...a dressing down from a customer?
A mate of mine was telling me the other day about one such incident when he worked at a Volvo dealership as the Service Manager.
When he had given the customer back the keys to his vehicle, the customer asked to see the mechanic who worked on and test drove the car.
When the mechanic showed up the customer asked how the car drove. "Fine" replied the mechanic.
"Thank you" said the customer. "If I ever see you driving my car like that again I'll knock your block off!"
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So at what point did the customer see the mechanic driving the car? Threatening to knock people's blocks off is more like a threat than a telling off.
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Well, when I heard the story I had assumed (and John had confirmed this) that the customer had seen the car being driven.
Then the customer in his questioning comfirmed that it was this young lad driving it by asking him how it drove (and by asking John if he could speak to the chap who worked on and drove his car.
Also I think the customer was using these words to express his displeasure at seeing his pride and joy being driven stupidly..........................
On, second thoughts - just forget what I said
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Nearly. A colleague had put is Laguna in for some warranty work at the local Renault main dealer. About 3pm the garage called to say his car was ready. 'Fine' says he 'I'll walk down and pick it up in half an hour or so' and rang off.
Half an hour later colleague sets off for garage, only to find his car parked on the double yellow lines outside the bookies on the way to the garage. Unfortunately he didn't have the spare keycard (that was the warranty item!) so he continued down to the garage and made himself known at reception. Receptionist: 'Its out for a test drive - should be back in about 5 mins' Colleague: 'Oh really - then why is it parked outside the bookies on x street!'
Much umming and ahhing ensued. Eventually the manager is summoned, and was heard to shout 'No wonder we can't sell the things if we give customer service like this' at the poor mech who had brought the car back in. Colleague drives a Mazda now.
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Perky, did it matter when he saw him driving? He obviously did and thats what prompted the story.
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Used to see this regularly at the unlamented Charlie Brown's in Northampton. Tech would take car off the ramps far too quickly and do a fast orbit round the car park. If I'd seen my car driven in that fashion I'd have had words too.
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Not when he saw it being driven but IF! The situation reported by OP is far from complete and makes it appear that the car owner went in and had a strop about some event which he had not observed. I can only comment and what has been posted and it was not the full picture.
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>> Not when he saw it being driven but IF! The situation reported by OP is
>> far from complete and makes it appear that the car owner went in and had
>> a strop about some event which he had not observed. I can only comment and
>> what has been posted and it was not the full picture.
>>
Look again PP....
"Thank you" said the customer. "If I ever see you driving my car like that again I'll knock your block off!"
That reads to me that he DID witness the driving of his car, in an way he didn't approve of.
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The original post is vague and incomplete and capable of all/any of the various interpretations put upon it here. I am going to go and sort out my sock drawer, for a more subtle brain busting challenge!
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>> The original post is vague and incomplete and capable of all/any of the various interpretations
>> put upon it here. I am going to go and sort out my sock drawer,
>> for a more subtle brain busting challenge!
>>
Would you please go away, I've now got a headache and no one else seems to have a problem with my opening post - just you.
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...The original post is vague and incomplete and capable of all/any of the various interpretations...
The sentence: "If I ever see you driving my car like that again" seems to me to be a model of clarity.
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a model of clarity.
Is that the new Honda?
The Clarity EX?
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I had gone away - I was sorting my socks out. Try reading what is posted!
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OK let's try for a mega drift..Re sorting socks out. Today's handy hint. Obtain a garment label tagging gun, you know the sort of thing which produces a wee plastic wire with T shaped ends. When you take your socks off at night, fire a tag through the pair. When they reappear in the sock drawer they are already paired.
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SWMBO cuts those things off her new clothes in the bedroom, I invariably find them with my bare feet - sharp little beggars!
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>> "Thank you" said the customer. "If I ever see you driving my car like that
>> again I'll knock your block off!"
>>
Violence would have achieved nothing, other than possibly a court case regarding assault.
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Yes but to be fair, that particular customer most probably hadn't been drinking that oestrogen contaminated water !
I'd have left them in no doubt about my feelings either.
:-)
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It's just an anecdote from the OP to get another thread going.
Don't think it requires pulling to pieces.
On a slightly different tack, one of the old traders told me he was regularly shouted at by the sales manager and sometimes 'sacked' in front of a customer to make the customer feel bad for asking for too much discount.
"I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to get you into trouble, where do I sign?"
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My "mate" who worked the next ramp had a sierra cosworth in for a service and repair work at Charlie browns in Wakefield back in the early 90's, He took it up the dual carrageway to 120mph and got caught by the owner on his way to pick it up the owner was the passenger in the other car doing 80mph, He said "my car shot straight past us"
Was very funny how he said it not funny for mechanic who got written warning.
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...and got caught by the owner on his way...
When I worked at the garge we used to 'road test' customers' cars by taking them home for lunch, or taking them to fetch parts.
I don't know about the other mechanics, but I always drove the cars steadily and never got into any bother, even though I must have been seen several times.
Thinking about it, we always put in half or a gallon of juice if we were going more than a handful of miles.
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I must admit if I were the customer I would be looking for a free independent service on that one with parts included.
Yes the car should stand up to that but I wouldn't be too sure that the driver hadn't brought it back in the same mechanical condition.
I'll never forget when I took my old Discovery to my local garage for MOT. They have to take it elsewhere for the test. On its return I noticed that the lads had been to a McDonalds as I saw them drinking the milkshakes as I passed them going the other way ;)
The nearest McD was not on a direct route between the garage and the MOT station - (Perky, just to clarify - I knew which MOT station they used as it was on the certificate! Just in case).
