Auto/Body Shop Solisiting

[ChynaRose]

Look, I know that my car looks a bit beat up. It's ten years old and so long as the damage stays cosmetic I'm in no hurry to fix it up (One reasonable sized dent, some dings and scratches). However in this past week alone I've been approached three times by some guy who just so happened to be driving around, just so happened to notice the dent in the bumper, and just so happens to work for a body shop where I can get said dent fixed for a 'reasonable' fee. If and when I want to fix these things, I'll go to a garage/body shop that I trust to get them fixed; not some random guy I happen to meet on the street or in a parking lot.

And really, if you were any kind of reputable car fixing guy why the hell would you be scouring random parking lots and residential neighborhoods for people to offer your services to.

[blas87]

I feel for ya.

It's not the same, but just as annoying....I work with so many people who've taken on side jobs during our slower times at work or bring their kids' fundraisers to work with them. Barely a weekend goes by where I'm not solicited for Mary Kay or Avon or some stupid shit to send the kids' choir to New Orleans.

[HYHYBT]

And really, if you were any kind of reputable car fixing guy why the hell would you be scouring random parking lots and residential neighborhoods for people to offer your services to.

Well... yes, pretty well anybody can walk up and claim to be good at dent removal, but to answer this specific question: to get business. It makes sense that lots of people don't get minor body work done (meaning, in this case, pretty much anything that doesn't affect functionality), especially when their personal economy isn't so hot. Or maybe it's on their "one of these days" lists of things that never get done; either way, a little personal nudge might get them to go ahead and do it, and to use the person who made the offer.

Several years ago, I found a card for a tiling business stuck in one of the cracks in the men's room wall at work. I believe he simply saw the condition of the wall and wanted the job of fixing it, and have no reason to judge, based only on that, his competency, honesty, or anything else.

[protege]

And really, if you were any kind of reputable car fixing guy why the hell would you be scouring random parking lots and residential neighborhoods for people to offer your services to.

Sounds like the same group that cruises around here in a pickup, and attempts to land driveway-repair business. They always claim to have "some material leftover" which is "a great deal." Why exactly, would I trust those tools to fix my driveway...with half-cured asphalt mix or black-tinted water? Yes, I know my driveway looks like shit. I know it's crumbling and has weeds growing up through the cracks. It looks like that because it's either eat and pay the mortgage...or fix the driveway. If I'm going to do the job, I'm going to do it right. I know that getting it redone in concrete will cost a shitload, but it will last a *long* time.