Sure, I should pay for your choices...

[phynny]

Just felt like writing about a recent customer experience.

A week ago I recieved a call at 8:30pm (office phone was fowarded to my cell) and it was a lady saying she needed help repairing her vehicle. The vehicle is a 2005 Saturn Ion and she's already paid twice to have it repaired. The first time was by her son-in-law who works at Advanced auto. He scanned the car and replaced the drive-by-wire throttle body which cost her over $300. Since repair number one did not fix the problem she took it to Saturn who replaced the pedal assembly. This was also very costly and still did not fix her problem. So now is when I recieved the phone call and the fun begins.

 

She tells me she is a single mother of 2 daughters and only makes $10/hour. Though I somewhat feel for her I really don't see why I need to know this information. I promise her I can fix the vehicle but since I have not seen it I have no clue what it will cost. After recieving the vehicle I find that the old throttle body and pedal assembly are in fine working order. Turns out the wiring harness is damaged and it also burnt up some capaciters in the ECM.

 

After calling her she says she doesn't have money to complete the repairs and cries to me because she doesn't even have the money to pay me for my time and it's my fault apparantly... I really do not understand how people will blow hundreds of dollars on bogus repairs and then cry to a shop that can actually fix the problem, and then want them to do the work for peanuts. Feeling for the lady, I offered to give her a 1999 Mercury Couger with very low miles and excellent condition for FREE and her response was, "well that's not the kind of car I want." I almost just hung up on her... Next she says she's going to have her friend come and get the car and she'll pay me for what we have in it when she saves up enough money... After explaining that we can not do that and the bill must be paid first all of the sudden I'm the bad guy. The lady is a chain smoker and If she didn't smoke for a week or two she could easily pay the bill with us.

 

So now this vehicle has sat on my lot taking up space for the last 2 weeks and I'm very frustrated. So I guess I'd like to know if anyone can explain to me why people believe that competent shops should have to pay for poor choices that vehicle owners make? This lady even asked me if I'd total the car for her since she has full coverage LOL!

[mspecperformance]

Should have seen it coming with a Saturn Ion! Just kidding.

 

Yep get those all the time, its amazing. I have come to the realization you can't change greedy selfish people. They are impossible to deal with and do everything you can to steer clear of them.

[Joe Marconi]

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[5 Star Auto Spa]

I can't believe you offered her a free car. You are a good man!

[nmikmik]

Sorry you have to go through this, it's really not funny (i did "like" your post) when customers expect us to fix their problems.

I suspect, pretty soon we will be forced to run a credit on the customer before starting the work on their car

Never mind, i hope it will never happens. But seriously, you knew when she stated talking about how poor she is, it was a red flag. Phynny, you are a good guy, but instead of offering her a car i'd have started charging her for storage (i really hope you do) the next day it was not paid and picked up. I know, to some I sound like an ahole, but most people like that needed some tough love from their parents, not to grow up dependent on others. If it's apparent that I am rambling, it's only because I had a very similar situation this morning and I am still fuming.

Just wondering what was she driving before the Saturn, since she rather drive nothing than something for free?

Edited September 9, 2013 by nmikmik