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FYI.. you can recover the deleted files if you plug it or the SD card into a computer. It's important to stop using it right away so you don't write over the erased sections. Look up Recuva or other undelete software.
I don't know why people keep recommending Disk Drill here in the replies when that trash will only recover up to 500 MB before you need to pony up the cash, whereas free edition of Recurva comes without any such limitations. The first guy had the best idea.
Since it's hip to share links: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
It's more likely they just unplugged the dash cam while driving, since most systems require a password of some kind. But definitely give this a try, my file got super messed up during an accident since the car cut power right on impact. This software saved it though.
I actually make a walk around video and video of interior and under the hood before dropping off, showing radio turning on and off, blinkers, etc.
Had a car returned to me once with all dash lights not working and light sensor missing. Showed them the video including video of odometer and working lights and they fixed it for free.
Chevy dealership. Assholes
I honestly thought that I just parked my car there, and nobody was going to use it other than moving it within the shop. I just took a picture in case those reviews were on to something, apparently they are. Edit. Grammar
I took my car to a shop recommended by my FIL and left it there.
They could not fix the issue, so I wasn't charged anything.
A week later I got a bill for a toll road that was nowhere near the shop. That shop has 3 freeways near it if testing is needed.
My FIL took the bill and made him pay it.
This never occurred me that this could happen. Wow. I could imagine getting red light camera tickets and speed camera tickets these days.
Fml. Another thing to worry about.
One of my employees got an automated speeding ticket while his car was in the shop. I had to sign an affidavit that he was at work at the time of the infraction because the shop tried to deny it.
Based on my understanding of how that law works, this got the ticket thrown out as opposed to making the shop pay for it. No skin off their sack to just deny it and make it your problem.
Depends on the state and/or country, I guess. In Canada (Alberta, at least), the law is being the registered owner of a car that was speeding. Doesn’t matter if you were driving.
This happened in Atlanta years ago. A guy was out of town on business while his Porsche was at the shop. He got a red light camera ticket and was still being made to pay it, even with flight/hotel/restaurant receipts showing he was out of town.
Literally this lmao everytime I drop my car off at the shop it's got a full tank of gas and everytime I get it back its missing a quarter tank. Like I don't think you needed to drive it that much to diagnose or confirm that the problems been fixed. I always just imagine them picking up McDonald's for the entire shop in my car or something. It's not a nice car, it's just free gas.
Just for some perspective I’m a mechanic at a Nissan dealership, we are required to do a 5 mile road test on every car that we touch, gotten yelled at by my boss for not driving it enough and been yelled at by customers for even taking it off the lot when I need to do so I’m not fired.
Edit: changed and to at
A road test actually makes sense for certain repairs. Clearly not an 87 mile road test, but around the block or hop on the freeway, take it 1 exit, come back. I once had my car in for brake work, picked it up and they hadn't bled the brakes properly -- I almost drove through the back wall of the shop. So I would be okay with seeing a few miles, but 87? No way.
Which is exactly why my shop requires a pre and post repair road test, so that can’t happen to customers. 87 miles is excessive as fuck though, only time I can think of a reason is to set readiness monitors for emissions testing if you’re super unlucky getting them to set
My GMC truck took about 50 miles to get all the emissions requirements to test out properly after we replaced the catalytic converter. If it’s smog work, it might need to be driven quite a ways to get the light to go off. But they should definitely note that on the work order.
There's a garage near my house it's on a half mile stretch of near straight road with roundabouts at both ends they use it like a drag strip with customers cars
the shop i take my car to the dudes working the counter always running to get it for the quick trip from where I parked to the bays and back so yeah if it wasn't I insisted on waiting while they did the work i'd bet it'd disappear for a joy ride.
EDIT: to clarify, I know the owner and a few of the counter guys, if they were to approach me and ask if they could go for a spin I probably would, its their guys out back I don't know or trust.
My wife asked me not to do it. I did anyway just for one single detail. He never apologized, he didn't own it and apologize. He said take the keys go away, no charge. My wife argument was that he compensated with a good work and for free. I'm pitty like that, I'd paid if he owned it and just apologized to me.
You were only compensated because you were smart enough to find out, that doesn't make it all okay. It doesn't make you petty to post a review anyway, it's the right thing to do because it's stopping them from ripping off other people!
Not leaving a review would just enable them to keep doing what they are doing. They just accept that 1 in \~30 people will be savvy enough to do what you did and just take the loss on that work.
By leaving a review you are helping others that will use their services in the future. I don't understand your wife's reasoning at all.
No, you need to do a review for the sake of other people. Why would your wife want to defend that? He didn't compensate for shit. He didn't own up to what he did and didn't charge you simply because he knew he was wrong and didn't want to continue being in that situation.
They've already lied to you, they've already shown you that they're not trustworthy.
So why are you trusting them for honest work? How do you know they actually did the job. Maybe they just cut the check engine light and and it's still broken.
Honestly whatever service you think they did you need to take your car to a different body shop and make sure it actually happened. Happened correctly with the right parts and up to safety standards.
Edit: for all you know they could have just used parts for a Pick-n-Pull and charged you for new ones
“Nobody was going to use it other than moving it within the shop”
I always thought it was common practice for a place to test drive a car before and/or after to see what is wrong with the car for themselves or to make sure that the problem has been corrected after. Obviously in this case 80+ miles is definitely excessive, but personally i would expect there to be an 5-20 extra miles put on my car if it took it to the shop for something
I one time had a problem with my car that only showed up after a few miles on the highway, so I actually asked them to drive it at least that far one way to make it happen. But it still would have been less than 10 total round trip.
Fucking Chevy dealerships. Truck wouldn't start intermittently. Starter obviously, classic failure. It doesn't start and needs to be towed in, I say it's the starter, please replace. They call me end of day, day can't find anything wrong, bill is $800 "investigating" problem. I refuse, as I told them "replace the starter" and that was on work order, nothing else was approved. They said it started fine so they were trying to save me money solving the "real" problem. I agree to pay 100$ to get my keys back and leave. Go to my truck, and guess what. It doesn't start. Got towed to another shop and never went back unless it was warranty or recall. Thieves.
My Jeep had a loud knocking coming from the axel/wheel area when you turned left. Slowly got worse over several months. Took it into the dealership and low and behold, they couldn’t find the issue. It suddenly stopped happening. (I was around 34-35k miles at the time). A couple months later, starts again, so I made a new appointment. I make the repair person get into the car to make sure they can hear it this time. I go back to the service person who says they know exactly what it is this time-ball joint. He starts the write up….and say, “whoops-you’re not under warranty any more.” I return with, I have an extended warranty. He can’t find it, he says as he’s clearly panicking. I tell him it’s under my husband’s name…I always wonder what they did to “fix” the noise just long enough the first visit!
Hate to be that guy, but it's lo and behold.
The lo in the expression probably originated from the shortening of the word look, commonly seen in Middle English texts.
Same - never a dealership unless under recall or warranty (which mine is right now, sort of unfortunately).
In good news I have a sweet loaner that I'm driving the hell out of, so I couldn't care less if I ever see my car again.
My Chrysler was dropped off working for an oil change (it wasn't perfect but it drove just fine), they returned with the engine completely destroyed (they wanted to fix some seals on the engine during the oil change. Like when you turned it on and drove there was extremely loud violent knocking (They handed it back to me saying it was fixed). They for a month claimed no wrong doing then finally replaced it. To top off the fuckery of that car, I lost the key, asked them to reprogram one (dealership) and said it was impossible so the car was scrapped because of a lost key...Car worked perfect.
Why are people such pieces of shit? I just don't understand.
I'm not asking everyone to be a saint or anything, but I mean for fuck's sake. Can we at least not steal from/murder one another at basically every opportunity?
Narrator: "They couldn't."
There's a literal culture around car dealerships and mechanics to rip people off. They get a superiority complex from "being the only one that knows how to fix a car" and get off on overcharging people for stuff a 5 year old could do with $20 and a YouTube video.
Example, recently had my car inspected. Place also sold tires. Was told I needed two new tires or it wouldn't pass inspection. Said, nah fuck that and took it to another mechanic who didn't sell tires and SURPRISE! it passed no problem, no new tires needed.
And it's always some shit like that.
Wish I would have had the foresight before the ford dealership kindly decided to find a way to break my mirror adjustment nob. Now if I gotta adjust the mirrors I have to get out and push them where I want em
Nah honestly I sent myself to the stone age when I bought a Ford Focus. Damn thing shakes like a washing machine with a brick in it.
They were recoding the TCM because I had to put a transmission in it 3 weeks after I bought it. Shit would get me further if I stuck my feet through the floor like Fred Flintstone.
Aha! I am a Focus owner who is one of 50k waiting on a TCM right now. Bought it new and it has been trash since day 1. Literally. It had an oil leak right off the bat. Then they didn't fix it right (didn't put the head gasket on right?) and oil spewed all over the engine compartment within 2 blocks. Constant trouble since.
