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Old 07-21-2010, 08:55 AM   #1
vseries
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Default Dirty SA (Service Advisor altering parts prices on Repair Orders)

Hello,

I am a PM at a dealer running ADP web suite and it seems we have an issue of one of our SA's discounting parts prices before closing the RO. I am not familiar of the service end but I do know that access to "I" is denied on the service end as it should but my question is how is this being done. This has not been brought up to the SM yet but I would like as much information as possible.

Any comments or opinions are greatly welcomed, Thank you

Last edited by XDCX; 07-21-2010 at 09:08 AM. Reason: Added more detail to thread title
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Old 07-21-2010, 09:17 AM   #2
XDCX
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vseries - First post, welcome to DealershipForum

I added more detail to your thread title just in case some of our members didn't know you were using SA as an abbreviation for Service Advisor. I also moved your post to the Automotive Section.

Concerning your question, I don't have much knowledge of ADP so I'll let someone else respond. I've heard of this issue happening before but I don't recall how the Service Advisor was gaining access to the parts screens.

Thanks for starting the thread and hopefully one of our members can provide some answers.

Last edited by XDCX; 07-21-2010 at 10:05 AM. Reason: Correct spelling error
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Old 07-21-2010, 10:01 AM   #3
FixedOpsGuy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vseries View Post
Hello,

I am a PM at a dealer running ADP web suite and it seems we have an issue of one of our SA's discounting parts prices before closing the RO. I am not familiar of the service end but I do know that access to "I" is denied on the service end as it should but my question is how is this being done. This has not been brought up to the SM yet but I would like as much information as possible.

Any comments or opinions are greatly welcomed, Thank you
Good afternoon. I am currently on R&R but I have 10 years of ADP experience so, I might not be able to give you the exact/precise info...but here it goes,

There is a couple things that may be happening....

To answer your question, you will need to inform me if the discounts are being applied directly to the part #.

Meaning, do you see the parts price being changed? If any particular part has a MSRP of $100 in your system, when are you noticing the discount? At what point? Is the RO closed and you see it on the override report? Or, do you see the discount in a self-made report in RPG report generator? Or, do you see the discount while the ticket is still open while you look in PRO? Is the discount being seen in a journal report from 585p? Is the comptroller telling you about this coupon problem? Or, did you just happen to see a couple RO's with less than MSRP pricing?

1.) The advisors can apply misc discounts as a co-op or discount in the payment application screen and then use PCOUP or SCOUP for parts coupons or service labor coupons.

2.) They can also set up a customer as a wholesale customer and give them a discount code so that they will receive a permanent discount. (Ex. = price code 2 for a 25 percent discount, 3 for a 20 percent discount etc. etc. )

3.) If your parts staff is manually bumping MSRP list price to a matrix list price. That is not good. Because if the service advisor does not like your price he/she can convert the pay type line from "C" (customer pay) to "I" (internal)...which will discount the parts to a pre-set internal price that is set in your computer. But, then the advisor needs to convert that line back to "C" because it is a customer pay line. When he does that, The part will revert back to MSRP pricing, but will not take the manual override amount. So, your "matrix" price will essentially be eliminated.

4.) It's possible that the advisors are using the parts dept to sell their work for them. Do the advisors call your parts staff for discounts? If so, your staff is probably being told that the discount is necessary to sell the job. You need to get that controlled if that is the case.

The most likely culprit is "discounts being given through the coupon screen". Ensure that this is not being done. You may need to get a list from the comptroller of all the discount types and codes that are set in the system and create an RPG report to track this on a daily basis. If you wait until the end of the month, you will be behind the eight ball already and those discounts will never be recouped.

Put a policy in place where you check that manual report every day and you check the override report every day, give the service manager your info. and, get your GM's buy-in. Get your Comptroller's buy-in and have him debit back the service dept's cost-of-labor account for every parts coupon that is not authorized.

They, the GM and the comptroller, will be interested in your numbers because you might have a service advisor and/or tech that is working his payplan because he is just paid on labor. If he discounts the parts, then he can increase the labor which would give a higher than normal effective labor rate for that ticket. Check that too.

You may also want to check to see if there is any similarities with the any techs. You may have a tech that is friends with a parts counter person or with an advisor that is supporting his flat rate hours by discounting the parts.

And, lastly, if you find out that the culprit is on your staff and is a parts counter person, you may want to check to see if any costs to parts have an over-ride. You may have a completely different problem and discounts is the last of your worries.

Good luck. If I can be of any assistance, please send me a private message and I will respond.
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Old 07-21-2010, 11:24 AM   #4
XDCX
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Wow, FixedOpsGuy, that was an awesome response.

I had no idea there were that many ways a Service Advisor could manipulate pricing on a repair order. Very informative.

I also thought it was interesting you suggested that vseries should check to see if this involves more than just a single Service Advisor - it's possible the problem originates in his own department.

Thanks again for a great response - one of my main goals when I started this forum was to create a place where we could all learn from one another.
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Old 07-21-2010, 11:54 AM   #5
FixedOpsGuy
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One more thing that I have forgotten...

Ask your warranty admin if there have been any $0.00 claims or $0.01 cent claims posted to the warranty schedule. With ADP you can perform a 50/50 co-op split on the payment split screen when in PFC. The theory is:
- The parts dept billed a part at 15% bumped MSRP price matrix.
- The advisor incorrectly quotes a repair to a customer or offers a discount to a customer.
- The advisor converts the entire job (line of RO) to "W" warranty.
- This discounts all parts to warranty pricing
- Then the advisor goes into co-op payment split screen and puts 99% of the total to customer pay and 1% to warranty. ( I believe it can be done as a monetary dollar amount and not as a percentage also, but you would need to verify...) and that is why the warranty administrator would see a 0.01 cent claim.
- Ultimate, the advisor covers for his mistakes and short-falls while at the same time, screws the dealer.
Of course, I am sure this is NOT happening if the advisor is NOT getting paid on warranty claims. In any case, I am also pretty sure that this whole statement is just a good FYI for you because I highly doubt any of this is what you are experiencing.

Good Luck!:gunner:
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Old 07-22-2010, 12:20 PM   #6
XDCX
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Another interesting post - thanks FixedOpsGuy.

Your example reminds me of a Warranty Manager who would close-out old ROs and transfer the data to a new RO so she could keep her warranty schedule clean. Not surprisingly, she never had a claim that was over 30 days old.

The dealer couldn't figure out why his warranty receivables kept going up but the schedule was clean. A quick investigation determined the answer.
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