Bad Experience - Mechanic

[chfowler]

Hey all,

Just this morning I dropped my R33 in for a service, I spoke to the mechanic complaining of the vehicle stalling (auto) and some form of air leak that is quite audible in the immediate vicinity of the throttle body. Instead of taking me seriously, the mechanic proceeded to make a joke out of it when I told him that the vehicle would only stall under certain circumstances. My experience with this mechanic, who is situated at a Logon Rd dealership at Underwood, has left me absolutely fuming. Given that I bought the car from there and received excellent service from its owner I expected to receive a higher level of service then that which was directed to me today. Be interesting to see the response I get when I phone the manager and when I pick the car up this afternoon.

Ahh, feel better after giving my 2 cents worth.

[mindflux]

Bro for some bullshit reason we are not allowed to talk abotu BAD work shops, i was in formed this by 'Strutto' who is a moderator on here.

I would love to let you know of another workshop that i wouldnt even send my worse enemy too, due to the very poor work carried out every time i visited.

but rules are rules and we BOTH are not allowed to comment.

Sorry dude..

[Abo Bob]

I say if you are very careful and state pure facts only then you should be allowed to post. Problems arrise when what someone thinks is a fact is more of an opinion. I work in law and I often come across people who think they know the difference but don't really.

[Burto]

Just state that it was a workshop in a *certain* area and most likely anyone from around there who is concerned will PM for the details.

[knore]

Yeh most dealerships that have service departments are shit at servicing the cars

Goto Gavin woods man

[chfowler]

Hey all,

Sorry for not knowing the exact rules - but to my knowledge the truth is a good defence to a case for defamation. In any event i have edited the original quote to not talk about the location of the mechanic.

[Anquetil]

Hey all,

Sorry for not knowing the exact rules - but to my knowledge the truth is a good defence to a case for defamation. In any event i have edited the original quote to not talk about the xxxxxxxx mechanic.

Err... You just mentioned him again.

[predator]

yeah, its :bs: but dems the rules unfortunately..

[mindflux]

Its Christians Rules (Prank) .. and he owns the forum so you kinda have no say.

However im going down to Sydney this weekend and for a little while and I will be speaking to Christian and Broady, due to matters relating to the forum. and I will let him know your thaughts about posting about Bad work shops. But no doubt he wont bend the rules.

[chfowler]

Shane - Obviosuly nothing gets past you

Mindflux - I think it is a very worthy point to raise with the forum owner - whilst i can see arguments for both sides, this is a forum that is designed to bring together and help the Skyline owners around Australia. One way to do that is to warn Skyline owners of mechanics that claim to be professionals at fixing our pride enjoys, yet who are actually anything but that. We shouldnt simply give free plugs out to the good ones, ie gavin wood, and then deny other members the right to warn the forum to steer clear of mechanics who are, could you say, questionable.

[predator]

It is a legal issue more than anything else.

Would you put your ass on the line, or take the risk of being sued personally (you, probably not Prank) if somebody slandered a workshop?? I don't think so.

And often, how can you sort a legitimate complaint from just a whinge "my parts didn't come in on time, even though they said they would". Nor can a workshop give 100% correct information all the time. Anyhow.

[chfowler]

Cant quite understand what point your are trying to raise predator but I think we are jumping to conclusions in leaps and bounds if we are talking about a person being sued because someone else acted unprofessionally. If a company does a good thing by someone, that person will tell maximum 3 ppl, if a company does something bad to a person, they'll usually tell 20. It is a sad state of affairs when people bring up crap about lawsuits because a person chooses to share a bad experience.

I dont want to be a chode or anything or open a can of worms, but if you had a bad experience with a workshop then i'd want to know so as to make sure I didnt waste my time, money or put my vehicle at risk by going there.

[predator]

Tell me about, couldn't agree more.. but in the bullshit legal system we live with - if you say something bad, and the workshop thinks it is unfair and untruthful, they can sue you personally for slander and damage to their business.

Even if it is otherwise the truth probably in your case, how do you separate the fact from the fiction.? This is why these rules are in place, to protect your own ass being put on the line (or maybe even the forum owners). What happened if I put up "don't go to such and such" when I was just trying to bring down the name of another business simply because I was trying to sell my product. Where do you draw the line? and how do you separate genuine gripes, that to you might be bad, but to others might be "oh hum who cares he's whinging about nothing". that is what I am getting at.

An angry voice is stronger than 50 happy ones unfortunately, especially when it comes to the Internet where everybody can read it all, and often people will jump to conclusions.

Just the same if you posted in a newspaper "such and such is rubbish". If it wasn't backed with adequate facts and evidence you could be sued. Hence why you're not going to find that in the newspaper these days either.

[krawler]

Unfortunately it only takes one person bad mouthing a mechanic (and distorting the facts a little to make for a better story....) and the mechanic can lose large amounts of bussiness he didnt really deserve to lose.

Anyway, goto Gavin Wood Autotech Rather than whinge about crap workshops, just go straight to Teh g0d.