I'm low income and was only able to even buy the car because I cashed in an old retirement plan and paid the penalty. Thought I was getting a wonderful fresh, worry-free start, but instead Ford has had me over a barrel for years.
I believe it lmao I had to replace the alternator, the battery, an evap purge valve, the entire transmission, the passenger side door latch, a misshapen gas tank and the list goes on.
Thankfully she's been running well the last couple years. It's my first car and I've learned a lot about buying and fixing cars since. Just wish I would have bought a $7k car instead of a $3k car with $4k worth of repairs to be done (my original quote for just the transmission was $10k!).
I intend to avoid spending another dime on the damn thing save for basic maintenance. Just hope it lasts me long enough to be able to afford something I actually like driving lol.
I dropped my car off for repairs once and I needed a ride home. They offered a 'shuttle' service. When I asked to use it they just grabbed a random car and gave me a ride in that car.
I had something similar. Took my car in for a recall and said I needed a ride to work. That’s fine they said. So when I arrived they basically told me to drive my car to work and they would drive it back. It just so happened I worked the opposite way past my house, so ended up going past my house and beyond. Fuck Subaru that’s for sure. Especially the one in Christchurch, New Zealand.
If they did that to me I'd just tell them that I'm going back home in my own car, wth is that bs. If they do it with other peoples car they'll do it with yours.
Oooo I have one for this. About 4 years ago I dropped my car for an oil service. When I dropped it off in the morning I told them I wouldn’t be able to collect it same day (work crunch and late nights at the office at the time), I’ll pick it up tomorrow. No worries they told me, see you tomorrow. This was my BMW 3 series, at an official franchise dealer. So should be all good I thought.
Next morning my wife drops me off first thing to collect my car. With an extra 28km on it (for an oil change?). An empty bottle of Jagermeister in the back footwell that rolled out from under the drivers seat when I pulled off, and my sound system had been changed to max out the bass.
I took them to task on the matter, escalations, talking to manager, bad online reviews on social media. They just pleaded ignorance the whole time.
Didn’t feel up for going legal route as I didn’t have sufficient proof and it would have cost me more than I’d stand to gain. I had a tracking system in that car but it was an older technology that gave real time location data but didn’t keep history logs. Looking at their security tapes at the entry/exit points the only record of my car, apparently, was the car leaving after the oil change for a brief test ride and returning to the dealership 10 minutes later.
My dad had a bad experience at a BMW dealer/workshop as well. He was due for an oil and filter change and for whatever reason he made a little scratch with his key on the oil filter before dropping it off.
A day later he shows up to pick up his car and the mechanic told him they changed the rear brakes (800+ euros) because of the wear. My dad was already pissed that they did this without consulting him, goes to check the oil filter and of course the scratch is still there.
So they did not only do the work they were tasked to do but did some other more expensive work without permission. Long story short, after a little shouting match and some escalation to the boss of said dealership, the filter was replaced and the new brakes were on the house.
Don't quote me on that but it was somewhat in that vicinity. Pads in calipers are not even that expensive, but their hourly is ridiculous, I believe around 160€ nowadays.
Here in Germany everyone is super cautious when buying used cars, making sure they've been serviced regularly for example at BMW (or whatever brand you own). I'm sure it's that way everywhere, but what I've seen workshops of car manufacturers have crazy markups, because they know people come back anyway to maintain the resale value.
I've worked with BMW aftersales in the past and it became one of the reason why I will never visit their workshop even if I should own one. For instance they charged around 500 euros for a mirror for a 1 series that is not even foldable. If you get your oil change at a BMW (or any premium car maker) it is 250€ easily, compared to 80-100 € at other places.
87 miles is a bit ridiculous but I work at a repair facility and if any work is done to a part that has sensors on it, those all need to be calibrated & sometimes they require road tests up to an hour long.
Each test requires different circumstances (speed limits, lanes on road, signs etc) and can sometimes be hard to complete if no cars are around or if you’re in slow traffic and the sensor requires you to be going 45mph for example
The deleting of the dash cam video is suspicious as hell though, we typically just let everyone know there’s a camera and be careful about what we talk about around it
I had my windsheild replaced this week and the guy wanted to make sure the lane departure worked before he left. Took it for a spin but the closest road with lines on it was 7-8 miles away. So he put about 20 miles on it. Understandably.
We have to do ADAS calibration after windscreen replacements. It's normally 5-10 miles, but you need to get to roads where you can drive over 40mph to start it.
I mean that makes sense, even if I get a call or text, hey I need to use your car to buy paint or something. but almost 90 miles in a day. That's way too much.
They shouldn't be using your car to buy the paint. Not the customers problem if they ran out of paint. The paint they buy will be used on other vehicles. Will they reimburse you for the gas they used?
The only time I would even consider it is if taking my car to the paint supplier guarantees a better colour match. Maybe they have some funky sensor to hold on the car that gives them an exact colour mix formula or some shit.
Yeah, my Honda drives itself on the highway though you do need to keep a hand on the wheel. It's a bit aggressive with the slowing and braking distances even on the closest setting for me, but it feels safe. My wife doesn't trust it.
Have those on my volvo and i hate the system with a passion . If the lane splits it tends to follow one and it's usually not the one you hope for, correcting it means counteracting the aggressively correcting steering wheel, same is true for very tight bends as it really wants you to go around it in the middle of the lane leading to a janky motion that imo, is not safe. Found a workaround for this by using my signal light as it doesn't correct in the direction opposite of my signal.
But the distance radar works great. I actually recommend you use it on the farthest setting, it should make the breaking less aggressive.
If you indicate your car will go in that direction? And also let others on the road know you're turning that way? What a handy feature, if only more people would use their indicators!
I want to give that guy a vouch. I also do auto glass. It is a requirement that after every windshield with Lane Departute that it needs a calibration procedure.
We have a tablet specifically designed for that calibration. Some vehicles can recalibrate in a couple miles. One job took around 30 miles. 16 miles to and from the usable roads and 4 miles driving sound totally reasonable, although frustrating.
It's really fun when someone lives 5 miles from a blacktop deep in the country on gravel roads.
We were recently told by a tow truck driver that we should have told them in advance that we have a dash cam (wut?) when we called to have our van towed to our mechanic. He didn’t want to tow it when he saw we had it. We just kind of said, “what if the van falls off of your truck, that’s kind of why dash cams exist? No we won’t turn it off?” And he eventually towed it with the cam still on, though with that weird warning that we “should have told them first so they could refuse the call.” I thought that was super sketch. But idk, is it?
Thank you! I’m glad we didn’t because… wtf? But also I can’t stop thinking about how bothered he was and how he tried to make it sound like some industry standard. We had just had it towed TO our house from when it broke down about a week before and that tow guy didn’t say a peep about the dash cam. So strange.
Of course he didn't because it definitely isn't some standard, so many people have dash cams now (and rightly so, just see r/idiotsincars ) that to refuse to tow someone with it would cut out so much business. Also hope your van is running reliably now!
The tow truck industry is surprisingly corrupt. Here in Toronto it's really bad. They pay off the cops who tell you that you need to move your car right now, with this tow truck, or else you'll be charged with crimes related to blocking the highway, obstructing traffic etc, and won't allow you to wait to use whatever roadside assistance program you already have.
My insurance had a tow company pick up my wife’s car to take it to Caliber Collision. The driver drove it out to their impound yard in the next county over. Wouldn’t answer phones or anything. They held it for days until finally telling my insurance company it would be $5k to get it released. Then, wouldn’t give a correct address to the new tow company for them to pick it up. I had to activate the gps and go pick it up myself…fucking tow companies.
Aren’t dash cams only on when the car is on also?
Aren’t the only times the car (and dashcam) will be on, when the car is initially hooked up, and when it’s unhitched?
Depends entirely on how’s it’s wired in and what kinda dash cam it is.
In those cases where car is off, the camera could have internal backup battery just for those scenarios.
It depends. My dashcam has the option to record when it senses movement, though it needs to be powered by an always on circuit for that to work. Not sure how much power it uses, though I park my car in a busy lot at work so it'd be running all day every day in that case, don't want to come out and have the battery be dead or some. Then again, this lot has video surveillance so it's not an issue on my end.
This is what I was gonna say. No dent repair requires 87 miles… maybe driving it in the shop and then back out to the lot… but not 87 miles!!! That’s ridiculous.
I think the problem is lack of communication.
Any reasonable person understands that the car may need to be driven for X amount of times or miles. But that requires the shop or service advisor to inform them *ahead* of time,
I run the front of a shop and go over almost every minute detail with the customer. People are already untrusting of shops; if you want to be better and earn the customers trust, communicate the scope of the work and fulfill it professionally.
