Today I went for a MS , and had my tires rotated. When I got back in the car, my seat was not only pushed all the way back but the settings were changed, the floor mat was sideways and shoved against the side, the running board was excessivly dirty, and the topper all my vents were changed.

I fixed the seat and rug and all, but it took me a few minutes to figure out why my AC was not cooling me off the way it usually does, After playing with the settings I changed the vents and found they all had been adjusted.....

My question is why? I wondered if dealerships are anticpating mystery shoppers and this is their way of outing them ? Not so much with the seat and floor mat, but the vents. Seems pretty odd to me especially with them only rotating tires. The MSC found it odd as well. Does this sound odd to anyone else?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2014 06:24AM by dmp777.

It sounds odd (and annoying!), but it doesn't sound to me like a client setting a mystery shopper trap. This sounds to me like whoever worked on your car just changed all the settings because he is OCD or because he wanted things comfortable for himself or whatever. My late husband (although I loved the big lug) was an absolute pain in the neck about adjusting "my" car to "his" settings. He drove one car exclusively and I drove the other. Once in a while, he would move my car from the driveway to the street - a move of 30 or 40 feet. When I got in my car after he had moved it, my seat would be pushed all the way back. My rear view and side mirrors would be in different positions. The radio station would be changed to his favorite. The air condition or heat would be turned to high. Floor mats would be pushed aside. The seat cover (I used one of the seat covers with wooden beads) would be taken off and thrown in the back seat. Yes - everything adjusted after a drive of less than a minute? For years, I asked the question WHY? After many years, I just accepted it and realized I was never going to know or understand the answer. If I didn't know better, I would think my husband worked on your car.

The dealership is not supposed to change the settings on your car nor are they supposed to get it dirty. One of the shop's questions(that I do)is whether the paper protection has been removed. I have done several of the shops where I was pretty sure paper protection was never used. There was several shops where I was pretty sure the service was never done. But I could not prove it. My report stated the car was parked in one spot, disappeared for five minutes, then reappeared .
I've had the nice chrome lug nuts switched to regular nuts. The contents of my glove compartment were dumped on the floor a couple of shops ago. I routinely take my GPS off its mount, and put it in the glove compartment. That was after I noticed someone had been in the GPS looking at addresses. I've stopped taking these shops for awhile, even though they were my main type of shop.

It makes sense to be very careful and aware of possible fraud, theft, joyriding, or even vandalism when dealing with these car service and valet parking places. The main reason they are being shopped is probably due to reports of bad things going on in these locations. It would be wise to remove everything from the glovebox and trunk and anywhere else in the car before doing one of these (even GPS and removable stereo/ipod/chargers etc), and to record the in and out odometer readings. If you have multiple vehicles, use the junkiest one if it fits the shop guidelines. And of course, watch everyone closely and report all the details!

Let's see ... tire rotation... drive car into bay. Put up on rack. Rotate tires. Lower rack. Back car out of bay and park it.

Other than moving the seat so they can reach the pedals, there is no reason whatsoever for them to touch anything but the ignition switch, steering wheel, gear shift, and the door handle.

I was annoyed at my last service because they turned my headlamp switch to "off" instead of "automatic." I realized it after driving several blocks at night with my headlights off. It went into the report.

I turn off my stereo and hide the GPS when I take a car for service.

Hmmm.. I have a pair of video recorder glasses. I could lay them innocently in the back seat, running, and later see everything they did inside the car. I think I'll try that next time, just out of curiosity.

dspeakes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Let's see ... tire rotation... drive car into bay.
> Put up on rack. Rotate tires. Lower rack. Back
> car out of bay and park it.
>
> Other than moving the seat so they can reach the
> pedals, there is no reason whatsoever for them to
> touch anything but the ignition switch, steering
> wheel, gear shift, and the door handle.
>
> I was annoyed at my last service because they
> turned my headlamp switch to "off" instead of
> "automatic." I realized it after driving several
> blocks at night with my headlights off. It went
> into the report.
>
> I turn off my stereo and hide the GPS when I take
> a car for service.
>
> Hmmm.. I have a pair of video recorder glasses.
> I could lay them innocently in the back seat,
> running, and later see everything they did inside
> the car. I think I'll try that next time, just
> out of curiosity.

