Unfiltered Story #209702

(I work as a service advisor at a car dealership that services multiple mak= es. I am a new employee and, unfortunately for me, specialize in one brand = in particular that already has a reputation for being notoriously unreliabl= e – being in the trenches I can vouch that the reality is even worse than t= he perception. The business has been operating since the 1800s but only beg= an servicing this make the week before this incident; another dealership in= the area for the same manufacturer closed recently and I had been employed= there for years, so my new workplace hired me for my expertise. As we are = still brand brand new we literally have one mechanic who knows the cars and= is certified to work on them – he came from my old store with me – but as = the cars are terrible and perpetually broken the demand for appointments is= extremely high. We’ve been scheduling at a rate of about one week&#03= 9;s worth of bookings per day and with unplanned cars towed in and disabled= we already have enough of a backlog of cars onsite to keep my tech busy fo= r another two weeks even though we’ve been open for less than that. My= phone rings – it’s a representative from the manufacturer’s cust= omer helpline calling.)

Caller: I have a mutual customer of ours, (name), who is having a charging = problem with his electric car. He says he can’t get an appointment for= a month?
Me: That sounds accurate. As you can probably see in your system we literal= ly just opened last week – we still only have one technician, so we aren&#0= 39;t exactly ready to keep up with demand yet. We’re working on gettin= g more bodies but we don’t have a timeline, so we’re certainly no= t going to schedule appointments for technicians that may not exist.
Caller: That makes complete sense. I’m trying to see if there’s a= nything I can do for this customer – he’s asking me to provide a renta= l car to him for a month until the appointment. Obviously I don’t thin= k we can do that, but I feel bad for him and I’m wondering if there&#0= 39;s anything we can work out.
Me: I’m not surprised to hear from you; I actually sicced him on you g= uys when he complained to me about it first this morning. Sorry! But when y= ou say you feel bad for him.. I have a feeling he didn’t tell you the = WHOLE story.
Caller: *laughs* When you put it that way I have a feeling he didn’t e= ither. What’s the whole story?
Me: He was one of the lucky very first people to secure an appointment. He = had one for yesterday for the charging system concern and the latest recall= .
Caller: Did he no-show?
Me: Oh no, he was here. I went out to his car and said, ‘Hi, (customer= ); I hear you’re hear today for a charging issue and the recall?’= And he said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about the charging problem. I alre= ady fixed that, so we don’t need to do anything about it. Just the rec= all, and I need to get out of here as fast as possible! I’m in a hurry= !’ So I didn’t ask any more questions about a charging issue and = we didn’t look into it, but we DID bend over backwards to get him in a= nd out within about a half hour on the recall. And today he called me and s= aid ‘Never mind, I had the charging problem again. I really wish you g= uys had spent a little more time looking into it.’ When he was the one= who told us to pretend we never heard about it in the first place, and was= in SUCH a huge hurry to get his car finished.
Caller: ..Oh. I see. Yeah, he definitely didn’t mention any of that. Me: I did tell him if he can leave his car with us on standby we’ll ge= t to it as soon as we can, but I certainly can’t guarantee we’ll = look at it right away or even the same day. Our priority is appointments, t= hen cars that are completely unusable because you can’t plan emergenci= es, then ones like his that are intermittent issues or inconveniences but n= ot disabling the vehicle. If he doesn’t want to wait a month, he could= try one of the other dealerships – they’re not that close, but they d= o exist.
Caller: That makes perfect sense to me too.. It sounds like he might not be= as reasonable though.
Me: Seriously. When he was looking for a pen so I could give him your helpl= ine number I could hear him grumbling to someone else about how it was stup= id that we only have one mechanic. I wanted to tell him, ‘Come on, dud= e. Two weeks ago there wasn’t even a dealership.’
Caller: As far as I could tell from his description, his car is working rel= iably too. He’s just getting a warning once in awhile. I didn’t e= ven really get why he’d need a rental until his appointment.
Me: Ha! Well now I have even less sympathy. Anything else I can help you wi= th?
Caller: No, I think we’re good. I’ve got all the info I need. Enj= oy the rest of your day!
Me: Good luck with him, and have a good weekend!

(I guess I’ll get an earful from him next month when his appointment r= olls around. Unless he decides he’s fixed his own problem again by the= n.)