Taking your truck in for service

[msperos]

Just a heads up for ant one taking a truck into ATS. Your truck may be driven home at night by an ATS employee I have someone in my neighborhood who works for ATS, every night he has a different truck parked out front. From talking to neighbors it sounds like the line is that it is part of the service work to drive the truck. I do not know if Clint know's that this goes on or not but I would be #@$%! if my truck went home with an employee at night. The part that really ticks me off is that they are proud that they are not paying for the fuel to commute.

So if you or any one you no is taking a truck to ATS tell them that the truck is not to go home with anyone for the night.
</IMG></IMG></IMG>

 

[Signal73]

Lot 'o ATS complaints on this board lately.....

 

[CSnyder]

Have you noticed any of them at the local pulls while the employees had them? LOL



Apparently I need to run a larger shop so I dont ever have to pay for fuel either... LMAO

 

[JMoberly]

Would be interesting to stop by the employees house and take your truck back then wait for a phone call the next morning.

 

[Boondocker]

Would be interesting to stop by the employees house and take your truck back then wait for a phone call the next morning.

My thoughts exactly! I bet that would get their attention.

 

[Cattletrkr]

I'd be ticked if they didn't at least take mine for a test drive. Last time I took my truck in to the dealer the service manager asked if it would be OK for the tech to take it home. Heck yeah!! Better chance of it acting up on a longer drive.

Did you ever ask the guy if he has the customer's OK?

 

[CDonaldson]

Years ago I had a friend whose employees drove rigs home to 'test' them out before returning them the next day to the customers. One of the guys got into a very serious accident with a customers truck. Of course the truck was not totalled but the other car was, and so was the driver-dead at the scene. Long story short, the insurance company of the truck refused to pay and the shop owner did not have that 'specific' type of insurance to cover the accident. It ended up a totally enormous mess, and the truck was a new truck that had tons and tons of problems afterward. They finally got all the costs covered by both the truck's insurer and the guy who owned the garage's insurer, had a day in court to settle it all.



When I purchased the truck I had before the 06 Dodge, I took it into the mfrs shop for a warranty issue. You really did not even need to drive it because the problem was evident. Well, they decided to do a test drive. The tech pulled out of the dealership burning rubber, plowed through the gears-you could hear them grinding because he was lousy with a clutch. A friend of mine saw him about 4 blocks away flying several miles an hour above the speed limit AND he got a ticket. My friend called me asking me what MY hurry was, and how much the ticket was going to cost me. Three months later I got a visit from the Sheriffs office over the unpaid ticket because the law also holds the owner responsible. I took the Sheriff straight to the garage so he could deal with the idiot who got the ticket. He arrested him for failure to show in court, lots of fines, trip to jail, etc. The dealership had NO idea about any of this stuff and how their employees did joy rides with customers vehicles, or at least that was their statement regarding the incident. I had to file a protest suit against the local law officials because they let the moron bond out of jail without full restitution. The protest suit made him specifically responsible for all the fees and fines of his ticket.



I personally do not want shop personnel driving my truck. I usually take my truck in and wait, all day if necessary. If they want to test drive it before/after a repair, I am more than happy to do the driving and have the tech ride along. More often than not, your familiarity with your vehicle has a lot to do with you hearing/feeling something that's wrong. You are actually the 'better' tester of the final road test over the tech. Many of them do not drive a standard transmission well, you can hear them slipping the clutch as they pull out because they don't know about the wonderful aspects of how our diesels power up on a clutch release. So, no thanks to them taking my truck home for anything. I would not give consent, I don't let them test drive mine, never have sice that incident a few years back. They either play by my rules or I go somewhere else.



CD

 

[MStrain]

When I take my truck in for service to the dealer I always note the mileage to see how much they drive my truck, so far no problems. If ATS is allowing their employees to take trucks home that is a very shady practice and is wrong, a test drive is one thing, even a few miles on the highway but taking it home so the employess can save gas money is really unethical and likely illegal, I can't imagine any insurance company paying for an accident involving some random idiot crashing your truck. I would report it stolen and say you know who stole it.

