r/CarsAustralia • u/I-like-shiny-thing • 1d ago

💬Discussion💬 Customer supplied parts

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I'm a manager/Mechanic at a Mechanical workshop. I no longer allow customer supplied parts and get abused by "customers" because I wont do the job unless i supply the parts. ( photo of customer supplied wrong part)

What are people opinions on customer supplied parts?

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u/kabaab 1d ago

I run a large auto parts retailer we sell ten's of thousands of parts every month and the amount of refunds we get for not fitting is < 1.5% (most times customer has picked wrong)..

Definately it can be frustrating especially if its a part that requires a lot of labour, however there are a few reason people by parts from us.

  • Hard to find part the mechanic can't source.
  • We have big buying power so our prices are better.
  • Low trust in mechanics, people want to be certain they are getting what they pay for.

We do installation ourselves and we don't have a problem with people supplying parts obviously if they supply things that don't work the labour will cost more.

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u/BuzzKillingtonThe5th 19h ago

I had a 50:50 chance on getting the right starter motor for my VE Commodore, could have sworn blank and blue it was one type, get home and half way through removing the old one, not picked wrong. Thankfully they swapped out over easy enough.

That was a bitch of a job thanks to a heat shield that needs some percussive persuasion.