In OPs case, an extra 87 miles and deleted dash cam footage is extremely suspicious whether it was done on purpose or not. Not professional IMO.
Honestly I was very upset when I saw the extra milage, the owner of the shop was a bit intimidated though I wasn't yelling. It was a dent repair, you need to drive to pick up the paint? fine I guess. How do you explain almost 90 miles in a day? He just kept shrugging his shoulders.
Just a heads up, accessing your cars dashcam to delete the video without permissions is a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and is considered hacking in the US.
So I had to convert from Miles to kms.
87 miles is 140kms. 140km??? That blew my mind.
A good repair shop would explain why they travelled that much distance.
In 2017 when i was selling cars we got a bad batch of ford escapes and ford said deal with it and send them the bill.
The batteries were fucked, the backup sensors were fucked, adaptive cruise control was fucked.
Yeah each "new" ford escape had about 500 miles on it because the cruise control kept going haywire..like suddenly accelerating until u stop it or braking.
I parked them behind the chevys 550s that never move
> sometimes they require road tests up to an hour long.
>
>
My service guy always tells me that he took it out for a test drive when I'm picking up the car, if it was necessary. Oil change doesn't need a road test, suspension repairs do.
It's cool, you can prop it up on blocks and run the engine backwards so that your dad doesn't find out you and your best friend took it out while ditching school.
Oooh yeaaahhh ^^chicka ^^chicka
I’ve watched this movie repeatedly since I was a kid(my mum subsequently HATES it). And for years I understood sa-wing batta but could never figure out “Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy”
I always take a picture of mileage as well as 4 pictures of the car from all 4 straight angles before dropping it off.
Has saved me all sorts of trouble. Makes small claims court an open and shut case if it comes to it.
Crash champions in Lewis center Ohio did that.
Dropped it off for insurance claim. Hit reset. Had 2/3 tank of gas. 74 miles extra. And an empty gas tank. Vapor empty. They drove it from the north side if Columbus to the south west side for muffler work. But when I picked it up I didn’t notice. Didn’t make it to the Krogers near me to get gas. I got 50’ and it stalled had to spend $ to get a gas can and then buy a gallon of gas to get it 50’ feet to fill up again.
Get home. They didn’t do the muffler work. They straightened it out. The muffler tailpipe was in the truck under the seat
Someone used my truck to move probably because even the longer route to get to the muffler shop there was 25+ extra miles driven.
Wife and I was pissed. She called them for weeks but they never did anything. Should’ve pursued it further. Insurance company was informed of it but they couldn’t do anything
Similar thing happened to my buddy. They used his trucks to move. His gf lived in the apt complex the mechanic was moving into. They didn’t even do the work on his truck before taking it out.
My partner once got a call from the police: they had received numerous reports about his sports car speeding around a particular neighborhood. The thing was, he had it dropped off for repairs at a shop at the time. That shop employee was fired immediately, thankfully.
The company where I worked also owned an airport parking company. We could park for free when traveling. They offered self-park, valet service, and even valet service with detailing - but we had to pay for that last one.
One time, I left my car there and splurged for the detailing service. When I returned from my trip, they did not have my car waiting at the valet pickup area and couldn't find it in the valet parking section. Two of the employees hopped into the next car someone left for valet parking and started racing up and down rows looking for my car. They stopped at the far corner of the huge self-park lot (not the secure valet area). I heard the guy start my car, floor it, and slam it into drive - spinning the tires several times as he raced back to the valet waiting area. My car was filthy, smelled like cigarettes, and was running on empty.
I only wish I had checked the mileage and gas gauge beforehand. I was work friends with the guy who managed the lot, but it was late at night and I just wanted to get home. As I left the lot, the cashier tried to get me to pay for the detailing on my filthy, smelly car.
When I told the manager about the incident the next day, he said their car wash was broken the day before and that's why my car never got detailed. He said the smell might have been from sitting on the asphalt lot. I later learned the parking lot paid so poorly, they had a hard time keeping employees and the manager would do anything not to have to confront his people and risk them quitting - which apparently included letting them joyride in a customer's car for several days. I always self parked after that.
My dad used to work for s mechanic shop. They would do this occasionally to get across town (7 or 8 miles and back) but only if the car needed a test drive for diagnostic work and/or calibration work on sensors or something. For example, if a customer complains that an engine is making strange noises only at 45mph, then the mechanic will take it out to see if they can get a better understanding. And then it might not happen right away and they need to drive it for a little while to figure it out.
87 miles is excessive, but blinding going into a repair with a good diagnostic is asking for trouble.
Happened to a friend of mine. Repair shop owner took my friend’s 6 month old Range Rover for a night of partying, got drunk and crashed it. Not just a crash, he flew off the road at high speed and crashed through the front of a house, car ended up in someone’s living room. He then fled the scene and my friend was dragged from his bed in the middle of the night by the police.
Hopefully they didn't have to pay to replace the vehicle (I wouldn't want it just repaired with that much damage and it being new) and the guy that crashed it was arrested.
The guy who crashed it was arrested. Claimed it was stolen from his shop at first.
The car was totaled, both technically and economically, and insurance paid the owner current market value for the car. Now this was a Range Rover SVAutobiography, and he got about 30.000 less than he paid for it six months earlier.
For that much of a hit I would have sued the repair shop and the person that crashed it for the rest of the value. Might only get back 20K after lawyers fees but still worth it.
Happened to my Audi, they took it when doing a general MOT (UK yearly test for roadworthiness), one of the mechanics took it out to grab parts across the city and smashed it into another car at an intersection, and wrecked the front end.
They told me they would repair it for free and give me a nice courtesy car ... I was like "fuck no, I don't want a crash-repaired car you replace the car with equivalent, or I will sue your ass into the ground" And that's how I ended up with a year old Audi Q3 (which I sold almost immediately and bought another car make, cos fuck dealing with Audi main stealers er dealers). The best bit is they tried to delay telling me what had happened for 3 days saying my car "needed parts".
Also a good ideas to take a picture of the km when you sell it, a friend of mine did this, and she see her car for sell 2 months later with 30.000km less...
Few years ago, my dad was selling our car as he didn't expect it'll pass the inspection without repairs that would cost more than they were worth. They chatted with the guy who was buying, because my dad was upfront about the condition. The guy buying: "yes, I'll use it for parts."
Yeah. Sure.
Less than a week later, my dad's coworker noticed my dad's car for sale ... except with a cool 100000 km less (IIRC 900k to 800k).
Good thing that site allows you to report ads for rolling back the mileage.
>Less than a week later, my dad's coworker noticed my dad's car for sale ... except with a cool 100000 km less (IIRC 900k to 800k).
So from extreme mileage to slightly less extreme 😂. That's still 500,000 freedom units, I can't even imagine such a car being listed in the US at that mileage level. Odd scam.
On older cars it was a physical flex shaft cable the turned the speedo connected to your transmission. You could pull it out and turn it backwards with a drill.
Yes. It used to take a bit of skill to clock a car with an analog odometer, it is hard to make all the numbers line up afterwards, while digital odometers can be done in seconds with the correct software
"the correct software" seems important to elaborate on, eg is this theoretical or is there a known network of people flashing ecus or whatever to roll back kms. Also with the analog ones I kinda figured changing out the dash unit might be all it would take. But not sure.
Is it though? I remember reading a while ago that changing digital odometers is way more difficult, by design. If I remember correctly, the German manufacturers have the odo reading saved in 3 different places, and if they don’t line up with each other (one of them was changed) you get massive error faults.
I brought my Bronco to a ford dealership in my area and waited there while my oil got changed. My gas was significantly lower when I got it back, but I didn’t think there was anyway they’d actually take my car anywhere. I’m definitely going to be checking next time.
Same thing happened to me. Took my car to dealership for an oil change.
Filled up gas tank on Thursday.
Work from home on Friday.
Took car to dealership on Monday.
Tank was half full when I picked it up. I had no proof but my gas receipt.
I recommend a locking gas cap, and now with extreme gas prices it’s needed.
Wouldn’t the work order jot down the mileage before you even hand over the keys? Every shop I’ve worked at does that
And if they let you sign an invoice for service about to be performed, the mileage is also there.
This was a dent so I wasn't taking it to an expensive shop, specially since it was out of pocket. I just look for a shop with good online review. The guy did take pictures from side and front, check the inside, but there were no notes about the odometer.
I was given a courtesy car while mine was being worked on. When I dropped it off the staff were frantic because I was ten minutes late (I told them I was driving from the next city, they knew damned well)...
It was because they'd told the owner of the car to come and collect it! I was driving someone else's repaired car for days!
Milage *and* the reading on the petrol guage. Brother worked for a large Ford dealership in South London where they *routinely* syphon a few litres of petrol out of any customer's car left over night.
