What do you folks think is a reasonable course of action?

Maintenance/Repairs
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21

Oh, so having someone tell you something’s “fixed” when it’s not is what I should get used to? Would you be happy if someone “fixed” your dishwasher but then it sprayed water all over the kitchen? Or if someone said he “painted” your house but then it came off in the next rainstorm? If the answer to that is “no” then why the hell should I be satisfied with someone who DID NOT fix what he said he did.

I’ve owned the car in question for 12 years. I’ve had other things fixed, and guess what? When the mechanics in question said they fixed them, oh, my God, they actually worked!

Tomorrow, I’m going to call the mechanic I normally use and see what he thinks about the “repair” job that was done and my actions. He’ll tell it to me straight, and the best thing about him is, when he says something is repaired, it really is!

22

I dropped the car off and told him the fuel gauge was not working and the tail lights were out as well. He charged me for two hours of work in order to look into things. Then he called back and told me that some animal had gotten into the wires and chewed through them. He said that he would fix both the gas gauge and the tail lights. This was done verbally.

The total price was $375 and change. He didn’t give me the option of doing a partial fix.

23

You asked for opinions on a “reasonable course of action” and you don’t like the answers. Well tough, you asked and virtually no one agrees that your actions are “reasonable”.

When the mechanic got the car, how does he know how much gas is in it? So, whatever was done got a reading on the gas guage, voila - fixed. But there is still something else wrong with guage and/or sending unit.

Whatever business you are in, you must be perfect and get it right everytime. Because you have zero tolerance for mistakes. I hope your boss is as hard on you as you are on this mechanic.

24

Maybe it was working fine for him and then stopped working, would he be wrong in saying it was “fixed”? If my dishwasher were fixed and then sprayed water everywhere I’d call them up and have them come out to fix it free, if they refused, then i’d start doing what you’re doing. You’ve just skipped a few obvious steps. Why would you take it somewhere else when you could probably get it fixed for free by this mechanic? Doesn’t make sense to me.

25

He might not have known there was something else wrong beyond what he fixed if it started working.

26

Apparently all mechanics are incompetent crooks… I’m glad I am retiring.

27

This is why I left the industry, hopefully accounting isn’t as insane.

28

Believe it or not such things do happen. It’s not pleasant or fun, but then life is not all sunshine and puppy dogs now is it? When things like that happen, the first step is to contact the person that did the work. Oftentimes, since they have a vested interest in not pissing off customers, they will offer to fix it again without charging you more. If they refuse to do that, Then is a good time to escalate it to the credit card company.

Running to Visa to get them to be your hired goons trying to muscle the mechanic into making you happy before you’ve even given him a chance to make you happy on his own is petty and, frankly, stupid.

29

I’m a bit undecided on this one. What exactly was done to repair the gauge in the first place?

A gauge that shows a 1/3 of a tank when it is really empty means that either the gauge is faulty, a full 12 volts is not being provided to the gauge, or the resistance is too low in the sender/gauge circuit.

30

The OP is a woman,I guarantee it,any takers? I do see the screen name but the behaviour fits the gender when it comes too cars. Not PC,so fire me.

31

The OP said it was a wiring repair from damaged caused by rodents chewing on it. There could have been further damage elsewhere or the repair has caused excessive resistance in the fuel gauge circuit, probably the former. The mechanic apparently got a reading on the gauge and, not knowing how much fuel was in the tank, assumed the problem was solved. This seems reasonable to me. As far as running out of gas due to the gauge not being accurate, I prevent this from happening to me by resetting my trip odometer every time I fill my tank. I don’t know exactly how far my car will go without running out of gas, but I do know to refill it if I have gone more than about 300 miles, or else I’m pressing my luck. Doing this helps to notify me of other problems with my car as well, since I would observe a change in fuel economy or range.

32

I wouldn’t be too sure about that, oldschool. I have seen many men with this attitude towards cars. I have also seen some role reversal in this day and age. My sister is more car savvy and mechanically inclined than her husband, for example. I have tried to teach the guy about cars, but he just can’t seem to pick it up, even spark plug changes and things like that. My sister can change her own oil, but prefers to pay someone else to do it.

