@HonnyBrown wrote:

I did this audit this morning. It took about 3 hours. I had the lead mechanic at my disposal, and he showed me where the special tools and equipment were located. That saved a lot of time.

Honny,
Is there a lot of lifting of heavy tools? Or ladder climbing? I ask because this summer I went through having to recuperate from a large herniated disk, and have done great with the physical therapy, but wouldn't want to jeopardize my recovery by doing heavy lifting or a lot of stretching. TIA for your insight!

I have performed two shops, both which took 4 hours. The first was the better organized and the tool drawer was in the parts department. I had the Service Manager's list with the missing but ordered tools. Some had been received. The second one was way less organized. However it was easier to do. I could see know knocking them down to 3 hours.

Pictures. The tool cabinet is high. I used a step ladder to get high enough to take pictures of tool drawers 1-5, then could do the rest standing on the floor. The pictures of the dealership equipment was not as hard as it first looked. However it may take some deft moving to get the model or serial numbers as the equipment may be around other equipment. Most offered to move equipment (except the bench lathe but the serial number was easy to get to). However at 60 I relish the chance to move in tight spaces and my goal is to impose as little on the employees as needed so I kneeled and got the numbers. Software updates were estimated or in the first one I forgot. It did not require returning and I received a 10.

How I Performed the audit. During the second audit, the employee who assisted me provided me with a booklet that had the part number and the drawer. For all the loose tools, it saved much time to locate the sheet.

I keep in mind that it may cost the dealership money if they have to order a missing tool. I made sure to match the part number to both the drawer and the list.

There was no heavy lifting or stretching. The only thing that came close was squeezing into a tight space to get a serial number.

@guysmom wrote:

Honny,
Is there a lot of lifting of heavy tools? Or ladder climbing? I ask because this summer I went through having to recuperate from a large herniated disk, and have done great with the physical therapy, but wouldn't want to jeopardize my recovery by doing heavy lifting or a lot of stretching. TIA for your insight!

Thanks for that info, Honny...appreciate it!

I'm still eyeballing one of these shops. It has since gone up to $150?!?! Because the rural-ness of it. Is it worth it folks to take a day and spend the 4-8 hours on this audit? I have minimal mechanic tool knowledge so I know I would be slower.

Also, how are the coaching calls ? Do a bunch of us call in and talk as a group or is it a one on one session? Seems time intensive

FYI do not be surprised that when you give available dates that you are assigned and suddenly you find that you've been assigned to go today and were not informed. Keep track of the dates you say that you are available. You will need to keep them open because the assigned date likely will show on your Shop Log but you will not be informed via email.

@whosear wrote:

FYI do not be surprised that when you give available dates that you are assigned and suddenly you find that you've been assigned to go today and were not informed. Keep track of the dates you say that you are available. You will need to keep them open because the assigned date likely will show on your Shop Log but you will not be informed via email.

I haven't signed up yet. Need a little more info on the phone call training and if one trip should knock it out. Are we allowed to take a partner to help? My spouse would be great at this but he doesn't sign up for any mystery shops.

The call was not very informative. Hannah went over the guidelines, and that was it.

The shop itself is simple. You really just need to match a picture on the form with what's in the tool cabinet. Then you have a lead walk you to the remaining items. You really don't need tool knowledge.

I think there are 4 of these in my area that are up to $150, so I applied for a couple. Can't pass that up!

I was thinking about that fee too. I've decided if it's there in the morning, I'll go ahead and apply for it. If it's already snagged up for the money, ah well. Maybe next time.

Does anyone have the scheduler's email or name for this shop? I'm not able to hook up anybody new to apply. I guess the system spits them out for being a new shopper.

hannah.brown@intelli-shop.com

I've been approved for three in January. At the higher rate.

I was considering this: I am bound by confidentiality. How much about the audits that I performed can I share here? I sometimes wonder why MSC's do not have forums for their shoppers. I can think of several recurring shops that I do when I run into a novel situation such as associates counts that could be clarified if shoppers shared information.

Don't give out the names of the specialized tools, the name of the tool company, or the items in the audit list.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

hannah.brown@intelli-shop.com

Thanks for the info. No response, though. Jobs are just sitting on the board, and my spouse's application wont even go through. I think its because of being a new shopper, but they dont know about his mechanical experience.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2016 09:35PM by Mom knows.

