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

Maintenance/Repairs
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41

No, it’s like telling the doctor after the appendectomy “Hey what the hell! You didn’t pull my wisdom teeth!” How is the surgeon supposed to know that you have wisdom teeth that need to be pulled if you don’t even tell him to look?

You told the mechanic the gauge wasn’t working. The mechanic saw that you were right because the gauge was pegged below E. He rewired it. Now the gauge gave him a reading. It’s fixed.

You didn’t tell him, because presumably you didn’t know, that the gauge was also very inaccurate. If you didn’t know that, and it’s your car, how is the mechanic supposed to know that? The gauge gives him a reading, and since he’s not going to fill your tank for you, he has no way of knowing that it isn’t an accurate one unless you tell him.

42

43

I think we can all learn a lesson from this post. If some guy named Tony brings a Mustang into the shop with a nonfunctioning fuel gauge, once repairs are made, we must then fill the fuel tank and take the car on a 400 mile test drive to ensure the fuel gauge is accurate, from full to empty. Anything less, and he will sic the credit card company on us for a chargeback. I’m glad there aren’t more customers like this out there. If there were, everyone in the repair industry would abandon it since there would be absolutely no money in it and you wouldn’t be able to feed your family because, if you make one mistake, rather than be allowed to correct it, your customers start taking the food off your plate.

44

I came here wondering if disputing the credit card charge was the right thing to do. I was willing to listen to people who said, hey, give him a second chance, you’re being a little quick in judging this repair shop’s competence.

What I didn’t expect is for you folks to try to pin the blame on me. Nor did I expect people to say, actually, they did fix the problem when it is clear they did not.

Instead of convincing me to give the mechanic in question another chance, what you did is make me want to go after him harder. Why? So that people like you who are in the auto repair industry read about what happened to him, learn a lesson, and don’t think that you can just blame the customer for something that happened when you did a half assed repair job.

You know, the tow truck driver said that I should contact an attorney and sue. I didn’t do that, because the amount of money in question isn’t worth it. However, based on the attitudes I’ve seen here, I am going to look into what’s involved in filing a claim in small claims court.

As for an entitlement attitude, I guess you could say I have one. When I give someone money to perform a service, I believe I am entitled to having that service done and done correctly.

As for Amex telling me to get in touch with the merchant first, hardly. When I told them I don’t want anything to do with that company ever again, you know what they told me?

“I don’t blame you.”

People could learn a lot about customer service and how to provide it from Amex. It’s why I use them instead of their competition. If I have a problem, they fix it, and they don’t blame me for the problem.

As for not wanting to repair my car, oh well. You’re in the business to provide a service and make a profit from it. I’m more than happy to give companies that do the job right the first time the chance to do that. I’ve spent quite a bit of money at places that do just that. If you ask them what kind of customer I am, they’ll tell you I’m a no fuss, no muss customer who doesn’t question the bill and doesn’t argue about charges. Why? Because they do the job and they fix the problem.

I’ve had a close to 20 year relationship with one of these companies and I’ve never had a problem with them. I didn’t go to them because they were booked and I needed to get the tail lights fixed immediately to avoid getting a ticket.

Places where a response to a complaint about the fuel gauge being inaccurate and not being fixed will be met with “the fuel gauge is working” and “you should have filled it up to see if it was accurate” will not get my business. That’s not fixing the problem, that’s shifting the blame to the customer.

Behavior like that is one of the reasons why many people believe that auto repair companies are a bunch of scam artists. I don’t believe that, because I’ve had positive experiences with the repair shops I’ve dealt with with this one exception. But I certainly can understand why many people believe that given what I’ve read here.

45

I just lost a little more faith in humanity.

You clearly cannot comprehend the entire point of a warranty.

Tow truck drivers aren’t exactly the greatest people to get legal advice from in my opinion.

EDIT: I also no longer work in auto repair (did for two years to pay college expenses)

46

…people like you who are in the auto repair industry…

Why do you think I am in the auto repair industry? I am not in the auto repair industry, nor have I ever been. Mistaken assumptions like this accentuate your poor reasoning skills and bad judgment.

You obviously have an axe to grind. Please don’t make me the target of your misplaced anger. If you can’t find a healthy outlet for your anger issues, it might be time for professional help.

