Do your clients know that there is a difference between Certified Pre-Owned and an Extended Service Contract? Well whether they know or not, it’s going to be imperative that you know so that one, if you are working for a dealership, you know how to answer those tough questions, second if you have a customer come to you and say that they are covered by either one of these you will understand what that means and if you can even work on that vehicle. Not only that, if the potential customer can’t provide you with any documentation to back up their claim, then you will probably want to bow out of this job. Or, they need to pay you cash for your services. Not a check, not even a credit card, you need cash only. With the scams that are going on these days, you can’t be sure that the credit card is their’s or stolen. If you have a credit card acceptance system like Spot, they may or may not catch the number as being stolen or made up. So avoid all of this by telling them it is a cash only service. If they start to pressure you and say that they promise, don’t do it. Period.
Many PDR Technicians have suffered at the wrong end of these scams. These people will come to you on a Sunday when they know the dealership is closed, they promise that the dealership will pay you, you will just have to go down there and fill out the forms, not true. Be prepared for any number of scams and don’t buy even one of them. There is no emergency that couldn’t wait until later that has to do with dents and warranties. If they can’t wait until Monday then you’re simply not able to help them. Period.
Follow me to Part II to discuss the differences.
