I hate it when I have to get tough with someone

?

 

It’s been may years s since I got tough with anyone.
I “figuratively” booted a couple of undesirables from my last day job.
With the boss’ approval.
After a gig I did about ten years ago, a guy was bothering two female friends who came to hear my friend George and I.
My female friends were trying to leave, and he followed them to their car.
I told him to leave them alone, NOW, in no uncertain terms.
He took me seriously.
He made the best decision of his day.
When necessary, I can be absolutely easy to understand.
I learned that from my Dad.
Dad learned it from his Dad.

 

It's about the upsell.

I had taken a 1988 Toyota truck for a quick oil change to a place, and I got a lost of what it needed.

It included replacing the fuel injection filter. You should have seen the face of the idiot trying to tell me it needed that when I replied "The truck has a carburetor."

 

Brother, don't get me started!! But,, I bought a new car in 2016, which came with a couple of free oil changes within the first 2 years. I go get my first oil change at 3200 miles, and to make sure they actually do the oil chance, I grab a kernel of deer corn and with a black marker color it.
I then wait till I'm at the dealer, pop the hood and stick the corn kernel on the oil cap with is cupped and hands it nicely.
Once they call me that my car is ready, they have a clip board for me to sign. So I tell the guy, first let see if the oil change was even done, I pop the hood and what do you know, there sits the kernel right on the cap! I show him, and tell him there is No Way you can open that cap without the corn falling off, then show him. Guy turn white, then show him the pic I took on my iPhone with part of his office in the pic.
He gives me 3 free oil change vouchers, 4 $25 Red Lobster vouchers and took my car over to the commercial service side and has my oil changed in 10 min's.
This doesn't end there, but I will.

 

Many years ago my cousin bought a VW Polo from a dealer. He had it about 6 weeks and it just never drove right. He popped over to see my mother and father. He was telling my father of his woes and dad laughed and said he would call his buddy in the stolen car squad. Just for shiggles. Turned out the chassis number had never been registered and was actually from a shell that had disappeared at the VW plant in Germany. So cousin and dad went to visit the dealer. They explained all the issues and how my cousin had been back many times and how he wanted to return the car. The dealer laughed and told them to F off. At that point my father mentioned the unregistered chassis number and also that the stolen car squad were on their way. The dealer threw cash at my cousin. LOL. The look on his face wase priceless. Turns out this was a little scam he and another worker there had going. The owner of the dealership had no idea.

 

We bought a Rabbit from Volkswagen/ Mercedes dealer that was supposed to be a lease car with with 6k on it. We put 60k on the car and then my wife backed into something and we got it fixed but the dealers sticker was removed. A while later we took in for some front end issue and the mechanic says you must have been in an accident cause the front end had been repaired. I said no we bought from you. He turned red and I demanded to see a manager. Turns out the owners wife had been driving it and smashed the front end in, and not reported on the DIN. I threatened to sue or press charges ( what they did was illegal) so they bought the car back for what we paid. They eventually lost their Mercedes dealership and went belly up from other litigation, fricken morons

 

I knew I shouldn't have fallen for that undercarriage coating upsell. Hmmm...

 

You know they put that clearcoat on right at the factory, there's nothing I can do about it.

I've asked many car dealers if they ever saw Fargo. All of them said no.

 

Like you I worked in the motor trade (had my own garage) and all this "fluid needs changing and flushing etc" is a scam to rack up money and sadly people fall for it.

 

I put my Nissan X-Trail into our local Royal Automobile Club Service Station for a general service. I had gotten back home about 30 minutes when I get a phone call informing me that both front discs were worn and below the safety limit. I found this hard to believe because my car had only done 38k K's. So I told the guy I would come down and check it myself. I turned up armed with a 0 to1" micrometer, the mechanic had been using a Vernier Gauge to measure the width of the discs So I got to my car and produced my 0 to 1" micrometer and started to take a measurement when the mechanic suddenly says "Oh Sir I'm awfully sorry but I can see now I've taken the wrong reading on my Vernier Gauge. So I saw the Foreman and told him to make sure of things before phoning people about some non existent fault. As I left mine was the only face that wasn't red.. S

 

remember when used car dealers were honest....me neither

 

Sadly, I have few personal anecdotes that contradict this thread.

And, it is not limited to the auto industry. Perhaps I held an optimistic world view for too long regarding how business actually works, at least in the U.S. That naïveté cost me dearly.

What I spent in the last year alone on vehicle repairs and subsequent repairs for non-repairs has reaffirmed that it is my own fault, for not knowing how to do all of these things myself.

It is not right that the fewer times my vehicle goes in for any type of service, the better it does.

Moreover, whatever shred of expectation I had left that any people or entities actually deal fairly, competently, and honestly across the board in this life have been replaced with genuine surprise when they are.

More often, I am asking the question "How do they sleep at night?"

The only logical response I can have in the face of these sobering truths is to know what I am dealing with.

My weak solutions of small victory have surprisingly come from YouTube, albeit with its own share of ethical dissonance.