@jesmed: Thanks for your time and thoughtfulness. You are right some comments were helpful in spite of the fact they were preceded or followed up by misogynistic inferences. (bjalady being my username.). Now I know what it feels like to be BULLIED online. I wont be coming back for more but I will be sharing my experience with this site online.
@Bjalady, I’m sorry you felt bullied. I don’t think any of the guys meant to offend you. Unfortunately on the Internet the tone of a comment can seem very different than what the writer intended. Please inderstand that many of these guys are professional mechanics who have been dealing all their lives with customers who demand free diagnostic work. Wouldn’t it bug you a little if every day people came into your workplace and asked you to do work for them for free? So that’s where they’re coming from. They didn’t mean to flame you. It wasn’t personal. It’s just a general sore point.
But on this website, they do offer their time and advice for free, and it’s usually excellent and saves visitors lots of money and frustration. So I’m sorry you felt offended and won’t be coming back. I hope you will change your mind and give the site one more try under different circumstances next time. You might be pleasantly surprised when their advice saves you $$. 
I agree with Jesmed, but I have to point out that the OP’s reaction is typical of what we see on a fairly frequent basis nowadays.
People come to a forum wanting affirmation of their beliefs (no matter how invalid those beliefs may be), and if the respondents don’t agree with the OP’s preconceived notions, then those respondents are told that they are…mean…or inconsiderate…or bullies…or “industry insiders” who defend anything that a mechanic does.
While I am empathetic with this person’s problems, I still think that she needed to know that she was…WAY off-base with her thinking. Until somebody analyzes a situation on a logical basis, he/she is unlikely to get that problem resolved properly.
I would also emphasize that the responses had about as much to do with “misogyny” as they had to do with football. In other words, none.
And there was no bullying until Bjalady came back to bully everyone. A question was asked and answered and that is all.
The bully is the person who asks a question and then gets mad when s/he doesn’t get the answer s/he wanted and then demeans others by accusing them of things like bullying and misogyny.
To quote a famous movie line, “you can’t handle the truth”.
Sorry, but nobody has bullied you. But if you try to get people who tried to help you understand why you got charged again for diagnosis to condescend and feel bad by badmouthing them, you’re going to be very disappointed.
Storming out of the shop (your words) screaming about how unfair the second diagnosis fee was displayed, IMHO, a level of maturity that needs work. I recommend you calm down and think about your behaviors. They’re not productive. Yelling, screaming, and storming our will not get your car fixed.
I’m sure glad I didn’t throw in my 2c worth here. My misogyny would likely have been over the top.
I am curious how the OP feels about tipping servers when eating out and even tipping in general, though.
“the responses had about as much to do with “misogyny” as they had to do with football. In other words, none.”
"To quote a famous movie line, ‘you can’t handle the truth’ ".
+1 to both of the above comments.
Essentially, the OP has given us pretty good evidence that she always sees herself as a “victim”, and that attitude is going to impede her in every pursuit–not just in terms of trying to get her car repaired without paying the necessary fees.
If someone views themselves as perpetually being wronged by others, there is little hope for moving ahead in life…IMHO.
You were not bullied
We explained how things work in the automotive industry. Nobody works for free in the automotive industry. The only reason you can get codes scanned for free at autozone is because those guys get paid by the hour. Most mechanics working at a shop don’t get paid by the hour. They get paid flat rate. That means they only get paid for the work they do. And if it was a slow day . . . you get the picture. If book time says 3 hours to do a water pump, and you took 4 hours to do it, you’re still only getting paid 3 hours.
What makes more sense?
Having the mechanic spend time on a car and not get paid?
Or having the mechanic replace worn out shocks, for which the customer will pay?
You may think you were bullied because all of us (except you) were on the same wavelength
" . . . I will be sharing my experience with this site online."
That sounds spiteful. Sounds to me like you will be telling all your friends what a lousy website this is. Go ahead, if venting makes you feel better
What makes you think they even care?
For that matter, you can’t hurt us. The guys are on this website do so because they want to be. We’re not getting paid to respond to your questions.