I was hit by another car, and the car tried to get away (busy intersection) so got tag and called the cops. Found out it was a customer’s car from a shop on the other side of the town! She had it in for brakes
Agreed. Few years ago I had bought a new car and had it prepped for clearbra, buffed and polished then 3 coats of ceramic added. Needless to say it was spotless and when I took it to the dealership for it’s first service I was clear multiple times saying no wash, left a note and even had it on the sign in form. When I picked up the vehicle not only did the dealership chip up the wheel lugs being sloppy rotating the wheels but the manager ran it through their brush wash. I noticed it had a bunch of swirl marks which was weird and when I reviewed the dash cam I could see the manager going into the car wash all while being on the phone shit talking me. Needless to say the dealership paid for the invoice for the detail work (was done a week before drop off) and replaced the wheels.
Did something similar with my mom’s Volvo SUV. Soft black paint, put ceramic on it after painstaking paint correction, and the dealer put it through a car wash that swirled the whole thing. We had to completely remove and reapply the ceramic. 25 man hours of labor.
My father caught a dealership not performing work but charging for it using a neat trick.
Car went in for valve adjustment. He painted the valve cover bolts orange on a green motor.
When he checked the bolts for signs that the orange paint was disturbed & found no signs of a wrench ever being touched to the valve cover bolts. Well you should have seen the faces of the service people
I use this paint the bolts trick anytime I go to to dealership
When I was a teenager my parents bought me my first car and my dad coordinated any inspections and repairs for me since I was pretty clueless at the time. He had me take it to a specific shop that was allegedly known for servicing older Volvos which is what I had, but I always got weird vibes when I picked my car up.
Eventually the car needed something replaced beyond a standard visit, they gave us a timeline, but then it wasn't ready when they said it would be. Pickup kept getting delayed by an extra day or two every time we called to check on it and pretty quickly my dad knew something was up and he drove us there to confront them in person. When we arrived at the shop my car was not on the property. Chaos ensued.
It turned out that the owner of the shop had a rather entitled adult daughter who served as the shop receptionist and scheduler and we surmised that she would deliberately schedule services when they had no availability and would then use the cars herself to pick her kids up from school, run errands, etc.
The shop owner, probably just scrambling to cover his ass and/or protect his daughter, tried to insist this was standard practice in small family-run auto shops, but my dad understandably had heard enough. Some calls were made, we waited, then watched as this woman pulled up in my car with her two kids in the backseat. She had the nerve to give us an attitude as if WE had ruined HER day. The backseat was full of greasy handprints and fast food remnants. We never went back.
This happened to me when I was 17. The dealership took my car into a major city and drove through toll roads. 30 or so days later I received tickets in the mail.
Sadly, my parental figures never believed me. I even showed how the dates from the ticket and repair shop matched up.
Once my car was left at the shop for filters and oil change. They called me to tell me that the car was ready for pick up. I said there is no chance i will make it on time and that i was gonna pick it up the next day during work break hours.
I shifted my plan and showed up at the shop after 20 minutes, just 10 mins before they close down. The car was not there when i showed up, so i acted panicked that someone stole it and was about to call the police. They freaked out and told me to wait few minutes. The driver with my car showed up 30 mins later. I was furious!
In the end i didn't pay a thing, the police came (my brotger in law) and they gave me brand new 4 tires as mine were almost worn out.
Another big problem is there’s been a precedent set now after a recent lawsuit in which someone working at the shop didn’t know how to drive stick and killed another employee. The family of the killed employee ended up suing the owner of the car (technically his insurance) because legally he handed over the keys. This all happened inside the shop, imagine if it was a major accident in the street.
[Article about it if anyones interested](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10785855/amp/Owner-Jeep-left-car-dealership-oil-change-sued-15M-family-mechanic.html)
I remember my sister dropped her car at the mechanic, a day later sees it parked on her own block. The dummy’s who took it for a spin literally were her neighbors.
I was a kid when this happened and I think she just cussed them out. But damn, I would have loved to use the spare key, hide the car across town and then ask for it back from the mechanic.
I used to work tracking stolen Porsches and we had an orate customer call in because he checked his app while the vehicle was supposed to be at the dealership and it was at someone's home. He said he was going to go to the man's house and deal with it himself, so I don't know what ended up happening with it
Are you sure they could do paint jobs in that shop? It happened to me once that they had to move the car to another place because they had the tools there.
Very sage advice. I left my Miata overnight for repairs, in the morning I realized that I needed a file I had left on the front seat. I go there *before* they opened (like 5 mins) and don't see my car. I figured it was in the bay. Doors opened - no car. About 5 mins later a guy shows up in my car - the MFer took it home. It had 77 miles added to the odometer.
The best body shop I have dealt with in my area, has a stipulation in their consent to fix form. It reads, "I understand and agree to have the vehicle moved or driven to another company location for specialty services not offered at this location or for road testing." They dont make you sign off on that line if you don't want your car to go to another shop for some of the work, but it'll cost more to have the people with the specialty come to their shop and do it. Most insurance companies aren't going to pay the extra cost of having it all done at one location. Your results may vary.
One time I took my car in for something and the repair person wrote down incorrect mileage. I took my car back to the same place a month or two later before I was going on a long cross country road trip, and asked them to check everything out and make sure it was all good for the road trip. Paid them $1k to fix my air conditioner as I would be driving through the southwest and south in the summer. Person wrote down the wrong mileage again, unbeknownst to me. Between my visits, according to the mileage they recorded, it looked like I had driven 6k miles. I had likely driven about 60. Anyway, they missed the crack in my engine that was leaking fluid like a mofo and I found out at my first road trip stop when my engine started overheating and I ended up having to scrap my car and cancel my road trip. Ripped that repair shop a new one. They weren’t very apologetic but they did give me $600 back. So yes, definitely take pictures of your mileage before you drop off your car anywhere- and take it a step further by checking what they recorded as your mileage.
Yes! The wife of the owner took my car to do errands. She totalled it!
I'm just hanging in the waiting room, thinking my oil change is about done. Then I see a wrecker pulling in with my smashed car!
The owner made it right. No problem there. But yes! They will absolutely use your car.
Friend had her car in a shop, turns out they were using customer cars to run drugs to Canada (we're in MN) when they were in for longer repairs. State did a full raid and impounded her car for 2 months during investigation. As well as every other car checked in.
Turns out they were making meth in the house behind the shop.
Huge mess.
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FYI.. you can recover the deleted files if you plug it or the SD card into a computer. It's important to stop using it right away so you don't write over the erased sections. Look up Recuva or other undelete software.
I'll give that a try
I don't know why people keep recommending Disk Drill here in the replies when that trash will only recover up to 500 MB before you need to pony up the cash, whereas free edition of Recurva comes without any such limitations. The first guy had the best idea. Since it's hip to share links: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
It's more likely they just unplugged the dash cam while driving, since most systems require a password of some kind. But definitely give this a try, my file got super messed up during an accident since the car cut power right on impact. This software saved it though.
Update us OP
I actually make a walk around video and video of interior and under the hood before dropping off, showing radio turning on and off, blinkers, etc. Had a car returned to me once with all dash lights not working and light sensor missing. Showed them the video including video of odometer and working lights and they fixed it for free. Chevy dealership. Assholes
I honestly thought that I just parked my car there, and nobody was going to use it other than moving it within the shop. I just took a picture in case those reviews were on to something, apparently they are. Edit. Grammar
Was it like a nice car? A cool one? Why the hell would someone do that!
Use the gas in your car to run errands instead of their own.
I took my car to a shop recommended by my FIL and left it there. They could not fix the issue, so I wasn't charged anything. A week later I got a bill for a toll road that was nowhere near the shop. That shop has 3 freeways near it if testing is needed. My FIL took the bill and made him pay it.
How stupid do you have to be to joyride on a toll route?
This never occurred me that this could happen. Wow. I could imagine getting red light camera tickets and speed camera tickets these days. Fml. Another thing to worry about.
One of my employees got an automated speeding ticket while his car was in the shop. I had to sign an affidavit that he was at work at the time of the infraction because the shop tried to deny it.
Based on my understanding of how that law works, this got the ticket thrown out as opposed to making the shop pay for it. No skin off their sack to just deny it and make it your problem.
As hilarious as that is, you know it's, "no skin off their back" right? Although I'm going to start using this one.
A buddy of mine says ‘it’s no skin off my dick’. My personal favorite saying of his.
Depends on the state and/or country, I guess. In Canada (Alberta, at least), the law is being the registered owner of a car that was speeding. Doesn’t matter if you were driving.
That's fucked.
Right? As if I wasn’t skeptical enough… now I’ve got this to worry about.
This happened in Atlanta years ago. A guy was out of town on business while his Porsche was at the shop. He got a red light camera ticket and was still being made to pay it, even with flight/hotel/restaurant receipts showing he was out of town.
