Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

Scaling from one computer repair service center at Schrock Innovations to two was a logistical challenge, but for the most part it involved duplicating systems we already had in place. Now that Schrock is adding a third Service Center in Papillion, NE we are finding that simply doing what has worked in the past will […]

My wife needed to replace her Buick Rendezvous so we visited Rusty Eck Ford in Omaha, NE to look at what Ford had to offer. Four hours later we had to literally fight our way out of the dealership and once we got out we never looked back. It was easily the single worst service experience I have had in my entire life.

When we first arrived we wanted to look at the Ford Flex. My wife liked the marketing pieces and reviews. They had several 2011 models, but as a rule I don’t like buying brand new cars.

Instead they showed us a used 2010 model that was about $6,000 less expensive than a brand new one.

Anyone who knows anything about cars knows that the value of a vehicle drops SIGNIFICANTLY once it has been titled to someone else. Even if it is only driven 100 miles, the fact that it was titled to someone makes it a used car. The price difference between new and used should have been more than $6,000.

Rusty Eck’s Service Experience Begins to Show

They have a wall of hand-written customer testimonials outside of their rest-stop like bathrooms. They all brag about the favorable deals and great service experiences.

Never mind the fact that they were all written on the EXACT same cheap Wal-Mart stationary using the same pen… Hmmm…

We left the crazy price in the used Flex simmer on the back burner for a bit figuring they would offer us a favorable trade-in allowance to make up for the difference.

My wife’s Buick has a trade-in value according to Kelly Blue Book of just over $8,500. Rusty Eck offered us $3,000. That’s when things started to slide downhill.

The salesman got gruff with us about expecting more for the trade in. We told him we could sell it easily on Craig’s List for over $9,000.

Then he left us in his uncomfortable office chairs for over 30 minutes listening to the searingly awful 80’s music they are pumping into the whole showroom using a single plasma TV. He was “checking with his manager” to see what they could do for us as a “special exception.”

We took the opportunity to look up used Flex’s with similar features at other dealerships and on Craig’s List. Almost everyone else had identical 2010 Flex vehicles priced $10,000 or more under the cost of a new one – right where they should be.

Prisoners to Rusty Eck’s Horrid Service

When he came back in to his office and told us that his boss was giving us a good deal and they couldn’t do any better, we got up to leave. Maybe he thought we were bluffing.

We told him that while his manager could not do better, we used the afternoon we wasted in his office to do some research. Guess what – other dealerships have better offers than what you manager can do. The Internet is a bear isn’t it?

As we put on our coats, the salesman hobbled around his desk to get between us and the front door. He informed us that no one leaves without talking to the sales manager. We started walking for the door.

At the last possible moment a slick looking man stops us and asks us if there is anything he can do to help us get into the car we wanted. We briefly told him that he was trying to low-ball us on our trade and his vehicles were overpriced to begin with. We then LITERALLY pushed through him and out the door.

Have a Look at What Other Say About Rusty Eck Ford

Apparently our experience was not that unique. Take a look at these online reviews of Rusty Eck Ford:

Top 10 Reasons Not to Buy Your Car from Rusty Eck:

#10. Lacking the comfort feel- doesn’t feel welcoming
#9. Uniformed salesperson- Lacking information about financing and rebates
#8. A feel of “Buy Today”
#7. They don’t back up what they say
#6. Unprofessional finance manager #1-Talking about he and his wife “getting effed up”
#5. Unprofessional finance manager #2-Discussing how hungover he is from the Christmas party the night before
#4. Unprofessional finance manager #2-Watching a live football game on his computer while working with us
#3. Unprofessional finance manager #1-rushing through paperwork and avoiding explaining anything and then tacking on an $1800 bumper to bumper warranty without our consent.
#2. Stating the vehicle would be picked up from Iowa Monday morning and failing to do so. Then neglecting to make things right and NEVER receiving a call from a manager.
#1. There are other Ford dealers in Omaha that truly care about their customers and will work to do everything in their power to make you happy.

