Anybody caught a shop putting miles on their car?

[Aleksey]

What did you do? I always make a video/photos of mileage when car goes into major work (weeks) but never had to use that.

I assume somebody is getting hurt and you are not paying shit?

[dnguyen1963]

Always have the shop record the mileage on your car before you leave it. It is reasonable for them to add a few testing miles, but not several hundreds of joy ride.

[Stanley Rockafella]

FWIW Last shop drove my car pretty hard as part of their test-drive (joyride)

Needless to say, I'm gonna find a new shop

[crash n' burn]

Had a shop back in NC do this to my S13. Had to get the window track replaced and a new window. had 50 miles on it when I got it back the next day.

When I said something, the guy casually said, "Oh, we had to run to the store, so we used it", like it was no big deal. Fucking rednecks. I told him I wasn't going to pay for the work and i'd let him know if I find anything wrong with the car. Hooked up the laptop and checked the log; of course they went HAM on it a few times. Ever since then I load a map that cuts rpm and boost before I hand over the keys.

[rcsoundn1]

I never had this happen to me. Shop I used to work at was meticulous about mileage in-millage out documented on the repair order. We had the customers report mileage in, then checked to be sure. I would not be happy with them using my car as a "shop car." The receipts usually say it will only be test driven if necessary. I also hate Valets, I take pics as I drop the car off. Seen to many used for beaters and get damage. They hate seeing me walk the car when they bring it back, but its a must.

[TobyB]

Ironically, I got in a tiff with a shop that was fixing a drivability issue that happened only
when warm on the freeway.

When I went to pick it up, "fixed," it had .6 miles more than it did when I dropped it off,
and the freeway was a half- mile away.

t

[Jims5543]

Had a shop back in NC do this to my S13. Had to get the window track replaced and a new window. had 50 miles on it when I got it back the next day.

When I said something, the guy casually said, "Oh, we had to run to the store, so we used it", like it was no big deal. Fucking rednecks. I told him I wasn't going to pay for the work and i'd let him know if I find anything wrong with the car. Hooked up the laptop and checked the log; of course they went HAM on it a few times. Ever since then I load a map that cuts rpm and boost before I hand over the keys.

I had the same thing happen with my RX7. I had a Motec M4 in it and data logging turned on. It recorded the last 40 minutes the car ran.

I put it in a indy shop for an alignment. I told them to just align to my specs and no test drive was needed. I will do it when I pick up.

They test drove it anyway, my Motec recorded multiple hard pulls @ 80-90% throttle, and 8K RPM's hit. They never worked on that car after that.

I too thought about creating a "shop map" that would hobble the car so they could not drive it hard.

[IronFreak]

I just do my own work, this becomes a non issue.

[Aleksey]

I just do my own work, this becomes a non issue.

There is always one :)

I'm surprised that most of you guys simply stopped going to the shop instead of getting the job at cost/etc. Never happened to me.. so far *knocks on wood* but I would have lost my shit.

That calls for PPI by another shop covered by the offender too.

[2mAn]

I hate leaving my keys with anyone. Left my car at an overnight airport parking for ONE night. Was hoping it would be where I left it the next day but it wasnt. Car started up and drove fine but the next two days I needed a jump to start the car. Trickle charged the battery overnight and it hasnt been a problem since. I think they probably left my lights on since you actually have to manually turn them off not like new fucking cars where it does everything for you....

/rant

[ELVA164]

As a (race) mechanic, I'll never understand shops doing this. I mean, okay, you get to drive a car that isn't yours, but the liability issue (aside from the general douchiness of it) would be too much for me.

[blunttech]

I just do my own work, this becomes a non issue.

I was about to say the same thing. but alignment and a few other things I can see..

[brshelton]

I was about to say the same thing. but alignment and a few other things I can see..

Exactly. I don't keep an alignment rack handy and sometimes you just don't want to right then.

[xolomom]

When I lived in the Bahamas and took my truck in for whatever (it was on another island) and people would always tell me they saw my truck driving around town for a whole week until I went to pick it up. One time I came back from Miami unexpectedly and there was my truck waiting for me at the airport! Oh, wait, they were picking up a bunch of other people. They had to change plans pretty quickly. They loaned my neighbor's truck to someone and they demolished it. Island livin' mon....

[e30austin]

Back when my dad and I used to buy and sell a lot of cars, we sent a lot of cars in for a quick detail from (someone who used to be) a friend of ours. We got a fair deal since we did around 5 cars a week. Dropped one car off on a Friday and got it back Monday with well over 500 miles on it...never used them again.