Wake up, Buy Here, Pay Here people. It's a beautiful day. Go grab yourself another cup of Joe and say hello to Jim and Michelle Rhodes on the Buy Here, Pay Here morning show. Take it away, you two. Hey, good morning. Good morning, buy here, pay here people. People, and lease here, pay here people. People, yeah. Yes. Happy to have you here. Happy Wednesday. Welcome back. We missed you on Friday. We were traveling. Internet was not cooperative, and so we missed one. That might be the first one we've ever fully missed. I think it's the, wait, I mean, we every once in a while we'll run a rerun, but that was probably the first one. Yeah, we couldn't even do that that day, so. I, well, and, and we were taking care of some business, um, back where we used to live in Clearwater. Remember when we first started, we, uh, had a, uh, we broadcasted from our Clearwater studio. Right. Right. Yeah. And, uh, finishing up some, closing up some of the things there. And, but I mean, I know when you're in Clearwater, did you get to the beach? We got to the beach one day and it was amazing. yep and yes I did drink one pina colada that satisfies the beachy thing for me so uh yeah it was we didn't get enough recreation time but we did enjoy being there yeah and uh yeah old friends yeah connectors um so we are we're fast approaching the national conference and for those of you who are might be new to listening we will be there so And we really encourage you, any dealer out there, one, to join your state association because and that gives you access to all of the national benefits. So join your state association. And if you are planning on going to the conference in Vegas on the twenty third, twenty fourth, twenty second, twenty third, twenty fourth, twenty fifth. I think the twenty third is Monday's when the conference starts. We have our thing on Sunday, Monday. We're doing another white hat certification. So so that starts on the twenty second, I believe, on Sunday. But yeah, the conference kicks off on that Monday. Hope to see folks there. They'll have an independent retail dealer track and then a buy here, pay here track. And so we're we're speaking on Wednesday morning and we'll have a booth. Yeah. And I think our session on Wednesday morning will be useful to a lot of people. There's this subject around sort of simplifying a look at cash flow and profitability. And then I've got one more bonus tool to be able to throw in there and get people. Yeah. So there's some good stuff to, I think for those folks who will be in attendance, by all means, make it out of bed early for that. I'm the first session of the day on Wednesday. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So today's topic is selling as is in business. Oh, it's a typo. I fixed it most everywhere, but you're just still seeing it in the stream yard. It's selling as is dead in lease your pay here and buy your pay here. So is that whole thing dead? And it's an interesting subject to me because I love that it's a black and white topic. Obviously, with White Hat Way, we live a lot in the gray and sort of the ethical in-between spaces. And so this is going to be an interesting thing to kind of dive into. And when you were a dealer, most of what you sold was as is, wasn't it? All of it was as is. All of it was as is. Okay. And I think that's the part that I, because I come from that. Um, I, and I think, you know, we can talk about the whole customer service element. Um, spoiler alert. I'll just tell you just because we had as is strictly didn't mean we didn't have happy customers. So this is the part that I think we can talk about. And, and, uh, As has become the custom lately, we've been running these topics through ChatGPT before we bring them to the podcast. And I was fascinated by how ChatGPT really went to... They kind of talked about as is as being sort of a loophole, as sort of a way to shield dealers from responsibility. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. And I would... I'm not argue because I don't, you know, most of the time trying to argue that, you know, we we we say all the time people will people will. Well, my customer is different here. My customer is different here. It's like customers across the board are the same in every market. Now, what I would ask is, especially since covid, is the customer the same? I think on this subject, I think we can treat it like it's the same. Because what we're really talking about is customer service. Right? So it's like, what is... And so to me, this... And we'll talk about it. But it's like, you really get into setting expectations. And this happens at the point of the sale. And obviously, you know, dealers do business differently. So... So I think it's up to, you know, if I'm the dealer and you're the consumer, it's up to us to communicate clearly about what is included, what's not included. True. And what comes, it's no different. But I think that where you were going with before when you said, I still had happy customers, you can be as is and still support. Support. So this is the thing. It's like, how do you make sure your customers are supported and that you're still serving them? Mm-hmm. Without opening the floodgates financially. So there's all these different elements. And I think it's a great place for us to kind of delve into as white hat way, because there are, there are clear lines here. Right. And we talk about the, the, the good fences thing in white hat ways, like the clear policy, clear understanding. Now we can have some degree of accountability. And I think