Huckleberries Online

‘Tisn’t Easy Being A Service Manager

Posted by DFO

Feb. 25, 2009 9:15 a.m. • 13 comments

If you think service managers at local car dealerships have an easy time during a down economy, you should think again. Consider my buddy Jerry Kelly of Robideaux Motors — one of the truly nice guys in the car service biz. Jerry can take guff with the best of them. But a cuss-tomer from Rathdrum was more than even Jerry could handle Tuesday. Seems the guy slid into a snow bank at a low speed, wrecking his bumper on a vehicle he bought from another dealer — and he wanted Robideaux to make it good. It wasn’t under warranty. But that didn’t matter to the cuss-tomer. He was so belligerent, Jerry says, that he tried to turn the cuss-tomer over to a higher up. Once Jerry and the cuss-tomer reached the higher-ups office, all hell broke loose. Jerry reports that the guy head butted him and then hit him in the face, splitting his inner lip. Adding insult to injury, Jerry tells Huckleberries, CPD Blue was called, took a report, but didn’t arrest the guy. Jerry said he even called Police Chief Wayne Longo re: the matter. Stay tuned.

Question: Have you ever been punched in the face?

13 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

toadman on February 25 at 9:32 a.m.
“Question: Have you ever been punched in the face?”

No. I have never made anyone mad enough at me to be punched. I was a box office manager for an Omni Theater (like IMAX, but not flat, screen is a dome) and Museum. When we had a belligerent customer, I usually just gave them whatever they wanted so they’d leave me alone (free tickets, whatever). It wasn’t worth what I was getting paid to do anything less, really.

However, in High School, I DID punch a guy squarely in the face, once. That’s all it took.
MamaJD on February 25 at 9:42 a.m.
Yes. And then I broke her nose.
Digger on February 25 at 10:17 a.m.
That sounds about right - with the cuss-tomer I mean. We have folks all the time who want us to replace a product way out of warranty (RadioShack has a 90-day on most of our branded product) or to take a large return from another store.

I feel sorry for Jerry - being a dealership service manager isn’t an easy task. I was a service writer for a short time and didn’t like it one bit.
Sparky on February 25 at 11:02 a.m.
Punched in the face by 2 year old daughter. The youngest daughter had to be placed temporarily on hormones for medical reasons. Obviously, the dose was too high because my sweet, sweet baby had the first fit of her life and then cold cocked me in the eye. I had a black eye when I took her back to the Doctor. It was very funny to them.
Joker on February 25 at 11:11 a.m.
Nope. I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
Bent on February 25 at 1:52 p.m.
I was a redheaded with a freckle face growing up, and for whatever reason that attracted many fists, but I learned to throw a few punches of my own…

I learned very early in life that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…
Escapee on February 25 at 8:43 p.m.
Punched in the face? Oh yeah. Brings back memories of ‘65 and ‘66 while attending Borah School. Later on, my dad hit me in the face too.

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.