joeymc13

So, the other day, I had this little elderly old lady pull up to my shop in a little dodge neon. I walk outside to greet her, and she is already mad at me, and I've never seen her in my life! I asked her what I could do for her, and here is the story...

(lady) My friends say these buttons on my viper should lock and unlock my doors (the arm and disarm buttons)

(me) well, yes ma'am, they should, let me take a look.

(me) ma'am, your car doesn't have power locks, did whoever installed your viper add door lock motors for you?

(lady) no, I shouldnt have to, the buttons on the remote are supposed to do it.

(me) okay, lets back up a little... where did you get this installed?

(lady) circuit city

(me) well, I can add door lock motors for you, that way the buttons will lock and unlock the doors

(lady) That should've already been done!

(me) well, they should've atleast offered it to you, but its quite expensive, and takes a good amount of time.

(lady) well, im not paying for it. How long is it going to take you?

(me) it takes on average about a half hour per door, but I cant do it for free. It costs about $82 per door. ($60 for labor, $22 for the actuator)

(lady) no, im not paying for it, it should've been done when i first got it installed.

(me) well, I cant do it for free, and I cant speak for circuit city, I dont work there, and I never have, and you're not a circuit city right now. would you like me to install the doorlock motors for you? Ive got plenty of time, but like i said, its gonna cost about $82 per door.

This absolutely pisses this little old lady off. She starts cursing, and yelling at me. She says I don't know how to do my job, and she's never coming back to my store again, blah, blah... So, ultimately, it was absolutely my fault that her buttons didn't lock and unlock her doors. I've never seen someone get so mad at me before!

Anyone else have any rediculous stories to share? Like the ones where, You guys installed my radio, and my transmission went out, you guys are paying for that. I know you do, please share!!! I've got tons of these stories, Ill contribute randomly after I hear some of your stories.

The point of this thread is to kinda have some fun. Let some of you guys vent a little!

wrx-killer-Sti-eater

iTrader: (1)

I had a tranny issues because of remote start. On the 05 tahoes you need to tag both starter and ignition wires or the car will throw tranny code. Well it seems that the fuse on the remote start circuit of the alarm was not pused all the way in. HAd the car come back and we could not figure it out. Owner thought we had something to do with it. Well partly. The way I ran the alarm brain and rs cable was thru the top of the dash. Well to take the radio out and put it back correctly. You would have to pop the cluster out. The customer son was installing a radio with video and he ran the cable around the remote start harness. Not sure why and when he put the radio back it pulled the rca which pulled the fuse out. LOng story short. I sent the car into the dealership and took care of it under insurance. After showing the customer the problem he was happy and pissed at his son. A week later I received a card with a $1500 check from him to cover my insurance lost. He is still one of my best customers.


One of my best ones is that I installed a radio and the lady seat belt would not lock into place. Wow.

joeymc13

Dude, really!? A customer of your actually claimed fault, and didn't blame you no matter how obvious it was that the damage was in no way your fault! Not sucking anything here, but that speaks volumes about you, Desmond, and your customer service, and your work. Thats freaking awesome that he sent you that check, nice work!!! I wish all customers were like that! That would def be some kind of fantasy world however!

How about, you guys installed new speakers in my door, and now my gas mileage is horrible! That one was nice!

wrx-killer-Sti-eater

iTrader: (1)

The reason I sent it in was that he spends alot of money with me every year and that it was the remote start that caused it. But It was because his son tampered with it doing the mobile video. Not sure why you would wrap rca around the ignition harness? The dealership was trying to charge him 3k to fix it. All it needed was a computer reboot and the tranny oil drained and something in the tranny reset. I pointed it out to him about the issue with the mobile video. He glad that his truck is working and can tow his quads. Plus I like that he a sheriff and they all bring there cars to me.

This is the number one reason why any installer or shop should have insurance. If something major goes wrong its good to have $$$ backing you up if the un forseen happens.

Anothor good one was when we did speakers in a car. And the lady said she could still hear music when the radio was off.

joeymc13

She could still hear music with the radio off!? LOL!!! They make doctors for that kind of stuff! :p

Cobb2819

the trans issue is caused by either second ignition or second accessory, and once everything is fine the truck auto resets that code after 50 miles. had i happen a couple of time to guys i used to work with.

wrx-killer-Sti-eater

iTrader: (1)

I could not wait to see if 50 miles fixed it. Good to know that. Also his wifed drove it on the fwy while it acting funny. I guess they had to unplug something in the tranny to help reset it. All in all its fixed and we are both happy. This is common with installers not knowing what they are doing. My local dealership gets it all the time. lol.

I think we need a tips of the trade thread,

joeymc13

I'm down with that... I'll start writing some tips/tricks 2mrw... Should we limit it to just Honda/Acura, or go all out, with every car we've done and have something out of the ordinary to say about it?

wrx-killer-Sti-eater

iTrader: (1)

I say mostly honda's but we can throw in some others if people like.

Ramirez428

I did a radio on a camry and the lady came back blaming me that her a/c doesnt work anymore. So go out and take a look & the A/C button isnt even "on".

"me" Ma'am found the problem, you didn't have the A/C button pushed in

"her" I never had to do that before, you broke it

"me" you probably had that button pushed in all the time

"her" no this green light has never been on before

In the end her husband managed to convince her she was wrong

Also like it when they say their bluetooth doesn't have to be "on" to work

I'm down for a Tips of the trade thread.

(not a Honda)
Tip from today, Don't swap out A/C controls on a Scion Tc (heater/AC/Srs light/security light) all built into one, because the car won't go into reverse. You can shift into reverse but the tranny won't do anything.

They stole her old radio and damaged the lid and surrounding bezel and A/c controls, she had purchased a used bezel with controls online. Everything worked just fine but the car wouldn't engage into reverse. After About 30min of trying to diagnose the issue I decided to install the original and the tranny shifted into reverse like a champ.

joeymc13

okay, so, one of my partimers actually really did f**k up this car. He punctured the gas tank with a screw in a '67 beetle... no big deal, file an insurance claim, so he can get a new gas tank... Well, about a week later, the insurance company calls and asks to speak with me about the beetle, so im like, cool, whats up. The lady wanted to know how we caused rust to the body panels. I was like, WTF are you talking about!? She said the customer claimed that the way the power wire was run caused the areas around the window seals to rust. REALLY!?

Do you guys have one of those fuel Dr. things? What??? You know, you plug it into the cigarette lighter and it improves your gas mileage? Right.....