Or this one from Dealerrater.com:

This has to be one of the dealerships that movie makers copy when they want to show a scumbag type dealership. They have no morals and absolutely no professionalism. They will try to milk you out of any money you might have and then some. We bought a used 1999 Chevy Blazer from them about 3 weeks ago. It was on a Sunday night and at closing time so everyone was in a hurry. When we asked about everything working o.k. (especially the 4wd) the salesman said yes just hit the button and it works. Well the first time it snowed, my daughter pushes the button for auto 4wd and tells me it is just blinking, well I take it out for a drive and sure enough, it never kicks into 4wd. I take it back to them and want to see if there is anything we can do to fix it. To make a long story short, a new salesman tries to get me to purchase a lesser priced vehicle and charge me more money for a “trade-in” when I get angry and tell him that this must be a joke, they tell us to leave and as I am telling them what I think of their dealership, a manager comes around the corner and starts telling me how I am the piece of sh*t customer and I need to leave. Then about 6-7 “salesman” come outside with me and one of them starts taking his coat off and rolling his shirt sleeves up like he’s wanting to fight!! What a joke, this is truly the SCUM of the dealerships. I hope Rusty Eck is proud of what he has built out there. Ford should take their name off of the signage because this is very much a used car lot filled with lot lizards looking for a next victim. They probably sit around and joke about how bad they screwed their last customer. Truly despicable.

Schrock Innovations‘ PC Maintenance Checkup Sale is by far one of the most popular times of the year to bring a computer into their computer repair Service Centers.

Over the past week Schrock’s technicians have been pulling overtime to keep up with demand.

As you can see, as soon as Schrock launched the sale computers started pouring in to the Service Centers.

By the end of the first day more than 100 computers had arrived for the $30 maintenance offer. Throughout the course of the sale Schrock took in over 1,000 systems for maintenance between Omaha and Lincoln, NE.

The load was unusually weighted toward desktop computers over laptops. Over the past couple years Schrock has seen a steady shift away from desktop computers toward notebooks.

The company has also been advertising on FM radio stations for the past 9 months which tends to bring in a younger demographic who prefer the portability of a notebook over a desktop. Either way, it was a little surprising to see the desktop hanging in there in the quantity department.

Schrock;’s customers oftn hear that the Maintenance Checkup Sale is going on for “one week only,” but in reality Schrock’s technicians have been working under a load of 100+ computers in queue for more than 3 weeks now.

When Schrock launches a sale this big, it is always a challenge to keep turn-around times reasonable the customer.

To help moderate the work flow, Schrock will email customers about the sale first, then work through the bulk of that response before taking it live on the radio.

Schrock emailed over 8,500 customers about the sale and the response was immediate and intense.

While a flood of Schrock’s existing customers was expected, we were all shocked to see that about 20% of the computers coming in after the email were new customers. Apparently the sale announcement email went viral with customers forwarding it to their friends and relatives.

All in all, Schrock’s technicians have been putting in 60-70 hours a week EACH in an attempt to keep up with the demand. With the sale ending today at 5 PM they should have everything back to normal again in each Service Center within a few days.

Thank you Schrock customers for another amazingly productive Maintenance Checkup Sale!

Schrock Innovations will be holding our first Preventative Maintenance Checkup Sale of 2010 starting this weekend, March 12, 2011 through March 20, 2011. Although we are “officially” launching the sale on this weekend’s Compute This radio show, you are invited to bring your PC in now and beat the inevitable rush! Last week I was […]

The most recent radio ratings came in earlier this month and our KFAB Compute This radio show in Omaha Nebraska dominated the competition.

Before we saw the ratings the staff at Clear Channel warned us that typically it takes a couple of ratings periods for a new show to catch on.

With that as a precursor, you can understand why I was thrilled to learn that Schrock Innovations has the #1 rated program in our time slot!

Comparing From Then to Now

Having the #1 show doesn’t mean much if the time slot was #1 before you got there in the first place. KFAB pulls great ratings – the best in Omaha – so it was important that we check our current results against how the station did in the last ratings period before we came on the air.

In the previous ratings book, KFAB was #2 in our time slot with an average of 23,000 listeners at any given point in time.

After our show aired for a mere 13 weeks, KFAB jumped to #1 in the time slot with an average of 36,000 listeners at any given point in time! If what they told me is in fact true, we should see these numbers continue to rise in the next book as Compute This! matures in the Omaha radio market.

Thank you Listeners and Callers!

