Greedy people make me sick.

 

I find many people think they got "screwed" because something they claimed was a part of the the loss did not get fixed even though it is clear that it was not a part of the loss.

Example. I had a lady that had brought her nissan maxima in for repairs. The insured had impacted her rt front fender and bumper cover. Replace bumepr cover and repair rt fender. This lady from the day she brought the car to me insisted that the vehicle started leaking oil because of the impact. After further inspection it was apparent that oil had been leaking around the head gasket for some time. She swore up and down that we were liars and we were only looking to save the insurance company money.

Obviously there are people out there that have been "screwed" by someone doing sub par work and not making things right in the end. I just find it funny that even these people in alot of circumstances will not think twice about taking advantage of a situation to benefit themselves even if it means they have to be dishonest or "screw" the responsible party in the proccess.

 

As I am finding out, that is exactly what kind of people these folks are! Was in touch with 2 other contractors that were doing work on their house, and after they had completed the work, they have yet to be paid the finals due on the respective bills.

 

I have a nice fresh story that just happened to me this morning.

Repaired a customers 99 nissan pathfinder. Damage to the vehicle was from a deer hit. Replaced front bumper cover, bumper reinforcment, h/lamps and signal lamps. Repaired the front tip of the lt fender. Also replaced the frt lower air box that mounts behind the lt fender liner. The air box had a crack from the deer impacting it.

This vehicle has had previous repair done to it as there was paint peeling on the lt frt and rear doors. the lt rear door outer handle did not work. Lt front window is held up by wedging pieces of wood between the window and the belt mldg. The engin has 270,000 miles on it. Looking in the engin bay you can see leakage around the head gasket. Also, the brake fluid resivior cap is made of duct tape. Now that the duct tape is not sticking they have wraped zip ties around the duct tape. Customer has admitted to having the transmission rebuilt recently.

With all this said...

Customer comes to pick the vehicle up yesterday. They get about 20 miles down the road and i get a phone call. The vehicle is sitting on the side of the road with a puddle of oil under it. Customer said they heard some clunking and a loud bang and the vehicle stopped. I drove out there as a courtesy to see what was going on. Got up under the vehicle and could see a hole in the bottom of the oil pan. You can tell something has punctured the oild pan from the inside. Im not a master mechanic or anything but you can tell there was an internal failure in the engine. Definitley nothing to do with me changing a bumper and some lights. I felt bad and did not want to leave the customer stranded so i had the vehicle towed back to the shop and gave them a ride back to my shop. I also put them back in the rental until we knew for sure what was going on.

Got the vehicle in the air and you can see that the hole in the pan was made from the inside. I call the customer to explain the issue and let them know that infortunately the insurance company will not cover the damage and that there was really no way we could have caused the issue.

Customer calls back this morning and tells me they did some reasearch on the internet. They tell me that from that research they found that these engines dont fail (even with nearly 300,000 miles on the odo.) . They also tell me that since the vehicle was in the shops possession for body repairs that we were responsible for maintaining the vehicle while it is in the shop. Due to this fact they believe we should be responsible for the engine having an internal failure.

I sure do love people. I mean I would definitely be a little upset and suspicious if i just picked my vehicle up and it had an major issue. But, when presented with the facts of the loss and the condition of the vehicle how can you logically believe that we had anything to do with an engine with 270,000 miles on it having an internal failure. especially when the work we did on the vehicle was purely cosmetic with the exception of a lower air intake box.

 

Wow!! That sucks Flex. Sounds to me like they are trying to get something very expensive for free! If there is duct tape capping the master cylinder (shade tree mechanic style) and oil around the gasket, I'm sure there is a big ol' oil stain in their driveway, they are definitely taking you for a ride. I ABSOLUTELY hate people like that! I'd understand if they don't have the money to get a new engine as it sounds like they threw a rod, that's still no excuse to try and make others pay for what they obviously knew was coming around the corner. Hell, I'll bet they saw the deer and steered into it on purpose.

 

Beau- there isn't a body shop in this country that hasn't lived that story out scores of times (in very varying degrees, hopefully most not that large) Spent a lot of years in the trade, and have actually seen customers come in to pick up their car and not even go to the area of damage, but to another area they wanted fixed free, only to swear up and down that the rusted area that you're looking at "wasn't that way before the accident". I worked on a car back in Chicago in the winter (where I started) and the owner called about 2 days later, very irate, stranded along the "Expressway". I had worked on the car (a VERY small job), so had the car towed in and determined it wasn't getting any fuel (fuel pump days). I finally pulled the tank and drained about 2-3 gallons of the most disgusting "snot" (looked JUST like it) from the tank as a result of him using the cheapest gas (watered down) that he could buy. He didn't have much to say when he saw the BUCKET of YUK!

