Tales from the Auto Shop: Customer Pwnage

[peach2play]

Ok folks, grab a tasty beverage, a scrumptious snack and pull up a chair...this is a tale of a SC who thought they were screwing us and their buyer, but ended up royally screwing themselves.

GG: Good Guy, potential used car buyer
SC: Needs no other intro
ASST: My cape-less but awesome assistant (NO CAPE!)
SO: Me.

BG: Most auto repair shops will do a used vehicle inspection before you purchase a used vehicle. All used vehicles need work, it's just a matter of how much work does it need vs. your intent for the vehicle. It's always a good idea to have a shop inspect a used car before you buy it, no matter what the seller says or has documented so you have a professional opinion of what you're getting into. It can save you a lot of money, time, and headaches./BG

So, GG calls us yesterday and says he is trying to purchase <brand> SUV from some folks who live near our shop and he would like us to do a checkout for him. GG says the sellers (SC) are a little weird, and hopefully won't give us any trouble, and when we're done with the inspection, please let him know, he'll give us a card over the phone, and decide from there if he'll purchase the vehicle. He doesn't care what it looks like, just that it'll run good and get him through the winter. We tell him we'll call him as soon as the car gets there, and once it's done. Hang up, and don't think anymore about it.

Get a call from him this afternoon saying he just got a call from the SC saying they just picked up the SUV from our shop, that it checks out completely with except the brakes didn't work due to a bad part which was an issue that they had already discussed. He wanted to know if the SUV had been here, and if so, what had we found because we had promised to call him as soon as it got here and he hadn't gotten a call. ASST and I looked at each other in confusion as we had not had an SUV in today for an inspection...and then the light bulb went off and we were able to piece together the story.

A younger woman came in this morning with a 1-2 yr old baby (important) this morning, saying she didn't have a lot of money for us to look at it, but it was her daily driver, a shop had recently replaced the a part on the brakes, and her brakes didn't work so well. Could we please just see if the parts replacement was the issue or something else? I told her if we could figure out in 15 min or less what was up, we wouldn't charge her (our usual spiel, helps us retain customers) otherwise it would be our usual half hour diagnostic fee. She said she couldn't afford the diagnostic fee, she didn't have that money today, but if there was anything we could do...

I'm not heartless, and no brakes and a baby in the car is a bad thing. My techs are good and can diagnose issues quickly and accurately. I told her we could at least look at the one brake issue and see if that's what was wrong. We did, found that the part was indeed broken, gave her a call to let her know, and gave her a quote to get it fixed through us. She came to pick up the car, seemed really grateful and said she would take her car to the original shop some distance away to get them to maybe make it right. I said good luck and figured we had done our good deed for the week. Not 10 min later I got the call from GG asking if we had seen the SUV...

So, if you got through all of that, SC got a free estimate on the SUV for broken brake part only, called GG and told him the car checked out perfectly except for broken brake part and said she had the documentation from us to prove it. He called us to confirm if the car had been here at all, and that's when we put 2 and 2 together and realized she was trying to scam GG into believing the car only had a minor brake issue, instead of doing the full inspection.

However, my awesome techs being the wonderful people that they are, noted several issues with the car that didn't make it on that paper, most notably a very, very bad transmission, like replace in 3k miles bad, which is probably what she was trying to avoid by not having the full inspection done.

We told him everything we found wrong with the car, advised him to run, not walk away, she lost out on the sale, and he's bringing us pizza tomorrow to say thank you.

PWNED

***PS: I know she has the paper from us to show to other potential buyers saying they had the car checked out. No where on that paper does it say inspection or used car inspection, and if other buyers rely on their word alone without checking with us, well, as PT Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

[Jay 2K Winger]

Here's hoping that other buyers are as diligent as GG was.

[peach2play]

I hope so. It's always fun to have to tell a customer the car they just bought is a giant piece of crap. They really never like hearing that.

[Catwoman2965]

Wow. Never ceases to amaze me how cheap people can be. I think my mechanic charges $80 to look at a car for potential sale. If I were buying from someone, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But some people think its too much, buy and then have major issues.

Side note: I was going to donate my last car, due to issues in the past, replaced transmission, and whatnot, and it not being worth much. So I wasn't comfortable selling it to anyone, just in case something happened. It was at the mechanic, due to what I thought might be a major issue, but turned out not to be. In the meantime, I had had it, and found a new one to buy. But from a dealer, where a friend's dad works, so I was confident buying without no inspection.

