Another Story Of Garages And Unhappy Clients

[Coyote!]

This is another story about garages, It's a little bit long, but worthy.

Sat morning:

I decided to take my car to refill the air conditioner gas, and to check the circuit in case of any leak or whatever. I spent 2 hours visiting the local area garages (LAG) trying to choose the less bad one. So I picked the last one because it been there for 17 years, it was clean and had the tools for the job.

So when he ( the boldy from now) was pressuring the circuit we found a leak in one of the aluminium pipe, an as the guy who fixes it wasn't there, he asked is I wanted to wait till Mon eve to have it repaired :( . I acceded to leave the pipe.

Mon eve:

After being sorted all the cars, lorries in the highway and road cuts I arrived in time to complete the job. The pipe was installed, the circuit was tested, and no leaks noticed, so I ( very happy at that moment) said, Ok, start refilling it.

He put the hoses and I started the car to let the compressor work. Suddenly I hear "Turn it off!!! The compressor is not Starting!!!!" and a huge firework I could see from the inside .

me - What was that???

boldy - The compressor was not starting, so I connected directly to the bat.

me - WTF did you said you did?!???!!!!

boldy - I connected to the bat to see if it starts and it does not start, it might be blown, we have to see what it is...

At that moment I realized that neither the compressor nor the commands were working!!! Noooooo, the blew the installation... :ffs: :ffs: :ffs:

3 hours later, we had the car interior completely opened, and dissembled trying to find the fault.

boldy - well, If U want, leave me the car, and tomorrow I'll call you to tell what I've found and how much it will cost... The blown installation will be repaired for free, but the compressor.... U know, this is an import...

me - Look, the complete system was working, so I CAN ASSURE U ITS FINE, its something that U blew

boldy - impossible..

The thing is I left the car there to be fixed and went home furious

Late that night, 10:48 PM:

The boldy from the garage telling me the car was ready.(Uffff, I said :) ). When I picked up my baby, the boldy said that the switch has some kind of protection (blown of course) and the compressor signal connector was loose ( So I was right again....)

Well, I paid and drove home very happy with my Lady Carina back!

Tue Morning:

I start the car to go to work, and as I left the Air con on last night I turned it off to start the car. UPS!! after the blower off, the Air con is still on!!! and also with the key in ACC!!! WTF did U do to my CAR!!!! :ffs: :ffs: :ffs:

Back to the garage, showed the weird malfunction:

boldy - So? Some cars work like that... Sure it was like that before…. leave the car to check it if you want...

me - Now I have 2 more hours...

boldy - naaa, tomorrow

I accepted again. (Why???)

I spent the whole dinner thinking about it, till the point I decided to fix it by myself. I spent 30mins looking for a blown circuit and I found it. A fuse under the blower in the passenger side. Changed and turned it on. A complete sparking show came from the fuse box. (Damn!! :ffs:) I dissembled the dash, took off the fascia, the console, the panels, everything and I found a small, blue, and very well hidden wire, connected from the ACC of the CD player to the Air con SW . That’s why the fuses went blown, that’s why the air con still worked in ACC. Please do not lie to me…

Today the boldy will hear me...

Ah, reassembled everything, remove the wire and replaced the fuses. My Lady Carina is Back ladies & gentlemen!!

Cheers

Coyote from BA

Argentina

PD: I hate them :censor: liers...

[kash]

:ffs: :ffs: :ffs: is ur car working perfectly now??? let us know what escuse the mechanic says once u confront him

[Coyote!]

:ffs: :ffs: :ffs: is ur car working perfectly now??? let us know what escuse the mechanic says once u confront him

Yep, its running fine now (thanks God!)

Tonight he's expecting me to fix it. What a surprise he'll have..

Cheers

Coyote from BA

Argentina

[dave5282]

:o

why do mechanics always do the "we know everything about cars you the customer knows nothing" admittedly I dont know loads, but..before my car goes in I do research ask questions and swat up.

however, Nissan once wrecked my confidence, and now I hate going to any garage.

When i was 19, I had a new Nissan (okay to slate them here?) it had a clunk and a whistling like air rushing out evertime I went over a pot hole, it went back to the garage and I told them the problem. too mechanics, both young lads came out for a drive with me and heard the problem, your shocks knackered mate, cars only a week old we will change it for you, as they did I then test drove the car and the noise was still there, one mechanic came out with me and said he couldnt hear the noise anyomore, the other said he could. but that it was a body work noise, not so i said as it sounds the same whatever speed your doing. he disgreed and took the car to the body shop.

