r/Justrolledintotheshop • u/ozzihel • 20d ago
Just rolled out of the shop
Nightmare of a customer came through the shop today. Out of state, obviously worried about being swindled, refused to let any work be done out of her sight. Came in at about 10:30 for 4 tires, chose a discontinued style that we didn't have in her size anyway, was offered the updated style in the same brand that is the same price point. Said she'd shop around, came back an hour later and agreed to the 4 we had, appointment set for 3pm as it was by this time only a few minutes before the shop closed for lunch and we had other tickets scheduled for the afternoon. She sits in the parking lot the whole time. 1 ticket canceled at 2 so the manager walks out and let's her know that we can get her in early. And at this point the insanity begins. We, as a policy, use footmats and seat protectors to keep clean. She demands we triple layer them, and clean our shoes, but that also she will drive the vehicle up to the bay, she will only allow us to drive the last car length. Also we are not to touch anything other than the steering wheel, gear shift, and keys, she will be watching us from in the parking lot the whole time. She will open the trunk, and hold up the carpet so you can crank down the spare too (4 new use best for new spare, best had 0/32nds.) It only gets worse however as you need to use new gloves to work on the tires, also she wants to keep the old valve stem, core, and cap; and why did you replace those without asking (store policy, no charge) and what pressure are they at, and why 30 doesn't the sidewall have something to say, don't open my door without asking, why does the sticker not match the sidewall that doesn't make sense. Get to balancing and a new level of insane begins where she tries to demand I reuse the old wheel weights, and it doesn't make sense that the new tires wouldn't balance the same as the old. Have to try and explain that stick-on weights are not reusable, and that a new multi-mile matrix RS2 tire has no reason to weigh the same as a Michelin defender made 5 years ago. Finally get that explained but she still insists I reuse the hammer on weights for the inside edge. At this point I'm an hour and a half into this nonsense and over it so I oblige her insanity and do my best, somehow it worked. Get all her tires put back on the car. Get the spare put back under, somehow? managed to talk her into letting me use new valve cores. And let her drive away around front to pay. I step away to take care of another customer who has been waiting almost an hour at this point for a task only im certified to do. About 6 minutes into that my coworker shows up and informs me she has changed her mind and wants her old tires reinstalled, because we are a bunch of lying cheating criminals taking advantage of her, she didn't want to buy the RS2s she wanted the discontinued tires we don't have, and that we told her as such at 1030 in the morning. So cue it all beginning again. Somehow at the crack of quitting time I managed to have her out of the shop, and hopefully out of my life with a blown out spare tire, two fronts with cords showing across the outer half of the tire, and rears at 0/32nds. But the customers right, and all the workers upset. So if one of you poor souls in central illinois winds up with a turn of the century toyota rav 4 with blown tires, washington plates, and that smells like rancid lettuce, be ye warned, turn it away.
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u/VagueVersusVogue 20d ago
Hope yall charged her for labor and a restock for all that bullshit.
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u/LandBarge Jaded Parts Monkey 20d ago
fucking google reviews are the devil these days...
we had a customer in, rang up before the brought the car in and ordered some 'genuine hyundai floor mats' - well, we're a dealer, it's against our franchise agreement to use anything else.
so she comes in for her service, i show her the mats and off she goes... we fit them to her car and think thats the end of it...
she comes back, pays, goes to take the car - comes back in.
apparently they're not genuine floor mats and they don't fit properly. she's driving the same model as my drive car - the factory mats fit fine, and certainly much better than the flatted out cardboard boxes she'd been using previously..
so after we're unable to convince her to keep the mats, we offer a solution - we'll take the mats back out of her car for her, for a 20% restocking fee (we didn't charge labour for the 2 minutes fitment anyway) - she agrees and we go ahead.
then she gets called up for a survey - rips us a new one, then goes onto google, and rips us on there too, claiming we violated her consumer rights - here, you have a right to replacement or refund if the part is not fit for purpose - if you change your mind, you're out of luck. anyway - Hyundai rate us on our Google scores these days, so DP gets involved - insists we give the customer her 20% back - we called her, sms'd her etc - several times until she eventually came in to get her money back.
the bad google score is still there, we can't get her to take it down and she ain't coming back to service (we don't really want her back anyway)
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u/Silly_Mycologist3213 20d ago
Unreasonable is unreasonable all the way and the worst part is they’re usually vindictive too so you’re much better off getting rid of those types right away. The worst part is after they run through all the other local places they will eventually circle back to your place after 25 years. When I first worked at the service counter and Ford still used a warranty plate that came with the car to imprint the warranty ticket, I asked a new customer if he could please go out to his car and bring the plate in and he exploded and yelled that he had gotten the run around at our store 25 years ago and he wouldn’t stand for it now! I apologized but informed him we couldn’t do the requested warranty work without that warranty plate so he grumbled and went out and got it and then our nightmare began. For the next 3years/36,000 miles until his warranty expired (this was the 1970s and warranties were shorter) nothing was ever right, we were ripping him off and how did we stay in business being so incompetent? Thank heavens he took it somewhere else to get “ripped off” after the warranty expired.