it's the thing about, you know, we hear this in customer service. You've heard it for your, all of your working career for sure. And probably before that is this thing about the customer is always right. There are some people that would argue that the customer is always right. And I'm going to ask you, can you turn support, like, you know, it's like we aren't going to support that, as turn it into a way where it can morph into... The customer is right. Is it possible to do that? So that the customer is walking away. It's a win-win. Actually, what that is, is it's like as a win-win. And is it possible to do that with an as-is? That's a good way to think about it. I would say... Here's where I would say the customer's wrong. Let's just say it this way. And this is where I would dig in as a proprietor. Okay. Take it out of the buy here, pay your business for a minute. Because I own retail businesses, sporting goods businesses, and other types of businesses before the car business. So, here's what I would say. And listen, this is going to be true because we're going to talk about service contracts this morning. We'll talk about warranty. You know, we can talk about all these different things. We owe forms. It's all related to this topic, right? And just so, you know, those of you that are out there listening, as is... is also a white hat. I mean, you can be a white hat way dealer and be as is. So, yes. So I think, you know, again, we're not attorneys over here. So we're going to talk about some things that are very much of a legal question. I think we're approaching it more from a standpoint of customer service, happy customers, clear understanding. And certainly we're advocating for dealers to always do what is legal. Oh, yeah. So this is part of why, and listen, you can't have this conversation with every customer, but as a dealer, you come to understand. Here's back to my thing about when is the customer wrong? Well, when the customer comes in and we have a clear understanding and they're asking me to do something wrong, they're demanding that I do something that is outside the understanding that we had so you said win-win what they're asking me to do would be a win-lose they win I lose financially because we changed our understanding and now you demanded something in an interest of keeping you happy I agreed to do something for you that was outside of our understanding. So this gets into the whole thing about, you know, and we can come back to some of these goodwill. So goodwill repairs is something that, you know, I can't recall if we've ever done a podcast specifically on that subject, but if we haven't, we probably should because there's a lot wrapped around that one topic as it all ties to all of this. But I would say that the challenge becomes, and you have heard me talk about this part in the past, is I'm a believer that I want to treat every customer the same. I want all my customers to have great experience, and I want our team, and I want to have the comfort of knowing that I have done exactly the same for every customer, that we're very consistent about how we do things, and that I'm going to be working to make my customer happy, right? Yeah. And I can't have an, from a pure policy and business management standpoint, I cannot have things be uncertain, unpredictable, and certainly not endless, okay? We've had, right? There needs to be a clear understanding. So this is why I think the as-is piece is an interesting element, especially when you throw in the chat GPT perspective on, you know, what does AI understand about as-is? How does it look? you know, from the supercomputer perspective, just the, uh, just the response that it gave you tells you how it looks. Cause it's pulling from a lot of different things. And it's like, it's like, as is as some way to shield or, or loophole, um, which it, to me, when, when, uh, it comes spits back, those kinds of things is, is it's, it's, uh, uh, It's being painted as a negative for the consumer and a positive for... So it is... It's like... From what I see from that is it's as is, is not necessarily being perceived as a win-win. Right. Yeah. So I think it is treating it like as is, is being used by some dealers as a shield against responsibility. They say, sorry, car's your responsibility. I remember meeting a dealer years ago. The first one I heard use the expression, I'm sure others have done it, but it's like, If you buy the car today, it's as is. If you drive it out on the street today and it breaks into two pieces, you own both pieces. think about that that's just being super harsh to say it's your responsibility after today right and so this also comes back to the thing we we talk about this and and we're going to need to continue to talk about this in the white halfway context because we hear dealers talk about my car like as a lien holder they call it my car right yeah and so this is why the thing starts to cross over like well if it's your car wouldn't you have the responsibility for all of the maintenance and everything it's like You can't have it both ways. We're getting into semantics here, but I think that it's not insignificant, this thing about my car versus the customer's car. And if it is the customer's car, I want the customer to bear responsibility for those things that are agreed in our understanding that that's their responsibility. And, you know, again, we're not attorneys, but words matter. Oh, sure. And so if a dealer is using in a public forum my car – They, I, I, I think that you could argue with any attorney that