They suggested a whistling tale gate, taped up said top of tailgate with masking tape, the noise was still there, they then alligned the tailgate, (why it was out of alignment on a 1 week old motor I never know) this did not solve the problem, howver Nissan were now sick of me and although 1 mechnic backed me up, along with my friends and both parents, I was subjected to the patter of the salesman, whom after taking me for a test drive in my car with now no spare tire, toolbox, unfastened seatbelts etc, assured me it was just one of those noises. enter the only time I have asked to see the manager, he came out, was rude to me and climbed in my car, we went aound the block and he said "I cant hear the noise, I think you thought you had bought a mecedez, all cars clunk and groan, the cheaper the car the more it does it" for the first time in my life I blew my top at the guy and he hated it, I threatned to inform Nissan of my maltreatment. he replied "but leave the car with us and we will look into it"

1 week later I had a phonecall from the garage saying yes there was a problem, but I wouldnt understand , however it was to do with a brake distribution cylinder under the car which had not be correctly installed, and had also not been greased. I was right, but the abuse I had to suffer from these guys has put me off garages for life ( I still think this and this was 3 years ago), and Nissan to think of it!!

Glad I now own a Toyota! and i am glad Coyote that you have the balls to stand up to guys, good for you!

God its amazing how a rant about anything releases stress, and boy am i stressed today!

[al323]

I'm pretty luckly really, I by accident found a really good engineer, semi retired, race veteran, published and damn nice guy who's forgoten more than I'll ever learn, not many people earn my respect but he's right up there.

It is really, really dificult to find a good engineer, let alone one you trust. I now only use people who are come by word of mouth. The only good bit of advice I can think of is how your treated when you go for a quote, if they have time for you and explain things well then thats a good sign, but those to busy to talk are to busy to do a good job on your car.

I don't trust any major manufacture but I can say a bad dealer will pull the reputation of that manufacturer right down in any town/city. The local mazda dealer used to be really good, my parts were always right, they knew what I was talking about and the date they said things would turn up were spot on, they even sorted me out some workshop manuals for a good price, I got their old ones they ordered new ones. Then they were bought by Vospers and moved site, now they rarely get the right part, have no idea what I'm talking about and when I said Mazdaspeed parts they said "Who??"!!!!

Top of my s!!t list is Seat, bought 10k's worth of Seat Ibiza Sport from them, ex demo car with 500miles on the clock, they told me they would do a 100point car check and sort the fogged up err fogs out before I bought it (when I say I actually I mean the other half).

So two weeks later I've got the other half and my old dear, who's a bit of a granny racer herself!! in the car, stormed out of a corner onto a down hill and hit the brakes for the impending T junctions....nothing.... pedal flat to the floor. Managed to ditch most of the speed but still piled into another car at about 25-30mph. So the long story short is Seat Uk sold me a car with defective brakes and nearly got me killed. Did I ever hear an appology?? Nope....Do I recon they did the 100point check?? nope...unless it was done by the association for the blind.

[Coyote!]

Well, the second part of the story:

Wed eve:

I arrived again in time, and as always, the indicate person its not there. So I spent half hour of my presious time showing off my heavy eq. (nobody was there, so it was useless).

When the boldy arrived, obviously he didn't want to confront me, and i went to him. I started the explanation of how I fixed the failure, bla-bla-bla, till I got to the juicy part <_< .

I gave him the the little piece of blue wire ( exhibit #1) and explained carefully the "job" they've done:

me - U could have been blown some of the computers of the car...

boldy - Naaaah, nothing gets blown...

me - ( F :censor: ing idiot!) no?, U were very lucky, for many things: A huge damage could have been caused; I'm not a wacky person, so otherwise U'll probably have a .45 bullet in your head for lieing to me and burning out my car, I could sue U and your garage and turn U in a homeless, I could beat the soul out of you... (I want to... )

boldy - What can I say...

me - (U can say " how do we compensate you?" for a start, U piece of s :censor: t) All this what I'm telling you is for the will of the bussines, nothing more... I don't get why did you people do this kind of things, why don't you find the failure instead of "patching" it. THIS IS A TOYOTA, IT'S NOT A FIAT UNO!!!!! for ***** sake. U dont patch a Toyota, YOU REPAIRE IT! (Its like talking to a monkey, I'll try with a banana... :ffs: )

Boldy - These problems can be fixed.

me - All these only makes me think how stupid do you think I am. Actually, I only have the stupid face but I'm not a dull. AH! I didnt tell you, but I work for Toyota and I know these cars from teeth to tooth. So it was matter of time...

So after another bunch of stupid thing that I said, I gave him the thanks in a very polite way and jumped into my car to go home.

All I can say is if God wouldn't have given me to the "gift" of understanding how staff works and how to fix it, I certainly would have been cheated by them.

I had to eat my anger , because i didn't want to do something that i would have to regret later...

So this is the story with a happy ending (really?)

Cheers

Coyote from BA

Argentina

PD: It doesn't worth a poll, but:

Should I have done anything more, like killing them all?