How to deceive in car services

In the article:

The famous ideological fighter for banknotes Ostap Bender had 400 relatively honest ways to take money. Employees of modern service stations involved in the repair and maintenance of cars, perhaps, could significantly enrich the experience of the “great strategist”.

A car service is a field of activity in which there are ample opportunities for manipulation, deception and getting money out of thin air. This is no secret to anyone, but nevertheless, the need forces motorists to use the services of service centers from time to time. After all, not every driver is able to identify and eliminate the malfunctions that have arisen in his car. Some do not have time or suitable conditions for this, others simply do not understand the car's structure well. Yes, and the malfunctions themselves can be such that it is almost impossible to deal with them in the garage. Potentially, any car service customer can become a victim of a money divorce if he is too trusting or inattentive. But the category of motorists most vulnerable in this sense is women.

It is useful for motorists to know the ways that car service scammers use to do less and swindle your hard-earned money from you more. Forewarned is forearmed.

How to choose the right service station

Sometimes repairs are needed urgently, and then you have to contact the nearest car service, which may not be the best.

To avoid such a force majeure, it is better to look after a couple of service centers in advance based on the recommendations of friends and reviews in Internet forums. Before trusting them with serious work, do some simple repairs on them. You will see how they work, and you will be able to form a preliminary opinion about them.

Pay attention to the reception area. Reputable service stations keep it clean and tidy. Well, if on the walls you see certificates of qualification of workers, a price list or a list of works and services indicating standard hours.

Avoid service stations that are ready to take on any job and repair any car. This may indicate that they have specialists of a wide, but not too deep profile, and the details that you will be supplied there are unlikely to be original. You should especially beware of a car service located next to a car market, where they sell spare parts of dubious origin or used ones. There is a high probability that the parts that will be mounted on your car will come from there.

The highest quality repairs can be expected at service centers that service only certain brands of cars or specialize in certain types of work, for example, repair only transmissions or do exclusively body work. They usually have highly qualified workers, good quality parts and materials, dealer diagnostic equipment, and often video-controlled repairs. Controversial issues with them are also usually resolved easier. But even in such reputable firms, there is no absolute certainty that you will not have to pay much more than is really required. They do not deceive everywhere and not everyone, but they can deceive anywhere and anyone.

How to behave in a car service

Correct behavior will not necessarily eliminate deception completely, but will significantly reduce its likelihood.

Do not be too lazy to study the device of your car in advance. You will find a lot of useful information in the operation, repair and maintenance manual. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to know everything thoroughly. Fraudsters are usually well versed in psychology and not every client will be deceived. Two or three test questions that the master will ask you will help him understand whether you can be bred and how large. If you are recognized as an amateur, then they will “serve” accordingly. In this case, it is useful to take with you a more experienced person who will be able to suggest which of the proposed works are superfluous and should be excluded from the work order.

It is equally important to navigate the cost of repairs and maintenance, as well as the prices of spare parts and materials. Then it will be more difficult for the service employee to convince you that a large amount is normal, they say everyone is like that.

It is not at all necessary to give the car for repair to the first selected service station. If there is any doubt about the reality of the scope and cost of work, you can carry out diagnostics at another service center. It should also alert you if you are immediately told something like “leave the car, we’ll see.” This is the first sign that they are preparing to divorce you.

Be sure to place an order, even if the repair is minor. In this case, the actions of service station employees will be determined by the relevant laws and regulations. The car service will be responsible for what they do with your car, and you will have a document that, if necessary, will allow you to claim repair defects or damages.

There are hidden faults that pop up already in the process of repair. The car service is not entitled to carry out additional work without obtaining the consent of the client and without coordinating additional costs with him. Before agreeing, it should be clarified whether the price is final and includes the cost of consumables and all ancillary procedures. You should not do this over the phone, it is better to use a text messenger or SMS - this will eliminate misunderstandings and fix the agreement.

Ways to cheat customers at service stations and how not to become a victim of fraud

1. The simplest and most common way of cheating is to add unnecessary items to the order. Or, alternatively, the same work is entered twice or thrice using different terms. Calculation on ignorance or inattention of the client. Carefully study the list of works before transferring the machine for repair, ask for clarification on each questionable item. And when accepting a car after repair, make sure that all the ordered work is actually completed.

