automotive technician

automotive mechanic

automotive service advisor

service writer

master technician

Honest-1 Auto Care

Each shop owned by the owner I work under has it's own culture and rules. The benefit package is minimal and does not even include company sponsored healthcare or the uniforms required for the job. 

The workday is pretty typical for an automotive shop. Flow can range from "hurry up and wait" to completely dead to a constant push to move cars through. Although management is more likely to ask for too much time from customers rather than too little, which does make the environment less stressful.

The team here was pretty solid but there has been some shuffling of technicians and this location is down to 2 main reliable techs, of which I am one. My understanding is there is some search for more techs going on but I stay out of management.

I do love that we get lots of different, strange work in the shop. We are the go to recommendation for the closest Firestone when they don't want to work on an obscure problem. We have a number of regulars who bring us every problem and suggest us to their friends.

The best part of this job is that I have gotten to work with guys who have decades more experience than I have. I have learned so much about diagnostics and repair from the guys I work with here, and when I leave I will miss their experience and willingness to help me out and share their knowledge. I hope that whatever job I take on next has at least one guy willing to share in the same way.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Employer Provided many free lunches. Work hours and flexibility in working around doctor’s appointments. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The owner of the company could be challenging to making an employee not feel appreciated enough. Driving in rush hour traffic to get parts or shuttle customers and sometimes dropping off vehicles or responding to emergency calls. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The manager was very easy to work with. The mechanics made it difficult for me to work around and made a lot of unnecessary messes that i had to deal with. The hourly pay was very low and below average for all the responsibilities I performed. Lack of communication towards myself and in including myself in the day to day planning and activities. It became better towards the end of my employment though.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Cleaning floors, sweeping/mopping in the garage bays and the restrooms, Washing windows, gathering up trash,and recycling oil catch canisters and  breaking down and recycling cardboard. Shuttle customers to and from their homes and workplaces. Picking up Tires and auto parts.Running errands and dropping off and picking up customers vehicles.

Having been at this company multiple times, the same issues repeatedly present themselves.  This company continues to provide the bare minimum and expect results to exceed expectations.  It is regularly expected for employees to perform multiple people's jobs with no additional compensation and when this is not accomplished, you are declared a failure.  Corporate provides an incredibly toxic work environment with open disregard for employee concerns or input.  There is extremely little genuine automotive knowledge in leadership outside of the stores.  The corporate area manager does nothing, simply sits in stores and looks for things to write up without providing any assistance.  Expect to be fielding multiple customers simultaneously, both in person and over the phone only for them to hide in a corner and offer no contributions.  There may be plenty of promises made when you are brought on, but always take those with a substantial grain of salt.  Unless you are a flat-rate technician who turns significant hours, do not expect to feel like anything more than a waste of payroll.  There are much better work cultures in this industry provide by companies that do the same, if not better than this one.

Main issue was with owners and how they operate. Cuthroat to ensure profit at the expense of employee's time and effort. Mandatory saturdays and expected to work overtime everyday. Expect to not have a life outside of this company. Minimal staffing causing longer wait times and missed sales/ hours turned opportunities. Advancement opportunities for the right candidate as well as test and registration fee reimbursement (with passing score). As a technician, typical day would be busy but work distribution would be unfair. Workplace culture was about being busy and making money. Employee satisfaction and happiness was always low. Discrepancies would be present on many payroll checks and would not be settled in a timely manner. Hardest part of the job would be dealing with poor management/owners and inexperienced service advisors. Most enjoyable part would be the technician relationships/ shop atmosphere.

When I first worked for this company it was great, I felt heard, appreciated, and wanted to help grown the company. After years of giving the company everything I could (including a TON of my time, like 6 day work weeks), I started to notice that my compensation was extremely low. Others I knew in other companies who did not work as hard as I did, where making exponentially more than I was. After a while ownership changed a bit and things got a LOT more "Corporate" feel and started to hear more: "Why did you get more from them?!" This changed the Ma & Pa community feeling out of the company and made if feel more money hungry than anything. Bonuses were near impossible to attain and the littlest thing will cost you the whole thing. 

This is a good company to start your service writing career to gain experience but I would recommend keeping an ear to the ground looking for something better. If you are a technician you are better taken care of and if you prove your worth they will do what it takes to keep you. I truly miss the way this company was in the early years and it hurt to leave but they also need to realize that they will only get the quality employees they pay for.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Engaging with the customer to solve their car care needs.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
My stress was trying to work with owner's family while training for service advisor. Owner was absent many days while starting up a second location.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Wasn't there long enough to form an opinion. Left for a better opportunity after a few months. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Arrive in the morning to help open shop, meet-n-greet customers, answer phone, order parts, monitor vehicle repair process, return customer phone calls or call customers updating repair progress or get repair estimate approval or decline, ensure vehicles are finished and original repair complaint has been resolved.

Work 50 hrs to flag 40. When you start to flag more hrs then other techs they hold you back and let other techs play catch-up. Promise more money or bonuses and never happens. Charge customers way to much per hr and cut down flag hrs to make price more reasonable.  Rarely pay diag so as tech you are expected to work basically for free. Only hurts the flat rate techs pay. Equipment is old ,used and outdated. The management and owners treat techs like they are the least important employees. Advertising 70K is a joke. 40-50K 60K is a stretch and only if you work 50/60 hrs a week. Not a place that should be paying flat rate when they have no idea how it works.

Honest 1 is high stress work environment that offers no actual training or assistance when getting started. It can pay well if its high monthly numbers are reached, which is rare. No break room, no Ac, and low heating can make the shop environment difficult to work in. Customer base is very entitled and like most customer service positions difficult to work with. It has great technicians to work with if you can look past its very poor management structure. 

Excellent company and job. Anyone who is not dishonest or completely incompetent would love working there. The only thing I could say was bad was the pay was a little low for me starting out, but if you are worth it they will compensate you fairly down the line. Although my experience with pay could be down to the fact that i worked for them in the deep south where pay rates are going to be lower than what I am accustomed to in the midwest.

My fist day on the job I worked 12.5 hours and had to ask about taking a lunch. It seemed that no one cared that I had not be able to go. They gave little to no training on their CRM tool shop pro. You simply had someone standing over you. Or on the actual computer just say click here or here. All while trying to follow the mouse pointer.  Never any individual training. All preformed live with a customer standing in front of you extremely stressful.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Automotive technician 63 salaries reported	$34.73 per hour
Automotive mechanic 12 salaries reported	$98,750 per year
Automotive service advisor 20 salaries reported	$73,907 per year
Service writer 1 salary reported	$24.00 per hour
Master technician 4 salaries reported	$43.13 per hour

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