Did you know your garage door can kill you? I bought some parts for my garage door today and before I could receive them I had to sign a waiver acknowledging that I was about to undertake a dangerous repair and had  declined assistance.

I found out yesterday that my garage door was broken and would not open.  Not a big deal if you are outside trying to get in but I was inside trying to get out.  The problem was located, a broken cable, and the door was opened.  That solved problem number one, how to get out of the garage.  Problem two was; how do I fix the cable?

Like most people today I went online and searched the term “replacement garage door cables”.  I found a few sites that sold replacement cables.  I wanted the cables fast so I searched for a local garage door company.  Luckily a local store had a website and I called to inquire about parts.  Bonus, they were open on Saturdays so I could stop by and pick up the parts I needed.

I wasn’t sure exactly how to replace the cables but luckily for me the service technician was at the shop when I stopped by to get the parts.  I made a couple of generally queries about how one replaces the cables.  I was a little surprised by the answers I received.  The first answer was “I don’t think I could explain to you how I do it in a way that you’d understand.”  When I asked if I should replace the cable with the door up or down he said either.  It was clear that this fellow did not want to share his knowledge.  Why would he?  This store not only sells parts they also sell service.   I’m sure the technician thought he was protecting the scarce knowledge on how to repair a cable but he was wrong.  A simple search on Google revealed the answer.   Did he think that his company was the only one that knew how to replace a cable?

What was to be gained by the service technician not offering a couple of words of advice?  Nothing.  Did he think that by keeping the knowledge to himself that I’d hire them to do the repair?  Most likely the technician was thinking about the business based on scarcity.  He has the knowledge and I don’t.   The knowledge I can acquire for free on the Internet.  What I can’t acquire is the experience.   If the technician said to me that I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I can repair the cable in 30 minutes but you are going to be at it for 2 hours I might have been more inclined to have him do the repair.  It did indeed take me about 2 hours from start to finish.  Instead I’m left feeling that this company was less than helpful even after I received great service in the store when buying the parts.

Service businesses need to manage their business based on the abundance of information not the lack of it.  There is lots of information out there.  Service business should be the filter for this information not an impediment to acquiring it.  Demonstrate that you want to help me and I’ll demonstrate that I want to buy from you.