"Okay, I have this down as a purge valve replacement, Mr. Jones."
"That’s wrong, Mr. Service Writer. I want the repair order to say exactly what I told you: Car stalls repeatedly!"
"Slicing and Dicing" the Defect
This is an extension of the Repair Order Alteration gambit. The problem is Check Engine light comes on, car stalls. The dealer will try to make this problem look like something else, something less serious. Here are a few possibilities.
• A short in an electrical harness
• Broken or disconnected vacuum hoses
• Emission Control System problem
• Ignition System fault
If the dealer can write down something different on each repair order, the stalling problem can be made to look like it isn’t really the defect. Then the manufacturer can argue that it has successfully repaired four different problems, instead of having repeated failed repair attempts for the same problem. |
