This account is so wildly surreal. Like a trip back in time to stories I’ve head offline
All mechanics I know disconnect the onboard camera, which made me super-suspicious: if they have nothing to hide, why do they do that?
So I started taking a picture of the odometer whenever I drop off my key at any garage. And sure enough, a couple of times, I found they drove my minivan quite a lot more than a test drive would require. When I confronted them, they became agitated and combative.
In one instance, I actually deducted the cost of the fuel: they had driven the minivan almost 70 miles. They said I had to pay the repairs and I’m not leaving until the bill is paid in full, blah-blah-blah. So I asked them if they wanted me to call the cops and if they wanted their day in court. They relented, I paid the repairs minus the fuel and left. Needless to say, I never went back and reported them to the BBB.
You do know the bbb isn’t a government agency. They are just yelp, but from the boomer days.
Mechanic here who’s shop disconnects the camera. Its for the same reason cashiers are told to not sit on the job, its a dumb “company image” thing. We personally never joy ride customers cars, some test drives do require longer drives (DPF regens test drives can take over and hour of driving sometimes, hence high milage test drives), but the main reason is just management wants to keep an image and not potentially ruin when a customer goes through the videos listening to their “respectful” mechanics just saying dumb stuff or being judgmental of a customers car. We can have crude laugauge, odd humor, and any bumper stickers on a car will be spoken about, and management don’t want you hearing that. Another reason is customers misinterpreting what a mechanic is doing to a car, some interior work genuinely feels like we are breaking the car, we are doing what the manufacturer requires and with the tools needed, but still can sometimes not be pretty, even for us, and unknowledged customers can and have claimed the workshop is breaking their car intentionally and tried to take us to court over us doing our job. Though this is just my workplace, I have worked for dodgy independent shop where joy riding has happened, and straight up taking customers cars home because workers don’t wanna pay for their own fuel, I got out of that one asap
How many of us would wear a body cam to work? I don’t need to have a client to hear me shittalk some idiot my wife works with. I agree that clients don’t need to have insight on everything I say while working on their project.
The alternate solution would be putting a GPS tracker on the car when it comes into the shop and logging mileage.
I’m inclined to agree however much I understand both sides. We just want to do our work, we don’t want to annoy and scew over customers, we don’t know them, we don’t even have to time too, we just want to be proud of our work. Most half assed jobs happens because management rushes us, trying to get us to smash out 2 hour jobs in 30 mins.
The GPS thing is an idea if someone is really concerned, but the cars we work on have them built in that customers can see on their phones, even get warning if the car accelerates quickly or turns a corner quick, etc.
The place I take my car actually has the guys wearing little GoPro style body cams and they talk you through the work they are doing as they do it for your review after. Anything they touch gets recorded and you get pretty much an uninterrupted cut of the whole job. I was really impressed with the professionalism. Not the reason I went there in the first place but the honesty and transparency are why I keep coming back.
Anyhow just wanted to point out it’s entirely possible to run a repair business without talking shit about your customers or their property while also treating their possessions with respect.
Having to control my mouth for 90% of a full workday while making peanuts for a job that’s not even customer facing sounds like hell. Surveillance culture is getting out of hand.
I have seen these, these are cool and nice addition that some workshop supply, I’ve seen these commonly for shops who carry out pre purchased inspections or other vehicle safety inspection. Our shop has a similar process but for vehicle warranty or diagnosis process, sometimes we supply these videos to customers if they request.
We do what we can to respect customers, personally I’ll leave notes for a customers occasionally, situation like emptying glove boxes when changing pollen filters and apologize if I put things back incorrectly, same with boots when doing spare wheels pressures, but our shop tries to put as big of a disconnect between mechanics and the customers, and in the world of dealerships, this is the normal in my experience, the service advisor you talk will never touch your car, and the mechanic who works on the car, you will never know, and this is usually how it goes. Some independent shops are less like this, but still distance customers and mechanics where they can, which I honestly see as being okay, mainly as a lof the most skilled mechanics I’ve dealt with have the least people and communication skills.
