Been Caught Stealin’

Are you sitting down?

For this is a story that happened to me, and a dozen or so others lately, at a local car dealership that did its best to run a scam, before it got caught and everyone involved in the scandal lost their jobs.

Here is my immobilized tale of temporary woe.

About a year and a half ago, I bought a new car.  It was the first new car I’d ever owned but since I had just turned fifty, I decided it was time for me to splurge.  It also helped that I knew the car salesman pretty well #ItWasMyDad.

About 22,000 miles in and still under warranty, my car started sputtering along the highway.  With my pedal to the medal, the car was only going about sixty miles per hour.  I pulled over, called a tow truck and had my vehicle delivered to the nearest dealership.

This was on May 6th.

After calling the dealership several times the following day and not getting a single answer, I took the following day off only to call them again on May 8th.  That’s when I found out the bad news: my brand, new car was part of… wait for it… AN ENGINE RECALL.

My face turned lily white.

The dealership put me into a rental car, which we at SportsChump Manor jokingly called the roller skate as it was half the size of my recalled car.  I skated around town for weeks.

Four-to-six weeks is how long the dealership told me I should expect to be sans wheels.  I huffed and stressed, wondering what my car would be worth with a rebuilt engine and why I wasn’t being offered another vehicle in exchange.  I had just begun to kick the tires on that thing.  How could it have failed me so soon?

Three weeks later, on May 22nd I called the dealership again to check on the status of my vehicle since no one had made the effort to keep me updated.  That was when I was told the part had still not arrived.  Not good news indeed.  I hung up and called the corporate office, going over the local dealership’s head to see what my options were and why, considering I had full warranty coverage, being given a new car was not an option.

The following afternoon, I received a phone call that would explain everything.

The gentleman on the other end of the phone told me that not only was my car ready to be picked up but that there was no engine recall.  While happy to hear the news about my car, I felt like I was in the middle of a Twilight Zone episode.

Apparently, the local car dealership was trying to pull a fast one.  The gentleman now in charge of the service department told me that everyone who had once worked in said department HAD BEEN FIRED!

You see, the dealership was ripping off the corporate offices by claiming work needed to be done when it did not.  As it turned out, all my car needed was a software update and not an entirely new engine.

It’s one thing to embezzle money from your employer because you’re an ungrateful, conniving bastard who doesn’t understand the value of a hard day’s labor.  It’s entirely another to inconvenience innocent people because you’ve convinced yourself that making an extra buck at their expense is worth it.

The good news is that I have my car back and am no longer worrying about my check engine light.  So, what’s the moral of the story here?  It’s that in life, there may be warranties but there are no guarantees other than justice, will eventually, be served

You might just have to skate around a while to get there.

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10 Replies to “Been Caught Stealin’”

  1. Guess it’s a damn good thing you had a woman who loaned you her car and dropped everything to get you to and fro…but that part is saved for the romantic novel written for Hyundai dealership coffee tables.

  2. They will be collector’s items for sure.

    We’ll just have to pick them up half-off at the fire sales when they close the dealerships due to continued improprieties.

  3. I have found myself skating on thin ice more than once when dealing with the car dealerships down here in this banana republic.

  4. I feel ya…don’t get me started on car repair scam attempts. Some of these guys make NCAA recruiting look lily white.

  5. Dealership caught stealing
    Once when Chump was 5 …(0)
    Punks enjoy stealing
    It’s just as simple as that
    Well, it’s just a simple fact
    When punks want Hynduai,
    They don’t want to pay for it
    They walk right through the door
    Walk right through the door
    Hey all right!
    If I get by, it’s mine
    Mine all mine!
    My girl, she’s one too
    She’ll go and get her a shirt
    Stick it under her skirt
    She grabbed a razor for me
    And she did it just like that
    When she wants something, she don’t want to pay for it
    She walk right through the door
    Walk right through the door
    Hey all right!
    If I get by, it’s mine
    Mine all mine!
    We sat around the pile
    We sat…

  6. Now this story makes more sense. I rented a Hyundai not too long ago for a road trip, and I found it to be a solid vehicle.

  7. Moose…

    Good one on both counts!

    Saw Jane’s Addiction tour with Nine Inch Nails for the NIN/JA tour a good couple years ago. I hate to say it and I’m not sure if this surprises anyone but Perry and Co. blew Nine Inch Nails off the stage.

  8. Dubs…

    So far so good on the wheels so wish me luck.

    And I swear a draft on the Hooper thing is written. I just need to get off my ass and polish it up.

    Stay tuned.

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