Big high-five, Tony!
For what it’s worth, I think the reasonable course of action would have been to take the car back to the original mechanic, and say, “my gas gauge was accurate before, and now it’s not. You gave me an unfinished repair.” Give him a chance to diagnose and repair the problem. If he repaired the wiring incorrectly, it’s on him to fix it. If there is additional wiring damage that he did not see before or if the sending unit was damaged by some kind of electrical problem related to the chewed wires, then you need to pay for that, because if he had found and repaired that damage you would have paid for it before. Either way, though, he owes you for the tow.
By getting angry and being unwilling to go back to that shop and have them make good the situation, you probably will have to pay for the repair again from the second shop and I doubt you will get your chargeback or win anything more in a suit than the cost of the tow.
You definitely have a beef with him, but a “reasonable course of action” would be to allow him to fix his wrong.(for free of course)
Tony, as a former service director, I’m curious as to the reponse given to you by the service manager of the shop in question.
Tony, don’t take this the wrong way, but you are a nightmare customer. When the mechanic gave you the car back, the gauge was reading something. It was not before you took it there. Short of the mechanic draining the gas from the tank, measuring how much was drained out, then calculating whether the gauge was accurate, I don’t know how he could have verified that it was working properly. I’m sure he thought it was fine when he left it with you. It’s not like there was an obvious sign that it was still not reading right. It fooled you, didn’t it? And it’s your car—you should’ve had some idea how much gas was left, despite what the gauge said.
If you had just driven it to the gas station, filled it up, and gone “Whoa, that took way more than half a tank’s worth to fill it!”, then taken it back, would you be that upset, or was it the whole towing/missed flight thing that spurred this? This is how wars get started you know–someone taking a little unintentional slight and making it into a major ordeal.
After you got over your anger, you should have taken it back and given the shop the chance to make it right. If this doesn’t seem like a reasonable course of action to you, then I’m sorry, and I especially pity your family and friends, who must also have to put up with your “zero tolerance” policy for mistakes.
If you don’t pay for the work that was done, that constitutes fraud, despite what you might think of the outcome of the job. You don’t really have a leg to stand on if you never took it back there to complain and the shop owner decides to sue you for the repair bill, and it’s likely that he could get you for lost wages for wasting his time too. He did at least half the job as expected, right? --your tail lights are working. So you think he shouldn’t be paid for that either?
Good luck and best wishes.
If I were to hand an itemized bill to a customer which charged $75 labor to locate and repair a rodent damaged wire, then $50 for gasoline plus $35 labor to drive to a gas station and further labor of $150 to remove the tank to ohm the sender plus $250 for the tank unit it would likely irritate the customer.
And to be honest, I think that the original post is somewhat reminiscent of a poem by Alexander Pope.
“although having to cough up $100 in cash when you’re traveling and want to have a lot of cash in the bank in case something happens isn’t fun.”
I know this must have been stressful and not what you wanted, but read what you wrote.
THAT’S WHY YOU CARRY CASH! SOMETHING HAPPENED!
When you’ve lived with a vehicle with a chronically unreliable fuel gauge, you quickly learn that the most reliable method of determining how much fuel you really have is the odometer or trip odometer.
Karl,
Frankly, you don’t know whether the two star rating came from one person or if it is an average of multiple ratings, but that doesn’t change the fact that you assumed the mechanic made a mistake when you don’t know that for sure. Sometimes things go wrong after the mechanic verified it was fixed or the owner gets his car back.
I agree it it likely the mechanic didn’t verify the job was done right, and I agree not doing so is bad customer service. However, at the point when you made that post, there were too many unanswered questions for you to know your assumption was correct.
I didn’t give you that two star rating, or a rating that contributed to the average, but after looking at the post, I understand why it has that rating. We simply need more facts before any of us can make the kind of judgment you have made.
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.
How can you be so sure? If you said “The shop [i]probably[/i] didn’t verify the problem was fixed,” I would agree with you 100%.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all for the mechanic to do what he did and only what he did considering the situation presented to them.
A customer comes in with a non-functioning gas gauge and brake lights. No mention of prior issues with the gauge accuracy. Mechanic finds and repairs rodent damaged wires. The gauge now appears to work properly.
In order to verify gauge accuracy, the tank must be drained. If you know anything about gauge senders (or are at least observant) you know they are; non-linear and biased toward the empty side of the tank. You can’t simply fill up the tank and check to see if the gauge reads full. The vast majority of gas gauges will read full well before the tank is actually full. They are biased to read the most accurately below 1/2 tank where it actually matters most to the user. If you start with an unknown quantity of gas, you have to drain it to empty to know the starting point. Then, based on the volume capacity rating of the tank, fill it to halfway and compare the gauge reading. This would be the minimum work required to get a fairly accurate assessment of the gauge accuracy.
Do you know how much labor this involves? Imagine the opposite scenario. The customer comes in to have this issue resolved. The mechanic restores the obvious damage and proceeds to do a full accuracy assessment of the gauge reading. The bill now states;
Diagnostic 1 hour = $90
R&R wiring 1/2 hour = $45
Drain gas tank = 1/2 hour = $45
1 gallon gas back in
Gopher drives car to gas station for 1/2 tank gas= $30 labor= $20
Assess tank gauge accuracy = OK
In that case, I suspect we’d see a post from this OP but instead complaining how he was overcharged for an unnecessary amount of extra money to check the gauge accuracy.