Personally, I’d pay extra based on how funny the talking shit was. Roast me, fellas! Make fun of all the clutter on my back seat! Laugh at the brake lights that illuminate the inside!
I wish most of the customers we had were you! Some of the things we have found in glove boxes when we have to do the pollen filter, it is an entertainment to us 100%, though please removed any “used” or “preloved” items out, thank you 🫶
Mercedes service shops do this too 😍
Mechanic here who’s shop disconnects the camera.
Fuck off. It’s not your property to touch and doesn’t affect you fixing my car.
Do I get to disconnect your cameras when I come to your house to fix something/mow your lawn/clean your house so my “company image” isn’t tarnished? I didn’t think so.
If you could be trusted, it wouldn’t be your policy to disconnect rhe camera. I don’t even trust your comment here.
It wouldn’t be your policy
When you deliver your car to our shop, you have to sign waivers of what rights we have to your car, and because you sign them, we do run the customers through what everything means, but one if those that you have to initial next to is agreeing to our right to disconnect to camera. It is a little sketchy as I believe in that policy they explain it is to “protect company proprietary tooling” or something along those line. It is dumb, but no, we do have the right to disconnect the camera
reported them to the BBB.
Lol waste of time
Hey now, maybe they had to also bribe the BBB to “repair” their score. That’s an added penalty to them.
I don’t think anyone under the age of 70 even looks at the BBB anymore.
Yikes…
A trustworthy mechanic is worth its weight in gold, it might be worth asking around as time goes on and seeing if you eventually get a reccomendation for someone local you can actually trust
My mechanic is just a dude with a lift. He has a single bay garage, and he works on cars. The front desk is literally just his computer desk where he looks up parts and stuff lol
I’m sorry your experience with mechanics has been so shitty, car issues can be incredibly stressful as it is
I don’t drive anymore. Problem solved 🙂
The bus’ maintenance is not my problem, and the over cost of a season pass compared to the TCO of a car is a bargain.
Ay, glad it works out! ☺️
and reported them to the BBB.
The BBB is just Yelp for old(er) people. And just like Yelp, businesses can pay to have negative reviews removed.
Yeah the BBB is a scam.
Put an AirTag in there.
I keep an air tag on my keychain with my car key and I keep a separate air tag hidden in the car so I can track any possible shenanigans while vehicle in the shop. So far no problems.
handles criminal behavior in the least dramatic way
Name checks out.
All mechanics I know disconnect the onboard camera, which made me super-suspicious:
Makes me want a hidden camera that can’t be easily noticed and has no simple or easy way to turn it off.
Or just a really loud, obnoxious alarm – with its own battery and installed in an inconvenient place – that goes off incessantly if the camera is disabled.
My mom’s was used by a mechanic to stalk a girl, fun times.
How long was your mom’s car in the shop??
Less than a week lol. He used several apparently.
My dad’s logic: Why would I ruin a man’s life over a car I can replace tomorrow? It makes me look petty and weak.
this is very big of your dad. you can see how petty a lot of the people in this comment section are
My dad has always said that one of the best parts about having lots of money is being able to have a positive impact on others’ lives: for example, when he eats out, he always leaves a 100% tip just cause he can.
Positively impacting shitty people’s lives is, in fact, shitty.
Only if you have the money/resources to make it up
That’s what their business insurance is for.
I meant from his dad’s perspective
You didn’t ruin the man’s life. He ruined his own life with his lack of integrity.
Correct. You’re not doing anything; they already did it and this is the action of their consequences.
This is far more than just generosity, it reminds me of the man that forgave the killer of his son in the past years (I don’t remember clearly, from Malaysia maybe). I don’t even know if this is the right deed.
I’d call it self-preservation more than generosity (or Beyond Generosity, heh). The point of forgiving is to let it go as an emotional burden that you carry with you. It’s incredibly hard to do, but it’s necessary for one’s own sense of peace.
100% correct. People generally seem to confuse the act of forgiveness as excusing the another’s action(s), but it’s just about you and your own healing, not letting those action(s) affect you anymore, and just moving past it.
