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My hope in starting this thread is that it’s a long lived thread where we can tell seemingly tall tales about strange customer interactions. The stories you’d never believe until you’re reminded of that wierd customer complaint you had yourself. The ones where the car comes back after fixing the first complaint with an inexplicable new complaint that your customer swears has to be your fault. What’s your story? Maybe your changed a wiper blade and their exhaust fell off. Maybe you didn’t even work on the car, but then it was your fault anyway. Any story with the context of absurdity as the fallout for what should have been a job well done will do.
For me personally; I remember changing out a multifunction switch on an Impala once. The customer requested a salvage yard part be installed and I knew that switch was about to fail in the same way as the original. The customer acknowleged my concern and I had to install the used switch anyway. He came back a week or two later to have a new switch installed and asked that I not leave my laundry in his car this time. He left “my laundry” in the front floor board to grab before we gave him his car back. Sure enough, there was a single tube sock and a large jug of laundry detergent in the car. I still have no idea who’s sock that was.
A coworker installed a starter into an Escort last year and the little old lady that owned the car came in screaming at us because the dash board was hot and the vents were blowing hot air. She screamed it was burning up inside the car….after it spent most of the afternoon outside in the hot sun. She said we did something wrong. We think it had to be black magic.
Another coworker was accused of stealing some GPS equipment out of a customer’s car. Ben is a 6’3″ white man who, by the customer’s description, was indeed named Ben. But, Ben became a 6′ tall black man by the end of the dialogue. Ben didn’t even have a tan to show for.
The perils of under hood courtesy checks: My friend Tony had a customer come out to the shop and yell at him for contaminating the car’s air system. Tony had opened up the air box to check the air filter. One day, I was doing the under hood checks on an Equinox before lifting the car to fix a flat. The customer came out and tells me I wouldn’t find the tire under the hood. She was right!
So that’s just a little to get the ball rolling. So…what’s your story?
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I think my funniest one to date was a break down call I was tasked to do as an elderly lady had purchased the car from us just a few weeks before the complaint was it was noisy and wouldn’t go above 20mph As it was me who has prepped the car was wondering what I had missed and as it was down the road I went down to see what was causing the issue after a quick inspection found nothing wrong so asked the lady to take me on a drive with it it became pretty obvious the cause of the fault she didn’t know the car was not an automatic and had been driving around for the last 3 weeks in first gear lol So the next 45 mins was spent teaching an 83 year old women how do drive a semi automatic
I did an alignment on a guys car about three weeks ago. Did a nitrogen inflation on all four tires same day. He comes back three times saying his left front tire is leaking air and his alignment was never done properly.
Last Saturday I notice his car has a dent. After my service writer talks to the customer for a bit the customer finally admits he had an accident. Paid some back yard body shop guy money to fix the body panel.
I was pretty miffed about the guy lying. But I can appreciate how much he loves his car. I wish more customers looked after their car like him.
Here’s a new favorite of mine. A woman comes in for a tire replacement. I replaced her tire and rotated it to the front. I start the engine and the car starts smoking like a smoke bomb went off. Come to find out the second piston ring breaks on that model car. So we replaced that under warranty.
There was this middle aged gentleman that came into the shop the other day. Basic oil change, and inspection. Later he returns saying that we messed up his car, and made a strange light illuminate on his dash. The service writer grabs me during a break in the action to inspect the car. What do I see when I check his dash? That “strange light” he was talking about was the LOW FUEL LIGHT. Seriously?
Needless to say I was flabbergasted that this man did not know what that meant. Am I really going to have to deal with people my whole career that have such a low level of common sense? Normally I would laugh, but the whole situation just made me shake my head. Also, why didn’t the service writer check the dash himself? It happened just this Monday and I still can’t believe what I experienced 3 days ago. The service writer and myself just stood their with our mouths open after that customer left. We even had to ask each other if that really just happened.
If it makes you feel any better I have to explain to professional drivers what a glow plug light is on the cluster and why they need to wait for the truck to warm up. When it starts to flash it is ok to start the truck.
Mind you these are people that passed the CDL test the state gives out where in the book it tells you what they are. Also with a manual given out by the company that tells them and an owners manual in the truck that tells them. It is also on the sun visor if I remember correctly. They also have a dispatcher that they could ask this question along with guys that inspect their trucks.
[quote=”MDK22″ post=123809]If it makes you feel any better I have to explain to professional drivers what a glow plug light is on the cluster and why they need to wait for the truck to warm up. When it starts to flash it is ok to start the truck.
Mind you these are people that passed the CDL test the state gives out where in the book it tells you what they are. Also with a manual given out by the company that tells them and an owners manual in the truck that tells them. It is also on the sun visor if I remember correctly. They also have a dispatcher that they could ask this question along with guys that inspect their trucks.
That is almost as bad as the low fuel light…. Actually it might be even worse since these are professionals that we are talking about.[quote=”Pithy Radish” post=123806]There was this middle aged gentleman that came into the shop the other day. Basic oil change, and inspection. Later he returns saying that we messed up his car, and made a strange light illuminate on his dash. The service writer grabs me during a break in the action to inspect the car. What do I see when I check his dash? That “strange light” he was talking about was the LOW FUEL LIGHT. Seriously?
Needless to say I was flabbergasted that this man did not know what that meant. Am I really going to have to deal with people my whole career that have such a low level of common sense? Normally I would laugh, but the whole situation just made me shake my head. Also, why didn’t the service writer check the dash himself? It happened just this Monday and I still can’t believe what I experienced 3 days ago. The service writer and myself just stood their with our mouths open after that customer left. We even had to ask each other if that really just happened.[/quote]
That’s pretty much what you will deal with for the rest of your career. And much worse.
Not really a since you worked on my car funny all the same!
So I went to the breakdown of a landrover that was off road at the time.
I arrived in my 4×4 and discovered the landrover parked forwards just inside a wood.
After a quick inspection soon established that it was the starter motor.
So I said to the customer were going to try bump starting it but as its parked forwards in the wood were going to bump start it in reverse and use my 4×4 to tow it.
I said “have you ever bump started a vehicle before?”
Customer “to be honest I haven’t got a clue wat your talking about”
Me “ok, well in that case I’m going to drive your landrover and you drive my 4×4” …. “all you need to do is drive forwards towards that track, while towing me backwards and when I sound the horn the engine has started”
Customer “no problem”
So I got into the landrover, ignition on, clutch down, into reverse, handbrake off…. Waiting for him to pull me…. He did …. Clutch comes up and engine starts straight away.
Great I thought, so I sount the horn…. He doesn’t stop, he starts to drive down the track while pulling me backwards, I’m now leaning on the horn and he’s getting faster.
I break and he keeps pulling me dragging me around like an old tyre on a rope!
He keeps going and eventually gets upto third gear and 35mph down a dirt track while pulling me backwards on a 10m bt of rope. This continues for 2 miles when he gets to the end of the track.
I managed to not crash his landrover, kill myself or crash into the back of my 4×4 and I kept the engine running.
Success! :-/
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