Actually, that’s called a guarantee. And it does help sell any number of things, certainly including service. Would you hire anyone to paint your house if they had a history of not returning to fix paint peeling off of the trim after two weeks?
In most civil cases the plaintiff has only to prove that “but for” the action or inaction of the defendant, no harm would have occurred. In these cases, how much time has elapsed between the service and the failure is critical to proving causation. If a car engine fails five minutes away from the oil change due to a complete lack of oil in the engine, then you don’t need direct evidence to prove that something went wrong during the oil change. You wouldn’t need it in a criminal case.
Oldschool, Kiz, you both made a good point. And I agree. Wording is the key.
Kiz, you also made a good point about the burden of proof being far less in civil court than in criminal court. As a matter of fact in many civil cases it comes down to simple credability.
But in one of the other threads the OP talks about the possibility of a shop’s actions having caused the engine to push a rod through the oilpan. Unfortunately, many tort cases are similar to the referenced one. proving cause and effect can bs a major chore. And in many cases that determines the outcome. In a small claims court it would be a technically conversant defendant (or a corporate laweyr…laws vary) against a non-technicallly conversant plaintiff. The battle is not always equal.
A part of my “promise” would be “no need for litigation to get you going again”. I know really tough to implement but the feeling I want to instill in my customers would be one that I will not fight “tooth and nail” to wiggle out of something I caused. I do ackowledge it will be hard to keep such a business afloat.
Can a "biz’ make it if it is a pushover when it comes to these things? or is it just natural for a shop owner to fight to the bitter end to avoid paying up? I am very pro-shop and the people that did not stop NOW would not have my sympathy. As some say this “promise” might not even attract more customers than the shop that has “standard” rules and regs.
I have seen mechanics with 20+ years experience pull things like loose wheels, loose calipers (this happens a lot) all the things possible to mees up on an oil change I have seen the "old guys’ do it too.
Little story about myself. I was putting a wheel back on a 5 series BMW (front wheel) and the boss came up and we started BSing about his hobby (building VW motors). It turns out I left the wheel loose, no accident but it was very embarassing and all because I was BSing with the boss. When I worked at a BMW Dealer in Switzerland we had to sign a section of the repair order assuring that the wheels were correctly torqued.Switzerland is a bit backwards than the States. What I mean is, office workers (called “bureau gummies”) were very much respected and auto mechanics were looked down on, as you should be able to do better for yourself.Here in the States secretaries are a dime a dozzen but you bring cookies to your mechanic.
The issue I would have is that litigation is a sticky enough issue without possibly adding more fuel to the fire; assuming any sign was interpreted that way. One has to factor in that most judges have no clue at all how mechanical things operate. An example.
Back in the late 80s a guy brings a 15 year old auto stick VW Beetle in and wants “Only a trans fluid change. Don’t try to sell me anything else”. I was a working shop foreman at the time and figured I would knock this out myself to avoid dumping a low labor rate job on a tech. I changed the fluid, gave it a quick test drive, and noted the trans was a bit balky on the shifting. This was noted on the customer repair order by me and the customer was told it was likely in the vacuum valve that operates the clutch. No big deal, I’ll live with it he says.
Approx. 2 months later we get served a summons by the court clerk. This guy is suing us for ruining his transmission. The car was at a small ind. shop where he was given an estimate for repairs down to the exact penny and the trans had not even been removed from the car.
So the service manager and I went off to court with manuals in hand to explain to the judge what was going on. The guy presented his case, the service manager turned our side of the explanation over to me and the judge made his ruling. We won the case.
However, the judge flat stated that he only ruled for us because the other shop had not torn the transmission apart to find out exactly what was wrong.
The judge also flat stated that “if it wasn’t for that I’d rule against you because I don’t like auto repair shops or dealers”. Nothing like a fair and unbiased man on the bench.
Could one liken a sign on the wall to what was notated on the customer copy of the repair order? In this case, the judge did not even care that the guy brought a flawed vehicle to us.
This independent shop who had the car in hand? There were a small ind. VW shop with a very bad reputation and went under a few years later after a rash of suits against them.
So in closing, I call this idea a “fail”. The current relationship between shop and customer is a result of factors in society in general, this idea of mine is akin to water running uphill, just is not going to happen (now I am sure someone has a story about water running up hill).
I bought a repoed VW New Beetle a few years ago that appeared to have gone through the same scenario. The transmission had a HOLE in it the size of an old fashioned silver dollar.
What the idiot who trashed it didn’t realize was that the bank I bought it from was allowed by law to sue the him for whatever they didn’t get out of the car when they sold it. I suspect that’s true in every state. (Read the fine print.) All they need here are three bids, sometimes sealed, sometimes at a public auction. He owed a little over $6000 on it, and I gave $2501. There were also some expenses involved it paying a repo man to find and retrieve it. The bank will always get theirs, all of it.
I found a good tranny on http://www.car-part.com and did very well when I sold it a few weeks later.