A Cadillac service advisor vented his frustrations with a customer who tried blaming repair shop employees for an oil leak.
Tiktok creator @mymechanicsaid shared his gripes in a video that has accrued over 29,000 views as of this writing.
“Dude, I cannot make this stuff up. I had a guy come in today, we haven’t seen him in probably two years,” he says. “And he has a 2008 Escalade, right? So he comes in, we’re doing the oil change, don’t know why all of a sudden he wanted to bring it to the dealer for an oil change. Hadn’t seen him in years, but whatever. Doing the oil change and we tell him that there’s a pretty significant oil leak under the vehicle. We attach pictures, video, I mean he could see it.”
He says that the man declined the repair. Then the two had a talk about it.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, did you see the pictures of the oil leak? It’s pretty serious,’” he says.
@mymechanicsaid claims the man said his vehicle hadn’t been leaking. He wasn’t buying it.
“And I’m like, ‘Bro that thing is sopping. Like, you have to have had drips. It’s, it dripped in my bay. It was there for three minutes,’” he continues.
Then the man paid and left. The next day he called the shop.
The mechanic claims that his customer was furious and accused the dealership of causing the damage. This is in spite of all the evidence sent to the man previously regarding the leaking fluid. “I have oil drips in my driveway. I have never had drips in my driveway. What did you guys do to my truck?” the man purportedly said.
Shifting Blame to the Mechanic
The mechanic says that he fired back that the vehicle is 17 years old and hence had eaten up a significant amount of pavement in its time.
“Bro, your truck has 250,000 miles on it. It’s leaking like a sieve,” he says he replied. Moreover, the tech reminded the man that not only was his truck leaking oil, but the oil itself was especially nasty. “We showed you the video and the pictures of it up on the lift. Covered in like mud looking oil. Like old, disgusting dirty, crusty oil,” he reportedly continued.
He couldn’t believe the patron was attempting to shift the blame of his car’s mechanical problems on the dealership’s service department. After their back-and-forth, the Dealership Life service tech reveals that the customer’s tantrum was most probably a ruse to try and get his car fixed for free.
However, his boss wasn’t swayed. “Dude really thought we were about to do that repair for free. Service manager told him to kick rocks,” the mechanic says.
Motor1 previously reported on a recurring gripe many automotive techs have dealt with: the denunciatory customer. Much like the one referred to in @mymechanicsaid’s video, numerous mechanics shared their ire with car owners who blame shops for problems that their vehicles already had when they brought them in, then argue for a free repair.
That said, mechanics do make mistakes. On the r/mechanics Subreddit, a person who said that they work as a mechanic said they’ve seen shop employees attempt to cover up the fact that they accidentally damaged a car by blaming a pre-existing issue. However, they added that in their experience, patrons are more likely to wrongfully accuse shops of malpractice.
If mechanics make a mistake that results in damage, they can be sued.
According to AutoLeap, “Mechanic and repair shop owners have a legal obligation when performing repairs.” The outlet reports that this is known as “duty of care” which “means that services have to meet a reasonable standard that is expected” from professionals servicing their properties.
Motor1 has reached out to @mymechanicsaid via TikTok direct message for further comment. We’ll update this if he responds.
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