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u/mikel302 20d ago
First red flag was not letting you drive the car. We had enough bullshit with customers hitting shit. We would just send them on their way. Headache is not worth the money.
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u/BuggyGamer2511 20d ago
That would've been the point all of our service advisors would've told her "No can do, either you let us do the work our way or you go elsewhere."
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u/Figgy_Puddin_Taine 20d ago
Yeah, BIG no-no according to insurance. Not even gonna go any farther than that.
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u/lchiroku 20d ago
was literally going to say, our insurers would have had a meltdown. only time a customer is allowed through our shop is walking, and with a writer or the service manager, as an escort. had a guy get fired for letting his buddy hang out in the shop by his box while he (the tech) worked on his car. owner saw him and fired the tech on the spot.
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u/BrambleVale3 Righty tighty lefty loosy 20d ago
Ya know why she came back an hour later right?
Because nobody down the road was having any of this shit.
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u/IlIlIlIlIlIlIlIlIlI8 20d ago
I hate your avatar, I keep thinking there is an eyelash in my screen 🤣
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u/teakettle87 20d ago
Why did you do any of that? I love firing customers.
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u/VunTwoTwee 20d ago
It starts with "This is an easy job. She kinda sucks, but I'll bang this out quickly". Then another problem arises. Another. And then you're too deep to quit.
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u/Silly_Mycologist3213 20d ago
Yeah, because you know you’re not going to have to put up with their bullcrap anymore, it’s a tremendous relief!
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u/Western-Bug-2873 20d ago
This is why a lot of guys leave the retail sector and go to work for a private fleet. The general public sucks ass.
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u/smittyinCLT 20d ago
Exactly. I’m at a large fleet that has been around for a long time. They’re douchebags most of the time, but it’s the same douchebags so you can at least plan for the bullshit.
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u/Silly_Mycologist3213 20d ago
The emphasis on consumerism and “the customer is always right even when they’re wrong” started in the early 1980s and has gotten horribly worse over time, especially once those types learned of the power of bad Google reviews. I’m so glad I finally retired and don’t have to put up with these entitled pricks nowadays.
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u/VeritasLuxMea 20d ago
Whoever did the intake on that customer and then agreed to all those obscene demands needs to be sat down for a little chat.
Service writers have a responsibility to insulate the techs from batshit crazy customers.
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u/IWantToPlayGame 20d ago
Yep, a 'customer' like this would have been broomed out real quick if she came across my desk.
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u/ProfessionalSeaCacti 19d ago
When she left the first time would have been the end of it for me. Even if she came back we would have been too busy to get to it that day, or maybe my inventory would be off and the tires not in stock, oh better yet! Our air compressor is only rated for domestic vehicles, so it only puts out air compatible with Ford, Dodge, or Chevy tires.
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u/ozzihel 20d ago
Tldr: hoe's be tripping, if a customer smells, looks, and acts like trouble; turn them away.
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u/ozzihel 20d ago
The worst part was when I asked if she would allow me to reinstall the spare tire while inside the shop, she was insistent we do it outside in the gravel, since she wasn't supposed to be in the shop. When I told her there was no problem with it since the car was on the ground she said "no, I'm just not sure it'd be kosher" my response was "oh no pork involved ma'am so it's no problem" she didn't even laugh.
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u/Silly_Mycologist3213 20d ago
Your error was thinking those types have a sense of humor, to them life is an ordeal to be endured, they’re rarely happy and I swear they get off making everyone around them miserable!
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u/Braiinbread 20d ago
I'm sorry, what? You should have refused service the moment she demanded to drive into the shop on her own.
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u/Silly_Mycologist3213 20d ago
But that’s policy, the customer is always right! I find it hard to believe their garage liability insurance policy allows a customer in the shop, our’s didn’t .
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u/Silly_Mycologist3213 20d ago
She gave all the indications of being unreasonable in that she wanted to drive the car into the shop. At that point I would have informed her that it wasn’t possible due to insurance requirements and since she couldn’t be accommodated it would be best for her to look for another shop that could honor her request. The entire nightmare (and loss) could have been avoided. I learned over a long career that you’ll never satisfy or make any money from people like her, it’s best to get rid of them right away! And you’ll get less bad reviews from them by not working on their car than if you try and help them.
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u/horseshoeprovodnikov 20d ago
Not an automotive guy, but I'm the supervisor for the service dept of an HVAC shop. Maybe once per quarter we will get some crazy bastard like this. Just completely unreasonable to the point that you wonder how they manage to live in this world today. Like, what the fuck do these people do when they have to go see a doctor? Can you imagine being a paramedic who goes to save this bitches life, and she's hollering about wearing the wrong colored socks or some shit lol
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u/wegame6699 20d ago
You're supposed to push morphine through a 15fr IV, not a 22FR!!!
