automotive mechanic

automotive technician

store manager

lead technician

entry level technician

Meineke-Car-Care

What is the best part of working at the company?
Overall the management team at this company is head and shoulders better than any other “chain shop” I’ve worked at. They’re excellent communicators, they understand the technician’s role and the frustrations we sometimes encounter because they’ve done the job themselves, and they genuinely care about fixing cars and not just selling useless stuff clients don’t need. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Like any other shop, there are a fair share of high stress moments when the pressure can build up due to impatient customers or supply chain issues messing up parts procurement. However, I’ve yet to experience a setback that wasn’t handled in the most effective and professional way yet. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
By far the best culture and environment I’ve been a part of. As the lead technician, it’s my responsibility to keep eyes on everything happening in the shop, not just in my bays, to help minimize mistakes and oversights. The other guys are both extremely easy to work with and always embrace learning opportunities whenever they come up. We do a great job of not ever taking anything personally as far as corrections or being shown something we either overlooked or did incorrectly. The collaborative approach we take to tackling some pretty heavy work a smaller shop is something I know other shops could learn a lot from. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I run two bays typically, one I use for longer term heavy projects like engine/transmission replacements. I use my other bay for all the same day jobs and waiters, so I’ve always got  something to work on. We don’t deal with a lot of volume in foot traffic thankfully, so it’s a more relaxed and comfortable environment knowing we have somebody’s car all day and don’t have to worry about them sitting in the waiting room getting restless while we do their repair or service. That, combined with our collaborative approach and emphasis on the details, has led to a sharp decrease in comebacks at this shop. I typically work long hours (7:00a to 6:30-7:00p) not because I’m required to, but because I greatly enjoy my work and take pride in the high expectations I put on myself. We see a lot of strange and complex issues with vehicles brought to us and that keeps things exciting. I’ve never wanted to be a parts changer, so getting the opportunity to be a lead diagnostic tech in a market with a wide variety of vehicles and conditions is ideal.

Worked as a Master Certified Technician and felt like the business model was to throw a net over a vehicle to hope and pray something sold. No serious mechanical work wanted to be done. Just quick easy mindless parts swapping was done. Service Writer/ Manager was very rude to customers and could sell even the most basic of jobs because he was very un knowledgeable on what the repair consist of. He also liked to pass the blame on other people and then when he ran out of people he blamed it on COVID-19. Also for some reason I was told that the HR manager was actually the one in charge of the store. I said so if I had an HR complain I could see that going very far. The HR manager/ overall manager and the store manager would gossip and cause major drama within the shop. Also was told that the reason the manager couldn’t sell jobs to save his life is because we didn’t take 17 pictures of random stuff on the vehicle. This business was the biggest hack job I have ever been apart of. Could carry any kind of inventory due to there not being enough money to support an inventory. Trying to sell tire without actually having tires in stock causes a very big issue. Manager stated that he was really good at welding exhaust and after the 4th comeback I realized that he meant if you can’t weld just rub exhaust putty on all seams. Manager also ran a vehicle off the drive on rack while trying to pull it in almost hitting a lube tech and told me that he can’t feel his feet so he thought he was hitting the brakes instead of the gas.

I cant speak for all meinekes cause they are individually owned, but this owner has 5 locations. Trenton, fairless hills, fox chase, southhampton and bensalem. The pay is set up to be in your favor with hourly plus commission but the store was never busy. I'm talking like 200 dollar days and 1000 dollar weeks. Any mechanic knows this is bad when places charge 400 dollars for a brake job. Zero traffic. They have fleet accounts with enterprise, but only do thier oil changes. So expect to be taken off any job at any second to do an oil change. This happens at least 4-7 times a day. They lack so much equipment from updated alignment programs to updated scan tools and the equipment they do have is broken and badly fixed. I've had air lines blow out on me more times then I can rememeber because they were tapped together with fittings in between the broken lines. Almost every lift something was wrong. Arms went up unevenly, locks didnt work, or attachments were lost so you had to figure out fun ways to get trucks to lift properly. Also they hire so many kids out of school and expect them to be able to do anything then management gets mad when things dont get done in time. From personal experience. If you are a B tech or higher, expect to be fixing most hacks mistakes instead of actually making money. My days consisted of finishing repairs that the students gave up on or oil changes for enterprise cars. Also no growth in career opportunities and pay. Dead end job unless you're learning.

As a previous manager of this store for approx a year I was employed by corporate and a franchise purchaser. During my tenure of employment I worked with the general manager weekly. I learned that it was possible to rebuild a down spiraling business by being honest with your customers. I worked with several wonderful individuals throughout this time under my helm. The hardest part of the whole job was the amount of hours that it required rebuilding this store and overcoming the bad reputation that this store had made in the past. During my time of employment, I was injured away from the job. The corporation was very willing to work with me during this difficult time. During this time of my injury, the store was sold to an individual franchise purchaser. The new owners were very aware of my injury and we came to an agreement for me to continue on as manager for them after the purchase was final. 5 weeks after the sales transaction was final and all the leg work was done to continue operation as usual, the new owner came in at the beginning of one business day and fired me. His reason was that my injury was affecting sales and my performance. I personally would not recommend anyone to apply for employment at this facility do to my experience with the new owners. I feel my termination was not due to my injury, it was because I refused to sell services that we could not offer at 300% mark up!

