Getting caught red-handed!

[gpskinzhut]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

Exactly. Test drive for an oil change and an A/C leak???

Many, many years ago, like before I was old enough to drive, my Dad had to have some cowl repair done (rusted out) by a shop a couple of towns over. Imagine my surprise at seeing Dad's car parked in the center of the town we lived in - this being several days after putting it in the shop - likely being used to chase parts for other jobs. Kind of wish I'd heard the ensuing conversation between my Dad and the shop, the actual job was rapidly completed, like expedited.


Norm

Had to look for that loud noise that the customer might blame him for later... /sarcasm

I really would have dragged that guy out of the car and left him there, and called the cops if he wouldn't relinquish my car.

If I were your dad, I would have jumped in it and drove home. Left the guy in a panic.

[insanity213]

Last time I went to the dealership they wrecked my car. Dumbass tech didn't have the lift all the way down and drove right into it. Never again will I go to a dealer for anything other than parts.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[snafu]

and he's fired

[Royal Tiger]

Originally Posted by snafu

and he's fired

Awesome!!!!!!

[1bad1/le]

As a Gm World class technician working for a New Car Dealer I could tell you there is dozens of reasons to road test a car for an A/C repair. Maybe the car had a leak and tracer dye was installed and a road test was needed to cycle it through the system. Or maybe the a/c belt was thrown off the pulley and a repair was made and tech was verifying the repair .
You get the idea. Not all technicians are "sleezes" and guess what, a lot of us have nicer vehicles than your cars. My point is don't lump all in that category !!

[SquawkVFR]

Originally Posted by 1bad1/le

As a Gm World class technician working for a New Car Dealer I could tell you there is dozens of reasons to road test a car for an A/C repair. Maybe the car had a leak and tracer dye was installed and a road test was needed to cycle it through the system. Or maybe the a/c belt was thrown off the pulley and a repair was made and tech was verifying the repair .
You get the idea. Not all technicians are "sleezes" and guess what, a lot of us have nicer vehicles than your cars. My point is don't lump all in that category !!

Agreed. However, this is a case of customer service and standards of conduct not his abilities as a technician. One could be a world class technician or the guy who's job it is to do simple oil changes, it doesn't matter. The keys to that persons car should not be taken for granted. Every car that comes in should be treated like it's worth a million dollars from a 2017 Corvette and the 1994 Cavalier getting the same exact treatment.

Personally, I don't eat in my car...it's never once been through a greasy food drive-thru. So the excuse of "he was test driving and why not grab a bite to eat while he was out" is a huge no go.

What about those that have crazy amounts of horsepower? We've all seen those videos. Joy ride a complished. Only sheer luck you got your car back in one piece and all the complaining in the world won't put that toothpaste back in the tube.

The problem is just to easy to solve. Chevrolet sets forth standards for test driving cars based on the problem being road tested instead of the whim of the technician. The dealerships could actually come up with authorized routes the techs are allowed to take as well as rules and guidelines instead of allowing techs to run amok with our vehicles. Example; No drive throughs, no food or drinks in the cars, no errands whatsoever, covers on the seats, wash your hands before every test drive...see a pattern of customer care and continuity forming here? Now you can't give a customer anything to complain about and they would never have a leg to stand on. (In this regard anyway) Tech was on the right route, doing the right thing, manager has less of a headache and has nothing to apologize for, tech keeps his job customers car should be repaired.

Or something like that.

[Norm Peterson]

1bad1 - any need for a test drive does not authorize either the sort of driving claimed by this customer or the use of any customer car for personal or other business.

Waiting at a traffic light near the dealership, they spotted an identical bright orange Camaro with Indy badges and racing strips speed across the intersection, weaving through traffic. "My husband said, 'Babe, I think that was our car.' So we followed it. He was going so fast we couldn't even catch up. Finally, a few blocks down, we see him pulling in to the drive through of a burger restaurant,"

or excuse the technician's behavior when unexpectedly being caught

told NBC Los Angeles that he turned "white as snow" as soon as he realized he'd been caught, adding on Facebook that he scratched the rims on the concrete curb while attempting to reverse and took off without picking up his order.