The fact is, most people would be bent out of shape if they got charged for something like this when the chances that the gauge will read wrong after the repair is minimal. A normal reaction would have been as many have suggested; inform the mechanic that there were additional issues to resolve and give him a chance to fix them. That’s my double lincolns anyway…
Disputing the charge will get you nowhere. That’s really only appropriate for an entirely bogus charge. Your dispute is with the shop, but not with the charge. Leaving the shop “stuck” for the cost of the work will not entice them to make good on the repair.
Bring the car back and complain. They should make good on the repair.
And, for future reference, if you have an important flight to catch and you know you’ve just been having problems with your gage, it might be wise to fill the tank up ahead of time until you’re sure the gage was properly repaired. I always verify that my repairs have been successful before making any assumptions, and I recommend it for others.
If Tony was on empty & the needle said 1/3 the next day, there’s not much chance the mechanic verified the problem was fixed.
How is the mechanic supposed to know how much gas is in the tank unless he drains it to find out, or fills it up? Either course of action is not a usual step in fixing a broken gauge wire.
So by you disputing the credit card charge you are satisfied making him eat the entire repair order, the parts, the light repair and all??? I’d be suing YOU. Your gas guage was completely inoperable, according to you for 1 day so only YOU know about how much gas is in your tank. The man fixed the guage, the guage became operable again, inaccurate but OPERABLE. Did you expect him to fill your tank and check the accuracy of the guage??? YOU were wrong. YOU need to make sure this man gets paid for his work and consider yourself lucky if he doesnt charge you a fee for the kicked back credit card charge.
transman
…there’s not much chance the mechanic verified the problem was fixed.
Agreed. In fact, that was kind of my point. There isn’t much of a chance, but there is a remote chance.
I don’t completly fault the OP, suprised? As a mechanic I am suppose to think of things that the customer would not and one of the things I should be thinking of is if this gague is reading accuratly. Now we don’t have to go and do the draining thing and get this down to ounces, all I have to say when I call the customer is,“found a broken wire but I don’t know how accurate the gague is reading”. I need to start a dialogue with the customer and get a feeling about how he feels about filling the tank and noting how much it took. As a thorough mechanic I should be thinking for my customer and do everything I can to prevent him from running out BUT if I don’t do my job the customer has to pick up the slack as I am at home, warm in my bed and my customer is now a pedesterian.
In short, It is part of the mechanics job to think of things the customer does not, I am the professional.
Customer Service, or lack thereof seems to be the problem here. The mechanics are outraged that the OP was so upset as to try to cheat the mechanic out of his wages and whatever parts cost were involved.
The OP is upset because he had to get a later flight when his supposedly repaired car failed to get him to the airport.
Tony didn’t have time to contact the mechanic and tell him what happened or give him the chance to make it right. In that Tony was wrong to contest his Credit Card payemnt.
However!!! Being a customer service agent for a cell phone company and dealing with irrate people everyday, all day I understand that sometimes it is more the way you were treated than what problems you actually experienced.
I wonder did the mechanic make tony feel like he and his problem were less than important? Did he feel like the mechanic saw him primarily has a revenue source? How much trust did he inspire in him? Perhaps that had more to do with his reaction than anything else.
Treating the customer respectfully and kindly get’s you more trust than just being a competent mechanic. Both are extremely important. Fail at one and you will fail at the other.
As to the $100 for the tow truck. I face that kind of question all the time. You cannot reasonably expect the mechanic to be responsible for such expenses. Roadside assitance is so easy to get and inexpensive these days. If you don’t have it don’t blame a mechanic who was being honest in his repair. Nor is he responsible for your “danger” although a law suit these days may determine otherwise. (this is why everything is so expensive)
On the matter of the repair itself what did the mechanic say about the fuel gague repair. Was that part of his declared repair. If so he would be responsible for fixing that for no additional charge. If Tony could not get satisfaction from the mechanic on that issue than maybe he should seek the advice of a lawyer.
Well, since he DID ask, “What’s a reasonable course of action” in his title, I’ll respond with what seems reasonable to me. (Granted, the “ship has sailed” on much of this once OP disputed the charges, but whatever.)
- Call up the shop, explain that the gauge isn’t reading accurately, ask shop to fix again, on their nickel.
- Once they realize you want a “freebie,” they might counter (with some reason) that they “fixed what they were paid to fix.” If this happens, start into the “sob story” end of things: you missed a flight, cost you money for a tow, were scared out of your wits by the side of the road, etc.
- Hopefully at this point, the shop will respond that they’ll eat the cost of diagnostics.
- Pay careful attention to the work order (insist on one) to see exactly what work you’re authorizing.
- Pick up the car and VERIFY proper operations of ANY system that was disturbed in the repair. If everything works OK, be glad that you got a discount on fixing it. If there still is a problem, consider taking the car elsewhere.
Well since you’re the professional why don’t you enlighten everyone on how you go about verifying gauge accuracy AT ALL if you have no idea how much gas is in the tank to start? Every car I’ve ever owned shows full way before it stops taking gas. What’s your definition of reasonably accurate? Are you sure it matches the customer’s expectations? Especially one that appears to expect perfection every time? Good luck on your approach. It’s noble but unrealistic.