Mechanics files on this site

I have a feeling the legal staff wish to avoid libel suits. Definitely reduces the usefullness of the info.

I agree with NYBo. The rejection of negative comments is simply a matter of legal self-defense. I can easily imagine the lawyers for Tom&Ray already have their hands full with lawsuits!

“The rejection of negative comments is simply a matter of legal self-defense”

That is NOT an excuse to remove negative comments… If it is true that the powers that be here at CarTalk, remove negative comments, then they should, first of all, be ashamed of themselves. If they also refuse to reply, either privately or publicly to questions as to what their policy on negitive feedback is, they should be out of business. I certainly hope someone here clarifies these issues. If they don’t, then I will stop supporting this site.

I agree. I actually used the listing to search for VW mechanics in my area, as my car is now out of warranty.

Car Talk Guys: we need this clarified

I suggest we keep this string at the top by occasionally adding a comment

refresh

(Mostly a refresh) I, too, would guess it has to do with potential liability. However, it would be nice if this were explained by the ones who know.

Scrabbler

I agree in the belief that someone is screening the posts to eliminate potentially libelous posts. On two different occasions, I attempted to post factual information about two different auto businesses which I named in the posts. The posts were written in a way to inform potential customers of the pitfalls to avoid. In both cases, the posts never made the light of day.

By the way, anyone know why they don’t list Canadian mechanics on the site, either? I’ve given both a positive review of a local garage, and a negative one of a not-so-local garage, and neither appeared. I can’t see it being real difficult to allow or post Canadian mechanics. Another inefficiency and idiocy from the folks at CarTalk?

refresh

NOTICE: There is no need to have your car serviced by a dealer when under warranty. If it is a repair covered by the warranty, you likely would want it handled by the dealer, but for the most part most people would be better off getting maintenance and non-warranty work done by a local INDEPENDENT mechanic. (Not all dealers are bad or good, but most are more expensive.

I intercepted a message from Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe. They told the Tappet Brothers and their Web Lackeys to ignore us. If they respond and, even worse, are sympathetic to our pleas, they might be set upon by the legal team under retainer to Moe’s Garage. And besides, what if someone dissed their shop?

Is this true? Has the Car Talk webmaster responded? If it is then take down the Mechanics Files, because they are misleading. Providing a place to post comments does not expose the site to liability.

Perhaps Click & Clack would care to comment on this directly.

Perhaps Click & Clack would care to comment on this directly.

It’ll never happen.

Has the Car Talk webmaster responded?

He or she has ignored our pleas to fix the forum interface for what, almost a year now, so I doubt anything will happen on this front either.

Hi All,

Greetings from Car Talk Plaza.

First, we do have a humungous punchlist of issues we’re slowly working our way through, re: the Car Talk community. Please realize that there are just a few of us here, working on the site and various other projects. There’s not a huge staff of lackeys, despite whatever the perception may be. So, we just ask for you to bear with us.

Re: Mechanics Files, when we started it about 10 years ago, Tom and Ray really wanted it to be something positive-- a place to find a great mechanic, not a place to bash lousy mechanics. The thinking was, and remains, that there’s no shortage of folks out there willing to say, “my mechanic screwed me over!”-- but, what’s really needed, is a good resource to find a great mechanic to get your car repaired.

The legal issues were, really, secondary. But they’re a consideration, too. We didn’t want to be partners in a game of “he said, she said,” and be in a position of researching negative claims about garages. We don’t have the resources to do that, alas. So, we opted to be totally upfront about the goals of the Mechanics Files, hence that quote at the top from the site, on the first post.

Hope that’s helpful.

Best,

Doug Mayer
Senior Web Lackey
Car Talk

Thanks for getting back to us, Doug (he wrote abashedly).

There is a fatal flaw in allowing only positive reviews of mechanics: those also need to be verified. There is nothing preventing a mechanic or his/her friend writing a glowing review that has little or no basis in reality. Also, the reviews aren’t purged periodically so the information may be very out-of-date and inaccurate.

Not that there is any simple solution to providing this potentially valuable service, I’m afraid…

That’s right. That is a concern for us. But, the history so far is really good on this issue. We have something like 50,000 reviews in the database, and only get a few comments a year about shops that were promoted in the Mechanics Files and didn’t deliver good service. In general (and this is just my personal guess, mind you, nothing more), I think it’s pretty clear when someone is telling their own story about an actual repair, or whether it’s just a generic promotion by the occasional sneaky shop owner. I will say that if we get a specific, detailed complaint about a shop in the mechanics file, we will look into it, and over the years we’ve removed a few shops. But, overall, the mechanics files seems to be working well for all concerned.

We don’t purge old reviews, but you will find folks adding more recent info, and we update key info when we get it from our site visitors.

Doug

I also thank you for responding totally agree with NYBo.

Doug, you state – but, what’s really needed, is a good resource to find a great mechanic to get your car repaired. But this isn’t happening!!

The quote provided at the top of the mechanics file says nothing about it being a forum to only praise mechanics, not bash them. I was really mislead by this website. Sometimes the phrase “my mechanic screwed me over” is true. If you can’t check the positive comments, you shouldn’t screen out the negatives either. Put a disclaimer saying that you’re not screening anything, and therefore not liable and let the mechanic’s file run like this discussion board.

Re: Mechanics Files, when we started it about 10 years ago, Tom and Ray really wanted it to be something positive-- a place to find a great mechanic, not a place to bash lousy mechanics. The thinking was, and remains, that there’s no shortage of folks out there willing to say, “my mechanic screwed me over!”-- but, what’s really needed, is a good resource to find a great mechanic to get your car repaired.

This was, and still is, a poor decision. Many web sites have customer review areas and allow both negative and positive reviews. In fact I learn a lot from reading a few negatives in among mostly positive comments. It means the shop/service/product may have some weak points in a generally positive reputation, and it’s pretty easy to spot the chronic complainers. I am very disappointed to learn that you delete negative comments. That’s just doing your web site readers a disservice. There clearly is no big legal issue. Many other web sites have fully uncensored comments (and I don’t blame you for censoring bad language) without any problems, some like Amazon have pretty deep pockets so would seem a much better lawsuit target than Car Talk will ever make.

I am sorry, I have to agree with the others eliminating negatives is not helpful, and is in fact counterproductive to your stated purpose.

Stop wasting time deleting negative comments on the Mechanics Files section and maybe you’ll have more time to fix the discussion group interface. :wink:

I totally agree with Ranck. Eliminating negatives is not helpful, and is in fact counterproductive to your stated purpose.

It’s doing your web site readers a disservice.