2. Replacement of serviceable parts that have not exhausted their resource.

When accepting work, ask to see the removed parts to make sure that they really needed to be replaced. They are legally yours and you have the right to take them with you. But very often the craftsmen oppose this in every possible way, because the details can be installed to another client and receive additional income. Therefore, it is better to stipulate this moment in advance, so that later you will not be told that the old parts were thrown away and the garbage was just taken away. Such a statement is almost XNUMX% deceitful. Either the removed part has not exhausted its resource, or it has not been changed at all.

3. Installation of low-quality or remanufactured parts at the price of original ones.

Ask for packaging and documentation of installed parts. If possible, check the serial numbers of the mounted parts with those indicated in the accompanying documents.

4. The working fluid does not change completely, but partially. For example, only half of the old oil is drained, and the resulting surplus then goes to the left. Personal presence during the work will help to avoid such a scam.

Often, a client is offered an unscheduled replacement of engine oil or antifreeze, which is allegedly already dirty and unusable. Don't agree. The working fluids in the car are replaced strictly according to the regulations - after a certain mileage or period of operation.

5. One of the gold mines of auto repair is . If the client asks to eliminate the knock, this opens up wide possibilities for the craftsmen - you can at least fit the entire suspension, and at the same time add a CV joint, and much more. In fact, the reason may be in a cheap detail. The problem will be fixed for you, but the cost of the part will be like gold.

This method of deception is also found in other variants. For example, noise can be passed off as a transmission malfunction that is supposedly about to fall apart. The wheel bearing can be easily checked by lifting the car and turning the wheels one by one by hand. But an inexperienced motorist may not know this. This is what deception is based on.

6. Inclusion in the estimate as a separate item of the cost of consumables. Moreover, lubricants are really needed, for example, 50 grams, but they enter a whole jar. This is an unjustified cheat, which is found even among the “officials”.

As a rule, the cost of consumables and accessories - overalls, cleaning products, lubricants, etc. - is included in the cost of basic work.

7. Hushing up the true causes of the malfunction.

Often the client himself is to blame for this, who comes to the service station and asks to repair, for example, a gearbox, because a neighbor in the garage advised so. The master receiver can immediately guess that the problem is much simpler, but will remain silent. Or it will be found out later. The checkpoint will allegedly be repaired - you asked for it yourself! And they charge a lot of money for it. And the real malfunction “suddenly” shows up as additional work.

Conclusion: entrust the diagnosis to professionals. It is better to do it in two different companies and compare the results.

8. Sometimes an additional key fob can be added to the alarm memory, which will later be given to the hijackers. When accepting a car after repair, be sure to check this. How - see the instructions for the alarm. If you find an extra key, you should inform the police and change the codes as soon as possible.

Relatively safe in this sense are “officials” and reputable service centers that try to stay away from obvious criminality. The work of auto mechanics and their access to cars is strictly controlled there, so a potential attacker is unlikely to dare such an adventure.

9. Car repairs are always associated with the risk of accidental damage. In a decent company, the defect will be eliminated at its own expense. And in dishonest, they will try to evade responsibility and say that it was so. To avoid such a situation, when handing over a car for repair, it is necessary to record in the transfer certificate all the defects that are currently available. And when receiving a car from repair, you should carefully inspect it from the outside, from below and inside the cabin.

10. It is not necessary to see a potential thief in every auto mechanic, but the loss of left personal belongings, tools and equipment does happen. They can change, disks, battery, drain “extra” gasoline.

It is better to leave everything that is not required for repairs at home (in the garage). In the acceptance certificate, enter the complete set of the machine, as well as indicate the serial number of the battery, the date of manufacture and the type of tires. Then no one will be tempted to steal or replace something. When accepting a car after repair, make sure everything is in place.

Instead of a conclusion

So far, we have talked about how unscrupulous car service workers, in pursuit of profit, deceive motorists. But is the customer always right? As practice shows, not always. The customer is also sometimes cunning, demanding repairs under warranty, although he himself clearly violated the rules of operation. There is rudeness, threats, the spread of negative information. On especially cunning, they can put a kind of “black mark” and inform colleagues at other service stations about it.

There are some tricks in the arsenal of vindictive automakers that can be tweaked imperceptibly and which after a while will prove to be very unpleasant. In order not to bring the situation to extremes, there is a simple way - mutual respect and honesty.