Everytime I have my car serviced in any way, whether it is an oil change, rotating the tires, warranty work, etc, I inspect the car like a hawk looking for ANY kind of damage that was not there before I took the car in.

I do this because I had a flat fixed once, and I noticed later in the day that I had a small ding on the passenger side (which was on the same side as the flat). I check for dings every time I get in my car, and that ding was not there before I had it serviced. But it was too late for me to complain because I didn't catch it until after I got off work. They took so long with the tire I was late for work.

And then when I had my car in the body shop, I inspected the car for about 20 minutes looking for anything out of the ordinary. Well I didn't notice anything at the time, but a few weeks later, I noticed that the seam where the rear panel/bumper attaches to the top portion of the car juts out on the passenger side by a few millimeters. In addition, I noticed a small scratch on the very top of the passenger side rear door. I can't do anything about that now, since it's too late.

What do you guys think, am I being too picky? I just don't understand how service departments can be so careless!!!!!!!!! How damn hard is it not to scratch/ding the car when you're working on it! You'd think that'd be one of their top priorities -- not causing further damage to the damn car. GGRRR

I dont think your being to picky at all. I use to have a '00 mustang GT and took it in for service. a few days later i noticed someone curbed my front passenger rim.

I am very anxious too when my car gets worked on. When I went hand had my winter wheels put on my car, the window to the garage area was covered so I couldn't see the work getting done. I spent an hour pacing all over the waiting room like I was waiting for a baby to be delivered. Here's the thing though, even if you find a ding that wasn't there when you brought it to them, how are you going to prove to them that they did it?

dag

I once had a guy work on my MR2 and he leaned up against the back of the car while he was working on it with out throwing a drop cloth over it. He scratched the surface of the car all up with his belt. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that belt buckle + car paint x pressure = scratches. That was one pissed off shop owner let me tell you. That service tech probably lost his job.

When I had my 93 Rx-7 it was hit in the rear by an idiot in an F250 pushing me into a large van.

So I got the best body shop I could and tried to help as much as I could to get the right parts, etc. Things were going well until I went to pick up the car. The front bumper, hood, rear were all repainted. I noticed pretty much right away that nothing lined up properly in the back. The body panels were close on one side, way off on another. The shop owner tried to give me crap about how cheap cars are made today, blah blah. Eventually he agreed to fix it. While I was there as well I noticed the front bumper looked purpleish (red R1). Found out that they had repainted it (the rear was a perfect match btw) then dropped a tool on it and screwed it up. Then they repainted it with the purple hue. We argued about that one for a while and he reluctantly agreed to repaint the front.

Anyway, he then comments about how "fastidious" I am about my car, along with a few other subtle insults.

So I go to pick it up a week later and the paint match is great, the body panels are perfect. I'm happy until I open up the back hatch. They had forgotten to put a bunch of interior parts back. So I point this out to the guy and a quick call to Mazda tells me I'm looking at $150 at least in lost parts. I was pissed.

This is the good part. Owner looks in the back and sees a few dog hairs. He says "you have a dog?". I say yeah. He says well there you go. I'm confused. He says "your dog must have eaten the parts". I won't go into how stupid this was or the fact that some of the parts were missing from between the hatch and the location where it meets the car. I also had gotten a somewhat new 4-Runner at the time and only drove the dog in that since way before my accident.

Well needless to say we start having a blowout arguement because he now says he's going to charge me $450 for repainting the front end. One thing leads to another and I end up smacking him in the face several times after an altercation starts up. He promptly goes and gets his gun and threatens to kill me if I try to take my car (which I owe nothing on). He files a warrant on me before I could even get home and I turn myself in. Total cost about $900 for my "fastidiousness".

Do I have a point? Not really. I don't think you're out of bounds at all. Just keep a cool head when dealing with the dickheads. My problem was with Executive collision in Atlanta. They did all sorts of high end vehicles. Even the best shops are careless and won't even admit blantant mistakes when confronted with them.

RotaryStalker

they always ask me to wait inside but I have to walk out by the tech and get as close as I can to watch my car being worked on.

I've always worked on my cars myself so using a dealer and having a warranty is something very new for me

Thanks for the responses. Glad to hear I'm not the only 'paranoid' rx8 owner. My friends say this kind of stuff stresses me out too much. Yea, well they don't own a $30k sports car!

It just makes sense to me that if someone entrusts you with their vehicle for repairs, you go out of your way to ensure that it gets fixed properly, and that nothing else happens to the car!!!! And then if things got out of hand, how would you ever prove they did it! Total BS.

I think I am pretty picky when it comes to letting a dealer touch my car. To prove the point, when I take my car in for any kind of service I give it to them dirty with instructions not to wash it. When I get the car back it is easy to see anywhere they have touched, leaned or rubbed against it. I equate the dealership experience a kin to going to the hospital. If your not sick already odds are you'll catch something while you are there. My dealership is trying soo hard to change me and I appreciate their effort. But that kind of trust is hard to establish and so easy to lose.

Wow RotaryStalker, that is quite a story. Sorry to hear about it. Your right the cool head comes out on top. BTW you can take your car from a shop at any time, paid or not. They cannot hold your personal property as payment in most states. They can go after you with collections and get judgements but they cannot keep you from taking your car. I would have insisted the guy call the police and let them tell him that I am driving out without paying. I would have taken it to another shop for them to fix it and take photos, etc. to build my case for when this guy tried to go after me. But hey that's my $.02 worth.

Originally posted by TheDosDog
I think I am pretty picky when it comes to letting a dealer touch my car. To prove the point, when I take my car in for any kind of service I give it to them dirty with instructions not to wash it. When I get the car back it is easy to see anywhere they have touched, leaned or rubbed against it.

hmm..... very interesting.... thanks for the tip

Originally posted by Winning_BlueRX8
You'd think that'd be one of their top priorities -- not causing further damage to the damn car. GGRRR
First do no harm..... (medical proverb)