The Real Cost of “Free”
Workshops advertise with lines like “Free servicing,” “Free oil change,” “Free diagnostic scan,” or “Free WOF with your service!“ As a customer, that sounds great — you get something for nothing.
Right?
Not really.
“Free” often means low or no value. In other words, it may not be worth anything. And why should we care about things that aren’t worth anything?
Let me explain what I think “free” actually means.
A customer-acquisition trap
This is a strategy decades old. On the surface, it makes sense: entice customers in with a freebie, then up sell or deliver such great service that they come back. In practice, experience shows that customers who come for the freebie only come for the freebie. Nothing else. You will not be able to sell them a sausage — unless that’s free too.
It is not a viable long-term business strategy.
Devaluing your craft
By offering something for free, you are teaching the customer that the experience, skills, tools, training, and technology behind it are worth nothing. You are devaluing yourself and your business.
You are telling the customer that what you do every day is worthless. Would you get out of bed in the morning if you knew your work was seen as a waste of time?
The business owner’s perspective
To a workshop owner, every “free” service is a cost — in time, labour, and parts. So naturally, the goal is to keep those costs as low as possible. That means:
- The cheapest oil and filter available
- Reusing some of the old parts instead of replacing them
- Assigning the least experienced technician
- Scheduling the job as an afterthought, often at the end of the day
The vehicle is in and out of the workshop fast, because every minute that it is parked in a workshop bay is time that could be spent on a paying job.
Now picture this: it’s Friday afternoon, an hour before close. Most cars are done, but two “free” services remain. The apprentice is told to knock them out quickly so customers can pick up their vehicles before closing time. Already thinking about the weekend, under time pressure, and inexperienced — things get missed. Oil drain plugs and wheels aren’t torqued to spec. The filter isn’t seated properly. Nobody checks the correct oil grade or specs, the vehicle is not taken for a test-drive, nobody does any kind of quality control, etc. The whole job is rushed and done half-baked.
In my experience, rushed Friday jobs are the ones that come back on Monday — usually on the back of a tow truck.
At that point, it is no longer a “free” job. The business loses money, its reputation takes a hit, the owner is stressed, the customer is angry and upset because their car is broken, and the apprentice is assigned the blame because he was the last person to touch the car. That is not a healthy workshop environment. As a business owner, why would you ever want to put yourself in that kind of situation?
“Free” WOF inspections are worse
A Warrant of Fitness is a mandatory safety inspection. The moment it’s labelled “free,” it signals to the business owner that it has no value. Do you really want the safety inspection on the car that carries your wife and kids treated as an inconvenience? In many NZ workshops the owner is also the WOF inspector. He knows what that inspection costs him in time. “Let’s just rush this one through so we can get on to the paying jobs” is a very understandable thought — and a very dangerous one, this is one that has potentially the most serious repercussions if it goes sideways.
“Free” Diagnostic Scans: A Closer Look
Parts stores and workshops often advertise a “free” diagnostic scan. You drive in with an engine warning light on, they plug in a scanner, read a code — say P0301, (a cylinder 1 misfire) — and tell you what’s wrong.
Here’s the catch: that code does not tell you what part is broken. A P0301 could be caused by for example a faulty spark plug, a dodgy ignition coil, a fuelling problem, a leaking head gasket, an electrical fault, or any number of other things. The scan provides data and a direction — it does not provide a diagnosis. To figure out what is actually wrong requires further testing and investigation. But this takes time and money, it is much easier to just guess by using previous experience or just Google the code. No skill needed for that.
As an aside: as a vehicle owner, how do you feel about professionals “guessing” what is wrong with your car? What if your doctor, plumber or sparky would just use Google and guess when you need their services, are you OK with that?
What it provides is a sales pitch. “That’s probably part X — do you want it?” The scan itself costs them almost nothing; a $25 eBay code reader does the same job.
This is NOT a diagnostic. It is the use of error codes as a method for selling parts.
Sometimes, by luck, the guess happens to be right and the problem is fixed. But if the part they sold you doesn’t resolve the issue and the light comes back on, you’re left with a car that still isn’t fixed — and the internet is full of these stories. The vehicle’s issues usually only gets resolved when it lands with someone who actually understands the diagnostic process: a skilled, well-tooled technician who looks beyond the fault code, performs proper testing, and works to find the root cause.
That level of diagnostic ability is not “free.” People with those skills are rare, and they don’t work for free. I know I don’t.
The takeaway
I believe anything advertised as “free” should be met with a healthy does of scepticism. Personally, I prefer to pay for good-quality products and services rather than deal with “Free” and all the hassle it can potentially bring.
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