To shop-owners, dealerships, etc.: Tell me your horror stories with terrible customers

So why did the car have a rod knock after you worked on it? Is it possible that you are culpable in this?

It took you 15 minutes to say “There’s nothing wrong with it. No.”?

???

I want to work where you work.

At least he had a “healthy policy.”

Nothing stupider than talking about insurance fraud that you committed.

No, they’re not wanting DNA testing on paint, they’re wanting something like the FBI is able to do, and has been since at least the 1970’s.

Regarding your customer, if he still owed the bank, his insurance would have covered it.

You can’t fix stupid.

No, you’re not.

I used to mow the grass and do clean-up work for a mechanic that had a small garage. He told the story about an elderly customer who drove a 1946 Buick Roadmaster. The Buick was brought in because the clutch was slipping badly. The mechanic replaced the clutch. This was a rather involved job on these old Buicks, because the driveshaft was enclosed so the rear axle had to be dropped. Three months later, the Buick and customer came back with the clutch slipping badly. The owner didn’t say anything, so the mechanic replaced the clutch and the owner again paid the bill. A couple of months later, the Buick came back again with a slipping clutch. The mechanic replaced the clutch and this time had the owner take him for a ride. The owner would only release the clutch to the friction point when he drove. When the mechanic expained why this wore out the clutches, the owner said, “This is the only way I know how to drive a car. I pay for the clutches, you do the repair”. My employer said that he didn’t say another word.

I also had an Aunt that was rather good at putting dents in her 1947 Pontiac. One body shop was really puzzled about how she managed to get in a dent in a particular place on the car. She responded, “My job is to put the dents in the car. Your job is to take them out”.

You are correct

Not terribly on topic, but funny to me.
A lady with thread bare tires in front of me at Sears. I know I could have gotten a couple hundred more miles if I had not driven across the gravel parking lot.

From the story sounded like he figured it out for himself.

That is one of my pet peeves, women who are convinced because they are a woman, and only because they are a woman, they are getting ripped off. Thugs who rip off women are going to try to rip off men they view as dumb, every chance they get.

I for some reason look much dumber than I am, and I guarantee you I have had a lot of mechanics over my 50 years of driving assume I was an idiot and try to rip me off.

Good thing he didn’t crush any of the employees figuring it out. That would have badly impacted the garage’s insurance.

Wouldn’t the customer with the Roadmaster need 3 legs?

After completing a repair and finalizing the invoice I needed to have the customer sign his check just as it printed on the top so our check guarantee service (Telecheck) could approve it.

The check was printed William Smith (not real last name) and the customer signed WM. I politely explained the requirement and he dug his heals in and made a big deal about it and would not correct it. He then stated he had his named legally changed to WM. as in letter W letter M period.

After that I took every oppourtunity to call him W (letter) M (letter) Dot. When he finally left I could tell he did not like his new name of WM Dot.

He made his bed, I figured he needed to sleep in it.

A guy brought a Toyota pickup in once for a head gasket repair. The job was finished and the truck parked outside. On Monday morning it was discovered that someone had broken out the driver side window and stolen the stereo.

The truck owner was not very upset and my boss said he would replace the glass and pay for the stereo. Just bring a receipt or some paperwork stating what the stereo cost was.
The owner brushed it off a bit by stating that the stereo was just a 100 dollar cheapie.
Several days later the guy said he was mistaken and a new stereo like that was about 200 dollars.

At this point the boss wanted to know what brand/model it was and when the guy called a few days later the price of that stereo was now up to 400 dollars.
My boss balked and said he would gladly pay for a new one but he wanted to see some paperwork.
The truck owner now gets belligerent and now says the stereo rig is worth 800 dollars, including the never previously mentioned 2 custom speakers which were loose behind the seat.

The boss is now belligerent and told the guy he might pony up the 800 but he wanted to see paperwork and at least be told what brand of stereo was stolen. After all of this the guy now says that he lost his paperwork, can’t find it, and that he “remembers now that the stereo and speakers cost over a grand”.
Which pretty covers the repair bill he owed on it…

The boss paid for the glass work but did not on the stereo. The guy never sued for the cost of any stereo unit.

