Humiliated in a garage

impr0v wrote:

Judging by the way your mother and yourself reacted, I'd say your father is a fairly dominant and aggressive type and she has perhaps been in his shade a little too long.

I love the bravery that a lot of boards users maintain when criticising others. The protective anonymity provides so much freedom for judgement they wouldn't dare say to another's face.

oh wait, i'm sure you would. of course you would. if this was a friend's mother you'd have no problem telling him about his aggressive father and submissive mother who cries when intimidated/humilated in public by someone who won't give her car back.
you'd shrug your shoulders and laugh.

big man.

Blingarella wrote:

... if someone was bawling me out of it I probably would be scared. ... Its not his job to shout at and scare her.

I think we are all reading our own interpretations into this. I didn't see it written anywhere by the OP that the mechanic was 'bawling her out of it', or that he was shouting and scaring her. (And note the OP was not actually even there themselves so we have these reports third-hand.)

What a load of ****e from some of the people here... the mechanic was clearly an asshole. These guys are very common, and you will come across them everywhere. It is extremely important that you are not getting your car serviced by them (especially for women who usually don't know much about cars).

Its a regular customer and a woman in her late 50s - shes clearly not there to rip you off. All you internet fags can argue all you like about how 'uhhh thats both sexist and agist uhhh' but it doesn't change the fact that you show some extra respect to these customers. Whoever thinks she was there to 'steal parts and services' is a retard.

Running a garage is NOT the same as working behind the counter in a mobile phone shop. You build up a customer base and you keep them happy. You develop a reputation for years, and stupid employees like this guy can shatter that rep very quickly. This man should not have been dealing with customers, maybe hes a very good mechanic in which case he should have been allowed work on the cars hidden from the public, and if not then I blame the manager for allowing him to interact with the public.

So many times in so many different garages I've seen people who had an emergency break down in the middle of nowhere - who weren't even past customers - being helped out by the local garage, often free of charge, or on credit. This is common decency which used to be abundant in Ireland.

In the case of this woman; SHE IS A REGULAR CUSTOMER. They know her car. They know her licence plate. They know her name. They know where she lives. Its in Galway so they probably know everyone in her family, and her dog too. At the very worst they could have been accommodating and offered her some assistance in getting the cash before releasing the car... many major garages provide a taxi service free of charge while you're getting your car done anyway.

In response to your original question

Surely they have no right to treat a customer like this?

You should have rephrased this to "Surely they should not treat a customer like this" otherwise you get all the semi-retarted net nerds with the business sense of a donkey arguing 'rights'. This asshole mechanic will feel quite justified in outlining how he was within his rights, but he is also very limited in his understanding of how business works, he is not familiar with the term customer service, and he is severely lacking in basic social skills. At the end of the day it is the customer's own fault for choosing a garage where assholes are allowed to deal with the public. The smaller garages tend to be much more decent, but you can find loads of major dealers who prioritise customer service, like Keary's in Cork.

What should your mother do now? Complain to the manager, if he doesn't apologise for the situation then she should tell all her friends what a kip that place is, find a new garage to get her car serviced in, and be done with it.

Ardent, dont mind people here trying to goad you. Im sure if it was anyone heres mother put in that situation they would view it the exact same. People can be assholes when they are on the internet.

Id either write to the manager or toyota ireland as suggested.

Sounds like the mechanic was being a bit ignorant but all the same, he was in the right. He could have gone about things better, like getting the manager or a senior employee (maybe they weren't available at the time). As was said before, big garages are not as personal as smaller, local ones. You can't expect all their employees to remember each customer. Okay, he should have checked her record and seen that she was a long time customer but for reasons unknown, he didn't do this. Maybe he didn't have access to the files. It sounds like he was covering his own back by not letting your mother go off without paying while at the same time making little effort to assist your mother. If you were to complain about anything it would be the standard of customer care from yer man.
At the same time, I think your mother handled the whole thing pretty badly too. Crying? Crying is for two things only ->
1. loss of a friend/family member etc.
2. emotional leverage in a situation where you're not getting what you want.
She should have had more self control. If your man wasn't going to give back the car and she couldn't talk to a serior staff member, she should have asked to use the phone to call a taxi. Then she should have gone home and writen a letter of complaint or called to make an appointment with the manager.

Ardent, quoted by nlgbbbblth wrote:

This morning, she brought her car in for a routine service and a repair to a wing mirror. Prior to bringing it in, a guy at the garage said on the phone that they didn't have a replacement wing mirror in stock and they'd have to keep to the car in for the weekend. Fair enough.

When my mother arrives, they tell her they actually do have a replacement mirror after all and they can do the whole job in an hour.

nlgbbbblth wrote:

the garage is clearly at fault here for communicating false and misleading information as highlighted.

When she arrived in the shop and they said the did actually have a replacement mirror, she should have said "No, it's OK, I don't have the money on me"

Simple as that.

They communicated information which at the time they believed to be true. They then corrected themselves by communicating the correct information. She still did not tell them she had no money.

My theory is that she only realised at the end of the service that she had no money in her handbag, and tried to invent a story as to how they ignored her (why would they?), just to validate her OTT reaction.


Sorry if I'm sounding a bit harsh, but, well... ya.