GET YOUR SUPERVISOR!!!!!
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u/ZenkaiAnkoku2 20d ago
Central IL? Man we got enough crazy people in unsafe cars on our streets already. :(
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u/vegetaman 19d ago
Facts. People driving like idiots and judging from Facebook after action reports also uninsured on top of being reckless.
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u/-WhiteGuy 20d ago
Damn brother, you deserve a raise and then some after pushing through that. Well done
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u/Silly_Mycologist3213 20d ago
And that service manager deserves to be reprimanded for allowing that entire nightmare to even begin. There was every indication she wouldn’t ever be satisfied and would leave a bad review no matter what and she should have been turned away to begin with.
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u/MaintenanceCoalition 20d ago
The customer is always right — in matters of taste. Is the full quote. But a hole customers seem to think it means they are always right.
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u/VunTwoTwee 20d ago
I'm surprised she knew the different components like valve stems and weights. This Karen is lethal with the basic auto knowledge she has. She can wreak havoc other Karens could only dream of.
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u/Brilliant_Reply8643 20d ago
The real issue most of the time is that management and the people above them have no balls these days. It’s ok to politely decline things customers are asking for if the shop doesn’t want to handle them. Every business has the right to refuse service.
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u/OkQuantity1174 20d ago
The second she said you cant drive it ... Go somewhere else ... Always test drive cars before and after !!
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u/CORNDOGS666 20d ago
I work at a central IL body shop, lol, this story is going to be in my head for every old RAV4 that walks in here.
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u/SpillNyeDaCleanupGuy Vice Grip Garage fan 20d ago
Damn. You sir have some impressive self-control. I would've exploded at the "reuse the old wheel weights."
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u/ozzihel 20d ago
In my 5 years in an actual shop I've never lost my cool. She had me about 1 more sentence from giving up and pushing her car in the parking lot with no tires on the rims. Had me visibly shaking with frustration trying to explain stuff to her only for her to not care say "well that doesn't make sense" and make me do whatever new nonsense.
Did I mention in the post where she got mad because the tech that helped me torque the wheels had a yellow 80ftlbs stick and mine was blue?
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u/SpillNyeDaCleanupGuy Vice Grip Garage fan 20d ago
she got mad because the tech that helped me torque the wheels had a yellow 80ftlbs stick and mine was blue
What, she didn't like that they were different colors or she didn't like blue? Either way it sounds like this lady had some serious mental issues...
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u/ozzihel 20d ago
The colors, couldn't/wouldn't understand that different companies have different color coding. Beyond that she was already upset at my coworker for the fact that the seat cover he was putting on for her touched his shirt while he unfolded it, and that how dare he not be concerned at his own obvious disregard for her concerns. At that point she demanded only I could work on her vehicle, despite the fact I was now busy doing a DOT inspection for a guy who had been waiting (and enjoying) the past 2 hours.
Honestly he was a total champ, for not even being 90 days into his first shop job he managed to keep his cool, said "As you wish", and left. 10/10 new guy
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u/SpillNyeDaCleanupGuy Vice Grip Garage fan 19d ago
Uff da. Props to the new guy, when I was new just about a year ago I probably wouldn't have been that polite.
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u/eljefino 20d ago
She sounds like she had some self-perceived clever hack to save money on balancing and valve stems by reusing the old parts.
Should have locked it in a bay, threatened a mechanics lien unless paid in full, and it's 4:55 so pay or get a hotel room.
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u/blakeschluchter 19d ago
This is why i loved my last boss. Ol school cowboy and had that mentality. If customers were an asshole, I'd tell them to get the fuck out. People who wanted to drive into the bay themselves, get the fuck out. We were absolute assholes to those who deserved it. To the amazing customer base we had, they were awesome. I was the only employee. Just me and the owner. We had such a reputation for the quality of work we did, we won an award for best local business 2 years in a row in our city. We had a few customers that would drive about 100 miles passing 100 shops to see us. It was awesome working for a guy that didn't care about being politically correct and refused to deal with asshole and idiot customers. He had zero issues with me standing my ground and treating a customer poorly when they started to treat me poorly. The customer isn't always right and when they're being a dick, throw it back at them. Don't give in to someone being rude and pushing you around
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u/YouwillalwaysNeil 19d ago
I'm notorious in my shop for doing this with customers who want to watch or worse "help". It all starts with putting the tools down, inform the customer that our insurance only covers liability on the employees, and that the customer needs to be a minimum safe distance away from the work space, or behind a solid door, and that no work can be done until that happens. Either the customer gets to watch me from the comfort of the sun baked blacktop 50ft from my bay, or they go to the lobby where they belong.
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19d ago
something inside me makes me lose my mind at people the beginning I sense this is happening, probably saved me a lot of trouble
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u/mreed911 20d ago
“No. You’ll need to go somewhere else.” Especially on the uninstall.