Sense of fairness. And retribution

I was at a car dealership a few days ago and got chatting with the service manager. He was recollecting the story of how a luxury car owner called the dealership and started screaming about how his car had stalled right after he had topped it up with fuel.

The dealership had towed the car to the service station and initial diagnostics revealed the presence of water in the engine. This had caused the connecting rods to buckle and the engine to seize. It appears that water had made its way into the petrol bunks and this car happened to be the unfortunate one to get filled with water instead of fuel. When they informed the owner of the cause and tried to provide the cost estimate for him to file an insurance claim, this owner threw a fit and threatened legal action and more.

The dealership wrote to the manufacturer and as a special case, they did the work gratis. This is where things start to get interesting. After the engine work was done, the big-shot owner then insisted that all four tyres should be changed for free as one of them had developed a crack on the sidewall - clearly from being driven against a curb. The dealership declined politely at which point the big shot threatened to write to the company headquarters in Europe.

By this time, the manufacturer had also gotten wind of what this person was trying to do and they wrote back saying that they were unable to replace the tyres.

I am amazed at how people will lose all sense of fairness - especially after someone has gone out of their way to do them a favour. In hindsight, it appears that the car manufacturer should have politely but firmly stated that damaged caused by water entering the engine.

The story does not end here however. A few years later, this bigshot wanted to buy a new car of the same make from the same dealership. When the booking reached the company, they said they were unable to deliver the car of his choice for at least a year as they would be unable to import it. When he tried changing the model and specs, interestingly the company was unable to import that too. He then tried to order a model assembled in India, the company said they would look at allocation time frames and 'would get back to him' when they were able.

I love this company. It is not very often you see someone truly mean it when they say that their people are their most important resource. This company was clearly protecting their people from an unsavoury customer.

Kudos.