Serious Issue

[caprisun]

Ok,

So I had an appt today to get part of a ski rack installed on the roof of my MS6.

I get there as planned, they told me it would take around an hour to install and asked if I would like to wait in the shop (which wasnt much of an option-boring) or to walk around the mall nearby (<1mile). I opted ot do the mall, I drove myself and the tech who sold me the rack and was going to do the install. I asked him politely if he could drive stick, he said he could. We get there and he drives off no problem.

An hour and a half later he calls me and says he's in the parking lot. I go out there and the rack looks great. He begins to give me the lodown on it and whatnot...we get in and he hands me the keyfob. I push the clutch in and its lifeless. Its practically dangeling for most of its travel except for the last 1/8th of an inch where its stiff as ****.

I start it up and it sputters. I shut it off and ask "What happened?"

Deny deny deny.

I didnt "go after" him in any way. Just asked for honesty. No avail.

Long(er) story short, I cant get it out of the mall parking lot and haven't a clue as to how he got it in. He insists he had no problems with it.(omg)

I didnt pay for the rack yet and he didnt ask.
The car is still in the lot, I'm getting it towed to a dealer to findout whats next.


Among you're advice, What should or shouldnt I say to the service at the dealer...(I want it to be fixed under warranty as opposed to any insurance)


No skiing for me tomorrow.
Thanks.

 

[bazooka joe]

i can't imagine what he could have done to cause what you describe???

 

[caprisun]

joy ride.

the car has 11000 miles on it.

these things dont just happen.

 

[caprisun]

feel free folks.

 

[chiefmg]

Seems to me the way to proceed would be to lodge a complaint with the shop that installed the rack. Then once the dealer finds out what is wrong you can present them with the bill. If you haven't already lodged a complaint yet then I imagine you are going to get screwed.

Oh, and for the future, do not let any random clown drive your car.

 

[bazooka joe]

Seems to me the way to proceed would be to lodge a complaint with the shop that installed the rack. Then once the dealer finds out what is wrong you can present them with the bill. If you haven't already lodged a complaint yet then I imagine you are going to get screwed.

Oh, and for the future, do not let any random clown drive your car.

makes sense...your beef is with the asshat that drove the car, and apparently messed it up

 

[caprisun]

thanks!

Yes, I did "file" a complaint -so to say...

The asshat couldnt find the incident report thingy so I wrote my information on a legal pad for them...but then on the file where the estimate (for the rack) is, hw put in a little paragraph detailling our little problem...

As for the random clown driving the car...I'm 20 years old and a valet. If ANYONE were to drive a car hard/reckless it SHOULD be my demographic...apparently a guy 15 years older than me is worse...


Thanks everyone!

 

[_MSprotegy]

well thats ****** up man. you should have wrote how many miles it took for you to get to the mall from te shop. may be he took the car for a joy ride? who knows. good luck with getting everything fixed.

 

[coyfish]

Wow I dont know how he could have managed to destory a clutch going less than a mile. Feathering the clutch the entire way back and forth at like 5K rev's maybe /:.

 

[Dr. D]

if he didnt ask you about payment for the rack yet then that should definately tell you something...

 

[lestat13]

Ouch.....

Agreed, if he didn't ask for payment, that is pretty much admitting they did something to mess it up. If you take it to Mazda, they will probably void your warranty and say it was drive hard. Take it up with the shop, make them pay out to fix it.

 

[speed6_dude]

Wow... i would not remove that car from the parking lot until i found out what happened. You know something went wrong!

Please keep us posted on this i wanna know what happened!

 

[caprisun]

lestat, Yea I know...no s***.

The service guy that I talked to was very easy-going and not too inquisitive. I just acted dumb and said that the clutch seems to be malfunctioning...I want the dealer to tell me whether or not it was abused so I can take the appropriate action.

GEICO told me that if the dealer determines it has been abused, then they can go forward and help me get through this with the rack people.

I'll keep everyone posted...today I'm supposed to hear back from the dealer.(dunno)


Thanks everyone.

 

[caprisun]

NEWSFLASH!

Mazda called my just now...it was a short conversation.

The service rep told me that they got a better look at what the problem was...turns out the clutch is "entirely fried" due to "excessive abuse."

He said he is going to have his service manager look at it and into the gearbox and everythign else related to see if some of the parts will be covered under the clutch TSB and/or the warranty...but didnt make any promises.


My anger level with the asshat that did this has risen by a power of a million.

 

[mhrebin]

bring the bill from the dealer to that guy. for sure.

 

[caprisun]

This might turn into some judge Judy s*** if the warranty/tsb doesnt pick up the tab...doubt they will...

I was just thinking and looking up some older threads...I'm going to have the dealer look at the center diff, REAR diff, the diff mounts, the motor mounts, the turbo, and everything in between...

It just dawned on me that this guy must have been launching and doing all sorts of stupid s*** too.

 

[bazooka joe]

you own him!

 

[tunersteve]

Wow, this is BS. You better not pay a dime for the repairs. Best of luck to ya.

 

[OJ Bartley]

Wow, I can't even imagine how pissed I'd be. Even assuming the guy wasn't being malicious and just couldn't manage to drive it properly, he should have stopped the car and either found someone who could, or picked you up in another vehicle instead of beating it all the way to the mall. On the other hand, if he took it out on some back road or industrial strip and was launching and doing donuts... nail him to the wall and make him pay every penny of the repair. Did you check the tires too?

 

[caprisun]

OJ- EVERTHING is being checked out. When I last spoke with the service guy i told him to look at everthing/anythign that could be affected.

Once I get the final official estimate from the service dpt today, I'm calling the rack place and getting the boss on the line.