Dealership standard procedure

[sinclair1]

We have a neighbor who took her car (twin turbo sports car) in for oil change and told them she was going out of town and would pick up Monday.
Turns out she didn’t go out of town, but when she went back her car was not on site. After a threat to call police they admit it was taken to the beach for the weekend by a mechanic.

I just saw this story where a dealership wouldnt take responsibility for having a car offsite that was just in for oil change, etc.
@mark-7mag do you see them take cars to lunch and out of town?

I started staying and waiting back when we had the Vette. The first and only time I left it, it was in track mode when we picked up.

 

[mark-7mag]

Absolutely not. Some vehicles will go on an extended test drive if the tech needs to get the car to a certain speed or if they’re trying to listen or feel for an issue but that’s it.
Once we had an idiot porter/QC film himself driving a customers car and posted it on Snap Chat. A couple guys in the shop saw it and ratted him out. He was fired that day

 

[Deerhead]

Neighbor needs to hire a lawyer. In the 70's we took a wrecked mustang to a dealer for repair. My brother wrecked it. While the car was in the dealerships possession it was stolen. We had to hire a lawyer and threaten to sue. Good luck to your neighbor

 

[sinclair1]

Neighbor needs to hire a lawyer. In the 70's we took a wrecked mustang to a dealer for repair. My brother wrecked it. While the car was in the dealerships possession it was stolen. We had to hire a lawyer and threaten to sue. Good luck to your neighbor

She hired a lawyer. She didn’t get into much detail with us, but it was smoked in and they are downloading the computer to see if it was abused.
They already offered a sweet trade in deal.
The smoked in alone should be good for a $10k depreciation.

 

[HermanMerman]

My blood is boiling as I read this…

 

[transfixer]

We have a neighbor who took her car (twin turbo sports car) in for oil change and told them she was going out of town and would pick up Monday.
Turns out she didn’t go out of town, but when she went back her car was not on site. After a threat to call police they admit it was taken to the beach for the weekend by a mechanic.

I just saw this story where a dealership wouldnt take responsibility for having a car offsite that was just in for oil change, etc.
@mark-7mag do you see them take cars to lunch and out of town?

I started staying and waiting back when we had the Vette. The first and only time I left it, it was in track mode when we picked up.

I can't say for sure that other dealerships have done the same thing, as I've never worked for a car dealership, but at more than one independent shop I know for a fact that customers vehicles have been driven more than just a test drive, normally its a manager that does stuff like that though, never heard of them letting a mechanic drive a customer's car more than is needed to diagnose it . I have seen managers tell a tech to drive a certain car to lunch if it needed further diagnosis, but never just to joyride one

 

[sinclair1]

My blood is boiling as I read this…

Don’t go online and search. Its
Happens a lot apparently.

 

[HermanMerman]

Don’t go online and search. Its
Happens a lot apparently.

I was just in the garage changing the oil in my wife’s car thinking about a news story from a few years ago. They had apparently caught on to a couple of mechanic shops that were claiming to perform oil changes without ever doing anything. How do you trust anyone to do anything honest these days?

 

[Batjack]

How do you trust anyone to do anything honest these days?

Stand there and watch, no matter what their "signs" say about not being there.

 

[Oldstick]

That is nuts, especially nowadays given all the video surveillance and other technology in use. Did they not consider that possibly the customer may have gotten a simple pic of the car and odometer when dropping off?? With date/time and possibly even the dealership signs in the background?

Nearly as stupid as all these goons committing major crimes while carrying phones, and often even carrying and using a victim's phone or credit cards.

 

[Batjack]

That is nuts, especially nowadays given all the video surveillance and other technology in use. Did they not consider that possibly the customer may have gotten a simple pic of the car and odometer when dropping off?? With date/time and possibly even the dealership signs in the background?

Nearly as stupid as all these goons committing major crimes while carrying phones, and often even carrying and using a victim's phone or credit cards.

"Two thing are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein

 

[mark-7mag]

The nerve of some people to do something like that

 

[Batjack]

The nerve of some people to do something like that

"Humans is the stupidest kind of people." - Not sure who I'm quoting from... think it might be Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck. Herd that when I was real young and it always stuck with me.

 

[fireman32]

Just another reason for me to continue fixing my own vehicles. I worked 15 years at a body shop, the only times a vehicle left our shop was for a/c charging and alignment. The other shops never got caught joy riding if they ever did, and I don’t think they did.

