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service techs caught on camera joyriding a customers car

whatevah

whatevah

It's Yellah!
Location
Wilmington, DE
This made its way to my local club forum yesterday, I figured it would have been posted here already but I don't see it... This guy has multiple cameras in/on his car, all recording to a DVR hard-drive. Woops!


My car was in the bodyshop after a minor fender bender. You may or may not remember, but my car has a dashcam. During the week they had it:

- Two of the techs driving it across the parking lot discussed "Would you rock this car? Do you wanna rock it?" "What if this camera is running?" "Oh. We're just joking!"
Click to expand...

- Two other techs drove it across the lot (were supposed to move it 20', but took the long way - around the building) The driver mentioned that the clutch was like a racing clutch, then he floored up to redline in first through the parking lot. Then he said words to the effect of; "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to do this..." and from what I could make out of the conversation he was planning to dump the clutch around the corner to get an all wheel peel. As he came around the corner he backed off for an oncoming car, pulled up alongside this car and spoke with the driver (the boss?), and as they drove away again the driver talked about it being a close call. Then they drove thought he lot again at WOT and talked about the turbo having no BOV. He proved this by revving it to redline a couple times in the parking space. The passenger joked about how funny it would be if the camera was on. Driver didn't think it would be funny. (I agree with the driver - not funny)

- Bodyshop manager accidentally backed the car into a pile of empty boxes someone had stacked in the doorway. No damage = no harm/no foul.

- Same two techs took it out onto the road for a 3 mile drive. I know that the alignment was checked as part of the repair work (The accident damaged the wheel) so this *may* be the after-alignment road test. Having said that, the driver floored it up to redline in first AND second as soon as he got onto the road. At that point I stopped watching the video and started burning it to a DVD so I can take it to the dealership's General Manager. It was more important that I go through the process of preserving the evidence than watching it immediately. Kinda like putting up police tape around a crime scene.

So, I still have to watch the rest of this 'road test' (Top Gear style, apparently) and then check another two car journeys listed in the DVR.

Funny thing is, this WOT 'road test' (with the two giggling prepubescent techs thrashing $18k of my hard-earned money around the streets) happened at about lunchtime today. When I arrived at the bodyshop at 5pm to pick the car up they said it was "out on the road test from the alignment". The car only did 3 miles while in their custody so it's not like they were driving around for 5 hours. I wonder if they had the alignment tech do the road test at 5pm. If so, what legitimate reason did Beavis and Butt-Face have to even be out on the road, never mind burning up my clutch?

When I got the car home (and I drive like my grandad) my clutch REEKED. I suspect the rest of this road test (when I get to watch it) will be quite interesting. I also noted that when I arrived the camera mount in the front of the car had broken loose from the window (GPS suction cup) and been remounted in the wrong place. I hope they didn't do anything extreme enough to much the camera loose.... :-O
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video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfwfSzbr5Ac

original thread: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106147&page=1
 
Ouch. I used to work with a guy who'd been a Ziebart employee until he totaled an almost new Firebird Formula in an alley behind the shop.

I'm amazed at the number of idiots in service- I'd always figured mechanical aptitude would equate to common sense. Boy was I wrong.
 
Big effing deal. A sports car that was driven at WOT??? O NO!!!
WTF do you expect when you take your sports car to a body shop, of course they will joy ride in it.
If you don't want people to drive your car, learn to work on it yourself, you'll save yourself thousands of dollars in labor during the life of the car.
High end dealerships are less likely to purely joy ride for the fun of it, but every shop you go to there will be a road test at the end.

I'll admit I'm guilty. I worked at a Jag dealership and someone traded in an '05 Subaru WRX STI. Every single one of the techs that worked there under the age of 40- including myself, took it for a joy ride after it was traded in. Who wouldn't drive a car they've always wanted to drive? Honestly.
Im sorry, but it's the sad truth.
 
igotanxj said:
Big effing deal. A sports car that was driven at WOT??? O NO!!!
WTF do you expect when you take your sports car to a body shop, of course they will joy ride in it.
If you don't want people to drive your car, learn to work on it yourself, you'll save yourself thousands of dollars in labor during the life of the car.
High end dealerships are less likely to purely joy ride for the fun of it, but every shop you go to there will be a road test at the end.

I'll admit I'm guilty. I worked at a Jag dealership and someone traded in an '05 Subaru WRX STI. Every single one of the techs that worked there under the age of 40- including myself, took it for a joy ride after it was traded in. Who wouldn't drive a car they've always wanted to drive? Honestly.
Im sorry, but it's the sad truth.
Click to expand...



Do you seriously not see the difference in doing this with someone property vs a car the dealership owned? And for the record i bet the dealership owner would disagree with you... strongly.
 
igotanxj said:
Big effing deal. A sports car that was driven at WOT??? O NO!!!
WTF do you expect when you take your sports car to a body shop, of course they will joy ride in it.
If you don't want people to drive your car, learn to work on it yourself, you'll save yourself thousands of dollars in labor during the life of the car.
High end dealerships are less likely to purely joy ride for the fun of it, but every shop you go to there will be a road test at the end.

I'll admit I'm guilty. I worked at a Jag dealership and someone traded in an '05 Subaru WRX STI. Every single one of the techs that worked there under the age of 40- including myself, took it for a joy ride after it was traded in. Who wouldn't drive a car they've always wanted to drive? Honestly.
Im sorry, but it's the sad truth.
Click to expand...

right, after it was traded in. Dealer property at this point. How many times did you flog the crap out of a customer's car during a joyride.