33

WHAT DO YOU FOLKS THINK IS A “REASONABLE” COURSE OF ACTION?<—that is the title of your post.
Tony;
These folks have tried to tell you that you are NOT following a “reasonable” course of action, but you aren’t listening to them. I understand you are torqued off because you got stuck, had to be towed, and missed your flight, but GO BACK & tell the mech what happened. I’m not sure at this point that he should even do “anything” for you since we don’t know the whole story yet.
Did you ask him to fix the fuel guage for you? yes. Was it working when you got the car back? yes.
Did you ask him to adjust the fuel guage sending unit so it didn’t run out of fuel while the guage still read 1/3 full? NO?
There was no way for the mech to know that the guage was INACCURATE. Why haven’t you noticed this before while YOU have been driving the car? You fill it up and drive it on a regular basis, the mech doesn’t…
What exactly did the mech do to fix the fuel guage part of the repair? Was it also a repair to the wireing like the tail lights were?
There’s more to the “fuel guage part of the story” than you’re telling us so far. All I can tell for sure from what you’ve told us so far, is that you’re not following a reasonable course of action.

34

Unbelievable. The original poster is a woman? Tell you what, big guy. Show up and meet me in person and we’ll see if you think that.

By the way, since you guys seem to think I’m an evil person who actually expects a job to be done right and who will use the means that are available to him when things are done incorrectly, let me add more fuel to the fire. I filed a complaint with the BBB as well. And I’ve also contacted the local consumer protection agency. Do I regret doing it? Nope. Would I do it again, after reading these comments? I’d be even more motivated to do it, because the excuse making and blame shifting is inexcusable.

I’ve written a letter to the service manager, and I’ve told him in no uncertain terms that I don’t want him or his employees touching my car ever again. I also forwarded a copy of it on to Amex – not Visa – as well as the BBB and my local consumer protection agency.

As for me, I’ve been in sales for more than a decade now, so I know a little something about delivering what I promise. If I don’t, I lose customers, and lose the commission as well. And if I screwed something up this bad, my ass would be out the door. So this guy will lose the equivalent of his commission, and he deserves to.

Perhaps in the auto repair industry, it’s okay to screw things up and then people will defend the mistakes, but not so in others.

The funny thing is you people are attacking my character, and making excuses and insinuating that I’m just trying to weasel my way out of paying. Then tell that to the mechanics who I’ve worked with in the past. In the past year, I have paid one mechanic nearly $2,000 and done so willingly, because he did the job right and fixed the problem. I’ve paid another mechanic around $700 over the past two years to fix other problems. Again, I did it willingly because the job was done right. And oh, my God, the problem that they said was fixed was actually repaired!

I am more than happy to pay for services that are delivered. If I hire you to install windows and they fall out of the house, I’m not paying you. If I hire you to build a storage shed and it collapses, I’m not paying you. And if I hire you to fix my fuel gauge and tail lights and the fuel gauge is not fixed, I’m not paying you.

It’s a shame you folks don’t get that.

If you folks had said, give the guy another shot at it, then that have been one thing. The thing that amazes me is the blame shifting. It’s my fault that I took the guy’s word at face value when he said everything was fixed and relied on the reading of the fuel gauge?

When you started blame shifting, you lost me. If you do run auto repair shops, please let me know which ones, so I can never give you my business. Besides, given what you’ve posted, you wouldn’t want it.

35

If the fuel gauge is not reading accurately, it’s not fixed. I shouldn’t have to tell someone, hey, make sure it’s reading accurately, too. That’s like telling a doctor, hey, after the surgery, make sure you stitch me up.

Before the fuel gauge went dead, it was reading accurately. When it got down to an eighth of a tank, I knew I had a couple of gallons left and would go to the gas station to fill up. And guess what? It was accurate.

36

This guy will never get it. He is a hothead and nothing anyone says will convince him otherwise. He is putting more effort and time into fighting the mechanic than getting the guage fixed.

