01/08/2026
Happy new year! It's always uncomfortable making posts like this but we're big on transparency and that's the entire point so please nobody take it the wrong way. Everything in this post is said at face value.
We're a small shop with a small crew by design. We take pride in our craft and the feeling that we do our best to truly help people, our community. We all need money to live but no one on this team is here for money alone. When things get too big they usually lose their touch, that's not the direction we want to go. I say that because for some the idea of hiring more help probably sounds like a solution but we're just not there right now.
We have been absolutely slammed with work this week and now spilling over into the coming weeks, some scheduled and a surprising amount of break downs. We do our absolute best to stick to schedules, get both scheduled repairs and break downs/unplanned worked turned around as quickly as realistically possible. We put in more late nights than we probably should, our families asking us when we're going to be home, not for money, but because we genuinely care and sometimes it's the only option to getting you or the next person their vehicle back. (Not crying the blues here just communicating).
We get it, vehicles in some fashion are most people's lively hoods. Whether it's a working truck or van or the car that gets you to and from work and carts the kids around, grabs groceries, doctors appointments etc etc. Life can feel like it stops when you're without wheels.
We are extremely flattered, genuinely, how many of you out there see us as your go to mechanics. A tradesmen being recognized for their skills in their craft is one of the most fulfilling experiences one can enjoy. The referrals and new faces, people who we've never dealt with before who have heard such great things from all of you just immediately put that same level of trust in us right on the introduction. Here's my keys do your thing. We would have never imagined to be that well respected by so many of you.
It is truly an honor. Thank you
The ugly side to that, is we go through periods where we just cannot keep up. Early mornings, late nights, extra days, doesn't matter. 98% of people we deal with are extremely flexible and understanding and we appreciate that more than you'll ever know. It makes life a lot easier. We understand the importance of keeping to a schedule and we do our best, try to call people if things change, need to get pushed back etc.
One thing we rank as a high priority that makes this dilemma worse is believe it or not thoroughness and quality of workmanship. We want everyone leaving with a thorough, high quality, safe repair. Very often do we run into unforeseen variables, or find major issues that weren't part of the original customer concern. Maybe you came in for brakes and a routine service, you noticed a clunk going over bumps but didn't think a ton of it. We look over your vehicle and find a ball joint falling apart lose, a true urgent safety concern for you, your occupants and everyone else on the road. Do we do your brakes, send you on your way, and tell you to come back in a couple weeks? We could, and we do when it's something that should be addressed but isn't urgent or time sensitive. But something like a major safety concern, that should be done immediately unless you plan to keep the vehicle out of service. Most of everyone agrees, the kicker is now the schedule got pushed, and the next one, and the next one, and that just snowballs. We will always prioritize taking our time to insure everything is done correctly over cutting corners to favor timing, quality requires it so.
To be clear, when we are prioritizing properly we still feel this is the correct way to handle it, just communicating how quickly a schedule can fall apart. The schedule is a template and we do our best to stick to it but we can't see the true value in prioritizing appointments and arbitrary time slots over actually producing a true long term solution for people. Often times you can't plan for what exactly you will get into until you've had the vehicle to diagnose it and actually determine what we're up against. Most of everyone does great with this, we're not complaining, just being transparent on our values and strategy. At glance it might seem unstructured but EVERYTHING maybe even sometimes to a fault, everything that we do is tactical. If you trust us with your car and finances you can trust that we have analyzed as many variables and options as efficiently possible for almost all matters.
The second really big one, which is a pain point for a lot of you and we totally understand, is that communications can seem like they fall off a cliff when we're over capacity. For some true for others no.
No exaggeration there are days where 2-3 of us could stand at the phone and take back to back calls all day long. People trying to schedule an appointment, make an inquiry, call on their vehicle, maybe it's one of our multiple parts vendors calling us on something we're hot for. We're flattered, it's a good problem to have but at some point there is absolutely no point continuing to answer the phone if doing so prevents us from actually repairing vehicles. A big one that often gets over looked, if we're in the middle of a safety sensitivity function, maybe its torquing wheels etc, or some other process that really shouldn't be interrupted (that's when accidents and mistakes happen, things get missed etc.), the phone is going unanswered on purpose. It's nothing personal, we'll do our best to get back to you. If we're available we will answer it, promise.
Work in progress always takes priority, if we only have the bandwidth to handle x calls in a day, communicating with vendors for parts needs on those jobs and updates or authorization requests from customers will take priority. Again it's not that we don't want to deal with you or work on your car it's just us doing our best to find some balance and actually accomplish some tangible work.
If you come in to pick up your vehicle, pay the bill, or drop it off and share your symptoms, and the rest of the team is hands on with a repair and then the phone rings, we're not ignoring it, please don't judge us, we are prioritizing as best as possible. It's not fair to you to make you stand and wait so I can take a call, that might take 5-10 minutes to wrap up, just to be able to say we did so.
To be very very clear there is nothing facetious intended in this communication, take it at face value please. We're just clearing the air, being an open book, (or sharing the dirty laundry as some would say.in the corporate world :p). Don't feel that you can't call or stop in etc. that is NOT the intention here. Just understand if we can't handle it immediately there is a why.
We thank all of you for even making any of these challenges possible. They're good problems to have. Thank you for taking the time to read, thank you for understanding, your patience and your trust. There really are some wonderful people out there who bring a lot of light into this world and being able to interact with a high concentration of good hearted amazing people like yourselves is an absolute dream. Thank you for being you as well and doing your part to brighten up your part of the world.
Stay safe out there and we'll see you on the next one 👍✌️ - The Pennellville Garage Team