To be fair I didn't have a problem with that, although they knew they were seen and were slightly embarressed.
When I used to work for a dealer I may well ahve done similar but I always respected the customers' cars.
Once I delivered a Saab 900 Turbo to a customer in Leicester after service. On arrival the customer said 'It goes doesn't it?' I commented that it drove very nicely but as it was his car not mine I was going to drive it carefully. I think he was quite surprised at that.
Whether he expected me to tell him that I had it up to 80 on the way iin I don't know.
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>> It's just an anecdote from the OP to get another thread going.
>>
>> Don't think it requires pulling to pieces.
Thank you.
That's exactly what it is.
I thought there was enough detail in the post to put over the story as I had heard it. Most of you could easily fill in the gaps.
However, just to clarify the implied threat of violence was actually the customer telling the young lad that he was none too pleased with his conduct behind the wheel of the car.
The customer pitched his comments well as both John (service manager) and young lad knew exactly what he meant.
Neither of them made a complaint about threat of physical violence. The young lad apparently went beetroot with embarresment and John thanked the customer quietly for 'having a direct word'.
I can't comment on whether the young mechanic improved, or heeded the comment. I can only tell you what I was told. He was suitably embarressed but did not fear for his life.
RIGHT!
Can we now get back to the original subject of this thread plaase?
Does anyone have anymore amusing anicdotes about a customer rollocking a garage staff member, or stories of a similar nature?
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>> SOH failures abound.
>>
He he he, sometimes that's amusing in itself
Last edited by: Hugo on Sat 25 Sep 10 at 10:27
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I remember this one from a year or so ago:
"Mechanics were supposed to be fixing a leaky radiator, but when the owner of a £30,000 Vauxhall Monaro car collected it from the local garage, he discovered it had been taken on a joyride at speeds of 125mph."
But they didn't know about the Roadhawk black-box recorder inside the car....
tinyurl.com/364yh2x
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I recall back in the days when I did collection and delivery, we were delivering an MGF back to a customer and we were flying along single track roads that we knew extremely well, at one point more than 60, with a Metro pool car in tow. Not as bad as it seems, the roads while narrow were open and easy to see a mile ahead.
When we got back, the manager took us both in the office. Oops. Turns out a friend of the owner of the MGF lives on the said narrow lane and had reported it in.
To our total amusement, our manager didnt believe anyone would drive that fast on said road and put it down to a busybody who couldnt judge speed. We played dumb of course and he phoned her back professing our innocence of such an act - we didnt like him so making him look foolish as all good :-)
Ive grown up now though, still, good old days and all that, it was a laugh that job.
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Had many a time the old age problem of my cars done an extra 50 miles or so why?
Figures out while on the ramp with engine running on a 2x poster the front wheels spin clocking up the miles while investigating problems plus a small road test.!
It's very hard to convince the customer you didn't do that mileage driving.!!
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Sneaking sympathy for dealers here, they can't win.
If they didn't test the car properly after service work they'd be wrong when a fault only apparent during brisk driving shows up.
Maybe an appointed test driver or two at each dealer could be an answer to this never ending problem, someone mature and competent (extra qualifications eg Advanced test pass) and able to explain to customers the reasons why he's going to put the car through it's paces when they drop the car off, if they then don't want a proper test drive they sign for refusal and accept the risk.
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>> Sneaking sympathy for dealers here, they can't win.
Not my normal line, but I find myself in agreement.
An appointed driver would be a good idea, as would a pre-determined test route. If designed correctly, this could take in a variety of road speeds and conditions. Most dealers do this for test drives, but not for service road tests, which seems a little strange. If it were explained to me beforehand where the car was going to be driven, and by whom, I would be pretty relaxed about it. The thought of a complete stranger ragging my car around for a laugh, without any restriction would fill me with dread.
I remember when I worked in the motor trade, and was surrounded by new shiny cars, it doesn't take long both to become complacent about their value, and before you have to remind yourself that they often represent the second largest capital investment that most people will ever make. I always treated customer cars with the utmost respect, as did most of my colleagues. One or two however were, even putting is as kindly as possible, indifferent.
Last edited by: DP on Sat 25 Sep 10 at 12:53
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>> Maybe an appointed test driver or two at each dealer could be an answer to
>> this never ending problem, someone mature and competent (extra qualifications eg Advanced test pass) and
>> able to explain to customers the reasons why he's going to put the car through
>> it's paces when they drop the car off, if they then don't want a proper
>> test drive they sign for refusal and accept the risk.
Nice idea but the mechanics themselves are probably best placed to test the car. That way they can more easily relate noises/vibrations etc to possible faults. Where mechanics test vehicles you don't get the communication breakdown risk between driver and mechanic. It's the same person.
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Where mechanics test vehicles
>> you don't get the communication breakdown risk between driver and mechanic. It's the same person.
>>
Should qualify what i meant, didn't mean any old driver they happen to have.
I've always thought that service reception should be staffed by ex mechanics anyway, picked for their customer skills and ability to communicate.
Ex mechs would be ideal for test drives too.
I too am not sure i want a 19 to 25 year old blasting round in my pride and joy, and that seems to be the age group in many workshops.
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I'd agree with a lot of this. To assess the running of an unfamiliar vehicle takes experience, wisdom, intelligence, cunning. the first two take time to acquire, if they can* be acquired by the organism in question. And the other two are fairly useless without them.
* Thanks again, rtf!
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 25 Sep 10 at 15:57
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Ever seen a dealer/garage staff member get...... - Perky Penguin