Animal damage is very hard to track down. So there are still some wires damaged, or the sending unit got fried, or something. But rather than get it fixed, he is going off on a rant.

He is right, his actions are reasonable to him, and him alone.

37

I think disputing the charge is premature. There are too many unknown factors at this point.

Was this incident even related to the work done on the car? It might just be a coincidence or a faulty part.

Before you dispute a credit card charge, you are obligated to try to resolve the issue with the merchant first. Then, if you two can’t come to an agreement, it would be time to dispute the charge.

If your mechanic was not at fault, your dispute of the charge could hurt your mechanic’s standing with the bank that processes the credit card charges. If your mechanic isn’t at fault, you have done him/her a wrong that can’t be undone.

Yes, you should go back. You have assumed your mechanic is at fault, and you might be wrong.

Also, if running out of gas puts your life in danger, you weren’t driving properly. Many vehicles break down each day for one reason or another. As a trained and licensed driver, you should be prepared to safely pull your disabled vehicle off the road and call for assistance. If you aren’t capable of doing that without risking your life, you should consider using public transportation.

If they haven’t already done so, the folks at the bank are going to deny your claim. They are going to insist you try to resolve the issue with the merchant before they will consider doing a chargeback.

38

Tony

Why do you ask for the opinion of others if you reject opinions that are not in agreement with your own notions of how to proceed with this issue?

If you only want to hear opinions that are in total compliance with your own ideas, then it would probably be best to just spend your time talking to yourself. Or, if you have friends who only tell you what you want to hear, you might just ask them for their opinions so that they can “parrot back” exactly what you told them.

Incidentally, getting the BBB involved is essentially one of the biggest wastes of time that you could have engaged in. If the business in question is not a member of the BBB, then nothing will be done except for possibly placing your complaint in a file cabinet.

If the business in question is a BBB member, then the BBB may ask (that is correct–ask) them to make good on their repair. They will not order them to do anything. If there are repeated complaints over the course of several years, the BBB might take their most extreme action–to reject new dues from that business. However, since the BBB is a profit-making enterprise, they rarely do this.

To quote an investigative report published by Smart Money magazine a few years ago, “Few consumers are actually helped by the BBB”. Would you now like to argue with me regarding the usefulness of contacting the BBB?

39

I will back awawy from the “he is acting as a woman” statement as I initally gave the OP credit for his behaviour because perhaps he/she had this chip because of previous “rip-off” attempts that women are subjected too. Now I see he is simplly a person with an entitlement attitude. I was thrown off by the many recent complaint type posts where the OP was of the female gender. In these posts the attitude of “if I paid my bill then this puts some kind of spell around the car and provides me with some kind of protection from life” exists I have asked a few times before where did the “if I have paid the bill then no wrong is possible” attitide come from? I have no illusions that a mechanic cannot make a mistake on my car simply because the bill has been paid, this connection does not exist.

But back to the original mistake by the OP, he should have put some gas in the car after picking it up. This was another clue I had the “gotta be a woman” part wrong as a woman would have gassed up,and asked for the best route to get to the airport.

40

Tony, you came here and asked for our opinions. It’s now clear you had a hidden agenda. You really came here for reinforcement of what you think is right. Instead of actually considering our feedback, you are dismissing it. That shows you have a closed mind.

Diagnosing and fixing anything, whether it is a car, a boat, a sick person, or a computer, is not a perfect science, but people do the best they can, and sometimes they don’t get it right the first time. We are all human beings. You are expecting a level of perfection from your mechanic that most of us who understand the issues think is unrealistic.

You have made a mountain out of a molehill, and now you are escalating further. If you already had your mind made up, why did you waste all of these people’s time by asking for their opinions?

I have been in your shoes. I too have asked questions in this forum expecting one answer, but got answers that challenged my way of thinking. If you aren’t big enough to admit when you are wrong, or at least consider other possibilities, you are depriving yourself the opportunity to learn from this experience, and you are only hurting yourself.