Disappointed in Meyagi

[Mighty Subie]

So several months ago, I tried to get in touch with Mike to have him do some work for me because I am tired of working on my car. I messaged him not only on here, but on facebook and sent several texts and called. I did not get any response. Not from any of my attempts. Being ignored is something that really bothers me. I hate it more than most other things. If he didn't want to do the work, just say so. Say anything. Since I am who I am though, I just said 'screw it' and decided that I wouldn't let it bother me and I moved on with my life. I even swung by his place this summer but by then, I had given up on asking him to work on my car.

Now just in the past couple weeks, one of my friends has been in touch with him also. He actually did respond to him and seemed interested in the work and then just stopped talking to him also. He has tried to text and call with no response. I even left Mike a message on his facebook wall tuesday asking him to respond to him. Nothing. That is when I decided that I have had enough. It is one thing for people to do ignorant things to me because I will get over it and not necessarily take it personally. It is another thing when I see the same behavior repeated and done to my friends.

 

[Meyagi]

1st, thanks for bashing me publicly matt, makes you look worse then it makes me look.

2nd, i dont recall you asking me to work on your car, even the day you stopped by here and worked on chads car i cant say i remember you asking. last thing i remember reading about your car was how you swapped to a 2.5 and didnt know where to connect the middle crank vent, which i told you.

3rd, ive texted your friend back several times and have gotten no response from him, figured he found someone else to do his cam install. didnt bother texting or calling after he didnt reply, i dont see the need to chase people down and hound them to work on their cars. lastly, i didnt reply to you on fb about the matter because 1 i had already texted him, and 2 when i got that message i had about 100 things going on and people here. i am only one person and there are only so many hours in the day. to anyone else that i have not replied to quickly enough, i do appologise for that, dont take it as i am ignoring you, i tend to get wrapped up in work and it might take me a few days to get my ducks in a row and answer questions/scedule work.

the number of texts/messages i get a day is pretty large, i really wish i had a secretary at times haha

 

[Carter]

OK guys, we're going to take it from the top. I have hidden all comments from the 3rd post on and reopened the thread. This is a review and I hope they can work things out. Per the forum rules, please keep it clean and on topic. If you have nothing relevant to add, please keep it to yourself. Otherwise it will be deleted.

 

[Mighty Subie]

I would like to make sure this thread is not misconstrued. I am not saying he is a bad guy or does bad work. I have heard that his work is top notch and seen some of it, even though I didn't get a chance to really look it over. This is just about the customer service part. Or I should say, him being too busy to respond. I would love to have the opportunity to revise this to a 100% positive review though.

 

[IBratmanI]

Mike does great work, we all see it in his own projects, and many of us have had him do work for us as well. He is also very reasonable on his prices. With that said, we all know that getting back to people is Mikes weak point. I know he is a busy man, and 99% of the time, is doing all the work himself, but it is an important part of running a business and being a vendor. I have heard from many people, including his close friends, that this is their only complaint. So hopefully no one takes it personally, and Mike already acknowledged that he gets wrapped up in all his work, so I'm sure he already knows all this. So if we want Mike to work on our vehicles, we have to be patient, and remember that he is busy. Keep up the good work Mike.

 

[scubiecraig]

I had Mike do some welding for me last winter. His work is top notch, and his prices are extremely reasonable. I do have to echo the fact that his response time is slow, but running a one man show I can see how it could be hard. It's too bad he didn't have some sort of ticketing system to keep things in order, and also so his customers could know his status. How is the best way to track him down? Call? Text? Just show up? He needs to let us know, because if people just show up and he's constantly swapping projects, this is when people become ticked off because their project gets bumped. Just food for thought.

 

[Jamey]

Mike u need a secretary

 

[inski]

Having a technician that that you can call 'your guy' is two sided. Indy guys want to do the very best they can for everyone but frequently (90% of the time) jobs run over on time and sometimes over on budget. This is Maine and rust and age is destroying your car and they suck to work on. The independent guy needs customers that are flexible. He needs customers that pay for jobs. He needs customers that have jobs that begin and end then your car needs to GTFO so he can move on to the next one. He's giving everyone a deal so the more deals he gets thru the shop the sooner he can grow and serve/service better. No one is getting screwed over so he doesn't get screwed over.

So, to sum up. A good mechanic that's fair is hard to come by. Be flexible. Customers need to be fair. Please understand being independent without over head and capitol is tough but waiting for that guy is worth it if you plan accordingly. Mechanics aren't secretaries. They are mechanics.

Tip accordingly.......haha back not too long ago mechanics got tipped all the time.

 

[RedForester08]

Having a technician that that you can call 'your guy' is two sided. Indy guys want to do the very best they can for everyone but frequently (90% of the time) jobs run over on time and sometimes over on budget. This is Maine and rust and age is destroying your car and they suck to work on. The independent guy needs customers that are flexible. He needs customers that pay for jobs. He needs customers that have jobs that begin and end then your car needs to GTFO so he can move on to the next one. He's giving everyone a deal so the more deals he gets thru the shop the sooner he can grow and serve/service better. No one is getting screwed over so he doesn't get screwed over.

So, to sum up. A good mechanic that's fair is hard to come by. Be flexible. Customers need to be fair. Please understand being independent without over head and capitol is tough but waiting for that guy is worth it if you plan accordingly. Mechanics aren't secretaries. They are mechanics.

Tip accordingly.......haha back not too long ago mechanics got tipped all the time.

