Bad Customer Service continued

[David Moore <dinty44@xxxxxxxxx>]

Kevin,
I am, what I would consider, a real reasonable man. 
If I thought there was some chance that this could
have been someone else or a case such as you describe
below, I certainly would have given them the benefit
of the doubt.  And my hats off to you when dealing
with situations like you say.  However, I know they
broke the part(long story, but I lead him into
admitting it over the phone...he never freely offered
the information).

 1) No one but Autobahn Automotive and me has ever
been under my hood while I've owned the car.

 2) I know this was not damaged by me.

 3) The car was brought in with the part intact.

 4) They had to remove the cover in order to diagnose
a no start/fuel starvation problem by checking out the
fuel rail and injectors.

 5) This piece is easily removed and set aside without
possibility of breakage.  Even if it were 20 years
old, this wouldn't change my opinion.  The part that
is broken is not near a bolt, nut, or screw.

If you could just see what they tried to get away
with?!  The whole corner, about 5 to 7 inches diameter
of plastic is just gone...with jagged edges remaining.
 It's incredibly obvious to anyone popping the hood
open.  I can just imagine his perception of his
ignorant customers that 'never open their hood'
therefore would never find out of his damage.  They
must have dropped something on it or stepped on it. 
The blatant arrorgance of a garage to try to pull this
over a customer is, to me, incredibly irresponsible. 
I've sent him a long letter (which I will forward to
anyone interested) which gives him the choice of
buying me a new one or face consequences afforded me
by the law.  And of course the digest(s), usenet
groups, every consumer protection organization east of
the Mississippi, the states attorneys office, and
every BMW owner that I know will find out how I've
been so mistreated.  Yes, I'm this ticked off.

I know exactly how some honest things happen, if they
would have come to me in the beginning and said
"sorry..this broke by accident...can we replace it
with a used one".  This I would have respect and would
have been willing to work with them.  But, to hide it,
then act with surly defense, has no defense.

This guy deserves no business from anyone looking for
honesty, integrity, patience, and respect.

Cheers,
David Moore
1991 525i 

===========================================
Kevin wrote the following:
===========================================
Being a technician myself, I feel a need to respond. 
I know many or
most
shops are poor at communicating with the customer.  I
don't know why,
but
most shops are better at fixing cars than they are at
customer
relations.
Therefore it would be in your best interest, as the
customer, to
initiate
this relationship with your service shop.  No matter
how well you trust
your shop, inspect the work when you pick up your
vehicle.  That way
when
you notice something broken, you're in a better
position to say
something
than if you wait a couple of weeks to bring it up.
	In this case,  the shop should've said something when
the customer
came back for the vehicle.  I don't know for sure that
they actually
broke
it, but more than likely they did.
	Technicians run into this sort of problem quite a
bit.  What do
you do when an old 320i comes in and when you go to
open the door the
handle breaks.  The tech didn't break it, but the
customer says it
wasn't
that way when he brought it in.  But the plastic had
weakened to the
point that the next person who touched it would appear
to break it. 
This
happened to me yesterday.  I had to take off a seat
recliner lever on a
'95 GMC pickup.  All I did was take off the clip
holding it on, and the
handle fell off with the plastic stud still inside. 
This guy now
needed a
new recliner for his seat (a $117 part).  I didn't
break it.  This guy
had
probably been pretty hard on this part, ie throwing
his weight
backwards
before seat actually releases to recline or yanking
too hard on the
handle.  But, in his view I broke it, since it was
still in one piece
when
he brought it in.  So our shop is replacing it free of
charge.
	You as the customer, would be doing yourself a favor
to bring up
any discrepency on the spot, not weeks later.  Also,
don't be afraid to
say no.  If your not sure about a repair they're
trying to sell you,
then wait on it, ask your friends about it, or get a
second opinion.





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