicle the best possible way that we can. That is what we are ultimately trying to help people to understand and the biggest part is going to be the person-to-person interaction of that as well. If you go through all of this diagnostic process, it's all in vain if the service writer or person who is talking to that customer can't convey what you are trying to do. If they can't convey how much time it's going to take, what kind of process is going to go into fixing it or the kind of parts and tools that it's going to take as well. I always say that more information is better. Being able to tell these customers in a plain enough voice and being able to tell them in a plain enough manner to where they will understand that, not trying to make you feel dumb or anything, but just so you are assisted in understanding what goes on in the process. Well guys, that's about all I've got for you today. I really appreciate you guys tuning in. Don't forget we did go live on our Toolheads Create Subscription service. We're going to put the link right up here. Make sure you guys go and check that one out. Myself and MrJRC54 have recently started a monthly subscription service for Toolheads, Toollovers, and in general, just people who love working with tools and on vehicles. Make sure you go check that one out. It's going to be something you guys are definitely going to want to see. I appreciate you guys stopping in. Thanks and you guys stay awesome.