it's like, Oh, words matter. That's your car, your responsibility. I suppose. I mean, it's not really where I expected to land today, but I think it's, it's, I think you're not wrong. It's like, I think when dealers think of it as their car, their collateral, it's like, it's, it's related in terms of what we're talking about. But I think in terms of being clear, um, So, let's move past the as-is thing for just a minute. If you think about, I'm a dealer, and I'm offering the customer a short-term warranty. It's included. I've got a three-month, three-month, three-thousand-mile warranty. It's included. No extra charge, Mr. or Mrs. Customer. It's something we include with the car. And so now that, so what does it say? It says, we cover these things and you have a deductible. So now I just, as a business owner, and this may be just probably some insight into Jim and the black and white way that I think about the world is if I enter into that understanding, I expect that after today, after delivery, I'm going to fulfill my responsibility in that. And I'm going to also expect the customer to fulfill my risk or their responsibility in that. Okay. So this is where I think it's, it's about clear understanding and holding everybody accountable to the understanding, including me. I need to make sure I follow through. And that means timely, even though it may not specify that in the warranty, it doesn't say I'm going to, to make the repairs in five minutes. I know that from a customer service perspective, when I have a warranty, I'm going to act quickly. I'm going to do what I can to take care of the customer quickly and get them happy in a short period of time. But now let's talk about day ninety one. Okay, so I give them a ninety day warranty. Let's talk about they reached day ninety one or they reached three thousand and five miles on the car. And now the warranty has expired. It's now passed. So now we're back into an as is scenario. The customer didn't buy a service contract. We can talk about service contracts separately, but now we're back into as is. It's out of warranty. It's now the customer's financial responsibility. So we're really just, it's almost the difference between, you can say warranty, you can say as is. I'm saying on the warranty, it basically says I'm covering those repairs for you inside that window. You're going to have a deductible and I'm going to cover the listed repairs. So we should probably call it a limited warranty. That's technically the definition of the language that is going to be used. It's limited in coverage. It's limited in duration, right? But again, if we jump ahead to day ninety-one, now what? From a pure customer service perspective, what's going to be the white hat way to handle a situation in that way? And listen, we're in a couple of weeks, we're going to be in a classroom with dealers and vendors and talk about how white hat way looks. And I have said on many occasions, the white hat approach to business does not mean that the customer is always right and that we do everything for the customer in the interest of making them happy. way to me is much more about this thing about holding everybody accountable to the understanding, fulfilling the understanding and making sure we're all clear on, on what is covered, what's not covered when the coverage expires and all those kinds of things. So again, day ninety one, If I've got a customer, let me be the dealer for a minute. You come in and you say, hey, I got a problem. My transmission seems to be slipping. You know, let's check. Oh, man, your warranty just expired. So some dealers would say, well, you're pretty close. You're just a little bit over. So I'll take care of it. Man, I just think from a legal perspective, you think you're helping the customer and you're doing a good thing for the customer. And I'm thinking maybe you're also stepping into some legal waters. Is it a good idea for a dealer to... Let someone know your warranty is expiring in seven days. I think it's a wonderful idea. I think anything I can do proactively to communicate proactively and make the customer aware. And if we want to get a quick assessment on the car, you know, before the warranty expires, even better, you know, especially when it's a longer term warranty, Hey, your warranty is going to be coming up first. For me, we talked about this in, in the context of one of our V eight meetings the other day about a dealer who's offering a twenty four month warranty. Mm hmm. Which means as the warranty is expiring, it's a great time to reach out to the customer and say, hey, you've only got a few months left on your warranty. Why don't we schedule a time to come in and have the car assessed? And, of course, for me as a dealer, I'm going to say, can we talk about trading the car in? Your warranty is about to expire if we get you into a new one with lower miles. Yes. then now you've got a car that's got fresh warranty again. And a lot of customers would be happy to do that. So to answer your question, yes, I absolutely would be reaching out. I think it's appropriate. Text, campaigns, whatever can reach out to customers. The other thing that I think is important in that is when a consumer hears... the word warranty, unless they're very well educated and have been through a warranty scenario where it's like, that's not covered, sorry, that it's a really great idea to, when you talk about a warranty, You call it a limited warranty and find language that it's a limited warranty and it covers this, this, and this. And then that, I mean, we