They Blew Up The Bill, And Now They Have To Suck It Up
This happened about seventeen years ago in a major city in the very south of the Netherlands with a Renault dealership.
I had a new job, and we needed a second car. We bought a new Twingo, a car that went for about €12,000. There were two stipulations in the contract when we bought the car. The first was that we had to get financing through Renault. The second was that three years of maintenance were included. We financed a minor part for three years at 0% interest.
After the first year, I took the car for its first service. I had about 12,000 km on the odometer. When I dropped the car off, I was asked if there was anything that needed attention. I think I answered something like, “Do whatever you need to do…”
In the late afternoon when I picked up the car, three rather bulky men were standing behind the service desk. I remember that they were really focused on me when I was presented with the bill. The bill was for about €1,000. And for a one-year-old car with just 12,000 km! I immediately understood what had happened. They must have figured that they could inflate the bill with all kinds of nonsense maintenance actions since I had given them carte blanche, and to avoid any troubles, they made sure that I could be intimidated by having three people present.
Me: *Very friendly* “May I have my car key, please?”
Representative: “But you have to pay first!”
Me: “No, I don’t. Please may I have my car keys?”
Instead of enlightening them straight away, I kept going like this for a bit longer.
When things started to get a bit unfriendly, I reminded the representative that I had bought the car at this dealership, including three years of maintenance. All three guys turned a few shades paler. They frantically searched for the contract, whispering, and eventually moving away to the office out of earshot.
It took about ten minutes before the representative came back out and handed me my keys.
I ended up getting its third service just before the three years had elapsed, and as soon as I got the title to the car, I traded it in for a car of a different brand. And as you would expect, the bill for the second and third services was less than €300 to €400.