My stubborn skip on repair notes bit me in the rear

I used to roll my eyes at the idea of keeping detailed repair notes. It felt like busywork that slowed me down. Then, I had a repeat customer bring in their mountain bike with a slipping derailleur. I was sure I'd fixed it before, but I couldn't recall the exact adjustment. Without notes, I had to re-diagnose everything, which wasted an hour. The customer wasn't happy about the delay, and I felt pretty dumb. Now, I jot down key steps and parts for every job, and it's made my life so much easier. It even helped me spot a pattern in faulty components from a certain batch.

3 comments

3 Comments

valg636d ago

Ever have a buddy who refused to write anything down because he could "keep it all in his head"? My friend was like that with his own house stuff. His washing machine had a weird leak that would come and go, and he'd just tinker with it each time. After the third flood in his laundry room, his wife made him start using sticky notes on the machine itself to log what he tried. Turned out the leak only happened on the heavy-duty cycle, which he kept forgetting. Now his washer looks like a yellow Post-it bird hit it, but the floor is dry.

grantp286d ago

Have you tried marking the problem cycle with bright tape instead?

grantp286d ago

I started using cheap three-ring binders for each customer's vehicle. When the same truck came back with a weird electrical drain a year later, my old notes pointed right to a bad aftermarket radio install. Saved me a whole afternoon of testing.