Battling the Repair Shop

It's been another eventful week. After dropping my car off at the shop last week to repair what they suggested was a leaky thermostat housing, it was immediately clear over the Thanksgiving weekend that the problem hadn't been fixed at all. Seeing as this leak stemmed back to a repair I had this very shop do on my car back in January, you could say that this is when I became livid.

I wrote a full account of my experience and repair history with this shop, attached my invoices, and snapped pictures of the very obvious leak. First thing on Tuesday morning I walked into the shop and laid it all out. I was pissed. I had spent hundreds of dollars, taken time off work, and had been into the shop four times this year (three of which were specifically to fix the leak, and the very first time where it seemed the leak was caused).

It was a strange feeling to be on that end of the table where I genuinely felt like I had been taken advantage of. I told them point blank that I wasn't going to pay them any more money, but that I was holding them accountable for what I'd already paid for. The thermostat housing turned out not to be leaking at all, and here it was the water pump - again - just like I had said it was since they changed it back in January.

The saving grace in this whole experience was that I finally got the treatment I deserved. The squeaky wheel gets the grease as they say. They took my car in right away the next day, diagnosed the leaky water pump and replaced it with a newly designed (from those they previously used) water pump that was more suitable for my Jaguar. They also covered the full cost of the parts and labour - as they should have seeing as I'd already paid them to do it before.

I now have my car back and the leak is finally gone (knock on wood), but it's been such a headache of a repair job that should have been so simple from the get-go. I'm just happy that I can hit the open road this weekend to go visit my sister without having to worry about this issue anymore. Sometimes car ownership is just a pain in the ass.



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