Oldschool was wrong to assume your gender, and you are equally wrong in to assume my profession. Both of you could benefit from lessons in etiquette and logic, and maybe a little psychotherapy.

Have a wonderful day!

47

Tony

You are assuming that most or all of us are “in the auto repair industry”.

In reality, many–perhaps most of us–are simply auto enthusiasts who have a bit more automotive repair savvy than the average driver. Others in the forum are mechanics–either active or retired–but we all seem to be united in believing that your actions are wrong-headed. Reject that sentiment is you wish, but–once again, I ask:

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?

Because we have responded to your question, and because we have had the temerity to not agree with you, it is apparent that you now consider us to be as much of an adversary as your recent mechanic. For your own health, you might want to reduce the level of hostility that you are currently experiencing, as it is not healthy.

Just about the only judgment of yours with which I agree is your decision to not hire an attorney to sue the mechanic/shop. Legal advice coming from a tow truck driver is not what I would call expert opinion.

48

And you clearly do not understand that people don’t want to give a second chance to someone who screwed things up. There’s so much competition out there that businesses need to get it right the first time or customers will go elsewhere.

49

It’s not the “give him a second chance” response I got which bothered me. I would have thought about taking that course of action – despite my misgivings about letting someone who screwed the job up the first time work on my car again – if it wasn’t accompanied by the “it’s your fault” and the “they did fix the problem” response.

The second part made me not want to undertake the first part.

50

Yes, I would be pretty upset, but I would do my best to gather information before placing any blame. I would not jump to conclusions as you have.

Here is what I would have done in that situation. I would have had the car towed back to the same garage or another garage for a second opinion. Then, if the information I gathered conclusively indicated the mechanic was at fault, I would take action. As respectfully as possible, I would explain the situation to the first mechanic and ask to be reimbursed for the towing fees, airline change fees, etc. When I had more information about who was at fault, I would present my grievance to the first mechanic and ask for a full or partial refund.

I believe a calm and reasonable approach to the situation would likely net you a more satisfactory resolution than what is currently available with the actions you have taken.

51

When did I say it was your fault?

52

You didn’t, Whitey. But others did. Seriously, that’s what hacked me off more than anything. Uh, relying on someone’s word that he fixed something and then expecting the things he said he fixed to be accurate? Crazy stuff, I tell you.

53

For the record, I am not in the auto repair industry either. I fix my own cars, and friends’ cars in exchange for a pizza. So now you’re busy punishing a mechanic to teach a bunch of “auto repair industry” people on a radio show’s website a lesson. More poor reasoning skills. Going after this mechanic isn’t going to teach us anything. We won’t be harmed by it.

But here’s a fun little factoid: I bet that mechanic has told your story to other people. “Hey, get this. I got a customer who started a chargeback and is suing me because he didn’t tell me his gas gauge didn’t read accurately.”

And odds are fairly good that one of the people that hears this story will stumble across this post, either because they read this forum, or because it’s gonna show up in a google search. Or because someone will post it to a very widely distributed site like fark.com. . .

And then when you sue him, and he has this nice little thread to show the court, in which you admit that you’re suing him because you want to teach us a lesson, his lawyer is going to eat you alive.

Have fun with the frivolous lawsuit defense. . .

54

The shop didn’t do the last item in the “10 (probably more like 4 or 5) commandments of car repair”

Verify that the problem has been fixed.

55

Dude! You DEFINATELY have “speaks” with the mechanic about this. You’ll want to tear him a new one, but do not do that. Instead, play dumb. Just tell him, “You guys DID work on the fuel guage, didn’t you?” he should say yes. You say, “I don’t think it works right because I ran out of gas when the gauge showed that I had plenty of gas, about a third of a tank. I ran out on the highway and got it towed to a gas station where the guy there said, ‘yep, you’re totally out of gas’”. if he doesn’t offer to look at your car after that, you just keep on, laying it on and say real innocently, “Could you please take a look at it, maybe it just needs to be adjusted or rotated a little bit.” If this guy’s head is not at least inside your driver’s window looking at your gauge, give him small doses of: “this cost me a lot of tow money, I missed a flight because of this, a truck almost hit my car even when I was pulled off the road. etc.” He’ll look at, and fix it. This is the correct way, because he’ll know its his fault and he’ll want to fix it since you’re being such a gentleman about it. Good luck. DarrylRags

56

Also, I couldn’t believe all the posters blame you for not filling up after you had your fuel gauge worked on. Unbelievable, Like it’s your fault for thinking you had fuel because the mechanic said your fuel gauge is fixed. The fuel gauge shows that I have half a tank, but EVERYONE knows not to trust that… ha ha ha, wow.