 

Well, they have been communicating with me via e-mail (they refuse to call me on the phone now or answer theirs) and stated, almost a week ago, that I will be allowed to enter their home this Friday and take care of some "unfinished tasks". Keep in mind that the written contract was completed. I e-mailed the husband back (wife has been an absolute you know what to me from day one, even though I've kissed her fat hairy butt to make her happy, impossible task at best) and asked that he send me this list of things that need to be done, and keep in mind that as a job progresses, I always have the lines of communication open so that there are no questions as to whether or not clients are happy and satisfied with the work being performed as has been the case on this job. I've talked to these folks everyday that I have been there, making sure that they like what they see and to do things the way they want them done, basically preventing a punch list from happening, which will occur from time to time, but rare, as I make sure everything works properly and looks good to their satisfaction, this almost always insures final payment and that I get repeat and referral business. So far, they had been happy with everything, and that is according to what they've told me, up until the point of final payment, to which she stated she could not give me the payment because of 2 things that were not done which were not on the written contract. Normally I don't have a problem with things like this if they are small issues (again, satisfied clients, repeat and referral business) but these folks had already gotten waayy more from me than I should have allowed and these "items" in question weren't so small, and they would have to pay an extra charge. She absolutely did not want to hear of that (I can tell you that these people have a sense of "entitlement" about them) and they were becoming completely impossible about this job. I had not even told her what the extra amount would be yet before she basically threw me out, asking me to leave her home, to which I did and told her I would be getting in touch with her husband to try and resolve their issues. I can pretty much equate this job to a good cop bad cop sort of thing, her being the bad cop and him being the good cop (he's been easy to deal with and in agreement with everything on the job). Well now it is a bad cop bad cop routine, as his e-mails to me have been pretty heated and they are now teamed up against me. Anyway, I have yet to receive this list of "unfinished tasks" to which I e-mailed him (again) yesterday for this list since tomorrow is Friday and I don't want to be unprepared or worse even waste my time, fuel and energy. I (finally) received an e-mail back from him, stating that a problem has come up for tomorrow and that Monday in the a.m. would be better, which by the way, has been an ongoing theme on this job as they have only allowed me to work in their home 2 days out of a 7 day week to which they would sometimes cancel 1 of those days on me siting various issues and stretching this job out way too long, it's now been 2 months since I started the damn thing (I know, red flags all over the place), and I still have yet to receive this "list". He says he will get it to me before Monday. As I have stated before, I would like to resolve this in a professional and amicable manner, keeping it out of the court system if possible, though if I have go that route, I will. We'll see what happens. And I know, I've given a lot more detail in this post than my original one, but it was just too freaking cold that morning and I just wanted to get to the heart of the matter.

 

If they were so interested in getting these items resolved then why in the world would they be stalling so much and refuse to provide you with a list of issues they have? Sounds like they know what they are doing and have probably done this more than once. People have figured out if they are enough of a pain in the rear they can get away with just about anything. They are just hoping that at a certain point you decide it isnt worth your time and effort to collect the rest of your money. I have sen it a million times in my industry. I have watched people come to pick up their car knowing they have a $500 deductible only to protest this once it comes time to pay. I had one fellow sit in my office for over 2 hours arguing with the insurance rep about his deductible and why he didnt feel he should have to pay it. His reasoning? He had already paid to much money every month for his premium and didnt feel it was fair for im to have to pay the deductible. He signed that policy knowing full and well what the stipulations were and how the deductible worked. After sitting there forever on the phone they finally reduced his deductible to $250.

I would be embarassed to act like that to anyone, much less someone who just performed a service for me. I would stay on top of these people no matter what. If only to prove a point and show them that you know what they are doing.

 

I am sure we could both talk for hours on end about crazy customer

I just cant stand the sttuborn customers. The ones who refuse to budge on an issue even though you have proven beyond a doubt that the shop had nothing to due with the problem. I know there are shops out there that do underhanded work. I take full responsibility for everything I do. If I messed up I will take care of it. I have paid for rental and repairs out of my own pocket because of mistakes I have made. It makes me want to choke these people out when they pull stuff like this.

I sure have went off on a tangent in this thread. Its just stuff like this that strikes a chord with me. i cant stand when people pull this stuff.

I always said they should do a news story on Dishonest customers like they would do on repair shops. Maybe if people can actually see how disgusting their behaivior is it might make some of them think about the next time they decide to throw a hissy fit like a child to get their way.

 

Thanks for the post Beau, yeah, I am not letting this one go by the wayside, and again I am not the only contractor they are doing this to, so yeah, at this point they are becoming pros at it.

 

Go over there and tell them you would like to be paid for all work rendered, if he gives you any lip then smash him in the mouth and bitch slap the ole sow one good!!!. This is how you exact respect when you can get no other way.... Call me i'll go with you i'll put that man over my knee and beat him senseless with my belt as if he were a 10 year old boy..... Then i'll beat there dog into submission... just for giggles..

 

Beating the dog is going over the line. But I believe since it is just for giggles technically you are ok on this one.

There have been countless times I would have liked to implement this procedure.

 

I do believe you would do just that! Just for giggles of course

 

dognap if they have a dog, hold the damn thing for ransom til they spit out rest of your freakin money!

 

If the dog is anything like its owners you probably would NOT like to have the dog.........