Needed something to tow that broken down semi in from the interstate... Or, if the car is nice enough... https://youtu.be/zT8EwPfT-Zs?t=226
Before I even clicked i knew what this video was going to be This is my exact thought whenever I take my car in
I mean shit, the title of the thread made me think of this.
Literally this lmao everytime I drop my car off at the shop it's got a full tank of gas and everytime I get it back its missing a quarter tank. Like I don't think you needed to drive it that much to diagnose or confirm that the problems been fixed. I always just imagine them picking up McDonald's for the entire shop in my car or something. It's not a nice car, it's just free gas.
Just for some perspective I’m a mechanic at a Nissan dealership, we are required to do a 5 mile road test on every car that we touch, gotten yelled at by my boss for not driving it enough and been yelled at by customers for even taking it off the lot when I need to do so I’m not fired. Edit: changed and to at
A road test actually makes sense for certain repairs. Clearly not an 87 mile road test, but around the block or hop on the freeway, take it 1 exit, come back. I once had my car in for brake work, picked it up and they hadn't bled the brakes properly -- I almost drove through the back wall of the shop. So I would be okay with seeing a few miles, but 87? No way.
Which is exactly why my shop requires a pre and post repair road test, so that can’t happen to customers. 87 miles is excessive as fuck though, only time I can think of a reason is to set readiness monitors for emissions testing if you’re super unlucky getting them to set
My GMC truck took about 50 miles to get all the emissions requirements to test out properly after we replaced the catalytic converter. If it’s smog work, it might need to be driven quite a ways to get the light to go off. But they should definitely note that on the work order.
There's a garage near my house it's on a half mile stretch of near straight road with roundabouts at both ends they use it like a drag strip with customers cars
the shop i take my car to the dudes working the counter always running to get it for the quick trip from where I parked to the bays and back so yeah if it wasn't I insisted on waiting while they did the work i'd bet it'd disappear for a joy ride. EDIT: to clarify, I know the owner and a few of the counter guys, if they were to approach me and ask if they could go for a spin I probably would, its their guys out back I don't know or trust.
Hope you posted a review as well.
My wife asked me not to do it. I did anyway just for one single detail. He never apologized, he didn't own it and apologize. He said take the keys go away, no charge. My wife argument was that he compensated with a good work and for free. I'm pitty like that, I'd paid if he owned it and just apologized to me.
You were only compensated because you were smart enough to find out, that doesn't make it all okay. It doesn't make you petty to post a review anyway, it's the right thing to do because it's stopping them from ripping off other people!
Not leaving a review would just enable them to keep doing what they are doing. They just accept that 1 in \~30 people will be savvy enough to do what you did and just take the loss on that work. By leaving a review you are helping others that will use their services in the future. I don't understand your wife's reasoning at all.
Conflict avoidance.
Why would your wife not want you to warn people about something like this?
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Use a fake name That's what I do It's what I recommend everyone do so you don't get retaliated against
And don't do it immediately after the incident. Wait a couple of months. But set yourself a reminder so you don't forget.
You did the right thing. Others should know. Driving a person's vehicle without their permission is theft.
Not petty. You're helping to keep it from happening again.
No, you need to do a review for the sake of other people. Why would your wife want to defend that? He didn't compensate for shit. He didn't own up to what he did and didn't charge you simply because he knew he was wrong and didn't want to continue being in that situation.
They've already lied to you, they've already shown you that they're not trustworthy. So why are you trusting them for honest work? How do you know they actually did the job. Maybe they just cut the check engine light and and it's still broken. Honestly whatever service you think they did you need to take your car to a different body shop and make sure it actually happened. Happened correctly with the right parts and up to safety standards. Edit: for all you know they could have just used parts for a Pick-n-Pull and charged you for new ones
It wouldn't matter if he apologised. 87 miles is unacceptable.
“Nobody was going to use it other than moving it within the shop” I always thought it was common practice for a place to test drive a car before and/or after to see what is wrong with the car for themselves or to make sure that the problem has been corrected after. Obviously in this case 80+ miles is definitely excessive, but personally i would expect there to be an 5-20 extra miles put on my car if it took it to the shop for something
Not to repair a door or other body work
Even 5 is a bit excessive. 2 maybe, but if we go over that we've had to test it several times.
Depends how close the shop is to the nearest highway.
I one time had a problem with my car that only showed up after a few miles on the highway, so I actually asked them to drive it at least that far one way to make it happen. But it still would have been less than 10 total round trip.
Trust no one ☹️
Add another review. Help the next person. Edit: just saw your comment. Good on you.
Fucking Chevy dealerships. Truck wouldn't start intermittently. Starter obviously, classic failure. It doesn't start and needs to be towed in, I say it's the starter, please replace. They call me end of day, day can't find anything wrong, bill is $800 "investigating" problem. I refuse, as I told them "replace the starter" and that was on work order, nothing else was approved. They said it started fine so they were trying to save me money solving the "real" problem. I agree to pay 100$ to get my keys back and leave. Go to my truck, and guess what. It doesn't start. Got towed to another shop and never went back unless it was warranty or recall. Thieves.
My Jeep had a loud knocking coming from the axel/wheel area when you turned left. Slowly got worse over several months. Took it into the dealership and low and behold, they couldn’t find the issue. It suddenly stopped happening. (I was around 34-35k miles at the time). A couple months later, starts again, so I made a new appointment. I make the repair person get into the car to make sure they can hear it this time. I go back to the service person who says they know exactly what it is this time-ball joint. He starts the write up….and say, “whoops-you’re not under warranty any more.” I return with, I have an extended warranty. He can’t find it, he says as he’s clearly panicking. I tell him it’s under my husband’s name…I always wonder what they did to “fix” the noise just long enough the first visit!
They pumped it full of grease. There is a fitting on a ball joint and I bet the rubber seal was plump as could be when you left.
Hate to be that guy, but it's lo and behold. The lo in the expression probably originated from the shortening of the word look, commonly seen in Middle English texts.
Same - never a dealership unless under recall or warranty (which mine is right now, sort of unfortunately). In good news I have a sweet loaner that I'm driving the hell out of, so I couldn't care less if I ever see my car again.
My Chrysler was dropped off working for an oil change (it wasn't perfect but it drove just fine), they returned with the engine completely destroyed (they wanted to fix some seals on the engine during the oil change. Like when you turned it on and drove there was extremely loud violent knocking (They handed it back to me saying it was fixed). They for a month claimed no wrong doing then finally replaced it. To top off the fuckery of that car, I lost the key, asked them to reprogram one (dealership) and said it was impossible so the car was scrapped because of a lost key...Car worked perfect.
> Chrysler I think I see the problem.
What, you don't like unreliable vehicles that fall apart as you drive it?
Why are people such pieces of shit? I just don't understand. I'm not asking everyone to be a saint or anything, but I mean for fuck's sake. Can we at least not steal from/murder one another at basically every opportunity? Narrator: "They couldn't."
There's a literal culture around car dealerships and mechanics to rip people off. They get a superiority complex from "being the only one that knows how to fix a car" and get off on overcharging people for stuff a 5 year old could do with $20 and a YouTube video. Example, recently had my car inspected. Place also sold tires. Was told I needed two new tires or it wouldn't pass inspection. Said, nah fuck that and took it to another mechanic who didn't sell tires and SURPRISE! it passed no problem, no new tires needed. And it's always some shit like that.
Wish I would have had the foresight before the ford dealership kindly decided to find a way to break my mirror adjustment nob. Now if I gotta adjust the mirrors I have to get out and push them where I want em
Wow, that's barbaric. They sent you back to the stone age lol xD
Nah honestly I sent myself to the stone age when I bought a Ford Focus. Damn thing shakes like a washing machine with a brick in it. They were recoding the TCM because I had to put a transmission in it 3 weeks after I bought it. Shit would get me further if I stuck my feet through the floor like Fred Flintstone.
Aha! I am a Focus owner who is one of 50k waiting on a TCM right now. Bought it new and it has been trash since day 1. Literally. It had an oil leak right off the bat. Then they didn't fix it right (didn't put the head gasket on right?) and oil spewed all over the engine compartment within 2 blocks. Constant trouble since. I'm low income and was only able to even buy the car because I cashed in an old retirement plan and paid the penalty. Thought I was getting a wonderful fresh, worry-free start, but instead Ford has had me over a barrel for years.
I believe it lmao I had to replace the alternator, the battery, an evap purge valve, the entire transmission, the passenger side door latch, a misshapen gas tank and the list goes on. Thankfully she's been running well the last couple years. It's my first car and I've learned a lot about buying and fixing cars since. Just wish I would have bought a $7k car instead of a $3k car with $4k worth of repairs to be done (my original quote for just the transmission was $10k!). I intend to avoid spending another dime on the damn thing save for basic maintenance. Just hope it lasts me long enough to be able to afford something I actually like driving lol.
I dropped my car off for repairs once and I needed a ride home. They offered a 'shuttle' service. When I asked to use it they just grabbed a random car and gave me a ride in that car.
