A little O/T
 

I'm thinking maybe I should start a site for techs to complain about their customers, much in the way some 'cusstomers' complain about their techs...

Gee, I only had two cars in the shop today with pieces of black tape over the 'Check Engine' lights. A Crown Vic with a plugged EGR passage - about an hour's labor. Plus he has to have it fixed to pass inspection next month anyway. He said the light has been on for about a year and a half.

The other was a Jag XJS. Somebody had unplugged the temp sensor for whatever reason and not plugged it back in completely. The car's been running in open loop for six months because the owner is afraid to have someone look at it. In other words he bought a car he can't afford to maintain. Then again, this repair wouldn't have been any cheaper on a Chevy.

Thanx, I needed to vent a little. I feel much better now. If I seem a bit cranky from time-to-time this kind of stuff is usually why.

*jumps down from soapbox* "Next!" :D

Beav,

Be careful, you are liable to get what you wish for.
We could call it Gasoline Alley, after the famous comic strip.
I can see it now. ..............Eddycat sending in 143 messages about some guy bringing a car into his shop and insisting that his 4-wheel steering doesn't work because when he is stopped and turns the steering wheel to full lock, the rear wheels don't move.

Nuttin' passive about that situation. ;)

One of my co-workers drives a C-Series Mercedes. He currently has a piece of black tape over his "time to service the brakes" indicator light. Makes me shudder every time I see it.

Vent away. You are among friends. :D

I won't actually name ther person who did the following, but the story needs to be added to this thread.

When I was still in high school and riding in a car with <name deleted>, the driver did something rather curious. Cresting a hill, the driver took the car out of gear, shut the engine off and coasted to the bottom of the hill. At the bottom, the driver re-started the engine, put the car back into 'D', and kept going.

Now, I didn't have my license yet, but I knew that this was neither normal nor safe.

'Why did you do that?' I asked the now-anonymous driver.

"Because it makes the 'service engine soon' light turn off," was the reply.

Now, I thought that was bad because it's in active disregard of the car's own (admittedly simple) self-diagnostics saying, 'hey, I'm not feeling so good - please have me looked at.' But going through the effort of actually putting black tape over diagnostic lights borders on criminal.

And on the topic of buying a car you can't afford to maintain, I have another brief story. When I lived in VT and was bent on trading my pickup for an SUV (I know, I know - I'm sorry, okay?), I found a surprise. The Land Rover Discovery has a really, realy low resale value. Two-year-old Discoverys packed to the gills with options were selling in the low 20s. So I drove one. Let me tell you, that is the weirdest thing. The rear suspension travels 11 or 12 inches, and the body roll is almost nauseating. But I dug it, so I talked to the sales guy a little.

No kidding, he actively talked me out of it. The sticker price was affordable, but the maintenance was not. The salesman told me that Land Rover actually advises that a Discovery costs about $5000 a year to maintain.

No thanks. I ran.

Re: A little O/T
 

LOL LOL LOL Gosh I really like that:D

Ok not a car related Tech complaint. Heres a few though.

Customer walks in and says "What can you tell me about these 2 motherboards?"
Me"What would you like to know"
Customer" Well I don't really know, what's the difference between this one(points) and that one(points)"
Me"Well one of them is a mini board and one is a full size, also the mini board has video, sound, and netowrk onboard, the other one only has sound."
Customer"Oh, so which one has better video?"
Me"Sir, only one has video onboard."
Customer"Oh, ok well I'm looking for a board that has video and sound, so why don't you sell me the fullsized one."
Me"No sir, that board doesn't have video onboard"
Customer"I know but I want onboard video."


Customer walks in and goes to look at our scanners.
Salesman "Can I help you with anything"
Customer "Yeah, what kind of paper do these scanners use?"

Customer walks in with a system we recently repaired and he is pissed off, he claims that we repaired his Compaq computer and switched all the parts out with parts we had in the back and stole his. He claims that we stole his Athlon Slot 1 gig and replaced it with an 850 Athlon then hacked into his bios and made it read out 1 gig on startup. He went on yelling and screaming about how we have a crack team of hackers in the back set up specifically just to screw people out of their parts.


Before I got hired I came in for an interview once, I was waiting until the sales manager was done helping out a customer so that I could talk to him. He was helping an older man in a long black tenchcoat. I don't remember what he was trying to buy but it went something like this.

Sales"Ok sir that will be ** dollars and ** cents"
Man"I will give you two bottlecaps"
Sales"I'm sorry sir we do not accept botle caps as payment here"
Man"But the bottle caps are blue, blue is good, I'll give you 2 bottle caps for it"
Sales"No sir, I can not accept that as payment-
Man"I DEMAND TO SPEAK TO A MANAGER! IF YOU DO NOT GIVE ME THESE ITEMS I WILL NEVER SHOP HERE AGAIN. THIS IS B*** SH**
WHAT KIND OF AN OPERATION ARE YOU RUNNING HERE?!!!"
then he went stomping out the door.

Anyway, that's just a few of the fun people I get to deal with almost every day. I really don't get paid enough for what I do.

None of us do, man. None of us do. :D:D:D

Consider yourself lucky that he did open up the long black trenchcoat.

Exposed
 

Good one Larry ! I hope Ron is following this thread and also is also chuffed.

Re: Exposed
 

Thanks for the flash, Trevor. Chuffed, Chafed, whatever.

Ron.

I'd add my own to that list, but I don't think my hands could handle the typing. :mad:

Oh believe me, there's plenty more like it. I get about 4 people like those every week, and my co-workers do as well