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Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home

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Re: Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home

#21

Post by khallil »

overcast wrote: post #17

Let's get serious for a moment here. Beyond relatively simple home garage fixes, how do you plan on addressing larger issues that a mobile service could never handle. Something that requires a lift for example? Exhausts, transmission, basically anything under the body. Are teams available? How did you handle mounting / balancing with TireSwap?

If the car needs a tow, we'll get it taken to one of our partner shops. So far, we've repaired a few thousand cars and less than 1% have needed a tow. We only contract licensed mechanics with many years of experience, so they can do pretty complex work by jacking up your car on your driveway.

When we were running TireSwap we did on rim tire changes and rotations only (summer to winters and vice versa), so no mounting / balancing was needed.

Re: Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home

#23

Post by Judgmentality »

ArifBhanji wrote: post #16
warcher wrote: post #9

I love this idea, but it's also some super hood shit. This is absolutely a done thing in lower income areas-- "shade tree mechanics" is the term of art I know. I would imagine the biggest issue would be ensuring a feeling of reliability and professionalism to a sort of sketchy proposition. (A random stranger coming to your house to work on your car.) Plus, as a practicing shade tree mechanic when I was young and brok…

Thank you! We're trying to change the way consumers see this service. Our mechanics dress clean, bring you your favourite coffee, and teach you a bit about the repair as well to educate you about the trade. Our customers range from low to high income individuals who just want to save time and effort and spend that time with their family or on their hobbies. We've seen a ton of our customers build strong relationships…

Once your customers build a relationship with one of your mechanics, what's to stop them from contacting them directly? I know Homejoy had this problem where customers would just contact cleaners directly to avoid the service fee. Or are your mechanics employees instead of contract workers?

Re: Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home

#24

Post by khallil »

Danihan wrote: post #18
overcast wrote: post #17

Let's get serious for a moment here. Beyond relatively simple home garage fixes, how do you plan on addressing larger issues that a mobile service could never handle. Something that requires a lift for example? Exhausts, transmission, basically anything under the body. Are teams available? How did you handle mounting / balancing with TireSwap?

The mechanic shows up in a tow truck.

None of our technicians drive tow trucks. You can see some of them, and their reviews here: https://www.fiix.io/mechanics

Re: Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home

#26

Post by RussianCow »

sergiotapia wrote: post #14

This service is only available in Toronto, Canada. Seems like a good idea if the price is right. I'd love this for regular car maintenance.

According to the bottom of the home page, they are available in over 20 locations.

Re: Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home

#27

Post by jacquesm »

sergiotapia wrote: post #14

This service is only available in Toronto, Canada. Seems like a good idea if the price is right. I'd love this for regular car maintenance.

I'd hate to be a mechanic working outdoors in winter Toronto. Just thinking of handling steel tools with un-gloved hands (otherwise you can't grasp much) makes me feel sorry for those folks.

Re: Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home

#28

Post by jacquesm »

sctb wrote: post #13
fiatjaf wrote: post #11

What is this "Launch HN" thing now?

It's a new thing we've been experimenting with for this YC batch. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13670456 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13492779 for some background. Now's a good time to share any thoughts about it if you'd like to send us an email at hn@ycombinator.com.

Suggestion: disable flags for these submissions.

Re: Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home

#29

Post by khallil »

Judgmentality wrote: post #23
ArifBhanji wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! We're trying to change the way consumers see this service. Our mechanics dress clean, bring you your favourite coffee, and teach you a bit about the repair as well to educate you about the trade. Our customers range from low to high income individuals who just want to save time and effort and spend that time with their family or on their hobbies. We've seen a ton of our customers build strong relationships…

Once your customers build a relationship with one of your mechanics, what's to stop them from contacting them directly? I know Homejoy had this problem where customers would just contact cleaners directly to avoid the service fee. Or are your mechanics employees instead of contract workers?

So far we have seen no signs of leakage, and we've been monitoring it closely.

A few reasons why leakage doesn't happen:

- Unlike cleaning, this isn't a weekly service, so the incentive is less.

- When our mechanics communicate with customers it gets routed through a Fiix phone number and/or 'business cards' with direct links to re-book them

- Mechanics have also expressed that they don't want customers having their personal phone numbers because it actually takes long to quote out a customer (we've built software to do this instantly).

- Because we do a high volume of repairs, we can get better parts costs than mechanics could on their own

- By going through Fiix, the mechanic gets 'de-risked' as even if the customer complains, or things go wrong, they still get paid

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