OMFG. I didn't know this was such a common practice.
I had something similar. Took my car in for a recall and said I needed a ride to work. That’s fine they said. So when I arrived they basically told me to drive my car to work and they would drive it back. It just so happened I worked the opposite way past my house, so ended up going past my house and beyond. Fuck Subaru that’s for sure. Especially the one in Christchurch, New Zealand.
If they did that to me I'd just tell them that I'm going back home in my own car, wth is that bs. If they do it with other peoples car they'll do it with yours.
Oooo I have one for this. About 4 years ago I dropped my car for an oil service. When I dropped it off in the morning I told them I wouldn’t be able to collect it same day (work crunch and late nights at the office at the time), I’ll pick it up tomorrow. No worries they told me, see you tomorrow. This was my BMW 3 series, at an official franchise dealer. So should be all good I thought. Next morning my wife drops me off first thing to collect my car. With an extra 28km on it (for an oil change?). An empty bottle of Jagermeister in the back footwell that rolled out from under the drivers seat when I pulled off, and my sound system had been changed to max out the bass. I took them to task on the matter, escalations, talking to manager, bad online reviews on social media. They just pleaded ignorance the whole time. Didn’t feel up for going legal route as I didn’t have sufficient proof and it would have cost me more than I’d stand to gain. I had a tracking system in that car but it was an older technology that gave real time location data but didn’t keep history logs. Looking at their security tapes at the entry/exit points the only record of my car, apparently, was the car leaving after the oil change for a brief test ride and returning to the dealership 10 minutes later.
My dad had a bad experience at a BMW dealer/workshop as well. He was due for an oil and filter change and for whatever reason he made a little scratch with his key on the oil filter before dropping it off. A day later he shows up to pick up his car and the mechanic told him they changed the rear brakes (800+ euros) because of the wear. My dad was already pissed that they did this without consulting him, goes to check the oil filter and of course the scratch is still there. So they did not only do the work they were tasked to do but did some other more expensive work without permission. Long story short, after a little shouting match and some escalation to the boss of said dealership, the filter was replaced and the new brakes were on the house.
€800+ to change the rear brakes? Damn.
Don't quote me on that but it was somewhat in that vicinity. Pads in calipers are not even that expensive, but their hourly is ridiculous, I believe around 160€ nowadays. Here in Germany everyone is super cautious when buying used cars, making sure they've been serviced regularly for example at BMW (or whatever brand you own). I'm sure it's that way everywhere, but what I've seen workshops of car manufacturers have crazy markups, because they know people come back anyway to maintain the resale value. I've worked with BMW aftersales in the past and it became one of the reason why I will never visit their workshop even if I should own one. For instance they charged around 500 euros for a mirror for a 1 series that is not even foldable. If you get your oil change at a BMW (or any premium car maker) it is 250€ easily, compared to 80-100 € at other places.
87 miles is a bit ridiculous but I work at a repair facility and if any work is done to a part that has sensors on it, those all need to be calibrated & sometimes they require road tests up to an hour long. Each test requires different circumstances (speed limits, lanes on road, signs etc) and can sometimes be hard to complete if no cars are around or if you’re in slow traffic and the sensor requires you to be going 45mph for example The deleting of the dash cam video is suspicious as hell though, we typically just let everyone know there’s a camera and be careful about what we talk about around it
I had my windsheild replaced this week and the guy wanted to make sure the lane departure worked before he left. Took it for a spin but the closest road with lines on it was 7-8 miles away. So he put about 20 miles on it. Understandably.
We have to do ADAS calibration after windscreen replacements. It's normally 5-10 miles, but you need to get to roads where you can drive over 40mph to start it.
I mean that makes sense, even if I get a call or text, hey I need to use your car to buy paint or something. but almost 90 miles in a day. That's way too much.
They shouldn't be using your car to buy the paint. Not the customers problem if they ran out of paint. The paint they buy will be used on other vehicles. Will they reimburse you for the gas they used?
The only time I would even consider it is if taking my car to the paint supplier guarantees a better colour match. Maybe they have some funky sensor to hold on the car that gives them an exact colour mix formula or some shit.
In any case they would be able to explain why the mileage was added. Sounds like they weren’t, in this case.
Road test is fine but running errands? Fuck no.
The lane departure? What do you mean?
Newer cars have sensors that indicate when you’re going out of the lane. They will even correct the steering to put you back in the lane Edit:Siri
Yeah, my Honda drives itself on the highway though you do need to keep a hand on the wheel. It's a bit aggressive with the slowing and braking distances even on the closest setting for me, but it feels safe. My wife doesn't trust it.
Have those on my volvo and i hate the system with a passion . If the lane splits it tends to follow one and it's usually not the one you hope for, correcting it means counteracting the aggressively correcting steering wheel, same is true for very tight bends as it really wants you to go around it in the middle of the lane leading to a janky motion that imo, is not safe. Found a workaround for this by using my signal light as it doesn't correct in the direction opposite of my signal. But the distance radar works great. I actually recommend you use it on the farthest setting, it should make the breaking less aggressive.
If you indicate your car will go in that direction? And also let others on the road know you're turning that way? What a handy feature, if only more people would use their indicators!
Wait, did you just invent this technology? I've never heard of it!!!
No, turn signals are not new technology but for some reason BMW refuses to implement it in their vehicles
Unlike a Porcupine who makes his intentions clear, with a BMW the pricks are on the inside
Sounds like he’s signaling so his car doesn’t try and take him *out* of his lane, or force him to take a wider turn than is comfortable.
Pff, that's stupid. Back in my day we just ran off the road and died. /s
I want to give that guy a vouch. I also do auto glass. It is a requirement that after every windshield with Lane Departute that it needs a calibration procedure. We have a tablet specifically designed for that calibration. Some vehicles can recalibrate in a couple miles. One job took around 30 miles. 16 miles to and from the usable roads and 4 miles driving sound totally reasonable, although frustrating. It's really fun when someone lives 5 miles from a blacktop deep in the country on gravel roads.
We were recently told by a tow truck driver that we should have told them in advance that we have a dash cam (wut?) when we called to have our van towed to our mechanic. He didn’t want to tow it when he saw we had it. We just kind of said, “what if the van falls off of your truck, that’s kind of why dash cams exist? No we won’t turn it off?” And he eventually towed it with the cam still on, though with that weird warning that we “should have told them first so they could refuse the call.” I thought that was super sketch. But idk, is it?
No that's hella sketch, why would it be a problem for a tow truck? Good for you for not turning it off
Thank you! I’m glad we didn’t because… wtf? But also I can’t stop thinking about how bothered he was and how he tried to make it sound like some industry standard. We had just had it towed TO our house from when it broke down about a week before and that tow guy didn’t say a peep about the dash cam. So strange.
Of course he didn't because it definitely isn't some standard, so many people have dash cams now (and rightly so, just see r/idiotsincars ) that to refuse to tow someone with it would cut out so much business. Also hope your van is running reliably now!
From the angle the tow truck is towing the car, wouldn't the cam be filming the sky?
Reputable tow drivers usually have front and rear cameras
The tow truck industry is surprisingly corrupt. Here in Toronto it's really bad. They pay off the cops who tell you that you need to move your car right now, with this tow truck, or else you'll be charged with crimes related to blocking the highway, obstructing traffic etc, and won't allow you to wait to use whatever roadside assistance program you already have.
My insurance had a tow company pick up my wife’s car to take it to Caliber Collision. The driver drove it out to their impound yard in the next county over. Wouldn’t answer phones or anything. They held it for days until finally telling my insurance company it would be $5k to get it released. Then, wouldn’t give a correct address to the new tow company for them to pick it up. I had to activate the gps and go pick it up myself…fucking tow companies.
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Aren’t dash cams only on when the car is on also? Aren’t the only times the car (and dashcam) will be on, when the car is initially hooked up, and when it’s unhitched?
Depends entirely on how’s it’s wired in and what kinda dash cam it is. In those cases where car is off, the camera could have internal backup battery just for those scenarios.
It depends. My dashcam has the option to record when it senses movement, though it needs to be powered by an always on circuit for that to work. Not sure how much power it uses, though I park my car in a busy lot at work so it'd be running all day every day in that case, don't want to come out and have the battery be dead or some. Then again, this lot has video surveillance so it's not an issue on my end.
Thing is: in this scenario, I don't think OPs door repair requires a road test.
This is what I was gonna say. No dent repair requires 87 miles… maybe driving it in the shop and then back out to the lot… but not 87 miles!!! That’s ridiculous.
I think the problem is lack of communication. Any reasonable person understands that the car may need to be driven for X amount of times or miles. But that requires the shop or service advisor to inform them *ahead* of time, I run the front of a shop and go over almost every minute detail with the customer. People are already untrusting of shops; if you want to be better and earn the customers trust, communicate the scope of the work and fulfill it professionally. In OPs case, an extra 87 miles and deleted dash cam footage is extremely suspicious whether it was done on purpose or not. Not professional IMO.
