When your smartphone stops working, you can Google for the possible causes and repair charges, but what if your car breaks down, and you need a quick fix with no prior knowledge of the actual cost?
And when you do, you find the information displayed are not localized leaving you poorly prepared to negotiate with the mechanic like a bad episode of buyer’s remorse waiting to happen. Such is what experienced by Ridzuan Ayeop, the founder of mytayar.com who had a first-hand bad encounter with a workshop.
“I paid RM330 for a non-branded battery but I later found out a branded battery only cost RM280, but the work is done, so it must be paid, right?” he said.
Mytayar.com is founded by Ridzuan Ayeop (right) and Masita Hamdah, his wife more than a year ago. The former financial controller now runs the website full time determined to reach out to other motorists for smart automobile solutions.
How does it work?
You can select your desired car accessory, followed by the preferred road distance from your point of origin. Next, the search result will display the location of workshops with respect to your selected distance plus their respective prices on the product you chose.
When you have confirmed your purchase, you just need to pay 5% of the purchase value as deposit and the confirmation e-mail will be sent to your inbox to arrange for a session with the workshop.
Don’t be tricked by its name because the website also has other offerings like battery and engine oil change. While the service is only available to motorists in Klang Valley, Ipoh, Melaka and Johor Bahru, users can expect more additions to the current 60 partners in the future.
“I personally know the owners of these workshops. They must honour the prices they keyed in for the advertised goods and services,” Ayeop explained, adding that he has visited the workshops as well.
The founder noted that pricing inconsistencies will be investigated with the strictest measures and adherence to the partnership agreement is consequential. Workshops which failed to honour the agreement will be removed from the website, as done by the founder previously.
An Unknown Among Unknowns
Starting a business is always challenging, but when one attempts to go against the traditional system of an industry, the attempts to win approvals from existing industry players is an uphill battle.
“Trying to convince car workshops to join us as network workshops is no easy feat. We are not from the industry as such gaining their trust is difficult,” the founder noted.
Aside from the difficulty of winning the partners trust, the business was also confronted with the clash between traditional business model and online business model. As the workshop owners are less reliant on the Internet to market their business, the founder faced challenges in persuading the workshops to become a partner as well.
With the initial strike up rate at 1%, Ayeop is glad to see that the website is making a leap forward to success. Independent workshops have begun to approach the website themselves to join the growing list of partners.
Connecting motorists to workshops is not the only focus of mytayar.com, as the business also aims to educate the public for good.
“Most drivers don’t know their tyre size despite the size marking being on the tyre itself, on the door sill and in the manual,” Ayeop said. As such, the founder acquired the technical knowledge on cars from his network partners and shares them with the users.
Verdict: 3.5/5
The conventional way of purchasing car hardware like tyres and batteries is to head to the workshop for a quotation. Mytayar.com shakes things up by becoming the platform for you to compare the prices of the parts. Acting like your personal shopper, the website does the legwork for you so that you can kick back and relax.
Leading you to your nearest workshop, it is a fuss-free website that brings you the best savings for your wallet and spares you from any mechanic’s monkey business.