+++1000

 

[Bperry41]

I've know Mike for a little while now, he's done work on my old prelude and now my legacy wagon. He's worth the wait. I used to live right down the street from him and I don't think I've ever seen less than 4-5 customer cars in his driveway at a time. Probably the busiest dude around (for a reason) well worth the wait in my book, and that's why I'm waiting in line right now haha. I'd love to own a business where demand was greater than supply..

 

[Matt]

I'm here right now and there's 5 cars in the driveway. Inski I think you pretty much nailed it... Thank you.

 

[02 WRX Chris]

Having a technician that that you can call 'your guy' is two sided. Indy guys want to do the very best they can for everyone but frequently (90% of the time) jobs run over on time and sometimes over on budget. This is Maine and rust and age is destroying your car and they suck to work on. The independent guy needs customers that are flexible. He needs customers that pay for jobs. He needs customers that have jobs that begin and end then your car needs to GTFO so he can move on to the next one. He's giving everyone a deal so the more deals he gets thru the shop the sooner he can grow and serve/service better. No one is getting screwed over so he doesn't get screwed over.

So, to sum up. A good mechanic that's fair is hard to come by. Be flexible. Customers need to be fair. Please understand being independent without over head and capitol is tough but waiting for that guy is worth it if you plan accordingly. Mechanics aren't secretaries. They are mechanics.

Tip accordingly.......haha back not too long ago mechanics got tipped all the time.

I'm here right now and there's 5 cars in the driveway. Inski I think you pretty much nailed it... Thank you.

Hits the nail right on the head!

 

[inski]

I'm not bashing Mighty. I hope I haven't stepped on Mighty's toes, we are friends. I have heard his thoughts echoed by others. I do not know Mike but we have met once. I'm just stating what I've experienced over the years and I know what Mike is going thru and it is tough especially when work is also home. You can't get away from work. So I hope Mike takes some time for himself (not just snow storms Mike!). But I know he has WAY better jobs going on than what Mainely people are bringing him. Cut and dry stuff like headgaskets and brakes on a 2001 Forester. Or struts and a wheel bearing on a 2004 Outback. He should be (I would be) charging double what he's charging for the swaps, turbo car upgrades, and race car building. To me that's specialty stuff, and everyone's getting a sick deal thru Mike. People just have to understand working on cars is time consuming.

We are lucky. We're lucky to have people like Mike on the forums. People like Matt00RS25. People like Subarurude. STiChad. People with expertise helping. Other auto techs that I can't remember screen names right now. We're lucky we have a local forum. Some of us are fading away, like me. This industry puts a beat down on people and eventually we don't give a rat's ass whether or not you've blown up 3 engines or you have grinding in first gear. All that crap is fixable. Sometimes the people aren't fixable. Don't break down your resources. Don't break your people.

 

[smelt240]

My 2 cents:

I have never "met" Mike in person. I have known him through a few different forums. The guy is a genius,from everything i have seen of his. Also,he does sometimes seem to be hard to get in touch with. However,I was sitting on the side of the road,in the wife's WRX,CEL had just come on,CC light flashing,car running like it was about to die,then it did die,wouldnt restart,when it finally did,it sounded BAD....called a couple people,couldn't reach them. Happened to remember Mike's number was in my phone. Gave him a call,expecting not to get him either. He answered,and even though he sounded EXTREMELY busy,explained the drive by wire CC light flashing deal,talked me through how the sensors in the car work together,explained why my guess was wrong about my MAF being bad,and told me to keep the MAF unplugged-(just stay out of the throttle) to get into base mode,so it would run to get home,or to the parts store.(sounds simple,but I didnt know that!) Turned out to be a simple O2 sensor. that call saved me unknown (but a lot of) $$$ for the tow my wife wanted to get.

Ive owned a couple cars that he had worked on,and it was top-notch. In my opinion,if someone is always as busy as he is,that alone should tell you something. This is kind of the same as when I used to install car audio. People are in a rush for you to finish their $3500 comp system,when your bread-and-butter is the woman in the Camry who wants a Pioneer head unit installed. $ for $ ,the small jobs are the ones that keep you running,while the big showy ones make you look good. There is a balance,that a lot of people dont understand.

I have also never met Mighty,but we have seen pretty eye-to-eye on some subjects. Nothing against him personally,but I disagree with publicly bashing someone who has done what Mike has for people that I know,and not just on this forum. I think you two should go have a beer somewhere,and figure this out one on one.

 

[STi Chad]

You all know I have had mike do a lil work to my car.....ok alottttttt of work. He may be hard to pin down from time to time but def worth the wait. He knows his stuff and is very good at trouble shooting and making stuff work that others say shouldn't. If u can't wait go to the dealer and pay triple or get told no. If u have patience and love ur car or hate it like I do lmfao then wait and u will be happy with the outcome. I have spent a ton of money there and wouldnt hesitate spending tons more. Just my .02.......no ones perfect. U need to take the good with the bad and make the best of it........

 

[flat4awd]

Mikey is one of the most knowlegable mechanics I've ever met. Whether having him do my installs, or him just walking me through my barrage of annoying texts, he's the best. He always gives fair prices, and I try to tip when I can.

Thanks a lot Mike.

 

[WashmyScooby]

Mike u need a secretary

Yea..like a smokin' hot one. Can't we just all work on finding Mike a really hot secretary? I think that would help.

 

[Matt]

hed never get anything done then!!!

 

[Gretsch308]

Yea..like a smokin' hot one. Can't we just all work on finding Mike a really hot secretary? I think that would help.

Ok ok I'll do it. But I'll only wear a bikini 3 days a week!