 

[mhenon]

Taking you vehicle to a dealer should be an act of desperation. Kind of like declaring bankruptcy. . if you have to fine. . but not something you want do on a regular basis.

Mike

 

[JimB1]

Making a false stolen vehicle police report will cause plenty trouble for yourself. If ATS is really doing this then call the city business license office and find out ATS insurance company and make complaint to all three, ATS, city business license office and insurance company. All your actions are legit.

 

[PToombs]

IMO, I can understand taking the vehicle home, depending on the repair issues. But the fact that they are bragging about burning the customers fuel and not their own, that is just wrong! Somebody should put a stop to it.



I'm kinda surprised ATS hasn't put in their . 02!

 

[DJW]

I only know of two instances where people left their vehicles over the weekend for tuneups, one was where a friend of my son, a quiet type left it at a well known and advertised Speed Shop, they done engines for races. Why he took it there I have no idea, as I asked him what he wanted done to it plus why take it there. He said it was just for a regular Tune Up, but being they were Race Oriented thought they would do a better job. It was just an ordinary well used El Camino, he was 18 years of age at the time, so he filled up the gas tank. When he picked it up the gauge was just above empty, on asking he was told that they did a long milage road test with it. The other was a 2 seater Ford Thunderbird left for a weekend for a tune up, I was with a friend and at around 2am on a Sunday morning, there was this clown doing everything to wreck that car short of crashing it into a wall. Even the people who knew him thought he was stupid to do that to a car that was not his and TRUSTED to Him. That was only two instances I know of and both were BAD, with odds like that I'm not Betting.

 

[rbattelle]

I'm kinda surprised ATS hasn't put in their . 02!

Me too. I'd like to hear their side of the story.



Ryan

 

[steved]

When I take my truck in for service to the dealer I always note the mileage to see how much they drive my truck, so far no problems. If ATS is allowing their employees to take trucks home that is a very shady practice and is wrong, a test drive is one thing, even a few miles on the highway but taking it home so the employess can save gas money is really unethical and likely illegal, I can't imagine any insurance company paying for an accident involving some random idiot crashing your truck. I would report it stolen and say you know who stole it.

Agreed, A test drive is one thing... employees using your truck for their transportation is another. I am very picky about who touches my truck... I write mileages down in front of the service writer, I tell the service writer only the mechanic is to drive the truck (I saw some wash-bay rat drive a customer's car and wreck them before), and I also kindly explain to them that they are responsible for ANY damage inflicted while it is in their possession.



And another thing to add is the fact that once they "leave the shop" in you truck they are no longer "on the clock", and therefore, the company is not responsible for whatever happens to your ride as it is "off hours" and "not work related". There is nothing they can do by driving it home, that they couldn't do by starting it in the dealership parking lot after sitting overnight and taking it for a legit "test drive".



IMHO, what they are doing is very shady and irresponsible.



steved

 

[JacobsD]

when a hot car or truck comes in the garage I work at, I may take it around the block but thats about it. You won't catch me burning out or taking it home for a night or somthing like that. That's uncalled for. Besides, my own truck usually more fun to drive than anything we get in :-laf

 

[JKloppe]

Ttt ?????????????????

 

[MMeier]

Making a false stolen vehicle police report will cause plenty trouble for yourself. If ATS is really doing this then call the city business license office and find out ATS insurance company and make complaint to all three, ATS, city business license office and insurance company. All your actions are legit.

Whats false here?? Someone is using your vehicle with out your express written permission.

 

[24V-DSL]

Your insurance policy has very specific contract language pertaining to permissive users/drivers. Permission to drive your vehicle (and have any coverage if something happens) can only come from the "named insured" on the policy declaration page.



So, you can see the potential for a bad outcome if some shop groupie were to take your truck home for the night without your permission. There may be some possible coverage under the shop owners insurance for this type of issue, but I'm not sure.



Insurance companies can and do deny coverage for an accident involving a non-permitted driver.

 

[msperos]

Well i don't know what happened but the trucks have stopped appearing? I don't know if word got around or what.

 

[PToombs]

Gee, do you think ATS saw the post on here?