I went to Pep Boys in the fall of 2002 to have my battery replaced, dropping my car off at 8 am.initially the service seemed okay. When I returned at 12 pm to pick up my car everything seemed okay. However, as I approached my car I saw that the driver's window was partially down.
It was beginning to rain (thank heavens!) so I immediately tried to roll up my electric window. It wouldn't go up. I returned inside and told the Service Manager, Bill Cherry. He told me to pull my car back up into the bay. I noticed that mirror-adjust feature was loose - which is on the door panel. Approximately 45 minutes later the car was looked at and I was told by the service manager that it was not their problem. I responded that the window worked fine on the way over and was completely rolled up when I dropped it off, how did I know they had not broken it?
Mr. Cherry was unwilling to help me so I asked to speak to the store manager, Frank. He looked at me, said he couldn't do anything, and started to walk away. I asked who his boss was. He gave me the name of the district manager, Jim Devergilis, and the company's 800 number. I called that number and was told I would be contacted in a week or so to discuss the problem.
Not willing to leave with a broken window, I was able to track down the Mr. Devergilis by calling five Las Vegas-area Pep Boys and tracing his tracks.
Mr. Devergilis listened while I tried to calmly explain my situation (I am mad even recounting it!). He then told me that Mr. Cherry was right, that it wasn't their fault. I asked how he could be sure. He said that first of all, if someone had broken it, the door panel would have been removed. I responded that it did, in fact, look like the panel had been taken off and that I would be happy to show it to him if he would come to the store from the store he was at.
Mr. Devergilis replied with "I DON'T HAVE TIME TO BE GOING AROUND TO EVERY STORE EVERY TIME A CUSTOMER HAS A COMPLAINT" What??? Isn't that his job?
I persisted and restated my case. Mr. Devergilis then told me that since all I had done was a battery change, the mechanic had no need to go near the window mechanism and could not have been the cause of the problem. I then asked him why did the mechanic roll the window down in the first place?
A few moments of silence followed and Mr. Devergilis asked to speak with Mr. Cherry. Mr. Cherry then told me the mechanic would take off the door panel to see what the problem was, but only to show me that it wasn't their fault.
I stayed with the mechanic as he did this. It was a matter of a loosened nut, which they were nice enough to tighten for me. I am convinced based on the appearance of my door panel that they had loosened it themselves in an effort to get more money out of me.
It doesn't end here. I was stupid enough to leave the mechanic unsupervised as he replaced the panel. When I went to leave the miiror adjust plate behind the button, which is plastic, was broken, a corner of it was missing.
I went back in and Mr. Cherry agreed to order the part and replace it for free, the entire time treating me like I was the most hated customer ever. I was finally finished around 5:30 pm.
On a side note, throughout this ordeal, I became friends with another customer who had brought her car in the previous week for an oil change. Her problem? They had never refilled her oil and she had blown the engine.
0 comments