KIA Tool Audit

Has anybody else had a higher expense on copies on this project? They max out at $25.00 and won’t reimburse more no matter how many audits you do. Guidelines show up to $100 reimbursement authorization. Then got cut to $25.00 I found a local printer who was the most cost effective. Was told too bad. Nothing like using your own fee to cover expenses for the client. Guidelines are poorly written. Parts of the audit we are not doing. Yet in the training they asked for invoices and calibration records. Anyone audit these? Experience feedback is welcome.

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I did those a number of years ago.. I still have the extra expensive notebook/binder and the pages I had printed. It's a very stressful day, and the shops don't keep the tools organized the way they want them to be. I never got reimbursed for the special paper and binder, or for any other expenses I incurred simply to be allowed into the garage and tool areas. The good news is that the pay will go up, significantly, because it's a very short timeline.

I don't know if the schedulers are the same, but when I did it they didn't communicate well. They sent an email and told me to be somewhere by 08:00 at 10:00, I get that it's probably a time difference because they are in a different part of the country, but it didn't change the results, I didn't go because I couldn't be over an hour away from my home 2 full hours before I even got the email.

So far the people at MS are good with communication. My issue with them is the scheduler needs approval for everything and claims "it won't be a problem" yet, when you try and collect it's a denial. Hunting down Service Mgr's not so much. Not one manager wants this audit. And you need to treat them with kids gloves to get them on the same page and give them time to prepare so you have a smooth audit. I am glad I only started with a few. I have a bad taste in my mouth already. You would think they would have printed materials mailed to the auditors. They claim to cover additional time, We shall see... No tolls, or travel time for multiple States. Yet another company taking advantage of IC's. fees and time to support their program.

I use Crowdtap. The surveys are short and easy to complete whenever I happen to have time. The pay is reasonable.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Is this the one where they want you to dress professionally while spending hours in a (working) garage environment? That alone was enough for me to take a hard pass.

If your path dictates you walk through hell, do it as though you own the place. -unknown

This will be my first one. I will print the pages using my own printer and paper just as I do with any other shop that requires printing. How nice that they offered to pay up to $25. However, I am wondering how to calculate my cost per page and how to provide them with a receipt.

There's seriously that much to print?

If your path dictates you walk through hell, do it as though you own the place. -unknown

@drdoggie00 wrote:

There's seriously that much to print?

about 30 pages. . . about the same as a Chev gas station audit.

I've done seven so far and after the first, they've gone off without a hitch. I have a copy of the form I printed that I keep to make copies with. And I don't make color copies just for three pages that have badly colored thumbnails. My last audit was 3.25 hours. I have a simple black shirt and a pair of black jeans that I wear along with a pair of black, skid-proof boots. I dress professionally for the situation I am in. A repair shop is no place for khakis, imho.

I just completed my first and only round of these, and I have absolutely nothing good to say about them. The whole project was as poorly managed as I've ever seen, by both the MSC and the client, and I mean I've done a LOT of dealership audits like these. Errors on the report that "Sorry, we can't get those fixed, you just have to work around them", typos in the 36-tab spreadsheet that had to be printed on 11x17 paper - except that they didn't make sure that they FIT on 11x17 paper (they didn't), unanswered emails, snotty service managers who didn't do a thing to prepare and had no gumption about letting their auditors come in and be forced to completely organize THEIR tools - what an absolute sh*tshow. I hope these folks at least have the good sense to be embarrassed.

I did two of them. The first one was an 11-hour audit from hell. Staff was not at all prepared. The second one was the exact opposite and took 3 1/2 hours.

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