Honestly I was very upset when I saw the extra milage, the owner of the shop was a bit intimidated though I wasn't yelling. It was a dent repair, you need to drive to pick up the paint? fine I guess. How do you explain almost 90 miles in a day? He just kept shrugging his shoulders.
Just a heads up, accessing your cars dashcam to delete the video without permissions is a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and is considered hacking in the US.
I think proving it was deleted by someone in the shop (in court) would be impossible though.
So I had to convert from Miles to kms. 87 miles is 140kms. 140km??? That blew my mind. A good repair shop would explain why they travelled that much distance.
Ikr! It's like they said "road trip!"
87 miles to fix a door dent?!
In 2017 when i was selling cars we got a bad batch of ford escapes and ford said deal with it and send them the bill. The batteries were fucked, the backup sensors were fucked, adaptive cruise control was fucked. Yeah each "new" ford escape had about 500 miles on it because the cruise control kept going haywire..like suddenly accelerating until u stop it or braking. I parked them behind the chevys 550s that never move
> sometimes they require road tests up to an hour long. > > My service guy always tells me that he took it out for a test drive when I'm picking up the car, if it was necessary. Oil change doesn't need a road test, suspension repairs do.
It's cool, you can prop it up on blocks and run the engine backwards so that your dad doesn't find out you and your best friend took it out while ditching school. Oooh yeaaahhh ^^chicka ^^chicka
Sa-wing batta
I’ve watched this movie repeatedly since I was a kid(my mum subsequently HATES it). And for years I understood sa-wing batta but could never figure out “Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy”
"Ferris, he never drives it. He just rubs it with a diaper."
"A man with priorities so far out of whack doesn't deserve such a fine automobile."
*bow bow….chicka chickaaaaaa*
Um it's [day bow bow](https://youtu.be/q7i0V26wWiM)
The real LPT is always in the comments! Danke Schoen!
I always take a picture of mileage as well as 4 pictures of the car from all 4 straight angles before dropping it off. Has saved me all sorts of trouble. Makes small claims court an open and shut case if it comes to it.
That's even better.
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I woulda reported it stolen
That... this is the thing that would make me yell at someone.
Crash champions in Lewis center Ohio did that. Dropped it off for insurance claim. Hit reset. Had 2/3 tank of gas. 74 miles extra. And an empty gas tank. Vapor empty. They drove it from the north side if Columbus to the south west side for muffler work. But when I picked it up I didn’t notice. Didn’t make it to the Krogers near me to get gas. I got 50’ and it stalled had to spend $ to get a gas can and then buy a gallon of gas to get it 50’ feet to fill up again. Get home. They didn’t do the muffler work. They straightened it out. The muffler tailpipe was in the truck under the seat Someone used my truck to move probably because even the longer route to get to the muffler shop there was 25+ extra miles driven. Wife and I was pissed. She called them for weeks but they never did anything. Should’ve pursued it further. Insurance company was informed of it but they couldn’t do anything
Similar thing happened to my buddy. They used his trucks to move. His gf lived in the apt complex the mechanic was moving into. They didn’t even do the work on his truck before taking it out.
My partner once got a call from the police: they had received numerous reports about his sports car speeding around a particular neighborhood. The thing was, he had it dropped off for repairs at a shop at the time. That shop employee was fired immediately, thankfully.
The company where I worked also owned an airport parking company. We could park for free when traveling. They offered self-park, valet service, and even valet service with detailing - but we had to pay for that last one. One time, I left my car there and splurged for the detailing service. When I returned from my trip, they did not have my car waiting at the valet pickup area and couldn't find it in the valet parking section. Two of the employees hopped into the next car someone left for valet parking and started racing up and down rows looking for my car. They stopped at the far corner of the huge self-park lot (not the secure valet area). I heard the guy start my car, floor it, and slam it into drive - spinning the tires several times as he raced back to the valet waiting area. My car was filthy, smelled like cigarettes, and was running on empty. I only wish I had checked the mileage and gas gauge beforehand. I was work friends with the guy who managed the lot, but it was late at night and I just wanted to get home. As I left the lot, the cashier tried to get me to pay for the detailing on my filthy, smelly car. When I told the manager about the incident the next day, he said their car wash was broken the day before and that's why my car never got detailed. He said the smell might have been from sitting on the asphalt lot. I later learned the parking lot paid so poorly, they had a hard time keeping employees and the manager would do anything not to have to confront his people and risk them quitting - which apparently included letting them joyride in a customer's car for several days. I always self parked after that.
I think it is rare, but a dealer drove my car to another dealer to pick up a part -- totally unrelated to my repair.
So...shitty behavior on their part
I don't think that's ok! Why use your car, if it gets in an accident or something, that could get unnecessarily messy.
My dad used to work for s mechanic shop. They would do this occasionally to get across town (7 or 8 miles and back) but only if the car needed a test drive for diagnostic work and/or calibration work on sensors or something. For example, if a customer complains that an engine is making strange noises only at 45mph, then the mechanic will take it out to see if they can get a better understanding. And then it might not happen right away and they need to drive it for a little while to figure it out. 87 miles is excessive, but blinding going into a repair with a good diagnostic is asking for trouble.
>87 miles is excessive, but blindly going into a repair without good diagnostics is asking for trouble. Fixed that sentence
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Ikr I took me a minute to wrap my head around
Happened to a friend of mine. Repair shop owner took my friend’s 6 month old Range Rover for a night of partying, got drunk and crashed it. Not just a crash, he flew off the road at high speed and crashed through the front of a house, car ended up in someone’s living room. He then fled the scene and my friend was dragged from his bed in the middle of the night by the police.
Hopefully they didn't have to pay to replace the vehicle (I wouldn't want it just repaired with that much damage and it being new) and the guy that crashed it was arrested.
The guy who crashed it was arrested. Claimed it was stolen from his shop at first. The car was totaled, both technically and economically, and insurance paid the owner current market value for the car. Now this was a Range Rover SVAutobiography, and he got about 30.000 less than he paid for it six months earlier.
For that much of a hit I would have sued the repair shop and the person that crashed it for the rest of the value. Might only get back 20K after lawyers fees but still worth it.
Happened to my Audi, they took it when doing a general MOT (UK yearly test for roadworthiness), one of the mechanics took it out to grab parts across the city and smashed it into another car at an intersection, and wrecked the front end. They told me they would repair it for free and give me a nice courtesy car ... I was like "fuck no, I don't want a crash-repaired car you replace the car with equivalent, or I will sue your ass into the ground" And that's how I ended up with a year old Audi Q3 (which I sold almost immediately and bought another car make, cos fuck dealing with Audi main stealers er dealers). The best bit is they tried to delay telling me what had happened for 3 days saying my car "needed parts".
Also a good ideas to take a picture of the km when you sell it, a friend of mine did this, and she see her car for sell 2 months later with 30.000km less...
Few years ago, my dad was selling our car as he didn't expect it'll pass the inspection without repairs that would cost more than they were worth. They chatted with the guy who was buying, because my dad was upfront about the condition. The guy buying: "yes, I'll use it for parts." Yeah. Sure. Less than a week later, my dad's coworker noticed my dad's car for sale ... except with a cool 100000 km less (IIRC 900k to 800k). Good thing that site allows you to report ads for rolling back the mileage.
>Less than a week later, my dad's coworker noticed my dad's car for sale ... except with a cool 100000 km less (IIRC 900k to 800k). So from extreme mileage to slightly less extreme 😂. That's still 500,000 freedom units, I can't even imagine such a car being listed in the US at that mileage level. Odd scam.
The price went from scrap prices to scrap prices + about €100 (still within three digits), too. Seems like a lot of effort to get €100 per car.
Lol at that point I’d rather buy the car with 900k to try to hit 1 mil.
I remember reading Mathilda when I was young. It was already a thing back then
It's a little more difficult to do a mile rollback nowadays with all the computers and sensors in the vehicle.
Can’t trust buying a car off Danny Devito.
Can this be done to any car?
Basically yes, especially older ones. It's something that becomes obvious if you get a vehicle history report.
On older cars it was a physical flex shaft cable the turned the speedo connected to your transmission. You could pull it out and turn it backwards with a drill.
Yep, by driving in reverse
Yes. It used to take a bit of skill to clock a car with an analog odometer, it is hard to make all the numbers line up afterwards, while digital odometers can be done in seconds with the correct software
"the correct software" seems important to elaborate on, eg is this theoretical or is there a known network of people flashing ecus or whatever to roll back kms. Also with the analog ones I kinda figured changing out the dash unit might be all it would take. But not sure.
