I was out of town when my car wouldn’t start and I had it towed to a local mechanic. He diagnosed and replaced my fuel pump. I drove out of the repair shop to start my 200 mile drive home. Stopped half way to refuel. Instead of going into the gas tank, the gas poured out of the bottom of the car and all over the ground at the gas station. Needless to say, I was unable to refuel and ended up crossing my fingers, continuing onward and made it home on fumes. Now, I have to take my car to my local guy and pay him to complete the original repair and troubleshoot any potential problems due to the faulty repair. My car will be out of commission for several days to a week and I will need to pay for alternate transportation to and from work.
What recourse do I have and what type of compensation is industry standard and/or fair to ask for?
Thanks!
This MIGHT be a simple fix. I’m assuming this is an internal fuel pump. To replace it the mechanic had to drop the fuel tank. What I “think” happened is he didn’t connect up the filler neck properly. This would result in the gas pouring all over the ground when you tried to fill it up.
Take it back to the mechanic who replaced the pump. This could be as simple as connecting the filler neck and tightening down a clamp.
He owes you at least a full refund of the labor he charged. Of course, if you had returned he would have more than likely corrected the mistake. I honestly cannot fathom such an outrageous mistake. But I have always had some peculiar SOP’s. When a tank is removed and replaced the vehicle gets road tested and topped off with fuel. If anyone in the shop ever left something loose they were able to correct the mistake without my finding out. Several required readjusting the vent tube due to slow filling.
I think MikeinNH is 100% correct, this “SHOULD” be a 20min fix, not a big deal at all. Basically thow the car on a lift reattach the hose, clamp it down and done.
The 1st mechanic should pay for it, but good luck with that. It all starts with a phone call, 5 min should tell you what kind of guy he is.
The industry standard for a situation like this, since you are far from the shop that did the work, is to take the vehicle to a shop, have the problem corrected, contact the original shop and request reimbursement for correcting the first shop’s error. Be wary of shops looking to take advantage of the situation and badmouth the previous mechanic. Some places get hold of a situation like this and brutally take advantage of it. I had a coworker once leave a rubber caliper bushing out of a full size FWD Buick, which will cause a knock when you step on the brakes. For some reason, this local customer opted to take the car to a local Buick dealership rather than give us another look at it. That dealership charged a total of four and a half hours labor to diagnose this noise using a “chassis ear” (whatever that is. Whatever happened to removing the wheels and taking a look?) and an arm and a leg to “rebuild with new bushings” the caliper, over something that would have taken any reasonable mechanic five minutes and five dollars worth of parts to fix. Total bill was around $550. They knew another shop was to foot the bill, so they decided to rape us. As others have said, this SHOULD be a 20 minute job and minimal, if any, parts to correct the issue.
I’m in agreement that this sounds like a filler neck issue; either not installed, rubber hose damaged during the tank reinstallation, or clamps not tightened. It should not be a major fix and if this is the case the original shop should refund at least part of the repair cost. From a PR standpoint they should refund all of it and apoligize.
I’m also in agreement with mark9207 about a shop taking advantage of the situation. In the automotive world there is a lot of one upmanship going on and one shop badmouthing another and making something worse than it is is not a rare thing.
“Rod Knox February 7 Report
… But I have always had some peculiar SOP’s. When a tank is removed and replaced the vehicle gets road tested and topped off with fuel. If anyone in the shop ever left something loose they were able to correct the mistake without my finding out.”
That’s a good boss right there. “without my finding out” Well done.
In a repair shop, if the boss finds out you screwed up a job, 9 times out of 10 he finds out from the customer. You do not want to be the tech who finds out you did something wrong by your boss getting a call from the customer.
Some local mechanics are affiliated with national part chains or AAA. You may have a warranty on the labor/parts that carries to another shop.
My old shop that has since moved was affiliated with a place called Parts Plus which offered a 1yr/12,000 mile warranty on parts/labor on repairs done.
He’s 200 miles away so just get it fixed and call the guy for reimbursement but good luck.
Just because a second shop bad mouths errors from the first shop doesn’t mean its not justified. I took my car to my regular shop specifically to check the crank sensor after exhausting other problems. They didn’t find anything. Next morning on my 50 mile commute I got half way. Towed to another shop and they showed me the broken sensor that obviously had been cracked a long time. Plus found the bad balancer that was causing it. Cost me a day and $500 and never had any more repair work done at the first shop. The owner goes to our church and has never even asked why after being a steady customer, haven’t been around for years.
Somehow, the filler neck did not get connected…a ten minute job…Call the original repair shop and explain what happened to them. They may be more than happy to make it right…