I want to take a moment to thank all of our great listeners and callers that make Compute This what it is on KFAB and on KFOR (where we have held the top ratings in our time slot for 7 consecutive YEARS). Without you we would not have a show!

Compute This! is a weekly call in show that airs in Lincoln on KFOR 1240 AM at 10:00 AM and on Sunday in Omaha on 1110 KFAB from 7-8 AM. Both shows are live and listeners can call in to the shows and get help with their computers.

If you have missed Compute This! you can also download individual shows on Schrock Innovations’ website or you can subscribe to the iTunes podcast.

Today Schrock Innovations is changing out the 2010 Holiday Special computer commercial airing on ESPN 1480 and replacing it with a more feature-focused version.

The new commercial will begin airing November 29, 2010 and will air through Christmas Eve or until the 2010 Holiday Special is sold out.

Click here to download or play the new commercial.

This version is similar to the previous ESPN spot that aired throughout the month of November, but includes more specific information about what makes the computer so special.

Features like the 120 GB solid state hard drive, the 6-core processor, and its amazing 12 GB of DDR3 memory are specifically mentioned.

I am going to be on the KMTV Channel 3 in Omaha during Monday’s Morning Blend program to talk about some of the best Black Friday tech shopping tips and to highlight some of the amazing things Schrock has on special next weekend.

I have been watching all of the Black Friday leaked ads to find out where the best deals are, what time you need to be there and how many of them will be available.

If you are not the get-up-early type, we are also going to tell you about some amazing deals that Schrock Innovations will have all weekend long – starting Black Friday through November 28th.

Unlike the box stores, we don’t get a kick out of watching our customers freeze in the cold for hours just to have a 1 in 100 shot at a sale item that is over-hyped and under-stocked.

Schrock’s Lincoln and Omaha Service Centers will both be opening at our normal business hours (10am to 8pm Friday and Saturday and Sunday noon-5pm).

You can expect some amazing deals including:

• Compaq notebooks for only $399.99 (3 available per Service Center)
• Ultimate Upgrade Desktop Computers for only $399 (10 available per Service Center)
• Norton 360 Installed and Warrantied for only $79.99 (25 per Service Center)
• $10 in FREE Gift Cards for Every $50 You Buy
• PC Preventative Maintenance Checkups for Only $29.99 (all weekend long)
• $100 Instant Rebate off the 2010 Holiday Special Desktop PC
• Register to win a Free 3-night Branson Condo Stay

All of the Black Friday Weekend Event details will be posted online on the Schrock Innovations website. If you want to see the hardware firsthand (and you are in Omaha), be sure to tune into KMTV Channel 3 Monday morning at 9!

With everything going on with the new Omaha Service Center opening, we haven’t had time to get our latest KFAB Compute This shows edited and posted on the Compute This page of the Schrock website until now.

Two KFAB shows are now available online free from commercial interruption.

You can listen to the August 15, 2010 show here.

You can listen to the August 22, 2010 show here.

We have two other shows in raw audio format that we need to edit. We should have those online this week.

Our KFAB shows are a little different from the shows we air on KFOR. On the KFAB show I do not have a co-host (Chris won’t get up at 5 on Sunday morning to drive to Omaha).

Also, because KFAB covers Lincoln and Omaha, we get callers from all over the state.

The format is a little different, but give it a listen. It has really been catching on in Omaha and I think you will enjoy it.

Grant Mellor is one of Schrock Innovations‘ newest technicians. Typically a technician must work at Schrock for 90 days before we official assign them to one of the Service Centers.

In Grant’s case we did not have to wait that long to understand that we had a talented technician and a great guy on our hands.

After just a few weeks on the job, Grant has accumulated more customer compliments, thank you notes, and mentions on Compute This than I could possibly list here.

Because of his great technical efforts, his positive attitude, and his committment to providing excellent service, Schrock has assigned Grant to our new Omaha Service Center to help train and coordinate the next generation of Schrock Innovations staff.

Congratulations Grant and thank you for your excellent work!

The KZKX morning show is one of the most highly-rated morning shows in Lincoln, so you can understand how THRILLED we were when Schrock Computer Company was featured during their show today!

Carol and Mick said some kind words about us as they introduced us to their listeners and kindly mentioned that we give a free hour of labor to all new customers so they can experience what real service feels like.

Have a listen to what they had to say about us!