I am all for working on it yourself, but does this include body shop repairs from an accident cause by someone else, what about Dyno work or dealership factory recalls? Did you read the link I posted? Do you consider that approiate?
 
igotanxj said:
Big effing deal. A sports car that was driven at WOT??? O NO!!!
WTF do you expect when you take your sports car to a body shop, of course they will joy ride in it.
If you don't want people to drive your car, learn to work on it yourself, you'll save yourself thousands of dollars in labor during the life of the car.
High end dealerships are less likely to purely joy ride for the fun of it, but every shop you go to there will be a road test at the end.

I'll admit I'm guilty. I worked at a Jag dealership and someone traded in an '05 Subaru WRX STI. Every single one of the techs that worked there under the age of 40- including myself, took it for a joy ride after it was traded in. Who wouldn't drive a car they've always wanted to drive? Honestly.
Im sorry, but it's the sad truth.
Click to expand...

Winner of the Tool of the Month club award.
 
igotanxj said:
Big effing deal. A sports car that was driven at WOT??? O NO!!!
WTF do you expect when you take your sports car to a body shop, of course they will joy ride in it.
If you don't want people to drive your car, learn to work on it yourself, you'll save yourself thousands of dollars in labor during the life of the car.
High end dealerships are less likely to purely joy ride for the fun of it, but every shop you go to there will be a road test at the end.

I'll admit I'm guilty. I worked at a Jag dealership and someone traded in an '05 Subaru WRX STI. Every single one of the techs that worked there under the age of 40- including myself, took it for a joy ride after it was traded in. Who wouldn't drive a car they've always wanted to drive? Honestly.
Im sorry, but it's the sad truth.
Click to expand...

Nominated
 
Yes in agreement to most arguments here. I worked for a small shop with a great reputation and a very honest owner, and a car would not usually begin its repair without a test drive. Many customers had older/higher mileage vehicles and we would put it through its paces before and after, including WOT and other testing to reveal additional problems and to access the general condition of the car, sometimes even recommending no repairs, just vehicle replacement. Guilty of joyriding? absolutely, sometimes human nature overpowers reasonable judgement. Proud? Of course not. WOT does not amount to the end of the world, I suppose. Hopefully there is no negative mechanical aftermath, and there probably will not be.
 
That is the problem with today's society. Mommy didn't show them enough love!

If i worked my ass off to own a nice car and some pimple faced 18 year old ragged it out, hell yeah I would be pissed.

I can't even believe there are people out there that think this is OK!
 
karstic said:
Nominated
Click to expand...

rocknxj said:
Winner of the Tool of the Month club award.
Click to expand...
Are you guys retarded? In denial a bit? You really think people won't drive your car when you take it in for service? You don't think they'll give it WOT? Yeah, right. You just keep right on dreaming in your own little precious world. You obviously have no auto shop experience. :doh: If you take your car in for almost any kind of drivability work whether its cooling, engine, transmission, suspension, driveline, it requires a test drive after it gets worked on. Nothing tests the integrity of a car like full load through the RPM range. If the car is going to overheat, it will overheat after a full load run. Techs don't want to sit in traffic for an hour to wait to see if it will overheat. Likewise for tranmissions, engines, etc. The major point here is that a good tech will give a car a thorough look over of the car before he gives it back to the customer. Part of that includes WOT. That doesn't mean WOT up to 100mph through all gears, but yes, WOT maybe up to 40-50 mph given it would be in a safe surrounding to do so, like maybe an onramp or open road. One WOT stint for a short period of time is not joyriding, but speeding constantly around is.
I'm not condoning joy-riding because that is messed up to do that in a customers car, but seriously, get real. If you take your car into a shop to get worked on, chances are its going to get a test drive. Do you get all bent out of shape when YOU floor the gas pedal when passing? I don't think so.

The corvette story that was posted up is sad, there's no excuse for that, that guy has some problems and he obviously should not have done that.
But I feel like this legacy owner is just trying to find something to complain about. The only thing wrong with the OP story was the attempted all-wheel peel, which is retarded. Otherwise, like was previously said, its par for the course.

O yeah, counter nominated.
 
It's simple at my store, If you are seen driving other than Normal, use a customers car for anything other than for Diagnosis, you are fired on the spot. Only have had 1 complaint in 15 years at the Dealer I run.
 
why would you flog another man's property? Unless you're a total P.O.S.? Yes, I mean every one of you that says you have or would do it? To think that you believe there is nothing wrong with trashing someone's property is o.k. is truly amazing? If I owned the car, I would be on the shop owner like a bad rash. Remember boys and girls, the individuals that defend these retards, and say I do or did it, they're dicks. See Fordguy, it's that easy. Igo, there is a solid difference between Testing, to WOT" and what was described as seen on the recording. The comments of the techs show, they knew they were being dicks, they just have no respect, and no self control, I've driven a viper, and several other high end autos, I did not own them, so I did not rag on them, the difference is, I'm not a dick. Well, I'm a dick with respect, and self control, at times.
 
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I find out that the serice personnel are too slow to understand the diff between a test drive as part of a diagnosis and a joy ride, I figure they're not smart enough to work on my vehicle. I had a guy in a shop steal one of my lug nuts, and I never went back and told him why, and that I fully intended to tell everyone I knew about it. And I live in a small town where this guy was trying to get established. You don't have the integrity to respect someone else's property, you are total shit, and if I can, I'll make life as miserable for you as possible.
 
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