As usual, there has been a significant delay in getting this post. I should strongly acknowledge Prithz, BSK, Bharathi, Marutham and others for constantly motivating me to keep this alive. To be honest, I started writing a post following up my post about my car and never got to complete it (I will post it immediately after this post). Oh well.... lets get on to business..
Living in USA, you tend to forget that you could be cheated in your day-to-day life doing simple things like fixing a flat tire. But, there are some creepy mechanics out there, and you gotta keep your eyes wide open. I would like to share an incident that happened to me yesterday fixing a flat tire, so that you will be more careful when fixing your flat tire.
My car got a flat tire in our office parking lot and one of my collegues reported to me that my tire is losing air. We examined the tire very carefully to locate the cause for the puncture and replaced it with my spare. Then I took the flat tire to a tire shop to get it fixed. It was a privately run performance wheels / tire shop near my office. The mechanic examined the tire, told me that it is gonna cost me $25 to fix it and is gonna be another hour before he could start working on it. Sounded reasonable. I didn't ask him many questions, left my phone number and asked him to inform me when it is done. After all, it is just a simple job, fixing a punctured tire. I went back to the office and never received any call from this dude.
After couple of hours, I went back to his shop to pick up the tire and was amazed to notice that the tire didn't look as I gave it to him. It had a big mark on both sides and the mechanic was trying to explain me that I drove the car punctured and hence, the tires are damaged and needs to be replaced. I was 100% sure that this was not the case: (1) It happened on a parking lot, and
(2) I have examined it very carefully. However, I had no way of proving this to him as I didn't ask him all these things when I gave him the tire. He must have either:
- Intentionally damaged the tire so that he can sell me a new tire, or
- Had an incompetant worker who spoiled the tire unintentionally and the mechanic was covering up his a**.
I am trying to console myself by assumming that the damage was unintentional. Anyways, I am gonna make sure that he gets what he deserves - a written complaint to the California Auto Repair Beareau and a public disclosure of this event with his name, and address. I am also considering setting up a trap to catch him red-handed. ;-)
I heard that car mechanics are very very dis-honest in the US. Looks like there was a study conducted to measure this. A brand new certified car (with no defects) was taken to different mechanic shops all over the country. Just the spark plug was pulled off so that the car wouldn't start. It was found that a large number of the mechanics were dishonest. They would fix the problem [i.e. plugging the spark plug back] and charge a hefty sum reporting non-existant problems. The worst suggestion of all was to replace the engine transmission.
Beware of mechanics!!!
18 comments:
yeabbbaa!!!! at last! :D
Whoa! that's real dangerous. Got to be real careful i guess! Especially if u the kind who loves his car, then i am sure how disgusting and agitating that experience coud get..
something like this often happens wid my bike.. also jus coz i am a girl and i dunt quite know the mechanics of the prob, the mechanic starts his list.. but appa usually briefs me abt the probabable problems, before i go to the mech shop to get it fixed :D so me ushar paarti :P
aaaha at last oru postu! Great! :)
oh, that was really sad to know that u were cheated... but oru vela avan innocent'a irundhirnda? so free'ah vidunga... don't complain about him to the authorities and all.. but and trap matter is ok i guess.. you can catch him red'handed! Great idea!
orey time'la 2 posts? Greatu! :)
@prithz:
very true.. romba carefulla irukonum, when u go to a mechanic.. me romba ushar party too, ana didn't expect that flat-tire fixing la evalo matter irukumnu..
@bsk:
innocentum ella onnum ella.. if he is innocent / honest, he should have agreed his mistake of damaging the tire.. rather than telling me that my tire was driven flat, might burst etc., and trying to sell a new tire. [i didn't buy any tire though]..
Hmmm....Venkat one ku rendu post ah pottuteenga :)
Bad tat u got cheated...but still a lesson learnt so that you will be carefull here after
Hahaha... Tht was a good caution note :)
aaha.. at a time 2 posta.. irunga porumaiya padichittu vandhu commentaren :)) Attendence mattum ippo :))
@Bharathi: yup.. inneme konja nalaiku next post pathna kavala illa.. as u said, it is very true, next time tire change panna pona I will be extra cautious..
@pon: yup.. hope this will help someone from getting cheated..
@g3: porumaya vanga.. attendance marked..
I guess not only in car mechanic... any kinda repair people try to cheat us... if they find that we dont know about it thats it... they make full use of it... Make hay while the sun shines appadinu periyavanga sonnatha thapa purinchi vechu irukaanga :)
yellarum 2 post solluraanga??? Nov postum ippo than poteengala?
Appo naan late illaya??? appo yenakku oru cheese cake anupidunga :)
Aha..Naan dhan sema late pola....
Adadaaaaaaaaaa..sorry!! Sorry!!
And WELCOME BACK!!! :D
Yemadiyoo....
Orey danger dhaan pola....angayum ipdi irukaangala..
Idhukenna...Inga namma CONCORD!! Avanungaley ipdi patta velai elaam pani irukaanga..Once nama veetu car'ku inoru car vilaiku BILL potaanga...Ketkaama kolama kandatha senjutu.
Anaku mudivu panen..car vaanga koodadhu- vangina repair anadhum pudhusa mathiralaamna car vaanganumnu :P !! Hehe..kidding...
On a serious note... Neenga sonadhu elaam sseriously nama registerla potaachu!! :) WIll have to b really careful. And b careful, avan edhavadhu GUNDAAS vechruka poran- nama movie villain mari. Neenga dhanu theriyama- carefula avana handle panunga! :) But summa vida koodadhu.... Atleast "Che..asingama ila?" apdinu soli vandhrunga.
PS:Namma blog'la neenga edhum miss panla,nama paatu dhaan ;) inonu - naan thirumbi varenu sonen ila..appo spl reminder inga podren! :) ok?!
I totally agree...luckily I know a mechanic who is very honest...though his labor cost is little high we keep going to that person...you were rite atleast we will have a better feeling after coming out of his shop that we weren't get cheated.... :-)
namma oorla meeri meeri pona petrol mattum thaan thiruduvaanga...ivanuga petrol la kai veikaama engine laye kai vechuruvaanga :-)
@KK: you right.. if you sound naive, pple try to exploit you...it
is a sad fact..
you are not late.. i started writing that post on nov and finally
posted after this post.. but blogger uses the date of composing..
@marutham: CONCORD ivalovu mosama?? in general dealers just cheat
you royally.. Gundas kku ellam bayanda mudiyuma??
@syam: good that you know a honest mechanic.. I also know a
honest mechanic that I use for servicing my car.. edu simple
puncture matter thanenu carelessa irududen.. you are right..
engine mattum ella.. ellathaum alli pottuduvanungo..
nice post to caution ppl. i had an exp only once with my car and that too not a good one. instead of going to the tire shop, i ordered a tire via phone and thats the mistake. inspite of the fact that i gave all details properly, he had bought a different one (like instead of RS,he got PS or something like that) and insisted that i said PS only and went on to say "i am doing this business for my living, i wont make a mistake" etc etc.. i said "that may be rite but i dont even know a brand of tire called PS, how the hell in the world i wud have said that".
bottomline is to be very very careful with these guys here !!!
@arun: thanks for sharing your experience. I agree we have to be extra careful and it might be a good idea to take a friend who knows stuff when you go to a mechanic..
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