Technical help over the phone?

GW

Ever been reluctant to spill all your hard earned knowledge to someone over the phone? I've been there, almost daily. I was the direct beneficiary of a piece of technical advice today, and the guy didn't know me from a hole in the wall.

We have a not-too-well-known truck called a Bering. Bering went out of business last year- yay. The Bering tossed a cylinder head (or two) just after the 18 month warranty period. After two months in the shop in Connecticut, (I'm in Mass, one state north) we finally got it back. Lucky for me, it was under Detroit's warranty.

So here I am about one week later, cruising around in it, and the thing starts bogging big time. It was towards empty, so I had Carol in the office come get me, dumped 4 or so gallons into it, no different. "Great", I say, another trip to Connecticut.

I called the Detroit Diesel people in Ct. and explained what was happening. When I asked what it could possibly be, the guy said, "I have no idea, bring it down and we'll look at it next week".

I called the same towing company who brought it down in December, told them where the truck was, bla bla. They say, "oh, around $400". I say "last time in was $287, let me get back to you" (I was already not in a great mood, mind you). I called this other big rig towing co and he says "It will be 400-500 bucks. But let me ask you, are you sure the fuel is OK? This weather is causing problems- check your fuel filter." I say "Hey, thanks for the tip, I actually have a fuel filter in the shop."

I put it on and it's all set.

There is a moral to this story, I haven't put my finger on it. Was I shopping for a better price? YES. Was I willing to spend good hard earned cash? YES. Am I grateful someone took a few minutes and clued me in on what to look for? Very much YES. I will tune in to callers needing easy help for now on, because it will come back to me tri-fold some day.

Gary


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nick z.

Advice

Gary,like you and the rest of us here on the wall who do good work at fair prices should be buiser than we need to be. Thats the way we all like it. So my thought is I don'talways need the work,but if you give somone some godd simple advice you have gained a custmer. I wouldn't want to tell some on how to check a cad cell, but I've told many a people how to unclog a drain line.