Mechanic Uses Customer's Car for Personal Business, and Now He's Caught!

Hello Tony . . .

While having my vehicle repaired for some warranty work . . . mostly interior trim pieces, the technician working on my vehicle decided he was going to take it to his chiropractors appointment. Now I know sometimes they may need to take the vehicle on a test drive and stop and get lunch or something simple which still is not acceptable, but I know it happens. However he had no reason, other than the lame excuse he came up with after I had found out about the incident and was on the virge of being fired, to take my truck.

I have no idea what he could of done with my truck in the 20 minutes he was gone with it, or what he may have done in my vehicle. I plan on talking to the Service Manager and the owner of the dealership tomorrow morning and I guess my question is this - is this a common practice, what should I expect from the dealership, do they realize I could of called the police and reported my truck stolen? Should I contact my local news investigative departments? Do I have the right to ask them to extend my bumper to bumper warranty or even go to the extreme of letting them know they need to replace my truck or I go public with this? I know the last part is extreme, and I'm not one to ask for something for nothing, but is it really nothing?

Thank you for your time . . .

Josh

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Hi Josh,

About the only thing you can do is talk to the Service Manager and the Owner like you plan on doing. Express your dissatisfaction with the incident and see what they have to say. You're certainly not going to get them to replace the truck! What they are willing to do is hard to say.

I know it's frustrating, but probably the best thing you can do is to threaten to never do business with the dealership again and to tell everyone you know about what happened. Most car dealers are very afraid of negative word-of-mouth advertising!

Make sure anytime you leave your vehicle in any repair shop you have the Service Manager record the mileage, initial it and give you a copy of it before you leave. This way you can always track how far they drive your vehicle, and it puts them on notice that you're watching them.

All my best . . .

Tony Iorio
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