Free- Do Overs Or Service Center ISSUES and How it should be handled.

[dhaney]

ON the subject of "Free Do-Overs", all too often when a customer brings a car into a shop they figure whatever happens to the car after they pick it up *should* be covered or at least discounted because "It must have been caused by the shop when they had it". Especially if it had ANY connection to the work done.

I didn't say anything at the time but here is what happened to me at one of the major Delorean Service Centers....

I was in need of service due to a careless driver. I chose a vendor in the deep south central (Hot & Humid in the summer) part of the country for the repair. I knew I was going to drive the car back from this center to my home 1,000 miles away upon completion, so I decided to order and install the double cupholder version of this that cost about $100 at that time...http://www.drinkholders.com/.

Literally before the trip I installed this item and did not use it because the car was undriveable. When at home my car is ALWAYS garaged... and since it was now broken it wasn't going anywhere...

My car was repaired by this shop and there for about 7 weeks, I know for a fact that when this vendor is not working on your car and they need the room it is stored outside sitting in front of their shop. Nothing wrong with this generally.. Which is exactly where it was when I showed up to take delivery. Lined up out front with all the other Deloreans to be repaired or sold...

Problem was the material used to make this cupholder was not up to the task of being baked in a humid oven of the Houston (oops did that give it away) weather. The brand new cupholder looked like a dried up prune and I never ever got to use. Another problem was I didn't notice this problem until I decided to get a drink for my trip home.... So I was no longer at this vendors shop... While still in Houston I found a pozi-driver screw driver (to lift the shift quadrant) and removed same because it made my interior look awful and me sick to look at it.

I chose not to make waves and let it go, just how should I have handled this?

Dan

[Dangermouse]

I would send it back to drinksholder.com And demand a refund as it is clearly not suitable for purpose.

Unless the box says something like "Great for holding cold drinks. Do not use in sunny weather":p

[stevedmc]

Last I checked, cup holders were designed to sit in cars that do not necessarily get garaged. It sounds like the manufacturer of the cup holder is at fault and not DMCH.

DMCH didn't sell you the cup holder or install it. How is a problem with it their fault? Cars were designed to sit outside and as long as you didn't have a leaky roof I see no problem with them parking your car outside.

The big question is did DMCH fix what you brought it there for and how was the quality of the work they performed?

[Notifier]

As a rule of thumb, I always remove anything personal or non-stock (as much as I can) from the vehicle before I drop it off to be repaired. The coin holder full of quarters is just too tempting to anyone. Not to mention a couple of times when I've gone to retrieve my car from the parking lot at the repair shop the doors are already unlocked when I get there, who knows who could have gone through my car looking for goodies. But yea, I would have to agree, the melted cup holder is sort of an unforeseen circumstance and you can't totally blame them 100%. Put yourself in the shoes of the mechanic who parked it outside, should he have looked over the inside to make sure nothing was left out? I could see if the seat had a tare in it (guy leaves a screwdriver in his pocket when he sits down in the vehicle) - that I would make a fuss about because it would clearly be their fault. Like someone said, call the people you got the cup holder from and tell them what happened, maybe they will be willing to exchange if you.

[GS450-Junkie]

That's kind of like my situation.... bought a set of screws for the roof seals. Installed them with the doors open of course so I couldn't see the back side at the time. Turned them in and then closed my doors after the job was done and found that they poked through my doors. :angry: No instructions, no warnings, and DMC CAL says they only send them out ground down to the proper length so that couldn't have happened. Ummmm....yes it did, and no you didn't grind them down, and now my doors are junk. I'm still waiting to hear from James and Stephen to see what they're going to do about this.

As for your issue...I doubt DMC even noticed the cup-holder and I certainly can't blame them for not running around telling everyone that brings cars in to make sure the doors are locked, valuables are tucked away, cupholders removed, no tuna salads laying on the floor, etc etc in the shop. I would however send it back to the company and ask for a new one, or at least get a refund and go buy a better one at a local parts store. Think of it this way.... $5 for a new cup holder vs. $2000 for new doors. I wonder why Houston is avoiding me ?? :wave:

[dhaney]

I would send it back to drinksholder.com And demand a refund as it is clearly not suitable for purpose.

Unless the box says something like "Great for holding cold drinks. Do not use in sunny weather":p

I don't disagree with you in... But I can promise that this would most likely never have happened if the car was in my possession. My car is rarely in the hot sun for days at a time and we just don't have the oppressive heat they do in Houston.

When I picking up the car I opened the door and the heat inside was like a blast furnace.

Dan

[82DMC12]

This is obviously not DMCH's fault. No other part of the car would melt in the heat; how are they supposed to know that would happen? I've never seen a solid piece of anything except a Snickers bar melt inside a car before.

You should be complaining about the POS China-made quick-buck no-engineering cupholder you bought.

Andy

[rddmc]

My memory may be faulty, but I have been under the impression that all the DMC affiliated shops routinely keep cars in for service inside the shop. I have only visited DMC Midwest and they had lots of cars in for repairs when I was there and all were inside, including those completed and ready for pickup or delivery. Not a single car was outside and there must have been 12 to 18 in the shop.

When I picked up my refurbished car at DMC Houston in 2001, they had not yet moved to the new location in Humble, it was still under construction. When it opened I thought I remembered that it allowed all cars in for service to be kept inside. Again my memory may be faulty.

Rod 10921

[82DMC12]

I visited DMCH in like 2003 at the new place in Humble. There were probably a dozen D's sitting outside. It was swass-hot outside too. Glad I have a garage at home.

Andy

[stevedmc]

I don't understand what the fuss is about. Any given day you can drive to a car lot and see hundreds of cars baking in the sun. For some reason their cup holders seem to hold up fine.

[DMC5180]

DMCH Routinely parks many of the cars outside during the day. They have too in order the access parts in the Warehouse. Every night all cars are pulled back in for security reasons. I've seen the isles between the parts racking literally stuffed with cars. You literally cannot move around. Every morning most all cars not being actively worked on are parked outside. Probably the only time they are kept inside is for severe weather conditions. Hot and Humid is not severe weather. Perhaps some day they might be able to have sheltered structures for sun protection. Like anything It all costs money and They have to budget resources for overhead and Parts remanufacturing. That's not to say they couldn't gradually add sun shelters.

It might be hilarious to see a time laps video of this daily ritual.