Mechanic's wife calls me to say someone came in with a POS SUV for them to look at, as a potential car for his son, just locally to get to college, drive the younger sibs, etc. Turned out to be a piece of junk, so she told him hey, we have a customer (me!) who's buying a new car, hers is in decent shape, and perfect for what you may want. Are you interested? He was, so i paid for the minor repair, and she got me 2K more to put down on my new car!

[peach2play]

Catwoman2965 so glad that worked out for you! Go your mechanic for doing you both a favor too.

[earl colby pottinger]

People's Court

I watch People's Court all the time. About one quarter of the cases would not exist if people paid to have that 'great deal' of a car inspected first.

The thing most sales are 'as-is' and the buyer end up stuck with lemon all because they would not pay about $100 to have the car inspected. Which is crazy when they are spend a couple of thousand of dollars or even more for a vehicle. The $100 will not break their bank.

But worse to me is people buying a car for less than $500 then complaining when it breaks down after a couple of weeks of use. What do they expect of something so cheap? Of-course it need work, otherwise it would not be so cheap.

[Catwoman2965]

Catwoman2965 so glad that worked out for you! Go your mechanic for doing you both a favor too.

Yup. Actually his wife, who runs the business side of things, but both are awesome! It was a win win for everyone! Although maybe not so much for him since I bought a much more reliable car, so my visits to him are now few and far between.

[Catwoman2965]

I watch People's Court all the time. About one quarter of the cases would not exist if people paid to have that 'great deal' of a car inspected first.

The thing most sales are 'as-is' and the buyer end up stuck with lemon all because they would not pay about $100 to have the car inspected. Which is crazy when they are spend a couple of thousand of dollars or even more for a vehicle. The $100 will not break their bank.

But worse to me is people buying a car for less than $500 then complaining when it breaks down after a couple of weeks of use. What do they expect of something so cheap? Of-course it need work, otherwise it would not be so cheap.

I've learned people are both cheap and stupid. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, or in some cases, save it. So spend the whatever it costs to have a car inspected, and if it turns out to be a dud, well, you've saved money by not buying it, and then not having to put $$$ in major repairs. Personally, I've been lucky in that all my cars I've been able to buy from reputable dealers, just had the bad luck to pick a couple that weren't so great, and had major issues just after the warranty expired.

[skeptic53]

When I was in college, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, I couldn't afford to have a mechanic inspect a prospective purchase. Or so I thought. I had learned a ton of engine and other maintenance keeping my first car going, so when I went to buy a second car, I thought (being young and suffering from testosterone poisoning) that I could check out the car myself. I looked at a '64 Chevy II (later to be nicknamed the "Shitty Chevy") that was fairly priced. I checked the brakes, the fuel pump, etc etc and did a compression test, then listened to the block with a metal rod pressed between my ear and the block. All was quiet. I bought it. The guy who sold it moved out of state.

First time I changed the oil, the old oil slowwwwwly glopped out. It was 90-weight oil. Put in the proper weight oil, turned it on, and clickety-clickety-clickety went the hydraulic valve lifters. I'd been had. I spent way more $ and a hell of a lot of time fixing the engine, much more than if I'd spent the money to have it properly inspected.

One of many lessons from my youth that helps to explain my user name.

I later traded the Chevy II for a 1949 Chev Suburban that was my pride and joy. All my life I've wished I still had that old beast..

[Ophbalance]

There's one exception to as is sales and cars. Some states have put in a provision that if you sell a car with a known defect but don't disclose this fact you will be buying back that car. The trick is you need to be found to be hiding the defect. It's only a very small amount of states that allow for this.

[Sleepwalker]

Have had coirkers who actually went and bought cars without checking to see if thes eller even _owned_ them first. If they won't spend the time to look at title and ID, people certainly won't spend money on the large purchase.

[wolfie]

Wow. Never ceases to amaze me how cheap people can be. I think my mechanic charges $80 to look at a car for potential sale. If I were buying from someone, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But some people think its too much, buy and then have major issues.

Former co-worker decided to go from company driver to owner-op. He didn't have his truck checked out by a mechanic before buying it (always find a good mechanic BEFORE shopping for a truck). Inspection would have cost him around an hour's labour. Flex pipe was bad. On a DPF equipped truck you can't use a generic "universal" flex pipe (can't take the heat), so it needed the specific dealer-only part. Part costs $700.