BTW . . .I just looked up misogynistic. We do not hate women, and have not been oppressive to women. Where did you even get that idea? I think you’re just seeing what you want to see
Have a good one
Some people only want the share their outrage, now she feels like she has two things to be outraged about. If you only want to be made to feel good, or have others join you in being shocked at how unjustly you have been treated maybe Jerry Springer has a site.
This thread should probably just go away before it gets uglier.
The mechanics at the dealership you stalked out of work on flat rate. This means they’re paid for what they actually do.
What you’re asking is that the mechanic diagnose your car for free. A mechanic there can diagnose one car after the other all day long for free but that’s not going to go over well with his mortgage holder, the grocer, and the store that sells shoes for his kids.
What would your reaction be if your employer told you that you were going to be doing a certain job that day for free? I
What would your reaction be if the dealer had blindly replaced an expensive PCM because “so and so said so” and the problem was not fixed?
It’s pretty apparent that you would then be demanding your money back on the PCM while accusing the dealer of being incompetent and/or a crook.
OP has apparently left the building and not coming back. Let’s move on.
On the off chance that she is still checking in with us, I’d like to offer what I hope is useful advice to her.
First, the dealer is not the problem here, the national chain is. They did not give you your moneys worth and I feel they owe you a refund.
A diagnostic fee is not just reading the codes. You can get that for free at most autoparts stores. It starts with the code reader, but then the technician should be going to the factory service manual or an online service that provides the troubleshooting procedures (known as a fault tree) to narrow down to the exact fault. This can be very time consuming for some faults, others it can be done quickly.
The national chain would not have the factory service manual and some of the online services do not have all the troubleshooting procedures that the factory trained technicians have access too. So in some cases, the national chain guys can only send you to the dealer. The diagnostics done at the national chain were not as complete as they could have been so the dealer now has to start from scratch. Since his fault tree is more complete, it will take more time to do, therefore cost more.
Sorry but you just got caught in the crosshairs on this one, but the national chain may have done you a favor. Their only option would have been to replace the computer at many hundreds or even thousand+ dollars and that may not have fixed the problem. You think you are not happy now, you would really be upset then.
It may still turn out to be the computer, but if the dealers technician finds a broken wire or defective contact. in the long run you will have saved a lot of money. Computers are very reliable so the chances of a bad wire or connection are pretty good. Good luck.
I, too, believe she’s not comming back.
but
For all the others who read this piece because they have a similar question ;
Mechanics are paid for TIME of finished work only…not for just showing up in the building all day.
So when they Invest their time for diagnosis…it has got to pay something.
Yet, on the bright side and as yet unmentioned,
That same diag time price will often be subtracted from the repair price when returning to the same shop because…they’ve already invested that time in diag…already know what’s wrong…and have simply to complete the repair.
Think about it this way ; the grand total would still be the same as if you brought the car and left it for repair…diag time plus repair time all on one bill on one day instead of two bills on different days.
The only problem I see here is the chain shop’s undecided guess diag.
Oh she’s coming back, to read. No one ever storms off a message forum so angrily without coming back to see what people are saying.
Was hoping for helpful answers.
And you got them. They just weren’t what you wanted to hear.
I do think some people might have misunderstood your anger. I’m guessing you’re angry because you’ve already had it diagnosed, and then you brought the car to the second place and told them what the first place diagnosed, and said “fix it,” and then they said “not without a diagnostic we’re not.” Am I right?
The problem there is that the second mechanic has no earthly reason to trust that the first mechanic got it right. For all he knows, the first mechanic is a moron who doesn’t know the difference between a lug nut and a windshield. And so if he replaces the part you told him to replace, and that doesn’t fix the problem, he knows you’re going to be right back there yelling at him for charging all that repair money and not fixing the problem. If he’s going to take on that kind of responsibility, he wants to know, first hand, what the problem is.
Does that make a little more sense?
Oh, and…
Finger pointers: check out three that are pointing back at you.
Are you five?