And you think YOU'VE had to deal with massive suckage...

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

...just take a shifty at this poor schlub.

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/nort...9310-21547006/

He was arrested for not giving in to a Sucky Customer.

M

[Mamadrae]

That....just....wtf....*brain explodes*

[tamezin]

...just take a shifty at this poor schlub.

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/nort...9310-21547006/

He was arrested for not giving in to a Sucky Customer.

M

How horrible, in the U.S. the autoshops can file a mechanics lien against the vehicle and sell it for the cost of the repairs. In fact most shops won't let you take the vehicle without paying the full amount of repairs unless you have made arrangements in advance.

[Hyndis]

Umm...what the hell?

That police officer should be stripped of his badge. I'm thinking there's either some corruption going on, the customer calling his buddy to go flaunt his badge for a scam, or the police officer is an idiot of a staggering degree.

Either way, the mechanic did no wrong.

[Dilorenzo]

The cop had probably gotten a big bill himself not long before for auto repairs, so it was a perfect time to get his "revenge." The mechanic will file a civil suit, and is probably gonna get a fair amount of money out of it.

[Canarr]

Okay... did we read the same article here? How do we know the mechanic did no wrong?

1. The mechanic claims that he was polite, didn't swear etc. etc.
2. The officer claims it was necessary to arrest the mechanic for Breach of the Peace, indicating to me the opposite of polite, not swearing etc. etc.

Obviously, one of them is wrong here, but without witnesses, unfortunately it's hard to tell which one. But to automatically assume that the officer must be corrupt or an idiot seems kinda unfair to me.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Okay... did we read the same article here? How do we know the mechanic did no wrong?

1. The mechanic claims that he was polite, didn't swear etc. etc.
2. The officer claims it was necessary to arrest the mechanic for Breach of the Peace, indicating to me the opposite of polite, not swearing etc. etc.

Obviously, one of them is wrong here, but without witnesses, unfortunately it's hard to tell which one. But to automatically assume that the officer must be corrupt or an idiot seems kinda unfair to me.

Ah, but here's the rub. The mechanic was released without being charged with anything. The implication here is that he did nothing wrong to be arrested, arraigned, and sent before a judge.

Had the mechanic swore in front of the cop, been aggressive, taken a swing at anyone or simply raised a ruckus then charges of "Disrupting the peace" or something would have been filed.

The officer HAD NO RIGHT to require the mechanic to accept a lesser payment for his parts and labor when he had quoted a price to the customer. If the customer thought it was a bit on the pricey side then he had every right to take his car elsewhere BEFORE THE WORK WAS DONE.

Darren Tandy, of Mr Clutch garage in Gateshead, carried out work on a Land Rover but when the customer came to collect his car he put the brakes on paying the quoted bill of £1127.

I would assume that garages in England are similar to ones in the US where you drop off a car, the mechanics take a look at it, quote a price and await for the customer to accept or refuse the work. People in England, if you confirm or refute this?

M

[SuperB]

Un-freaking-believeable. The Walmart garage screws up my car to the point where it had to be towed from the garage, blatantly broke the number one rule of not replacing a part without permission, failed to have the appropriate signage posted and I'm told they'll do nothing about it and I'm stuck with a couple hundred in repairs the idiot mechanic screwed up. (I did manage to get a complained lodged with the AMA)
This guy acts like an ass and gets a lowered price and the employee gets arrested? I don't care what country it is, the world is farked.

[Nayeli_Sabia]

*dies as her head implodes from the force of the suckage of that concept*

[crazylegs]

Umm...what the hell?

That police officer should be stripped of his badge. I'm thinking there's either some corruption going on, the customer calling his buddy to go flaunt his badge for a scam, or the police officer is an idiot of a staggering degree.

Either way, the mechanic did no wrong.

The cop had probably gotten a big bill himself not long before for auto repairs, so it was a perfect time to get his "revenge." The mechanic will file a civil suit, and is probably gonna get a fair amount of money out of it.

“A complaint was later received and was referred to Northumbria Police professional standards department who conducted a full investigation and concluded that the officer had acted appropriately in the circumstances and no disciplinary action should be taken.”

The final quote is from the article. Professional Standards are scary they don't look at what you did, they look to see what you did wrong, which is a big difference.

When a Police Officer is served a complaint (yes, a Sgt. serves it on them) they get cautioned exactly the same as if they were getting arrested (you do not have to say anything, however it may harm your defence...). Once Professional Standards then receive the complaint they will look at the incident log, the custody record and can demand any document they so wish, they will have seized the Pocket Note Book of the officer and then questioned the officer under caution (ie taped having had the caution again).

Once Prof. Standards get involved you know there isn't a whitewash.

[South Texan]

I hate to say it, but I have dealt with enough police officers to be able to say that, sadly, some of them are idiots and have no idea (nor care) what the law is - and know that no one is going to question or call them on whatever they do. Bullies with badges we used to call them.

The "Blue Wall" obviously is as alive and well in other parts of the world as it is in the USA - though (thankfully!) it is showing some cracks here.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Once Prof. Standards get involved you know there isn't a whitewash.

Ok, so where in the laws of Great Britain does it say that an officer of the law can tell a person working at a shop that he must sell products and/or services at a loss?

At one point the situation got to this level.

“I said I couldn’t do that, but I could take all the parts back and he could take the Land Rover elsewhere to be fixed. Then he argued my last chance was to agree to £550.”

Mr Tandy claimed: “When I said the parts cost more than that, the policeman said ‘we’ve got a situation here and I’m taking you out of the equation’, and he arrested me and took me to Gateshead police station.

So where is it on the books, that stating that the offered payment is less than the cost of the parts is an arrestable offense? Granted that Devil's Advocate states that we don't know what the mechanic's true reactions were, but we do know that a police officer came in when called by the customer and dictated that the mechanic had to reduce the price.

“Basically, the man who owned the Land Rover came in to collect it, having agreed to the amount we set, but he said he was only going to pay £950 and that he was going to call the police if I didn’t lower the price.

“He called 999 and an officer actually came down and told me I had to drop the price.

Here in the USA, if some anal-dwelling twat monkey dialed 911 to report that he didn't want to pay the fair market value of an item or a service, the police would come...

...and take the idiot off to jail for tying up the 911 emergency system for some trivial problem.

I'm pretty sure that if you go through the archives of this site you'll find a number of them.

So this is why I say that regardless of the mechanic's reactions or lack thereof, what right did the police man have to make the mechanic drop his price below what the shop decreed was a fair price to allow the shop to remain in business and pay the employees a fair wage?

M

[taxguykarl]

Wow. I can definately count my blessings here. We have a great relation with our local police who are all too happy do drag off a SC or bust a scammer.

[Soria]

:: brain goes screaming from the room::

[cinema guy]

The article does seem to be one person's word against the police.

In the UK, in my experience, I take my car in to have repairs done, they give me an estimate and I say go ahead. Sometimes they find additional work, which I get a phone call about and agree to. I am usually aware in advance what the final price will be. Occasionally, there will be a little extra on the bill when I get there.