 

[Redbow]

If a mechanic test drives my car or truck you best believe I will be with him or the manager and I will have some serious issues. I had an alignment done on time at a shop in Florence SC I waited for quite some time more than enough time to line the front end. I walked to the door of the service department and my car was not there nor was it in the parking lot. I asked the manager where my car was. Oh he said the mechanic took it out on I-95 for a test drive. With who's permission I asked the man. Well we wanted to make sure the alignment was right on your car he told me.

After a heated conversation between that manager and I my car finally showed up about an hour later with 2 guys in it. My car was a '69 Dodge Super Bee it was quite fast and I knew why those guys wanted to take my car for a test drive so they called it. I told the shop manager that I would never be back to his shop and that I was going to give him some good advertisement for letting that happen. He told me that he was sorry I paid the man and left his shop never to go back there.

 

[transfixer]

If a mechanic test drives my car or truck you best believe I will be with him or the manager and I will have some serious issues. I had an alignment done on time at a shop in Florence SC I waited for quite some time more than enough time to line the front end. I walked to the door of the service department and my car was not there nor was it in the parking lot. I asked the manager where my car was. Oh he said the mechanic took it out on I-95 for a test drive. With who's permission I asked the man. Well we wanted to make sure the alignment was right on your car he told me.

After a heated conversation between that manager and I my car finally showed up about an hour later with 2 guys in it. My car was a '69 Dodge Super Bee it was quite fast and I knew why those guys wanted to take my car for a test drive so they called it. I told the shop manager that I would never be back to his shop and that I was going to give him some good advertisement for letting that happen. He told me that he was sorry I paid the man and left his shop never to go back there.

What they did was out of line and uncalled for, however , depending on the repair it is imperative for someone to test drive a customers car at least twice, the first time to verify the actual issue the customer is having, ( in my field it would be whether or not the issue is actually a transmission problem or any engine influenced problem) , and then after the repair ( to verify that the problem has been corrected ( in my case to make sure the transmission works as it should ) if you are dealing with a professional shop normally the paper you sign when you drop the vehicle off gives them permission to drive your car for diagnostic purposes, it does not give them permission to take joy rides though.

There have been occasions in the past where we cannot find or experience the customers complaint, especially where the customer says " it happens randomly, not all the time" in some of those cases the shop may call the customer and ask if they mind if a tech drives their car on a long extended drive, or sometimes a tech may drive the vehicle home and back to work the next day in order to see if it is a cold start issue or only after its up to operating temperature , but the customer is always consulted and permission granted first

 

[Redbow]

What they did was out of line and uncalled for, however , depending on the repair it is imperative for someone to test drive a customers car at least twice, the first time to verify the actual issue the customer is having, ( in my field it would be whether or not the issue is actually a transmission problem or any engine influenced problem) , and then after the repair ( to verify that the problem has been corrected ( in my case to make sure the transmission works as it should ) if you are dealing with a professional shop normally the paper you sign when you drop the vehicle off gives them permission to drive your car for diagnostic purposes, it does not give them permission to take joy rides though.

There have been occasions in the past where we cannot find or experience the customers complaint, especially where the customer says " it happens randomly, not all the time" in some of those cases the shop may call the customer and ask if they mind if a tech drives their car on a long extended drive, or sometimes a tech may drive the vehicle home and back to work the next day in order to see if it is a cold start issue or only after its up to operating temperature , but the customer is always consulted and permission granted first

Yep, ask permission to drive my car or truck for diagnosis of a problem but don't just take and do things on your own and then stay gone for over an hour with my vehicle. Any trustworthy shop IMO would not do so anyway.

A neighbor of mine asked me one day to borrow my truck to haul off some trash. I told him we do not loan our vehicles to anyone but if you want something hauled off I will be glad to get with you at your convenience and haul it off for you. That neighbor never spoke to me again, so be it if he wanted to be that foolish then let him. He's gone now anyway.

 

[elfiii]

My truck has 2 trip odo's. The second one is the one I use to time service intervals. Just before I pull into the dealership to get it serviced I reset it to 0.

 

[The Original Rooster]

I swear, it seems more and more that honesty and integrity have become the exception instead of the rule. You just can't trust anyone anymore with nearly anything. It makes me both angry and sad.

 

[cowhornedspike]

Most vehicles now days can easily be tracked by the owner through their manufacturers app or other tracking device like a tile or airtag. My GM app lets me see where my truck it at any time.