57

Somebody gave me 2 stars for saying that a mechanic should check his work when done to make sure he won’t have a comeback. Well, OK, free country. Maybe they’re right, in some parallel universe.

I’m ashamed to say I got fired from one of the first shops I ever worked at. Too many comebacks. I vowed, Never again. Subsequently, I’ve noticed that (in shops I’ve worked at) when we fix a “fuel gauge not reading right” condition, there’s a reluctance on the part of the bosses to let you fill the tank up to observe the action of the fuel gauge.

Maybe they think the customer will contest the extra charge for gas, but it’s better than not verifying that the job’s been done right & having someone run out of gas & possibly get killed.

If they had simultaneously gassed up the car & observed the action of the fuel gauge needle, then they could’ve told Tony, “Look, we hate to tell you this, but we need to keep your car a little longer.” Then he could have rented a car, for example & made his flight.

58

You know most people who have at least a little bit of automotive knowledge don’t put total faith in what the gas gauge says. I generally go by what my trip odometer says, I know what kind of gas mileage my vehicles get, and I know the fuel tank capacity of each vehicle as well. If I’m driving my Mustang, I know that when I’ve traveled 275 miles, then I have about 1 gallon of fuel left and should get fuel ASAP regardless of what the gas gauge says.

The OP is being unreasonable. Sometimes it takes a mechanic more or than one try at resolving a problem. Instead of calling the mechanic and explaining the problem and letting him take another shot at fixing it, he did charge back right off the bat, poor form. What, you didn’t want to try to hit him up for pain & suffering as well? Back when I first got my Bronco, the gas gauge didn’t work. It took no fewer than four trips to the mechanic to get it right, s**t happens. The OP handled the situation and indeed the criticism from others on this board, with as much class and dignity as a self-important, overly entitled, teenage drama queen IMHO.

Should the OP have to pay again? Not at all, but I doubt the mechanic is going to want to deal with him since he saw fit to issue a chargeback at the first hint of trouble.

59

You need to settle down a bit. It’s very difficult to assist in car problems over the net anyway and near impossible when you’re ranting so much. Rats chewed wiring doesn’t provide much insight into what was really done or not done.

Fuel tank senders can be a bit delicate anyway and gauge operation is based on the resistance in that circuit. Since the gauge reads higher than it should this means the resistance is lower for some reason; either due to the wiring problem or a sending unit problem. If the fuel tank was not dropped and the sender removed, and IF the problem is the sender, then the mechanic is not at fault.

This problem is not that hard to diagnose. Have someone (preferably the shop you’re accusing of being weasels) disconnect the tank unit and check the gauge with a variable resistor. If the gauge works fine, and if the tank unit was not dinked with, then apologize to the shop.

I could understand oldschool’s comment about a woman possibly being involved. For a while there I thought my wife owned a Mustang behind my back and was logging in under another ID.
:wink:

60

Karl, thank you for restoring my faith in the people who work in your industry. There are two repair facilities that I like to use whenever I have a problem and it’s because they hire people who look at things like you do. You want to make sure the job is done correctly so that you avoid any comebacks, as you call them.

Furthermore, if they tacked on a charge for gas in order to make sure the fuel gauge was reading properly, know what I would have done? I’d have said, okay, fine, I need gas sooner or later anyway so that’s fine.

I’m in a very customer focused business myself, and I know that if I don’t do it right the first time, every time, I’m going to lose a customer. Do it too often, and I’ll be shown the door. That’s the mindset I take into a transaction when I’m the guy giving the money instead of collecting it. I expect them to give me the same level of service I give my customers.

This is the first time in 20 years of owning cars that I’ve had a problem with a repair. I hope it’s my last.