talk frequently about consumers, our customers, there's a lot they're having to, drinking out of a fire hose kind of thing. And so even that warranty, that limited warranty covers letting them know via text a little short little video if you have that capability or whatever um and or even you know most yeah it yes because it would be a like a one-off you've whoever it is that sold so this is not like a mass text going out something that says okay just so you remember you do have a limited warranty And then showing and giving in that a few examples of what that looks like. Because, you know, most of the time a salesperson is, it's just, oh, this is a feature, but not really giving some real world examples. And so really educating them about what a limited warranty looks like. Yeah, for sure. I think that's absolute. And this is going back to the thing about reinsurance. Like I think dealers technically, and listen, you guys ask your reinsurance providers about this, but I think technically my understanding is that a limited warranty, if I'm a dealer, I can offer to my customer a limited warranty without having a reinsurance company. a limited warranty now it's different with a service contract but with a warranty I can handle that myself in-house it's it's got some problems and challenges I would recommend people investigate further I would recommend they use a reinsurance agent instead they're going to pay a seating fee and they're going to pay some stuff to have them handle administration but I think you're going to find in the end that For most dealers, unless you're just extraordinarily wealthy or, you know, really versed in the thing, I think you'd be money ahead to use a reinsurance agent or broker or whatever to get that done. So this is... So now I've got this... limited warranty that I'm providing well what that means is if I'm providing it that means I have to build it into my program which means if you're the consumer I have to price the car accordingly I have to price it in a way that includes that warranty which is okay that's what's expected uh we can't really discuss that it's included in there um so it becomes a little bit of a challenge that way but we do have some additional prices in there some additional cost and we have to adjust the selling price we should I say have to we should because we're we're providing more service and but I also think we don't want to pass by this idea that dealers offer often offer a warranty from a marketing perspective they believe it's going to help them sell and close more sales maybe it's true maybe it's not I can tell you we have a dealer who's been in business twenty five, thirty years, who told me last year, we tested, we had a three month warranty. We went to a six month warranty in the effort to try to promote that and sell it and make it a stronger local made zero difference in their sales. So they went back to three months. That's one dealer's scenario. That's one dealer's example. But what that would say is that that warranty, the longer warranty was, at least in their case, was not any kind of a sales advantage. Well, I wonder, yes. So if you're only looking at it from that perspective, it's not selling more cars, but is it costing the dealership more, potentially? And having consumers that are really... feel like they're being taken care of and, and all of that. And, you know, you mentioned before too, that, that there are dealers that we work with that have a, um, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, to repeat, to get them to bring the car in, let's take a look at it and get you into a new car. So if you're looking at it that way though too, if it can move the needle to do that, it's then that is you can chalk that up to advertising cost or something like that that it's just like we we have a we have a repeat and then you're able to actually re if that car is still in great condition either sell it as cash right or put it back into the into the mix Yeah, and I think those dealers who do a twenty four month warranty, I don't see a lot of them. That's a pretty big chunk of cash. Right. So so dealers have to be capitalized in a way that they can make that. So there's a lot of elements to that. And I'm a proponent of all of them. I think a warranty can make a lot of sense. I think a dealer who chooses to do a twenty four month warranty versus a twenty four month service contract is probably we can bring them on and ask them. But they're probably thinking in terms of. day-to-day management, keeping their customer on the road. They're going to bring it back to their service department. And so they're going to have, they're going to do the service in-house, but they're really just keeping the customer on the road. That is a PR thing for them. They can promote, you know, they obviously had a twenty four month warranty. That would be a strong thing to build a promote in terms of your um services but it's still up to us and this is why the way I think becomes significant it's like that that warranty is really only as good as the people behind it so I think this is our opportunity to help sell that we are dependable we're we're reliable we're trustworthy we follow through on our warranty so back to the thing we do our part So just to finish out the thought, though, dealers who choose to do a twenty four month warranty is probably a lot of financial strategy. There's probably some wealth building strategy in that they're building up a nest egg in their reinsurance company and they can use that for their own personal