This happened at my brothers mechanic/body shop about 5 or so years ago. Along with running his mechanic/body shop my brother also has private impound contracts with apartment complexes, restaurants, etc. One day he gets call from one of his apartment complexes to impound 2 vehicles improperly parked in reserved parking spaces. One of the vehicles being a nice, newer model Mercedes and a mini van. Driver gets there with his 19’ International flat bed. He loads the mini van first on the bed (Mistake #1) then loads the Mercedes rear drive wheels off the ground on to the wheel lift of the truck. Front wheels were straight on the Mercedes so he drives off. While entering the expressway heading to the shop the front wheels turn (The steering wheel was not secured by the driver, mistake #2) while negotiating a curve on the entrance ramp. The drivers side front bumper cover scraped the median wall. Driver stopped and secured steering wheel then brought the vehicles to the shop. Driver reported damage to shop foreman. My brother was out of the shop for the day. Owner picked up vehicle and was given card for my brother to call him to make arrangements to fix his vehicle. Owner called several days later saying he took his vehicle to a Mercedes dealer to be repaired. My brother told him fine, asked him which dealer the vehicle was at because he needed to go look at the vehicle, snap some pics and arrange with the dealer to pay for the repairs. My brother and I both go to the dealer to look at the damaged vehicle. When we talked to the service writer we were told that the owner called him and told him that NO one is to go looking at his vehicle and no one is to take any pictures and for them to immediately start fixing the vehicle. We explained to the service writer that we were the ones paying for the repairs to the vehicle and we needed to look at it and take pictures. We were refused entrance to the lot. My brother called the owner and told him that we will not accept any responsibility and will not pay for any repairs until we were allowed to look at the vehicle. Owner called dealer and allowed us access to vehicle. This was real suspicious to us but made sense after looking at vehicle and looking at dealers estimate of repairs. The damage caused by my brothers driver was just scratches on the front bumper cover and minute scratches to the drivers side headlight lens which my brother agreed to replace and pay for the labor. The owner was claiming other damage on the estimate and trying to get it fixed and added to the bill. Brother tells dealer that this is all he was paying for and he could write a separate bill for only that, dealer said he would. Dealer said he would call when work was done. We never heard from them until owner showed up at brothers shop and dropped off a bill for $10,000 and some change and demanded payment. On the bill was the front damage that brother offered to pay for, 4 wheel alignment, 2 front tires, a transmission service, a steering gear, other body damage on the roof, trunk lid and right fender, a rental car for a week, (Porsche). He claimed all this was due to his vehicle being towed. The invoice was handed over to my brothers lawyer who fired off a letter to him warning him about making false claims. We never heard from him again. He never came back to pick up a check for the front end damage that my brother had waiting from him.

transman

Heres something funny. Not a customer but my ex calling me one day. Seems that she came out of her job one day to find a flat tire on her 06 Trailblazer. Calls me on the phone at the shop and says that she has a flat tire and what should she do. I told her that I needed to come out there and change it with the spare. She says that she was going to drive it to a tire shop 2 blocks down the road. I then asked her how flat is the tire? Does it have ANY air in it. She said “Well, the TOP part is full but the bottom is flat” After I picked myself up off the floor and finally stopped laughing I told her "sweetie, I guarantee you, the WHOLE tire is flat.

transman

We had a guy come in with a mid '90s Riviera for some repairs, and ended up leaving the car at the shop till he came up with the money to pay us. The second or third day the car was there, we discovered that someone had used a crowbar to pry open the trunk so they could steal the subwoofers and amplifiers out of the trunk, then kicked down the back seat to get to the head unit in the dash. We called the guy and he took the news quite well. A week later, he came by, paid for the repairs, secured the trunk lid with a bungee cord, and left. We never heard from him again. I was surprised by his complete lack of reaction to the situation.

Of course. He had his buddies “break into” the car, “steal” the sub woofers, sell them for the money to fix the car, claim the damage on his insurance and get some of his money back from them.

For some reason, that makes a ridiculous amount of sense.

There was a guy who went to work at a Subaru dealer where I was employed and he was a great guy. We hit it off immediately and became friends, not just co-workers. He had gotten tired of the rat race and had closed his shop down.
A short time after going to work there a pickup stopped by one of the service bay doors where this guy worked. A guy in his 20s got out and was grumbling to my co-worker about a transmission that he had installed some 3 or 4 months previously. This was a bone-yard unit and as per normal, it had been installed with no guarantee except for any labor problems. In this case, the trans had started slipping.
(It was a TH350 in an 80s era Firebird and the owner fit the stereotype; mullet hair, neck tattoo, and apparently a crackhead.)

I overheard the guy being told repeatedly that any issues with the trans internals should be taken up with the salvage yard, not the guy who simply put it in. His receipt plainly stated NO guarantee on the installation of a bone-yard unit. The guy asked my co-worker to write something up about the transmission fault and when he turned his back the guy sucker punched him in the back of the head and started whaling on him. My friend turned around and got the punk in a headlock while telling him to give it up. The guy continued to throw punches and his 2 buddies in the truck bailed out to join in.
I grabbed a long breakover from the toolbox to even the odds a bit and when they saw me coming with a weapon they all bugged out running for the truck, spinning tires and cursing all the way.

My co-worker was fine except for a few small bruises and the punk was very lucky my co-worker did not unleash on him. He held his temper better than I would have and told the cops he would not even press charges on it.
The punk got his a few weeks later though. He committed a hit and run followed by running the Firebird into a ditch, where he left it. He then walked or hitchhiked home to a small community about 6 miles out. The state troopers had no problem in finding out who the car belonged to and one of the troopers went to the guy’s house.

The punk was told that he was under arrest for leaving the scene and the guy said no way was he going anywhere. The trooper backed up a few steps and pulled his gun. At this point the thug jumped the trooper and in the ensuing struggle the guy took a round right through the midsection with the bullet damaging a number of internal organs. He was DOA at the hospital. Kind of a tragic situation but considering the guy’s history who knows what would have happened to someone else if he had remained alive.