“The customer is always right,” the old adage goes. Wrong. The customer is human, which means most of them are idiots who are unnecessarily hostile much of the time and occasionally need to be put in their place.
While we’re always blasting bad mechanics and bad dealerships, sometimes it’s the customer who needs to get put on blast. Here’s a comment on Steve Lehto’s story about shops who steal from customers, from the perspective of dustynnguyendood, an employee who isn’t taking anyone’s shit:
“I once brought a car in for service and while it was still in the “lane” being written up, an employee of the dealer moved it and helped himself to some money that was in the car. I was less than 20 feet away but I guess the free money was too tempting.”
Yes, shop employees can be scumbags but vehicle owners can be just as bad. I used to smog test vehicles in California and after I had written up a customer and received his keys - on my way to the front door to go get his car I heard:
“There’s a bunch of change in the console. I counted it when I came in and I’m going to count it when I leave...”
I turned 180 degrees, handed him his keys and said “let me save you the trouble of counting that change - I’m done working on your car.”
Of course I was met with a string of expletives, telling me how he was going to contact the state and have me sanctioned - “Number’s right there on the wall, sir. You can use my phone, but it’s cordless and I have one headset which I have counted and will count again after you’re done...”
That was an especially satisfying day.
Good for you, dustynnguyendood. Never take shit from anybody. And congrats on your COTD win!
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.