wealth creation. They can use it to fund businesses. elements of their business. There are different things that can be done with that as those premiums are earned out. And so that's not, I didn't mean for us to get that deep in the weeds today, but just know that there's some real benefit in that. And I think a twenty four month warranty, I could certainly help a dealer market that, you know, successfully. Right. So now thinking just back in terms of. Having clear understandings around the as-is, I think, let me offer one suggestion. If I'm a dealer offering as-is, I pride myself in being pretty creative. So if I knew that I was gonna put aside some amount of money for a three-month warranty, okay? I could put a three-month warranty on a car, which means what? I'm gonna be sending a check, as soon as the customer takes delivery, or within a month or so, I'm gonna be sending a check off probably to my reinsurance provider to cover those potential losses and claims. I'm also going to be selling the car for a little bit more, which means I need to pass that along to the customer in terms of selling price. And whoops, wow, we lost the light over there. So she caught it. Go ahead and deal with that if you need to put it back up. But otherwise we just, we think that when you're doing that, you got that extra cost in there. That means you've got some extra selling price. Don't worry about the light. We're okay. We'll be wrapping up here shortly. But I think the key thing on that for me is that, I've now got some additional cost in it, right? And I have to move my price a little bit. Alternatively, I could offer the customer, and I could say this at closing, my approach was not to do that, but to know that I was going to have it available. I would know that I would sort of have every customer pre-approved for some financing if some repairs should come up. So it's a side note, is what you're talking about. It's a side note, yeah. It's a special loan. There are places out there that provide other kind of programs for this kind of financing, kind of micro loans or whatever you want to call it. But in this case, I'm essentially making a loan to that customer who is, you know, three weeks and six weeks in, they would be inside this ninety day window and they've come up with this problem. They understood the car was as is. That was clear. We made that clear that those things would be their financial responsibility. But we probably said in the same breath because of the language I personally use as a dealer. And trained our people to say, just because the car is as is, it doesn't mean we won't help you. It just means we won't pay for the repairs on your behalf. So just understand, if you run into some mechanical problems, especially if you're faced with a car payment and a mechanical problem, come see us. There's ways we can help. Yeah. Stop there. Yeah. And so they don't know how we can help at the day of delivery. They just know that we pledged a willingness to help. And I know that I've got in my back pocket this money that I would have been sending in a warranty company. And I can now step in and provide the customer some very favorable loan terms. Look, I can put the money. I can provide if it's you and it's a six hundred dollar repair, thousand dollar repair. I can loan you the money. I can make your payment five dollars a month. I can make your payment, do every tax refund season. I can do some really creative things. When it's your own money. So what's happening here? You're accepting financial responsibility for what is your financial responsibility. And I'm helping. It's also painful for me. I'm the one writing the check to the transmission shop in this case. So it's taking me some cash. And just so we're clear, I mean, this is the way you did it when you had your dealership and you didn't do, you didn't have a shop. So all of the repairs and everything went to different facilities. And at various stages of my ownership and management of, you know, some pretty active dealerships. I managed dealerships that were doing, you know, forty sales a month or maybe a little more with the one I did with the four locations. But the the thing is that. The element that I'm really talking about here is almost, yes, we're talking about the way I did that, but it's like, it's the way that a dealer could handle as is to know that just because I'm not paying for those repairs, because I'm just really interested in maintaining super clear boundaries around the legal elements here. Because when I, back to that example about You know, this thing about inferred or implied warranty, when a warranty expires, in my example earlier, at ninety days, and now on day ninety-one, I say, don't worry about it, you're close, let me take care of it. Oh, then you open up. And it could be all over that, because now, where does that end? You said it ended at ninety, but apparently it didn't. So now we're one hundred and twenty days and we have a different problem. We think you still are responsible because your warranty that you claimed expired did not expire. Yeah. So where would it end? And this is why I think way likes we like clear understanding. We like to have clear boundaries and we're not talking about having customers be unhappy. We're just talking about being able to communicate with them and and help find ways to navigate the stuff that is going to come up. But it's like, look, the warranty and the service contract and the reinsurance part, the reason to do those things, there are many, right? And certainly it can be a