The manger is a two face person. He put other people before me all the time. He talked  bad about me all the time . He let my best friend go and lied to him way he let him go. He all ways left him up front and did not help out .Then he talk bad about him too. The manger would stay in the shop most of the time or go out driving . Now he has 2 people up front now working for him . He did my friend wrong . I am 61 and have some health problems and let me go too. I was there for 10 years .  Said I was to slow.   The owner told me that I needed  too stop working.  That it would cost him a lot of money if I did some thing wrong  or got hurt. He also called a disability lawyer to get me on disability. Ho does that!!!   I went to the social security office in 2019 and was turn down. Told me that I need to be out of work for 6 months . That is all he cares about was money he would lose . He don't care about nobody but his son that works there . Or his friends that work there too. There other things I could say but it would take all day . I am so happy that I don't work there any more . I have a new job and get paid more. I was told I was under paid at meineke . My friend is working with me and we are happy here . No more two face or lied too or talk bad about. There other people that work there in the past said that it was the best thing I did was leave . They never say any thing good about you , it was all was bad.

Many times while working for Meineke Car Care Center in Hesperia, CA, the Lights would literally be shut off while we would be in the middle of an oil change or other service on a customers vehicle. Not because of power failure, but because the owner would not pay the bills. If we ran out of a certain type of bulk oil while doing an oil change we would be told to add another weight of oil, even if it can damage a customers engine. The franchise owner, who also runs and owns the Meineke in Palmdale, CA was constantly hiring new personnel as he would work you at minimum wage then expect you to perform full technician duties. I for example was hired as a lube technician, but when the ASE Certified Mechanic quit, I was told to finish all of the repairs he walked away from, and continue to work on new repairs as vehicles came in. For three months we did not even have a mechanic. The owner, who rarely showed up, had us push his personal vehicles in and out of the shop each morning and close. We had to push them as he was too cheap to buy fuel for us to drive them in and out of the shop, and he used the shop for personal storage. The Company was truly scamming each and every customer to squeeze every dime out of them. I eventually put in my two week notice, and was instantly fired for quitting. I didn't mind, I had to have my final paycheck paid out then a there.

Unrealistic goals that change from day to day. Consistantly complaining about various issues while not recognizing the improvement on day to day operations. you are not given the opportunity to improve without being called out on a phone call in front of other people. Excessive micromanagement is killing the work enviroment, employees feel as if i fthey dont do this or that or slip up on the phone that they will be what the company calls "coached" when in all honesty is a Bi#$h session. The company in Indiana has focused on growth when wasnt able to properly managed the 15 centers it had now has over 50 streached accross 4 states. Pushing centers to hit a certian $ amount each week in order to factor their invoices in order to make payroll. They have changed bonus structers because when managers would earn a large bonus they wouldnt have the money to pay it or just decided that they would change the structure as to not pay the amount earned. The rate of pay is laughable when it comes to salaries for Center managers and District managers . Its a lead by fear and intimidation workplace. The CEO is a complete narcisist commanding respect while not earning it. Leading by intimidation does not bring the long term results the company is looking for. Treat the Team with respect lead with out belittling focus on smaller goals and long term success rather then just the today.

I was hired on a senior technician and worked here for about 5 months. Within those five months I worked with 4 different service writers/ mangers. That should beabig red flag (This company only has 1 manager per store). They couldn't keep a manager which affected sales. Technicians are paid and hourly wage plus commission of parts and labor.  With constant management changes sales were affected. Technicians can't break hourly pay with commission because of low car count and manager sales. The work with warranty companies and give them discounts on labor and parts or sometimes the warranty company provides the part which will affect the Technicians pay since you'd only get paid off of labor in that situation. For example warranty company has a vehicle that needs a transmission or engine their payout for diagnostic is 50$ depending on your commission you get 14-17% of that. Now if they provide the transmission/ engine for it let's say 8hrs for job. You will only get paid of the labor at your commission percentage which will be no more then about 200$. You'd make more being on flag rate. Don't fall for the commission. Upper management comes from operating jiffy lubes and has no experience running full service shops. Stay away from parc auto owned meinekes. FYI parc auto owns the burnet rd, cedar Park and San marcos locations. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
There is nothing good at working at Meineke other than low pay bad management and horrible owners that treat their employees like dirt and like slaves this company has no type of any benefits that will help you out in the future as you go into retirement or even as a young person you’re better off working at a Jiffy Lube and learning something than at Meineke and then also want to ride you for not getting a car completed when management ordered the parts wrong 2 to 3 times in the same day

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management and owners it is a franchise so you’re not gonna hear from corporate you’re always gonna hear from some dingleberry 


What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Working with your coworkers could be fun and knowledgeable. If you get with the right people just gotta stay away from them sales people and management. They have issues with mechanics for some reason at these type of shops. Sales people get upset with the mechanics because they feel like they’re not making the money fast enough just like the owners they get that stuff  in their head put too much pressure on people

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I’m tired and stressed out and can’t wait to leave the place

Working there was like returning to high school. Everyone was part of some kind of exclusive group, each with a habit for trash talking the others. If you don't fit in with any of them, you're out of luck, and most likely out of a job. The business owner employs immediate family as much as possible, allowing them to break every company rule without consequence. They are able to get away with actions and behaviors which would immediately cost anyone else their job, which they flaunt in front of other employees all while playing "pass the buck" with anything they are not interested in doing; i.e. particularly difficult jobs, taking responsibility when they do something wrong, doing anything related to actually doing the job itself. The only good part is that the manager and one other employee were fun to work with. The hardest part of the job is trying to do it right, knowing the business owner and his family are looking for any excuse to let you go. For his part, the manager did everything in his power to combat this issue. However, he rarely succeeds as he is merely a friend of the business owner, not actually related. If you're looking to get a start in the automotive repair industry and do not already have some type of certification related to it, do not apply here.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Automotive mechanic 36 salaries reported	$30.29 per hour
Automotive technician 91 salaries reported	$26.52 per hour
Store manager 19 salaries reported	$89,737 per year
Lead technician 1 salary reported	$32.00 per hour
Entry level technician 39 salaries reported	$15.95 per hour

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