You're not going to believe this.. but it's true.. all of it.

bloodandtears

A couple of months ago I sent my red Vauxhall Zafira into my local dealer for the heater recall correction. In the boot was a fold up bike rack. I dropped the car off in the morning.. and collected it after work.

The next morning I noticed the absence of the bike rack and immediately called the garage who denied any knowledge of the item. I then insisted to speak with the manager due to the impasse. The manager was on leave for a week, so on his return I called him up and explained the situation. He said he would check CCTV asap, a week later I was informed the CCTV access was restricted and there was hold up.

Nearly another week had passed I was still seemingly no nearer to a resolution, I had begun to source a replacement at my own cost. After a couple of days scouring ebay and gumtree a listing appeared in a neighbouring borough. I contacted the seller and we agreed to a fee; the following day I set off to pay and collect the item.

On the model of the bike rack there are attaching hooks on my bike rack that I had taped off in red insulation tape to avoid scratching the car. As I left to collect the replacement rack I jested to my wife that it would be funny if it was my missing bike rack identificable by said tape modifications.

I met the seller, an elderly gentlemen at his very nice detached residence, who presented the item to me. Low and behold, it had red insulation tape on the hooks...

What would you do????

I actually rationalised to myself that I was prepared to buy a bike rack regardless of its origins and paid the man. I did ask a few questions about the history of the item, reason for the tape, and the vendor's occupation. I also recanted my experience with garage, but the guy didn't flinch. I paid the man and left with a bike rack.

I sat in my car in shock, and called my wife to inform her of such.

The next day I called the police with and opening gambit of "You're not going to believe this.. but it's true.. all of it.". They did, and did what checks they could do, took a statement, but as it's all circumstantial there was little follow up. The vendor apparantly is an avid car-booter and also suffers mild dimentia according to his wife, so that was a dead end. Heard nothing about the garage and absent CCTV.

Morale of the story?? never leave anything of value in a car unattended, especiallly where unknown people have been granted unsupervised access.

mike_l

When I worked in a dealership there was a customers car which went to the valet.
It came back minus some change and a couple of CD's.


The valet was gotten rid of very quickly.

TimmyO

Write that to your local paper, and include the name of the garage

stickyfiddle

Doesn't sound bloody circumstantial!! Someone at the garage clearly nicking stuff and old geezer guilty of handling stolen goods whether he's in on it or not. 

Hope it didn't cost you much to get it back.

TimmyO

Or indeed just send it to the regional Vauxhall office or similar.

bloodandtears

TimmyO said:

Write that to your local paper, and include the name of the garage

I'd be fearful of accusations of libel due to the circumstantial nature..

bloodandtears

I felt it worthwhile informing the police so the incident was logged against the dealership, should any repetition occur.

starwarsnosebleed

Its amazing that some people would risk losing their jobs, for the sake of nicking some change or some cd's.

obviously due to Brexit.

Dominic

DAMN, I thought you were going to say that when you turned up to buy it that the seller was the Service dept Manager !
 Don't waste your time ,angst or breath going to the police -they are not interested especially because there is no money in it for them or anybody to fine.............
But they could buy some more Tasers for ignorant automatons to assault old Black Gentlemen with who they can lie about 'trying to assault them ' .......thank God for local neighbours and camera video.......
 That footage was something I really can't believe...............absolutely shameful and despicable
Those 2 police officers should be charged with assault using a deadly weapon......pure common assault !

Ravenous

bloodandtears said:

He said he would check CCTV asap, a week later I was informed the CCTV access was restricted and there was hold up.

I'm disgusted if the police know about this but haven't used it. Surely if they know about it they can put the screws on to force access to the CCTV...

jellyroll

That is unbelievable.......Vauxhall Zafiras have heaters?

SRich

In much earlier years I worked for a Ford dealer oop North and had a Ford Focus Ghia traded in against an XR3i.........in the Focus coin tray was more than a good weekend's worth of condoms. This left me thinking could I call the feller (what if his wife answered etc etc) and express what I had found.

I decided to see if he would come to claim them...........and I filed them under "Customer's Letters"..............   

Roland

Speak to the manager at the garage again. He needs to know that there's a thief on his team. If he doesn't respond then escalate the problem to his head office on the basis that there is managerial collusion and/or failure to respond to a customer complaint.

mixolyd

This is what review sites are for.

Chances are the garage has entries on google and the Yellow Pages where you can post an account which will be impervious to accusations of libel if you stick to the facts and let the reader draw the conclusions.

ICBM

Roland said:

Speak to the manager at the garage again. He needs to know that there's a thief on his team. If he doesn't respond then escalate the problem to his head office on the basis that there is managerial collusion and/or failure to respond to a customer complaint.

It's quite likely the manager knows already if he gave the CCTV story. Or is the thief himself.

Some time ago I was in a Cash Convertor shop buying a computer game for one of my kids - while I was waiting to pay, with a tenner which I had taken out and put on the counter in front of me, something distracted me and I turned round. When I turned back the tenner had vanished. The shop person denied all knowledge of it, so I asked for the manager who said I was making it up. I asked him to look at the CCTV, since there is a camera on the counter at all times. He also said that "access was restricted" and it couldn't be looked at without the police present. From his attitude, I realised he was in on it and I gave up - you can guarantee that if I'd called the police, by the time they arrived (possibly hours later, for a non-urgent case like that - and I didn't have time for that) the CCTV would mysteriously have become faulty or something.

RandallFlagg

burn the cunts down 

starwarsnosebleed

Im not sure the type of guy to burn down a garage, would own a Vauxhall Zafira...or a bike rack.

Although it is red...the colour of fucking rage!!!!!

grrrrr!

Roland

ICBM said:

Roland said:

Speak to the manager at the garage again. He needs to know that there's a thief on his team. If he doesn't respond then escalate the problem to his head office on the basis that there is managerial collusion and/or failure to respond to a customer complaint.

It's quite likely the manager knows already if he gave the CCTV story. Or is the thief himself.

Quite possibly he is involved, and has wiped the relevant evidence. Hence escalation to head office.

mixolyd said:

This is what review sites are for.

Which is what ought to persuade head office to do something about it. They can write off a single complaint at customer error or grudge. These things build if there's more than one incident.

breakstuff

starwarsnosebleed said:

Im not sure the type of guy to burn down a garage, 

Zafiras do a pretty good job of that themselves,don't they?

Sambostar

The demented man may have just wondered into the garage and removed the rack himself.

Stevepage

We've recently had a load of thefts from cars in our area so I never leave anything of value in the car, even getting the car cleaned I take it all out just in case. Though I have just remembered I've left my Ray Bans in the car, fuck sake