So, you’re having car problems, and you go in to the shop. You tell the eager service advisor everything you know (and a lot of stuff you don’t know) about your issue and you tell them what you want done to your car. A few hours and a few hundred dollars later, you pick up your car and it runs as bad as before. You’re pissed. You rant. You rave. You act like a donkey. You demand they fix your car.
You should stop and take a minute to remember that you declined a diagnosis because “My water-pump has gone out before, it acted the same way then.” So, why are you so mad at the people who only did what you told them to?
So, this gentleman comes in to work to get a head gasket replaced. Now, he didn’t want to pay for a diagnostic to be run becaus he was sure of what he needed done to the vehicle. The work order was opened, an the work began.
Several hours and about $600 dollars later, he has a new head gasket. I got the dubious pleasure of calling this man to let him know his vehicle was finished, and I was reading him the notes the mechanic left.
Intake manifold gasket has leak. I didn’t get much further than that. He was livid.
“Well, I told you that I wanted the gasket replaced!”
“Sir, I did not open this work order, but you requested and signed off on the head gasket.”
“So, is the truck leaking or not?”
“It’s not leaking at the head, but it’s leaking at the intake.”
“Don’t you guys test these vehicles before you persorm work on them?”
“We do, but you chose not to have the diagnostic run on it. We’re not going to test it for free.”
“So, you’re telling me the truck isn’t done?”
“We completed the work you requested.”
“That’s bull, is there a manager in?”
“Right now I’m the acting service manager, but the real manager will be in tomorrow.”
“Can you have him call me?”
“No problem sir, have a good night”
**CLICK**
Yeah, so I left a note for the manaer and went home that night. the next day i come in to work, this guy has been talking bad to everyone he’s had contact with and i find out he now is getting this intake gasket done…but he thinks it should be free. (One of the many reasons we do not pay our customers to think.)
Well, that night a few hours later, the intake was completed and the mechanic was letting the vehicle run. I was thrilled that he was finished with the truck. Sadly, it stayed in the shop that night, but it was gone the next day. And life went on.
Then, two or three days later, I come into work and once again, this truck was holed up in bay 3, and I marched to the service desk to learn the reason for it’s return.
“The engine locked up on the freeway.” Peanut told me.
LOCKED UP!?!? after all that work…
Oh yeah, this guy was pissed. I was working when he came in (as the vehicle was towed) and talked to the service manager. He said there was no oil on the dipstick and that caused the engine to seize. Well, he goes into the shop as they pull the oil filter off of the engine, an he sees them pour out oil to check the volume of the filter. But when he returned to the service desk he was saying there was no oil in it. This started a great debate as multiple people saw the oil in the filter, but he insisted we put the oil in after it came back in.
Then he threatened to call his lawyer, and sue the company, blah blah blah.
Now, I went in today, and the engine was out of it. It’s probably going to get rebuilt. An he’s still paying for it. He spun a bearing in the crank case. It happens. He drove that truck for two days. A Ford pickup with no oil with it won’t go five miles, he can’t be serious. Now after a hundred thousand miles, you can spin a bearing. They sustain wear.
I’m not saying a diagnstic would have prevented this, but I am saying is that a diagnostic would have made his time in the shop shorter without unecessary repair. We could have just replaced the intake gasket and gone on with our lives.
The moral of this story is: Be careful what you ask for