I once spent a year (between engineering jobs) in a Chevy dealership attached to the service dep't (not as a tech). But I saw enough to know there was quite a range of customer treatment, from very very good all the way to downright fraudulent at the service manager level.


Norm

[1bad1/le]

My comment was for the reasons to drive customers cars, not condoning what this guy might or might not have done on road test. The comments on this thread trash dealers when not all bad. Not all techs are bad. I was giving reasons to drive cars, and if you do not want your cars driven, more than likely they won't be fixed right the first time..

[2SScamaro2010]

Originally Posted by Royal Tiger

Lame apology.

This goes back to what I've said numerous times on this forum, GM needs to do SOMETHING about their dealerships. I have lost count of the number of bad experiences I've had at Chevy & GMC dealers, yet every Subaru, Porsche, & Mercedes experience was a joy, even when something was wrong with the car.

This is exactly why my last two vehicle purchases have been a ford and a ram. I've tried 3 different gm dealerships in my area and they were all crap. Have had nothing but great service from my ford and ram dealers.

[SquawkVFR]

Originally Posted by 2SScamaro2010

This is exactly why my last two vehicle purchases have been a ford and a ram. I've tried 3 different gm dealerships in my area and they were all crap. Have had nothing but great service from my ford and ram dealers.

I would never give up on Chevy that easy. There's too many good ones you can count on. Give me half an hour and a decent search engine and we'd find horror stories about Ford, Dodge and Schwinn bicycles. Get real man..

[gringo]

Originally Posted by 1bad1/le

As a Gm World class technician working for a New Car Dealer I could tell you there is dozens of reasons to road test a car for an A/C repair. Maybe the car had a leak and tracer dye was installed and a road test was needed to cycle it through the system. Or maybe the a/c belt was thrown off the pulley and a repair was made and tech was verifying the repair .
You get the idea. Not all technicians are "sleezes" and guess what, a lot of us have nicer vehicles than your cars. My point is don't lump all in that category !!

You don't need to road test a vehicle 10-20+ miles on most repairs. Going around the block will be sufficient unless it's some kind of specific emission readyness test or something. I think there are lot of techs who feel that they're entitled to go on road test joyrides as one of the perks of the job.

Even if this tech had a better ride than me, I still don't want them joyriding in my vehicle. I'd want my lowly base 1LS V6 model to be treated with the same care and respect as the guy who owned a ZL1 1LE.

Another thing is, most of these top world class techs do not perform the typical mundane repair jobs at these dealers. They let the lower wage guys with minimal experience do those jobs.

In fact, some dealers are even allowing the more difficult repair jobs to be performed by the low wagers because they don't like paying the higher wages demanded by top experienced techs. That's why you can have a lot of ridiculous come backs on certain repairs.

Depending on the dealer, the whole operation can get real sleezy real fast.

[Royal Tiger]

Right on the money gringo.

[lbls1]

Very dumb. He/she deserves to get fired.

[Chevy Runs Deep]

Been a professional tech over 10 yrs with a couple dealer heavy line positions. I have seen all kinds of behavior that would raise eyebrows. I have found that generally the older techs do not hoon around in customer cars. I treat customer cars like my own, some do not. However there are many instances where test drives are legitimate because there are just as many shady customers that will blame any and everything on the tech.

When i was a rookie lube tech i had an older couple attempt to get me fired by saying i put trans fluid in their brake reservoir topping off fluids during a LOF. They lost their pedal the next day. Topping of any fluids besides washer and engine oil was against our policy so our manager checks the master cyl and finds tranny fluid. And a funnel, and rag. Bottle of atf in the trunk. Old man apologizes, man was i pissed.

Ive seen this scenario many times, had to diffuse them as a foreman. Ive also let ppl go for doing stupid shit like launching, running errands etc. Each case is different imo.
Since ive worked in some shops that work on high end and performance cars, ive found there are usually 2 types of customers, the ones who are completely anal, sometimes too much. A lot more enthusiast types who encourage you to test drive their car like they drive it. I can't tell you how many tones I've been told to "get on it" or i only hear the noise under heavy accel or hard braking or whatever.

This guy was wrong, but we can't assume all techs are like this. Find a tech you can build a good relationship with and you shouldn't have these problems.
Sorry for the long post.