Or so I thought. I had learned a ton of engine and other maintenance keeping my first car going, so when I went to buy a second car, I thought (being young and suffering from testosterone poisoning) that I could check out the car myself.

First time I changed the oil, the old oil slowwwwwly glopped out. It was 90-weight oil.

Wouldn't that have been noticeable when you checked the oil level on the dipstick?

[protege]

But worse to me is people buying a car for less than $500 then complaining when it breaks down after a couple of weeks of use. What do they expect of something so cheap? Of-course it need work, otherwise it would not be so cheap.

Sometimes, you can get a bargain car for $500 and have nothing wrong with it. Hell,my grandmother's last car was like that. By the time her '95 Olds Cutlass Ciera went in '08, it was worth less than a grand. Not because there were major things wrong with it. Okay, the front passenger door had been damaged in a minor traffic accident, and there were some rust spots. Otherwise, it ran like a new car. That's one of the benefits of not skimping on repairs and taking care of it. But the rest of those $500 heaps? There's usually a reason they're so cheap...

Such as the '88 Taurus that my dad bought from his stepdad. That piece of shit (and I'm being nice) should have been crushed. Dad didn't even bother having someone else look at the car. No, he handed over the cash, and found himself stuck with it. So many things wrong with that car--the fuel tank's top was rusted out, the gas gauge didn't work, at least one rear spring later broke, there were electrical problems, engine problems...plus the black "calling card" that heap left on the driveway. Had he decided to open up his wallet and have someone look at the car, it probably wouldn't have cost a mint to keep it running. At least when it finally did go, it did so with style. That is..the driver's door fell off when it was traded in

Before the Taurus fiasco, there was the '87 Tempo. Yep, that one--the one that went out with a bang. No amount of inspecting would have prevented it blowing a head gasket soon after purchase in '90 (and again in '94...which caused its demise). That car was bought at an auction. Before those sales, you're not even allowed to sit in them. No popping the hoods, or attempting to check fluids. All you can do, is judge their condition by its appearance, look at the mileage through the window, and the short time the car is driven onto and off stage. That's it. If you find out you bought a heap, you're SOL. You've signed the paperwork, you legally own it.

That's why I would never buy a car at an auction, unless it was something I knew I could fix. An MGB with a crumbling interior that needs paint...but runs well? Gimme. A used Corolla blowing smoke? Get lost.

[peach2play]

Wouldn't that have been noticeable when you checked the oil level on the dipstick?

90 weight looks like a slightly darker motor oil, so checking the dip stick would only show that the oil probably needs to be changed. It does smell differently (like really heavy gear oil) though, so smelling the dip stick would tell my mechanics that the oil in the engine was wrong and raise an eyebrow.

[Valentinian]

A friend of mine bought three cars in a row based on recommendations from his stepbrother; I'm pretty sure he didn't get any inspection done, either, apart from said stepbrother telling him they were good deals. They were all incredibly rusty - which is kind of an accomplishment here, since we don't have to deal with road salt etc - all had horrible engine issues, and at least one had bad wiring to the point where all the lights (brake, indicator etc) stopped working about a week after he got it and he had to use hand signals for the rest of its (short) life. Then it died, and he bought the next lemon and left the dead car in the driveway for over a year.

My driveway, I should note, since he and his wife were renting with me at the time. I bugged him about getting rid of it at least once a month, but he was always on the point of selling it to 'some guy at work' who wanted it for parts, but was either imaginary or smart enough to never actually go through with the deal. Eventually the body corporate got on my back about it and threatened to fine me if it stayed, and I told my friend that either he got rid of it Right Now or I was going to call a local scrap yard and keep the $50 they offered for junkers as compensation for my pain and suffering. :P

The third POS car was eventually stolen and the police didn't find it until after the insurance company had paid out and my friend's wife had insisted that he use that as the down payment on a new (as in brand new) car. They can't have been looking for it very hard, since the thieves had just driven it to a mall on the other end of town and left it there after siphoning out the tank, but friend's wife and I weren't going to complain. XD

Now that he's had a decent car for several years I'm fairly sure that my friend won't ever take a car recommendation from his stepbrother again, but if he tries, his wife and I have plenty of stories to use to remind him about why that would be a terrible no good very bad idea. Like the car that had a faulty fuel pump, that didn't work properly if it was going uphill, and would therefore slow down to less than 10 km/h on some inclines...