If that works, maybe we can suggest it to the MSC's....could prove to be more intresting than just vents being out of place. At first I thought... did they do something to my AC to have me come back and spend more money?

AustinMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It sounds odd (and annoying!), but it doesn't
> sound to me like a client setting a mystery
> shopper trap. This sounds to me like whoever
> worked on your car just changed all the settings
> because he is OCD or because he wanted things
> comfortable for himself or whatever. My late
> husband (although I loved the big lug) was an
> absolute pain in the neck about adjusting "my" car
> to "his" settings. He drove one car exclusively
> and I drove the other. Once in a while, he would
> move my car from the driveway to the street - a
> move of 30 or 40 feet. When I got in my car after
> he had moved it, my seat would be pushed all the
> way back. My rear view and side mirrors would be
> in different positions. The radio station would
> be changed to his favorite. The air condition or
> heat would be turned to high. Floor mats would be
> pushed aside. The seat cover (I used one of the
> seat covers with wooden beads) would be taken off
> and thrown in the back seat. Yes - everything
> adjusted after a drive of less than a minute? For
> years, I asked the question WHY? After many
> years, I just accepted it and realized I was never
> going to know or understand the answer. If I
> didn't know better, I would think my husband
> worked on your car.


hmmm...could it be a Texan thing?or maybe your husband had a twin a couple hundred miles north?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2014 04:46AM by dmp777.

About three weeks ago, I went to the shop with oil changed and tires rotated. They were really friendly and everything seemed to be done. Last week, my SUV started shaking really badly and so I took it in to be looked at. It turned out that it is so rusted out around the wheelbase that the shock is no longer connected. A Ford recall was published last week about it but mine is one year too new for the recall Turns out it is so bad that I have to turn it on my insurance as hitting a pothole and most likely, it will be totalled out.

How in the world did the shop three weeks ago not see this when they rotated the tires? I don't think that the rust just started in the last three weeks as I would think this has been going on a while for it to be that bad. The shop has already been completed and paid so I can't go back to modify it. Makes me wonder if they really do the service that they say they do.

Hi,

I did a shop a while ago to get my tires rotated and it was too much work for the little pay. Without mentioning the clients, could anybody share what MSC'S have this types of shops? I would greatly appreciate your help.

I keep getting emails/phone calls about a shop. I will not do it. It's a sportscar and I'm not going to have anything happen to it. It sits low like a corvette and is really picky, if not worse...... Reading these stories gave me the willies.

Years ago, I arrived at a garage to see how my car was doing. My car was not there. A mechanic was using it to pick up car parts instead of using their car to conduct business. I gave them a piece of my mind and left with my car.

I don't want to have to deal with all this, so I will never bring my car in for an oil change or whatever. It would pi** me off to know someone went through my personal stuff in my glove box and that. No way.

I've been debating on doing some oil change shops and was looking specifically for a ford/mercury/Lincoln msc and ran across this post and now im thinking twice with all the bad things being told...

I actually have done such shops using video. They required that I walk outside and then linger near the open bay door to watch the mechanics at work, both on my car and on others. I managed to get video of a mechanic smoking while working under the hood of my car, with ash dripping into the engine compartment, and other stuff that really made the client sit up and take notice of the power of video!

Another time, I did a test route of 14 tire shops and was told 14 different lies about my car and tires. The client was stunned and ordered a huge package of video shops and a retraining program for the shop managers.

Finally, I have done video where normally the customer has no line of sight into the work area. By leaving something essential in the car, 9 times out of 10, I was escorted into the shop area to find my item. I engineered a few minor delays as we walked through the shop and we got video of all sorts pf interesting stuff on video.

This industry has huge potential for video work and it should not be difficult for a good MSC markeying push to demonstrate to big franchise operations that they really need some video to identify and then redress some of the huge liabilities that renegade staff open them up to.