Tweet
The service department gets SC's, just like any other department here at Friendly Neighborhood Towing, but because it's not my home department, with different managers/service writers, I don't hear about them unless it pertains directly to something related to a tow we did for them, or if the service writer decides to fill me in on said suckyness just to keep her sanity and/or laugh at them.
This was one of those times.
Being a college town, there are lots of taxi services here.
Some are large enough they have their own garages
Some are big enough that they have accounts with us to service all their vehicles at a discounted rate.
And others are "one horse" operations where a cabbie is an owner-operator who does his own maintenance out of his driveway, or just brings the cab in like a normal customer when it needs inspected/worked on.
This was one of the last group, the guy owns his own "cab" which is little more than a Chevy Minivan converted to cab use. Anyway, it appears it needed some work to pass inspection. The owner tells our service writer that he just bought it a year ago, so whatever work it needs, will be covered by the extended warranty he also purchased.
So, service writer calls up the extended warranty people and explain what it needs. Yes, those parts are covered under his warranty, they just need some info to verify it's his vehicle.
Make? yep that's it
Model? Yep that's it
Year? Yep that's it
Mileage? Woah....... woah....... that's well OVER what he told them he had on it when he bought it, like, tens-of-thousands more miles than they expected, several trips around the GLOBE more than they expected.
No surprise there, says service writer, it is a taxi, so it gets used a lot.
A taxi?! Warranty people say... uh, their plan does NOT cover commercial vehicles, and the owner never told them that he was going to use it for a cab, so no dice, he's on his own.
Service writer explains to owner what they just said, they won't cover the repairs, since he's using it for a taxi.
"It's NOT a taxi!" the owner says.
*record needle scratch*
"Uh, yes it is" says service writer, "It says "Taxi" on it and it has a roof light that says "Taxi" too."
"No, that's just for advertizing! I don't use it for a taxi! Tell them it's NOT a taxi!"
"Uh, then why are the first two digits of the plate TX ?" (Take a wild guess what two letters all taxi license plates start with in my state)
"It's not a taxi!"
"Sir, it's a taxi, it has taxi plates, taxi markings, and a meter inside, that's the legal DEFINITION of a taxi"
"No it isn't!"
"Well, whatever you call it, you're not going to get any of this bill onto the warranty, so, either you agree to pay and we do the work, or you decline the offer and we go our separate ways"
He begrudgingly agrees to let them do the work on his non-taxi taxi.
If he'd kept it up, I'd have been really tempted to point out to the service writer that we have business cards for all the cab companies tacked up by the counter, in case you got towed in for a breakdown and have no other way to get home.
If he's so adamant he doesn't own a cab, we ought to just pull his down and throw it away, wouldn't want to be accused of false advertizing, now would we?
This was one of those times.
Being a college town, there are lots of taxi services here.
Some are large enough they have their own garages
Some are big enough that they have accounts with us to service all their vehicles at a discounted rate.
And others are "one horse" operations where a cabbie is an owner-operator who does his own maintenance out of his driveway, or just brings the cab in like a normal customer when it needs inspected/worked on.
This was one of the last group, the guy owns his own "cab" which is little more than a Chevy Minivan converted to cab use. Anyway, it appears it needed some work to pass inspection. The owner tells our service writer that he just bought it a year ago, so whatever work it needs, will be covered by the extended warranty he also purchased.
So, service writer calls up the extended warranty people and explain what it needs. Yes, those parts are covered under his warranty, they just need some info to verify it's his vehicle.
Make? yep that's it
Model? Yep that's it
Year? Yep that's it
Mileage? Woah....... woah....... that's well OVER what he told them he had on it when he bought it, like, tens-of-thousands more miles than they expected, several trips around the GLOBE more than they expected.
No surprise there, says service writer, it is a taxi, so it gets used a lot.
A taxi?! Warranty people say... uh, their plan does NOT cover commercial vehicles, and the owner never told them that he was going to use it for a cab, so no dice, he's on his own.
Service writer explains to owner what they just said, they won't cover the repairs, since he's using it for a taxi.
"It's NOT a taxi!" the owner says.
*record needle scratch*"Uh, yes it is" says service writer, "It says "Taxi" on it and it has a roof light that says "Taxi" too."
"No, that's just for advertizing! I don't use it for a taxi! Tell them it's NOT a taxi!"
"Uh, then why are the first two digits of the plate TX ?" (Take a wild guess what two letters all taxi license plates start with in my state)
"It's not a taxi!"
"Sir, it's a taxi, it has taxi plates, taxi markings, and a meter inside, that's the legal DEFINITION of a taxi"
"No it isn't!"
"Well, whatever you call it, you're not going to get any of this bill onto the warranty, so, either you agree to pay and we do the work, or you decline the offer and we go our separate ways"
He begrudgingly agrees to let them do the work on his non-taxi taxi.
If he'd kept it up, I'd have been really tempted to point out to the service writer that we have business cards for all the cab companies tacked up by the counter, in case you got towed in for a breakdown and have no other way to get home.
If he's so adamant he doesn't own a cab, we ought to just pull his down and throw it away, wouldn't want to be accused of false advertizing, now would we?
Comment