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Body Shop Weirdness - What Would You Do?

Discussion in 'Prime Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by DavidA, Jun 15, 2019.

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  1. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    Interesting response from the manager.
    That's not a denial anymore. It's admission that he could have a problem, but he's blaming it on the anonymous actions of his own employees supplemented by anecdotes from the past.

    In general, I'd say I'm not impressed with that body shop.
    You're having problems with your vehicle.
    And admission that things like this can happen, but shouldn't happen, and patting you on the back for being one of the rare owners that actually pays attention to their mileage....isn't good enough.
    But it still boils down to whatever happened as far as the mileage, can't really be reversed. And I still don't expect any direct confession. At this point, you want your vehicle repaired/fixed correctly. That's what everyone should be focusing on.
    Good Luck.
     
    #21 The Electric Me, Jun 18, 2019
    Mendel Leisk and jb in NE like this.
  2. DavidA

    DavidA Prius owner since July 2009

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    I picked up the car Tuesday, after bringing it in Monday because the left rear window refused to work from the driver's door. It worked from the rear door switch only. They had to OBD2 it up to TechStream to reset to defaults. They said it was because the door was taken apart. The door was in pieces, to work out the hail damage, that much is true. But since the car was left on for 15 hours, they probably pulled the door switches while it was left on, which buggered the car's computers. Even more evidence they messed up. Having to drop off the car and leave it in their not-trustworthy hands a second time, overnight, was just another insult.

    The hail damage was bad. They repaired that damage quite well, actually. Just all the other crap they pulled was almost unforgivable.

    Now I have to take the car to the Toyota dealer that tried to rip the driver's door off while lowering it off the lift. The body shop they take it to will have the car for another several days. May 16th was a very very bad day for my Prius Prime.

    There is one body shop I will not let them contract with for this next job. ;)
     
    #22 DavidA, Jun 20, 2019
    Mark57 likes this.
  3. DavidA

    DavidA Prius owner since July 2009

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    Here's a follow-up. The manager of the body shop called a week ago. It took him a couple weeks to get to the bottom of what had happened with the mysterious 12 miles on the odometer. Turns out that one of their employees had never driven a plug-in Prius before, and wanted to see what it was like, so he made up a story that to finish the car in time, they needed another part available from a Toyota dealer. The Toyota dealer denied that was the case.

    All required parts needed to do the job were delivered to the shop, and his story was fabrication. He then fessed up to taking my car out without reason, on a joy ride, and not for the part. He was written up for his rogue action, but not fired. I would have canned his a** on the spot, if I was the manager.

    Jeez, I mean, just go in to a dealer and ask for a test drive, for heaven's sake! The risk he took with my car was unforgivable.

    Meanwhile, my Toyota dealer, which b0rked the driver's door during the free service, had it fixed at no charge a couple days ago, but at $1,000 to them. I asked if their dealer insurance pays for such mistakes. Turns out it doesn't, because it is purely avoidable negligence. All service employees were docked a portion of that $1,000. Every one of them. Eeek! :eek:

    Smells like fresh lacquer paint inside the car now, since they also had to paint the door after the damage was worked out.
     
    #23 DavidA, Jul 13, 2019
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2019
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  4. Offline

    Offline Active Member

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    12 miles of unauthorized use of a customer car is nothing. Back in the mid-1980's a downtown Kansas City, Missouri Mercedes dealership was bold enough to use my Mercedes sedan to shuttle other customers to and from their work places, etc. between when I dropped it off for service early in the morning and when I picked it up late in the day. I don't remember the number of miles they racked up but it was a lot - far over 100 miles.

    They first gave me some B.S. about having to test drive my car but it was in for only a regular service - oil change, tire rotation, etc.

    That was the same Mercedes dealer that installed a replacement electric radiator fan upside down which wouldn't allow the hood to close without slamming it as hard as possible and then told me it was normal to have to slam the hood down ... until I showed them that the indentation in the fan housing that the hood latch was supposed to fit in when the hood was closed was at the bottom instead of the top. The same Mercedes dealer put a huge dent in my hood when it was opened in a service bay and was struck by an air wrench hanging from the ceiling - they swore that the dent had been there when I brought in the car for service.

    You guys haven't seen anything!!!
     
    #24 Offline, Jul 13, 2019
  5. jb in NE

    jb in NE Senior Member

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    To their credit, the body shop owned up to their malfeasance. That's more than most will do. In the big scheme of things, 12 miles is not much, but they shouldn't be joyriding in your car. If it needed to move to another shop, have a thorough test drive on a bumpy road, etc; that's legit. Taking it for a test drive because he's too lazy to head over to the Toyota dealer is out of bounds.

    I check the mileage on my car when in/out of a shop. If the shop fixed some problem and should have taken a test drive to verify the repairs, if the odometer doesn't show the miles, I ask the question. I had hail damage repaired on my VW and they had to drive it to a glass shop to have the windshield replaced. Totally legit. I had an alignment done to fix a stubborn pull to the right, and the tech took it out for 15 minutes and about a dozen miles to verify the alignment was correct. Again, totally legit.

    If I took the car to the dealer to have the radio fixed, I wouldn't expect a test drive.
     
    #25 jb in NE, Jul 13, 2019
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2019
  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Maybe good to have the bodyshop note the odometer mileage on the work order, when the car comes in, and again when done. Dealership service departments typically have spaces for that.
     
    #26 Mendel Leisk, Jul 13, 2019
  7. DavidA

    DavidA Prius owner since July 2009

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    This. They do write down the incoming mileage, as most every service shop does. I suggested they also write down the mileage again when the customer picks up their car, as a check to see how often this sort of thing happens. He thought on that a moment and wrote something down in his notes when we were having our meeting a few weeks ago.
     
    #27 DavidA, Jul 14, 2019
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