Story Time

[Denise Trimble]

One Service Manager had a new kid running through the Service Department with a big trash bag collecting air samples for the upcoming EPA Inspection. Good thing the SM overheard the kid, on the phone, asking the operator for the phone number for the EPA so he knew how much air to collect!

When pagers were a thing: we had them available for service customers who liked to be taken to the shopping mall, then they could be notified when their vehicle was ready. Whomever was the newest technician, no matter their skill level, was handed a pager on their first Friday and told that since they are the "new guy" they are on call for the weekend. Amazingly, only one ever got fished out of the trash can!

[jaybird62]

we had an owners kid "working" at the dealership... they could not find anything he could do..
so the owner told him to get the osha book out and look around to see what we needed to do
to keep in compliance... he could not figure it out, so he just called osha to come out and help him...

wowsers..

[brparts]

back in the early 90's i had a young pretty girl come in and buy a what was called a nose mask or a bra, she asked me if i could help put her bra on. i told her that i did not have much experience putting them on, had more taking them off. she smiled and said i bet you have. i did help her put her nose mask on.

[joecool17]

In a time, probably somewhere in the early 2000s area. I had a young lady ask me for parts for her Ford FIZO . Bumfuzzled, I tried to question her. Do you have a Festiva? Is it a Fusion? She kept going back to her original request, claiming it was a FIZO. I asked her if she had drove it to the dealership, and she then led me out to a 90s Ford F150. I was working at a GM dealer at the time. It was all I could do to keep a strait face and point her to the nearest Ford dealership.

[AlanHomes]

Worked at a dealership with multiple car lines, loved it there, unfortunately they went bankrupt, too many poker debts. But that is another story.

This was back in the book days, easy to look up parts. Customer had a Cavalier, needed a shift knob. Asked what color, automatic or manual transmission. Blue, manual transmission. No problem came in a few days later. Knob is wrong, customer was pissed off. Walked out to the vehicle, its an automatic. But no its not, I have to manually put it in gear. What an idiot.

[jaybird62]

back in the 80's... understand i am in amarillo tx... worked at a chevy dealership... i was the first computer as you walk in to parts... we had 4 front counter guys..
a "person" came in to order a part.. i asked for the last name.. i had to people under the last name.. i have a bob and a mary... the person says i was married to mary, and i used to be bob... but i have had a sex change operation and now go by sheila.... everyone bolted....

[Stevenspeaking]

in the 90s...
A sales manager was putting a sales ad together and was hazing a sales person with a fake ad. It read "(name) takes it up the azz all night long". Well they forgot to fix it before submitting it to the newspaper. The paper didn't catch what it said. It was in printed in the Sunday paper. I heard there was a lawsuit over that one.

[PM307795]

WOW, sad day I have no cool stories like these. lol
Had a new lube guy one day come in and ask me about how much a 710 cap was because the lube supervisor told him he lost it. We let him believe it for a good couple of days before the supervisor told him what it was.

Also most conversations have have with male customers (female parts manager) thinking I'm just a dumb girl is very entertaining when I have to explain to them what their part actually does and what its for!

[AlanHomes]

I know, with all this experience and time served; there are a lot of great stories our contributors have to offer.
I once worked for a dealer in a bigger city (with an interesting customer base) and overheard a counter guy's interaction with a customer:

Customer: (part in-hand) I need a cruise control servo for my '89 Celebrity
Counterman: No problem! I have one and it will be $XX.XX plus the core charge. I see you've brought the core with you.... (core is returned to GM and so on)
Two weeks later, customer comes back, pleading with this counterman to have his old servo back because the new one "didn't fix his problem". After a while of explaining reasons why he could not have it back, regardless of the fact it was no longer in the building, the counterman began to get a little smirk on his face.
He told the customer "Can you spell DOG as in dog house?" The customer replied "D-O-G". The counterman asked "Can you spell CAT as in cat scratch?" The customer replied "C-A-T". The counterman said "Can you spell F@#K as in cruise control servo?" The customer was perplexed but replied "There is no F@#K in cruise control servo."
Counterman: "THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU!!! THERE IS NO F@#KING CRUISE CONTROL SERVO!"

That was 33 years ago. There are many more, but that is my all-time favorite.

We used to get the servos from Southern Autotronics in Richmond VA. Think they were on Boulevard, right off the interstate. Next door was Moto Europa motorcycle shop. All you needed to know was if the cruise stalk said 'Resume".

[Denise Trimble]

WOW, sad day I have no cool stories like these. lol
Had a new lube guy one day come in and ask me about how much a 710 cap was because the lube supervisor told him he lost it. We let him believe it for a good couple of days before the supervisor told him what it was.

Also most conversations have have with male customers (female parts manager) thinking I'm just a dumb girl is very entertaining when I have to explain to them what their part actually does and what its for!

As a countergal in the '90's, I had a seasoned farmer come in and say "Young lady, I'd like to speak to your manager so I can explain what I need!" I smiled and politely said "Right away, sir!" Off I went to get my manager, who is also a lady 6 months younger than myself. The look on his face was so gratifying.