Was his background put into the comments to scheduler section? Writing something like, "I have good rapport with mechanics" might go a long way.

Yep whosear

I don't think Hannah works Sundays or Mondays. I reached out to her both days last week, and she called me on Tuesday.

@Mom knows wrote:

@HonnyBrown wrote:

hannah.brown@intelli-shop.com

Thanks for the info. No response, though. Jobs are just sitting on the board, and my spouse's application wont even go through. I think its because of being a new shopper, but they dont know about his mechanical experience.

I admit, I've been on pins and needles waiting for someone to contact me about the items I missed during this audit. Other than the signed authorization sheet, there was nothing major, but there were definitely items missing.

I received feedback yesterday. A rating of 10. I'm not complaining!

I caved and snagged two of these up. One of them hit $175 and another hit $200. I couldn't pass it up. For that kind of money, I can figure it out or kindly ask for help from an associate It seems pretty okay, but my print shop doesn't carry the large paper. Do you suppose 11x14 would be okay? I called ahead and they told me that was the largest they have and that it may take extra time because of a finicky printing machine.

I am going on my 5th one they seem a lot more intimidating than they are. For me the longest was loading the pictures when entering the audit. They take between 2 - 21/2 hours onsite after the first one and roughly 30 - 45 minutes to enter

I printed on 8-1/2x11" because that was what Staples had (believe it or not). The pages "shrunk to fit," and I could read everything clearly.

If you send the file to the print shop, as opposed to using a USB drive, make sure you can see all of the pages before you send it. I had issues with that and Hannah did not respond to my requests for help.

The shops are very easy, especially if one of the mechanics helps you.

@clinen11 wrote:

I caved and snagged two of these up. One of them hit $175 and another hit $200. I couldn't pass it up. For that kind of money, I can figure it out or kindly ask for help from an associate It seems pretty okay, but my print shop doesn't carry the large paper. Do you suppose 11x14 would be okay? I called ahead and they told me that was the largest they have and that it may take extra time because of a finicky printing machine.

I did the first two shops with standard size paper because Fed Ex charged $22 -$25 and the reimbursement was $10. It was ok for the first one, but a problem on the second as the service tech needed to look at the diagram for the tool. They upped the reimbursement to $30. i've done two in the past two days with the 11" X 17" and the larger diagram came in handy as I had to show it to each technician.
I can share my experiences. My audits have taken as few as 3 hours and over 5 hours. I've found it helpful to use a high lighter to mark the missing tools so that when I review with the Service Manager, he can see the number of missing tools.

This is my list of auxilliary materials:

high lighter (extra)
heavy duty wet wipes (the tools, particularly if stored in the service area, are dirty.
my computer
two step foot stool or ladder (surprisingly, these are in short supply at dealer ships.) And that SST tool box is tall!

whosear, where do you set your computer?

The dealership I went to wasn't that dirty, surprisingly. They gave me some nitrile gloves. I had on a white jacket and it didn't get dirty, not even when I had to squeeze in a tight space to get a serial number.

The step stool is a great idea.

I know they were stressing business casual and nice jeans. I have a nice pair of dark blue jeans that are old and greasy from oil changes, and a pair of partial steel toe boots I was going to wear. There's a word for what the boots are, but it escapes me... they apparently come in three different varieties of steel length. They may not be necessary, but there's a few inches of snow on the ground and the boots are waterproof/weather resistant.

I wore my work boots also. I didn't know if tools would be handled/dropped, so I erred on the side of caution. Turns out, I only touched the tools if I wanted to.

I still can't believe my audit was accepted.

Smarter than me. I got the audit from hell today. Place mats were back to 2011, nothing in the right place, and I touched all the tools. Chest was located in the lube/machine room and was the dirtiest I've seen. Plus the Service Manager was a numbers guy. Did not know a thing about tools. None of the mechanics were available. By now, I would have wasted an hour or two working with the service manager. He did put in 5 of the updated place mats. Fortunately the pay was good.

Oh, that's awful! Most of the place mats at my location were the wrong year.