Automotive Repair "Malpractice"

What Happens When You Are Too Trusting?

Yes. I know that using that term, "malpractice" is very harsh. I thought of softening it, but "misdiagnosis" wasn't strong enough, and after all, work was done on the vehicle. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning, and let's weave trust into this because that's a big part of the relationship we have with keeping our cars in running order.

For those of you that own a car (or multiple cars)

You may have a preferred place to bring your vehicle when service is required (maybe it varies based on the work required - i.e., oil change vs. brakes). For those of you that have a late model car, the dealership where you purchased it might be your go-to. For those of you that have owned your vehicle for a long time (years and years) you may have identified an independently owned shop or chain (local to where you live) repair shop, or one that is close by to where you work. Some of you may be faithful to one establishment, while others don't mind the roulette of multiple automotive repair shops working on your vehicle. If you have no allegiance to a particular shop or have never established a relationship with them then you might not find the rest of this article very interesting.

Gaining Trust

Years (possibly decades?) ago there was a model presented in a training session (thank you Bob Ruotolo ) that put forth the best example I had seen of understanding how trust works – and when that trust is broken understanding what might have happened that could have caused it. Start at the bottom of this diagram and like a series of steps, work your way up.

Where Am I Going With All Of This?

In early January 2023 I wrote about a relatively benign customer service issue my family and I encountered during a holiday meal at a local restaurant. I thought I would kick off the 2nd half of 2023 by sharing an experience my wife and I had, and without naming names or throwing anyone or any company under the bus (there other platforms where we can do that!) I thought the (hard) lesson we learned was worth sharing, so I’d like to bring you into the thought process, decision-making, the highs and lows, and the ultimate disappointment of what we went through. For simplicity I've used a SARs (Situation, Action, Result) format, but with a twist. I've added a few extra letters to better explain the situation. The revision spells out SARDINE - because like a rotted fish this experience was a stinker.

Situation - my wife's 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe stalled when accelerating on the highway. Car was towed to our "trusted" repair shop.

Action (s) - "Trusted" repair shop was having trouble determining the issue. Their objective was to get it running. To do that a few replacement parts were required.

Result(s) - On this first visit the repair shop was eventually (over a week) able to get the car running. The car ran for a week and then broke down again. This time with a loud knocking in the engine. The car was towed back to the "trusted" repair shop (because we had paid a lot of money for the original repair).

Dissatisfaction - "Trusted" repair shop seemed to gain knowledge from the time we were previously there and determined that it was an engine issue (that was covered by the manufacturer). Unfortunately, at this point we had already paid over $1k out of pocket for their "repairs".

Inability to diagnose - This is where the trust was broken and I throw the term "malpractice" in. My instincts should have kicked in earlier in the process. I knew that if my wife's car died while accelerating that it wasn't any of the usual suspect issues (battery, starter, alternator). Something else was going on. However, because I had come to rely on this repair shop I had allowed myself to become blinded to their limitations.

Not our problem - This is where things got ugly. Said "trusted" repair shop accepted no responsibility for diagnosing the issue improperly. As far as they were concerned they got the car running again, and then washed their hands of our car and of us. Any calls that were made to the company, any escalation attempts, any letters that were sent have been ignored. We weren't looking for a full refund, but splitting the cost seemed reasonable (they exhibit good faith, we remain a customer) - but not to them.

Exiting customer - The only recourse we have is to never patronize this company again. Sure, we can write some negative reviews on Yelp or Google, tell our friends (and anyone that will listen) about our experience, but in the end we've all lost.

Lessons Learned

I think it's real simple, and I've distilled it into three key points:

1. Pay attention to your gut instinct. In this case mine should have been to have the car towed to the local dealership right from the start - knowing that the issue seemed to be extraordinary.
2. Be decisive when the other side is uncertain - There were windows of opportunity prior to any work being done that I could have (and should have) had the car towed out of the "trusted" repair shop when they were waffling on what needed to be done.
3. Ask better questions - I've owned almost a dozen vehicles over multiple decades and while I am about as far away from being a mechanic as one can be I have had to put thousands of dollars into repairs, and in this case I feel like I could have (and should have) asked better questions.

In Closing

No happy endings here. No words of wisdom. This was a case where we weren't happy with the outcome, the repair shop believed they "repaired" the vehicle - but in a quiet moment among themselves would probably own up that they could have done a better job at diagnosing the problem (although publicly would never accept any fault or responsibility). They lost a customer and for them I assume that it just a cost of doing business...

Have a great weekend!

Dave

About David Shultis

I am a senior level B2B marketing and product management professional with experience in the life science/med device/manufacturing space. My focus is on a return to a leadership (formal or informal) role where coaching and mentoring a team or working with a cross-functional team is a component of the position. This could be in the form of a marketing director, a group product director or as an individual contributor in a senior product management capacity. I'm especially interested in under-performing departments, startups or rebuilds where I can contribute by making a positive change through leadership and the implementation of procedures and metrics.

When not in pursuit of my next opportunity you can find me biking in and around New Jersey (3,929 miles so far in 2023) or trying to get my walking in with a 15k step goal each day (351 days in a row of hitting the goal, aiming for 365).