Jason is a service technician at MOVIN-ON Machinery Co. Jason was given a repair order by his service manager, listing several customer complaints that needed to be diagnosed on a backhoe. Jason performed his diagnostic procedures and came to conclusions on the complaints listed on the repair order. One of the complaints was that the backhoes battery would slowly lose its charge and once you shut the machine off, it would not have enough battery power to crank the engine.

Jason charged the battery and got the backhoe running. A quick voltage output test at the alternator showed that there was no charging system output. Jason made sure the belt was attached and that the wiring was plugged in. Jason listed on his diagnosis hard copy, that the backhoe need a new alternator along with several other things including a new engine water pump.

The estimate for the parts cost for the alternator was $365.00 plus a core charge. The labor time to replace the alternator was 1.6 hours at $74.00 per hour. The labor cost to replace the water pump was 4.3 hours.

The service manager got approval from the customer to do the repairs, but the alternator would have to be special ordered to get it in a timely manner this required extra costs. Upon doing the service, Jason discovered that in order to replace the water pump, the alternator would have to be removed. Additionally, when Jason was reinstalling the wiring to the alternator, he discovered that a fusible link to the alternator was open and truly was the case of the charging system problem. Jason has a fusible link in his tool box.

1. What do you think Jason should do in the case of his misdiagnosis? As Jason's supervisor, how would you handle the situation if Jason was honest about his mistake? What would you do about the lost time and money involved? How would you approach your manager about the conditions and lost money if you were the service manager?

2. If Jason was not honest and you discovered what he had done, how would you handle the situation? Should the additional labor be charged even though the alternator had to be removed to do the water pump repair? What if you were Jason and you were honest about the misdiagnosis and the labor hour issue but, the service manager told you to finish the job, allowing the customer pay for the repairs at the original estimate costs? Explain your reasoning.

3. Jason is your star technician and you have established clear training goals over the course of a year with plans for him to seed his knowledge to the other technicians, how does this impact your plans as a manager?