wealth building. It could be a customer relations solution. I think the thing that we're touching on here that we probably could make a separate conversation is like, I that whole thing about I'm sitting on a loan like a pre-approval you bought a car from me and now you're eighty days in and you have a mechanical problem and you it's as is you understood but you also knew we would help so now I'm stepping in to to provide a loan for you well one of the conditions of that loan will be this is if you qualify one of the conditions that loan will be have you made your car payment because I'm making that loan to you as a finance company and so you're you're standing there demanding that the repair be made whatever a lot of times these conversations start with the customer is a little upset and it's an upsetting situation so it's not surprising but by the time we finish the conversation it's my hope that the regardless of what phrasing we use um My approach would be, look, as a finance company, we're happy to try to help. And if you qualify, we can try to get you some financial help to get this car back on the road. And so let's look at that. It looks like the total repairs are going to be about eight hundred dollars. You can cover a hundred. So if we can help you with a loan of seven hundred dollars, would you do that? Great trick is we're only going to make loans to customers whose counter current. Let me check, verify that your account is current. Yeah, it looks like it is. So you're eligible. That's important to say, even if. Just to drive it home. The fact that I'm happy to help. So they know next time or if there is a next time. It's a little like I'm happy. So again, whatever language comes out of my mouth, what's going on in my head is I'm happy to help those who are doing their part. And their part in this understanding is to make the car payments. That's a separate understanding. So you and I can talk about that as a different matter because So many customers in our segment, they associate the car. They feel like if the car is not running, they don't have an obligation to make a car payment. They feel like if the car is taken away in a tornado, they no longer have an obligation to make a car payment. But the contract and the agreement that the dealer and the consumer has, the car is collateral. But if a collateral is gone, there's still a contract. There's still an understanding. That's the way it works. That's legally the way it's going to work in virtually every courthouse in the country. Therefore, we just want to make sure that we make sure the customer's doing their part and that we can help educate them because this is back to what Candice Price calls the knowledge gap. The customer doesn't necessarily understand that piece that I just described. And so this is on us to make sure that we happily and quickly do our part. We expect the customer to do their part as part of the arrangement because the way I would think about it is if that customer is not prepared to do their part, they're going to withhold car payment. I would be prepared to end that business relationship, even if we are just eighty days in. Like if we can't navigate that, like if we can't reach an understanding where I'm going to do my part and help you and make you a loan for these repairs. And that was that's unfortunate. That's frustrating for you because you only own the car short time and whatever. But that is the understanding. And now if you're going to follow through on your part of the understanding, I'm going to step up and do something that will help a lot because I'm interested in seeing you be a customer for a very long time. Right. And so, again, how much of this is coming out of my mouth is up to me in the moment. But it's like this is the attitude that I'm bringing to the thing. And so just because I'm as is doesn't mean I can't support the customer. I would just say when we ask the question is as is dead, it's like we see most dealers who we might describe as white hat sort of, you know, candidates or, you know, white hat, you know, operators. Most of them have a warranty or service contract available in their strategy. I would just simply say, I think it's still possible in today's marketplace, in any marketplace to operate as is, as long as we're clear about the understanding and we still have the means and the willingness to support the customer in that arrangement. And I like, you know, we've spoken earlier today and other times of, you know, sending short text message, video, whatever, to explain some of the highlights of the understanding. That even, I would just want to know what your thoughts are on this, is that when you send something like that, this is as is, right? Um, but that doesn't mean we're not going to support you. And so as long as your car payment is current, we may be able to, we may be able to, or something, but I mean, uh, communicating that as long as your car payment is current, um, we have options to be able to support you in those kind of things. Yeah, I think, yes, I think that I wouldn't use that phrase until I had already dripped some earlier educations. Like there, you would come to that point probably in the conversation. But I think the short answer to this is making sure the customer fully understands the nature of the agreement that they're in. That obviously increases the chance of success for both parties. So I'm going to educate. So you can do the same thing in a service contract. You have a service contract. I can remind them. I can trip to them. Hey, you