Guitar Gear Forum

So, I learned this week at work that attempting to do the right thing only leads to agony. I will never ever go out of my way to do the right thing again, but I did laugh hysterically at the poor service department floundering trying to make a customer happy. (Ok, maybe I'll still do the right thing, even though I know it will lead to butt reaming.)

Long story: A customer bought a used Volkswagen Routan from us (lol they should've bought the Town & Country for 2k less, same vehicle). A week after they bought it, brought it in for brake noise, could not be duplicated at the time, sent them on their way.

A month later (yesterday) bring it back in for brake noise, could be duplicated, caliper is hanging up, needs a left rear caliper, rear pads and its torched a rotor so rear rotors, roughly $450 worth of work give or take. Wants sales to pay for it as they said the issue had been there since they bought the vehicle, our vehicles have a complimentary 30 day warranty, which they were now out of.

Sales initially says politely "Get fucked."

The service writer who has to deal with the now irate customer, pleads their case, sales decides "sure, we'll pay for the repairs." Customer is happy, life is good......

Until the tech pulls the car out to take it for a test drive having tightened 0, yes, ZERO lug nuts on the left front wheel. Pulls the van out of the shop, the wheel comes off, DESTROYING the fender and doing some other damage as well as banging up another car in the back lot.

So now, service, while trying to do the right thing for the customer, has to pay for a new fender and some trim pieces and a new ft fascia for another car that was damaged in the fracas.


TL;DR version: I work with idiots who while trying to help a customer out completely fucked up their vehicle.

Working at a car dealership is always interesting. Interesting being a polite way of saying "a complete clusterfuck."

Just be glad that it was effed up on your test drive, and not when the customers were on their way home. Getting sued for gross negligence wouldn't be fun.

BTW, a couple of years ago a local shop did the same thing on my car. Luckily the wheel didn't fall off in the few miles I drove. Needless to say I haven't been back to that shop, and I've told at least ten people what happened and which shop did the deed. Word gets around on bad performance.

PurpleTrails wrote:Just be glad that it was effed up on your test drive, and not when the customers were on their way home. Getting sued for gross negligence wouldn't be fun.

BTW, a couple of years ago a local shop did the same thing on my car. Luckily the wheel didn't fall off in the few miles I drove. Needless to say I haven't been back to that shop, and I've told at least ten people what happened and which shop did the deed. Word gets around on bad performance.

Totally, I'm so thankful that it didn't get back to the customer like that.

And yeah, word seriously gets around on bad performance. It just doubly sucks it happened while trying to make things right for the guy.

It blows my mind that the techs can't take an extra minute to just "make sure" they got all those on tight. But, I'm not a tech, I know I make mistakes in my job too. They just typically don't cause further damage....

thenakedarab wrote:No good deed goes unpunished bro. One of life's more fucked up constants.

Word.

At least I'm getting paid off selling the caliper, pads, rotors AND the body parts for the 2 damaged vehicles, so its not a total loss....

Mojo sent.

Id be pissed too if life dealt me a vw.


Haha, jk. That sucks man. At least you guys did the right thing, reputation I imagine is important in your business. They sound like the kind of people who would have told hundreds about it and left out the part about you not being obligated to fix it.

This is why I steer clear of stealerships. And this is not an object lesson on doing the right thing, this is an object lesson on incompetence of dealerships.

marshallnoise wrote:This is why I steer clear of stealerships. And this is not an object lesson on doing the right thing, this is an object lesson on incompetence of dealerships.

you must not have read the part where they agreed to fix it even though it was outside of the warranty period.

PurpleTrails wrote:Just be glad that it was effed up on your test drive, and not when the customers were on their way home. Getting sued for gross negligence wouldn't be fun.

BTW, a couple of years ago a local shop did the same thing on my car. Luckily the wheel didn't fall off in the few miles I drove. Needless to say I haven't been back to that shop, and I've told at least ten people what happened and which shop did the deed. Word gets around on bad performance.

Same thing happened to one of my wife's coworkers, only the wheel DID fall off on the highway on the drive home. Luckily no one was injured and no other cars hit/were hit by him.

The classy thing to do would have been to drive that fucker into a field and then just leave it after the wheel issue.

Then, tell the owner it was stolen as you point to the sweet sign in your shop lot that says, "not responsible for theft of car or belongings in it."

Their insurance pays... Profit?

ShaneV wrote:

PurpleTrails wrote:Just be glad that it was effed up on your test drive, and not when the customers were on their way home. Getting sued for gross negligence wouldn't be fun.

BTW, a couple of years ago a local shop did the same thing on my car. Luckily the wheel didn't fall off in the few miles I drove. Needless to say I haven't been back to that shop, and I've told at least ten people what happened and which shop did the deed. Word gets around on bad performance.

Same thing happened to one of my wife's coworkers, only the wheel DID fall off on the highway on the drive home. Luckily no one was injured and no other cars hit/were hit by him.

Ugh, that's awful! I'm glad no one was hurt!

Lloyd Blankfein wrote:The classy thing to do would have been to drive that fucker into a field and then just leave it after the wheel issue.

Then, tell the owner it was stolen as you point to the sweet sign in your shop lot that says, "not responsible for theft of car or belongings in it."

Their insurance pays... Profit?

Hmmm, there are lots of fields around here.....

needs a left rear caliper, rear pads and its torched a rotor so rear rotors, roughly $450 worth of work give or take


...and THAT is why I don't take ANYTHING to a new car dealer. Sorry, bro.

ovid9 wrote:But, I'm not a tech

QFT. even the best techs do some REALLY dumb shit from time to time. I'm the king of it.

indienoise wrote:needs a left rear caliper, rear pads and its torched a rotor so rear rotors, roughly $450 worth of work give or take


...and THAT is why I don't take ANYTHING to a new car dealer. Sorry, bro.

Hey, I don't set our $95 an hour labor rate! Actually, I think some of that would have been a flat fee, but still.

Its why I just pay the guys cash to do work on my car.

And Youngblood, I do get it. Mistakes totally do happen. I also notice mistakes happen to certain people a lot more often.

ovid9 wrote:

indienoise wrote:needs a left rear caliper, rear pads and its torched a rotor so rear rotors, roughly $450 worth of work give or take


...and THAT is why I don't take ANYTHING to a new car dealer. Sorry, bro.

Hey, I don't set our $95 an hour labor rate! Actually, I think some of that would have been a flat fee, but still.

Its why I just pay the guys cash to do work on my car.

And Youngblood, I do get it. Mistakes totally do happen. I also notice mistakes happen to certain people a lot more often.

oh, I know. And your dealership only charges $95 an hour? I think it's $120 here. Different max rates per state, perhaps?

indienoise wrote:oh, I know. And your dealership only charges $95 an hour? I think it's $120 here. Different max rates per state, perhaps?

Yeah, I think we're at $95, but most of the time you'll be paying less than that with various discounts, coupons, whatever.

Up by Chicago I know its higher and I know the luxury/import dealers are higher as well.