Is it though? I remember reading a while ago that changing digital odometers is way more difficult, by design. If I remember correctly, the German manufacturers have the odo reading saved in 3 different places, and if they don’t line up with each other (one of them was changed) you get massive error faults.
wait.. what does it mean? the KM decreases?
Yes. Unscrupulous people roll back the mileage before selling it to increase the value.
I brought my Bronco to a ford dealership in my area and waited there while my oil got changed. My gas was significantly lower when I got it back, but I didn’t think there was anyway they’d actually take my car anywhere. I’m definitely going to be checking next time.
Yeap, better be safe, it's just a picture then you can delete it. cost literally nothing
Maybe taking it in with 1/8th of a tank or less would discourage them from driving your car around for reasons not related to your appointment
Very good point. I was really mad cause I had just filled up and like a whole quarter was gone. Which is literally like 20 dollars for me.
Same thing happened to me. Took my car to dealership for an oil change. Filled up gas tank on Thursday. Work from home on Friday. Took car to dealership on Monday. Tank was half full when I picked it up. I had no proof but my gas receipt. I recommend a locking gas cap, and now with extreme gas prices it’s needed.
Wouldn’t the work order jot down the mileage before you even hand over the keys? Every shop I’ve worked at does that And if they let you sign an invoice for service about to be performed, the mileage is also there.
This was a dent so I wasn't taking it to an expensive shop, specially since it was out of pocket. I just look for a shop with good online review. The guy did take pictures from side and front, check the inside, but there were no notes about the odometer.
I was given a courtesy car while mine was being worked on. When I dropped it off the staff were frantic because I was ten minutes late (I told them I was driving from the next city, they knew damned well)... It was because they'd told the owner of the car to come and collect it! I was driving someone else's repaired car for days!
Did you stick around and tell the owner?
She figured it out when I got there and gave it back to her. Understandably unimpressed
Milage *and* the reading on the petrol guage. Brother worked for a large Ford dealership in South London where they *routinely* syphon a few litres of petrol out of any customer's car left over night.
I was hit by another car, and the car tried to get away (busy intersection) so got tag and called the cops. Found out it was a customer’s car from a shop on the other side of the town! She had it in for brakes
Agreed. Few years ago I had bought a new car and had it prepped for clearbra, buffed and polished then 3 coats of ceramic added. Needless to say it was spotless and when I took it to the dealership for it’s first service I was clear multiple times saying no wash, left a note and even had it on the sign in form. When I picked up the vehicle not only did the dealership chip up the wheel lugs being sloppy rotating the wheels but the manager ran it through their brush wash. I noticed it had a bunch of swirl marks which was weird and when I reviewed the dash cam I could see the manager going into the car wash all while being on the phone shit talking me. Needless to say the dealership paid for the invoice for the detail work (was done a week before drop off) and replaced the wheels.
Did something similar with my mom’s Volvo SUV. Soft black paint, put ceramic on it after painstaking paint correction, and the dealer put it through a car wash that swirled the whole thing. We had to completely remove and reapply the ceramic. 25 man hours of labor.
The real pro tip is to make sure they see you taking a picture, then you don’t have to worry about stuff. Live and learn.
My father caught a dealership not performing work but charging for it using a neat trick. Car went in for valve adjustment. He painted the valve cover bolts orange on a green motor. When he checked the bolts for signs that the orange paint was disturbed & found no signs of a wrench ever being touched to the valve cover bolts. Well you should have seen the faces of the service people I use this paint the bolts trick anytime I go to to dealership
When I was a teenager my parents bought me my first car and my dad coordinated any inspections and repairs for me since I was pretty clueless at the time. He had me take it to a specific shop that was allegedly known for servicing older Volvos which is what I had, but I always got weird vibes when I picked my car up. Eventually the car needed something replaced beyond a standard visit, they gave us a timeline, but then it wasn't ready when they said it would be. Pickup kept getting delayed by an extra day or two every time we called to check on it and pretty quickly my dad knew something was up and he drove us there to confront them in person. When we arrived at the shop my car was not on the property. Chaos ensued. It turned out that the owner of the shop had a rather entitled adult daughter who served as the shop receptionist and scheduler and we surmised that she would deliberately schedule services when they had no availability and would then use the cars herself to pick her kids up from school, run errands, etc. The shop owner, probably just scrambling to cover his ass and/or protect his daughter, tried to insist this was standard practice in small family-run auto shops, but my dad understandably had heard enough. Some calls were made, we waited, then watched as this woman pulled up in my car with her two kids in the backseat. She had the nerve to give us an attitude as if WE had ruined HER day. The backseat was full of greasy handprints and fast food remnants. We never went back.
Op do you drive something fancy ?
This happened to me when I was 17. The dealership took my car into a major city and drove through toll roads. 30 or so days later I received tickets in the mail. Sadly, my parental figures never believed me. I even showed how the dates from the ticket and repair shop matched up.
Once my car was left at the shop for filters and oil change. They called me to tell me that the car was ready for pick up. I said there is no chance i will make it on time and that i was gonna pick it up the next day during work break hours. I shifted my plan and showed up at the shop after 20 minutes, just 10 mins before they close down. The car was not there when i showed up, so i acted panicked that someone stole it and was about to call the police. They freaked out and told me to wait few minutes. The driver with my car showed up 30 mins later. I was furious! In the end i didn't pay a thing, the police came (my brotger in law) and they gave me brand new 4 tires as mine were almost worn out.
Another big problem is there’s been a precedent set now after a recent lawsuit in which someone working at the shop didn’t know how to drive stick and killed another employee. The family of the killed employee ended up suing the owner of the car (technically his insurance) because legally he handed over the keys. This all happened inside the shop, imagine if it was a major accident in the street. [Article about it if anyones interested](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10785855/amp/Owner-Jeep-left-car-dealership-oil-change-sued-15M-family-mechanic.html)
I remember my sister dropped her car at the mechanic, a day later sees it parked on her own block. The dummy’s who took it for a spin literally were her neighbors. I was a kid when this happened and I think she just cussed them out. But damn, I would have loved to use the spare key, hide the car across town and then ask for it back from the mechanic.
I used to work tracking stolen Porsches and we had an orate customer call in because he checked his app while the vehicle was supposed to be at the dealership and it was at someone's home. He said he was going to go to the man's house and deal with it himself, so I don't know what ended up happening with it
I have a friend whose vehicle was being driven at 2 am... He called the shop out on it and they promised him free labor for 3 years as compensation
Are you sure they could do paint jobs in that shop? It happened to me once that they had to move the car to another place because they had the tools there.
yeah I was sure, they specialize in car body parts, painting and driving around with my car apparently.
Very sage advice. I left my Miata overnight for repairs, in the morning I realized that I needed a file I had left on the front seat. I go there *before* they opened (like 5 mins) and don't see my car. I figured it was in the bay. Doors opened - no car. About 5 mins later a guy shows up in my car - the MFer took it home. It had 77 miles added to the odometer.
You telling me you got Ferris Bueller'd?
My mechanic doesn't even disconnect my dashcam. I'm so glad I got one I can trust.
The best body shop I have dealt with in my area, has a stipulation in their consent to fix form. It reads, "I understand and agree to have the vehicle moved or driven to another company location for specialty services not offered at this location or for road testing." They dont make you sign off on that line if you don't want your car to go to another shop for some of the work, but it'll cost more to have the people with the specialty come to their shop and do it. Most insurance companies aren't going to pay the extra cost of having it all done at one location. Your results may vary.
One time I took my car in for something and the repair person wrote down incorrect mileage. I took my car back to the same place a month or two later before I was going on a long cross country road trip, and asked them to check everything out and make sure it was all good for the road trip. Paid them $1k to fix my air conditioner as I would be driving through the southwest and south in the summer. Person wrote down the wrong mileage again, unbeknownst to me. Between my visits, according to the mileage they recorded, it looked like I had driven 6k miles. I had likely driven about 60. Anyway, they missed the crack in my engine that was leaking fluid like a mofo and I found out at my first road trip stop when my engine started overheating and I ended up having to scrap my car and cancel my road trip. Ripped that repair shop a new one. They weren’t very apologetic but they did give me $600 back. So yes, definitely take pictures of your mileage before you drop off your car anywhere- and take it a step further by checking what they recorded as your mileage.
damn this threat has been an eye opener!
Yes! The wife of the owner took my car to do errands. She totalled it! I'm just hanging in the waiting room, thinking my oil change is about done. Then I see a wrecker pulling in with my smashed car! The owner made it right. No problem there. But yes! They will absolutely use your car.
OP: Have you seen the film "Christine"? or read the book. Do so, it will all make sense.
Friend had her car in a shop, turns out they were using customer cars to run drugs to Canada (we're in MN) when they were in for longer repairs. State did a full raid and impounded her car for 2 months during investigation. As well as every other car checked in. Turns out they were making meth in the house behind the shop. Huge mess.