a new rant
 

I am so tired of mechanics looking me in the eye and lying. The Taco needed new tires, so I ordered them online and brought them to my local garage which I've been using for 20 years.

They have a new guy there but it's just mounting and balancing and i trust the owner. I go to pick up the truck and the hub covers are missing. I know I was missing 1 but there were 3. I go back inside and ask if they were mislaid. "nope there was only 1 when it came in".

They're only cheap pieces of plastic and of no great importance. And frankly I know that there's no reason for the shop to take them. That's a ridiculous thought.

But where are they? All he had to say was "sorry maybe I mislaid them or tossed in the wrong heap, I'll look around" and I would have said don't worry about it.

But no I got the ol' mechanic cover up instead. :mad:

I have no right to tell the owner that the new guy can't touch my truck so I guess I'm looking for a new wrench.

I steal that kind of stuff all the time,+ the change in your ashtray and dont ever leave a sandwich or snacks in there ..
Sorry that happened, lots of schlubs in this biz . I try to be a stand up guy.

It's a shame but you probably should have taken pics when you dropped it off . And made mention that one cap was missing . I tend to over mistake proof everything based on my years with Lockheed .

After twenty years you have every right and some might say obligation to tell the owner his new employee is flying united.

I've never had an issue of any sort with this shop...until now with the new guy.

Is there a chance with the colder temps that they fell off recently and you did not notice?

I've found I have to stand just outside the service bay and watch carefully when I get tires/wheels rotated etc.
Saved myself some grief when I caught the guy about to thread a lug nut on with the impact gun. It was tight and wouldn't go by hand. Saved having to get a new stud I'm sure. All it cost me was a new lug nut and the inconvenience of having to go to the Honda dealer to get it. Well, that and 10 bucks for the nut.

Nope. When I decided it was time for tires I had gone all around checking tread depth on all of them and they were there.

As I said they are only window dressing but man do I hate being lied to.

I'd discuss it with the owner. He sounds like he's earned your loyalty and should have a chance to make it right. In the future, work with the owner so the hub cover thief is out of the loop. I wouldn't want that guy involved with anything on my vehicle.

This is the correct answer.

Have a conversation with the owner.

Then let the owner take care of your issue. His responsibility alone to resolve things.

The old saying in business is "There's no such thing as problems. Just opportunities."

I told the manager of a Grismer Tire store in Dayton to tell a mechanic to get his hands off of my truck and keep them off.
They were changing tires and a rear wheel stud broke off. It happens. Of course you need to remove the brake drum. I looked out the window from the waiting room and the idiot was out there whaling away on my truck with a 4 pound sledge hammer, hitting the spring, the axle, and maybe the backing plate for all I could tell. I told the manager to tell the moron to quit beating on my truck and he gave me some BS about, "You see sir, he has to take the drum of blah, blah, blah..." I told him again to tell the guy to stop. When he just looked at me I went to the door and yelled at the guy to stop beating on my truck. He stopped and looked at me and I told him, "Put the f&^% hammer down and stop beating on my truck!"
We had a confab, with them trying to tell me the only way to get a brake drum off was to beat the hell out of it and me telling them that's not the way to do it and if they don't have anyone here who knows how to take the brake drum off of a Toyota to put the damn thing on the ground and I'll take it home and do it myself. They said something about can't let you drive off with a lug nut missing and I got ready to call the sheriff.
I eventually got the keys to my truck and took it home and replaced the lug bolt without violence or damage to anything. I was ready to visit the general manager and tell him what a bunch of morons he has for mechanics and managers but, I cooled down and but cooled down and never did follow up.

Really important to tell the owner you're sure there were three on there. It's not always easy running a business to know what's going on at the shop floor. The test of a good garage is not that it hired somebody either having a bad attitude or just inexperienced at life. The test is how they respond to this issue. A good manager is delighted to hear complaints because that's an opportunity to improve.

Best case scenario you have some cctv or a ring doorbell showing the vehicle with wheel covers on, to show them.

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Good luck. Crummy situation.

My Indy mechanic does a walk around when I drop off my vehicle. I'm good with it. It protects both of us.
Recently they replaced the oil filter with an off brand, not a factory filter that I asked and paid for. They made it right.

I had some tire work done at a national chain. When I got in the truck, I noticed the HVAC temp were different right and left. It seems to happen every time you reach into the change compartment below them, the knobs get touched and change temps. Dirtbag mechanic took almost all of my quarters out of there.

I keep my quarters in an old herb (oregano, not something more interesting) container in the gloveboxes of the cars. As far as I can tell not a one has ever suffered from sticky fingers. May be worth considering.

Yep, sounds like aBS lie that lots of places tell. I'm sure the kid forgot to put them on and was too lazy to go get them or figure out where they were.

Sucks to be sure. I'd go to there manager and tell them. If they get away with it once it'll only get worse.

If you move the brutha's seat, dammit, put it back!

And don't change the brutha's station.

_

I'd tell the owner. Long story, but there was a motorcycle repair place in town that grew too fast and the kid who started it lost control. He had techs taking all kinds of parts off bikes stored there over the winter. They offered a deal where for a monthly fee you'd store the bike, and in the spring they'd give it a once over. The owner was an idiot himself and did some other shady stuff on the sales side of things, but he always claimed he didn't know his guys were taking parts off of customer bikes. Maybe he could have intervened earlier?

What year is your Taco.....my 2003 is retired with a rusted out frame. I've got the plastic caps if they fit yours i'll send them to you.
If memory serves they look like this
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1703044272.jpg