purchased a service contract. Wonderful. Let's remind you, here's what service contract covers. Here's what service contract doesn't cover. And then so maybe in a separate message, hey, you purchase service contract. Don't forget, you're going to have one hundred fifty dollar deductible as an example. And so here's how the deductibles work. And oh, by the way, this is something that, Jim, I would totally be super helpful with customers on deductibles, too. I just want to see them accept responsibility for it. I see dealers demand. You've got to pay your one hundred fifty dollars today or I'm not fixing your air conditioner. Like that, you can take that position. I would just say, I'm not surprised that our customers on the day that they're AC quits, they don't have a spare hundred and fifty bucks. So I'm saying I just want the customer to take responsibility for that part and I'll help them. I want to get their AC fixed today, but I want them to I want to have a clear understanding about what we're doing about the deductible. I want them to accept full responsibility for it because that is our understanding. And so if. If that meant, Michelle, that they're not going to pay their hundred fifty dollar deductible till tax refund season, it's not the difference in me staying in business or not. It's not the difference in my insurance company remaining solvent. It's like I think it's we we want to help customers. We want to be quick and we want to be flexible and cooperative. That's everybody's decision, right? That's a business decision at the time. I'm simply saying when you squeeze that customer for that hundred fifty dollar deductible today, we can't turn around and be surprised if they're short on their check on or their paycheck and their or their ability to make their payment on Friday. It's like. Look at it in a holistic perspective. Look at it on the idea of this ten-year approach or thirty-year approach. The customer's going to be with us a very long time. Is that one hundred fifty dollar deductible today really worth going toe to toe over before we'll even start the repairs? I'm simply saying in my case, it is worth going toe to toe in terms of reaching a clear understanding about how and when the customer is going to pay that deductible. but I want to start the repairs now. And I, I, you know, again, with that, there's, there's so many things you could, you could weave into this conversation. Like if you're going to do the deductible tax time, then it's a really great idea to have a program that does tax for, you know, you can file there and the stuff will go there and they know that that's going to be taken care of. This is part of what, what we offer. And so if you, if you have to do something, we can do this at tax time. Sure. Yeah, and I want to clarify something because I don't want to cause any confusion out here. The service contract, if you purchase a service contract and your payment is past due, then those are different matters. Again, car is collateral. Service contract is a separate understanding. You can ask the customer to make that payment, but the idea of demanding the customer make their payment before you proceed with repairs on a service contract, I wouldn't do that. Mm-hmm. And I'm an attorney. I'm just saying it's a separate agreement. Customer purchased it. They financed it. Yes, they're behind on their loan payment, their regular loan payment, which probably has the service contract payment built into it somehow. But it's a separate matter. I can ask, but I would not. If I were in a dealer's position, I would not demand that the customer make their payment before I proceed with the service contract. Because there's nothing in the service contract agreement that says the payment has to be made. There's just, go find it, look at your agreement. But I'm just saying, this is where I think dealers get in trouble. It's like, that's a separate understanding. And so I think we just got to be super careful about that. But I hope we explained to those who are out there considering either the buy here, pay your business, or look at warranty versus buy here, or warranty versus as is, and all these elements. It's my belief that you can still do as is. It's my belief you can still do as is and make it fully White Hat compliant, if you will. I mean, it's going to be White Hat approved. But it's a question of communication, making sure the customer understands and is clear about expectations, and that we're still supporting the customer after delivery in a myriad of ways, right? Okay. So I think that's it. I thought you were going to say plethora. Plethora? thank you that means a lot so um we I can't believe how many episodes have we done we haven't worked in that dungeon oh gosh yeah that's something we've laughed about since way back since way back you be prepared if you ever go to a funeral and you see jim and michelle in the back think oh gosh are they gonna ask to say a word yeah are they oh my god yes Yeah, my brother's been visiting, and last night we got to see some of the behind-the-curtain, just really silly things that we say to each other. And it looked like it was coming to the back a little bit. A little bit. He was surprised. What? Yep, we can very slowly. Hey, everybody. Thanks for listening. Happy White Hat Wednesday. We will be back on Friday with another great topic on usually straight line topics. Yeah, I've got some numbers to talk about. Got some numbers. We'll see you on Friday. All right. Have a great day, everybody. We will chat with you on Friday.
