Car Warranty Part 3

Part 3: The Resolution

So the day comes when I’m supposed to show up at the dealership so that the corporate rep can make an evaluation on the damage to my car.  I show up armed with photo’s, video’s, professional evaluations of the damage and I show up 30 minutes early. I am fully prepared for this battle and if worse comes to worse, I’m ready, willing and able to take large, bloody chunks out of thier bottom line even if costs me five times what it will cost me to fix my car.

When I get there, the service manager and corporate rep are all hand shakes and smiles. I enter with a folder full of information and a CD full of photos, which they dutifully pretend isn’t in my hands and doesn’t exist. Well let’s just see where this goes and how they decide to play it.

We amiably walk out to my car and I pop the hood. The corporate rep seems to linger at the opposite corner of the car as the damage as the service manager opens the hood and inspects the rust area. I’m standing behind him and to the left watching what he is doing. The corporate rep is still twiddeling his thumbs near the rear drivers tire. God only knows why he’s haning back.

The service manager takes a firm grip on the fender as he looks inside the engine compartment under the lip of the fender. With a still very tight grip he leans back looking at the outside of the fender. His firm grip and weight pull the fender out making it appear even more bent out than before. But then he does it. He leans back in to look under the fender again and with his white knuckled grip he uses his weight to push the fender back into place, undoing the bending that the previous mechanic had done. He turns and looks at me and affirms that the car has not been in an accident and calls the corporate rep over to have a look. Ahhh, so that is what he was waiting behind the car for.  Plausable deniability. What he didn’t see, he can’t be sure really happened.

By my raised eyebrow and the look on my face the service manager knows that I know exactly what he just did but both of us keep quiet for the moment. When the corporate rep comes around he of course agrees that there was no owner damage to the car. And now it begins. What begins you ask? Well, now begins the blistering fast round of suggestions from both the service manager and corporate rep as to what could have caused the paint damage and would still be covered under warranty. I could hardly get a word in edgewise. They settled on something that was plausible enough to cause the damage and I agreed with them. They agreed to pay for all the damages and all I had to do was bring it in to a shop of my choice.

I made one last ditch effort to try and get the service manager to realize that there was a problem with what his mechanic did but he wanted none of it. He even looked slightly sick while he continued to deny everything so I let the matter drop and let him know I was happy as long as everything was covered and paid for. I am happy that everything was resolved but I must admit that I was also a bit dissapointed that I didn’t get to go complete apesh!t on them and see what kind of havoc I could cause with my yard signs, flyers and website.

Conclusion

You may wonder why I have not named the dealership or even the make of the car. There are several reasons really. First, they caved in and covered all of the damage and the cost of a rental car. Second, when I started the story I wasn’t sure if it was just an isolated incident and it just happened to be me. Third, it’s water under the bridge for me. I’m not going back there and really don’t want to deal with them anymore.  Sure, I can legally describe factual information online but they could try and cause legal trouble and while I know of ways to legally make it so they can’t win a lawsuit, it would be more hassle than it would be worth. Fourth, I think it is more important for people to know that this can happen to anyone and you need to cover yourself regardless of what shop you bring your car to. This incident isn’t shop specific. I’m sure stuff like this happens in every city. Be prepared. There are plenty of good auto shops out there but that doesn’t mean you wont run into the one bad one in your town. And for God’s sake…buy a digital camera!

The Irony Afterward

My dad recently decided to take his car there to get his brakes looked at. He figured why not, they are right across the street and he has always had good service (basic maintenance) in the past. Besides, he is a mechanic so he will be able to see if they try and screw him.

Sure enough, they tell him his pads are down to 15% and he needs new brakes all around. Hm. He decides to check for himself just to be sure. So he pulls the brakes off. Um, they have 60% + of the pads left. Not only that but when he took the tires off he could tell that they had not been removed when he brought the car there! WTF?!?  So he walks back across the street with the brake pads in hand and confronts the guy.

So the guy tells him, “Ya, look 15%”, as he proceedes to measure the amount of the pad left by measuring from the end of the wear indicator down.  Yahhhhhh right. J@^&@$s. You’re supposed to measure the full pad and not from the damn wear indicator down!! Needless to say they lost another customer. And everyone he tells about it too.