Plot twist: it was a meeting with a potential distributor of OP's crime-based augmented reality game, and the client signed them immediately after the demo.

inspired by Black Mirror?

thats pretty shitty, aparently your being way too nice with those folks. sometimes you gotta be a total bitch to get dealerships to do right.

Oh wow, that sucks! But 3 times in month? I would be taking my car else where to get fixed. Hopefully you had no problem resolving this issue though and hopefully you'll get your car fixed soon. Good luck OP!

I don't know if this is the same everywhere, but from what I've seen with my mother's POS, if the shop doesn't adequately fix it the first time, there's no further charge for each subsequent visit for the same issue. However, if she said "fuck it" and brought it someplace else, she'd be out the money she paid originally PLUS whatever she pays the new place.

I think if it is the same issue, by the time you brought it there twice and they failed to fix it, you'd be able to get a refund on the original charge and invest that money somewhere else.

Except if the car is new and the issue falls under the warranty of the dealership, then you are stuck with them.

I wouldn't. Parts warranties are easier to manage from one location, and warranties for new vehicles require the work to be done in a dealership. Plus if you're loyal to a dealerhsip you're more likely to get assistance from the manufacturer. Then there's the whole separate issue of lemon law which needs to be thoroughly documented, and I wouldn't trust anyone but a master technician for the manufacturer to document that. Now if you can find another dealer for your manufacturer nearby, then yes I would recommend taking your car there. But if not, stay where you are.

OP here. That sounds nice, but no they charged me every time. To make up for this incident, there was no charge this time as well as detailing and a free oil change.

I'm sure the client was impressed.

Either that, or they are too afraid to take their business elsewhere. That's how the Mafia works.

After all that, dealership better fix your car for free.

The ID user said GTA VI. I assumed it would be OP being pulled out of the car and beaten up or something. Thank goodness it wasn't that bad. FYL OP though. Hope you make it out of this situation

As someone who works in service this is all kinds of weird to me. I'm assuming you mean a loaner/courtesy vehicle, but I'm not sure how one could "mistakenly" report it stolen unless they somehow got the wrong VIN. Which also doesn't make much sense. What kind of issue is happening with your car and what brand is it?

I'm also curious, I do market research for a lot of automotive brands, and get their survey feedback. They're supposed to send this kind of stuff to their head office to get a proper solution, I want to know if it's one of the brands I deal with. OP, if you get a survey for any of the visits make sure you explain everything that's happened, they usually get alerts when they receive bad feedback.

OP here. It is really weird, and Century Chevrolet said it had never happened to them before. What they told me was that for every loaner car, there are 2 sets of keys. They didn't realize there were actually 3 for the vehicle I was using. Upon seeing 2 sets of keys and no car, they assumed it was hotwired. It's unbelievable to me too.

Check your legal options. In Texas we have a "lemon law" for exactly that situation.

Lemon law is all over the States as far as I know.

i think it's time to switch dealerships

Wow I really need a follow up because I want to know what happened next.

OP here. I had to stay where I was while the police talked to the dealership to get it sorted out. Once they realized I had the keys and the paperwork, they let me go. The dealership said this has never happened before and they're going to make it right by fixing my car for free as well as detailing and oil change.

So they should!

That's not enough. Don't accept it. Call corporate, threaten to sue for emotional trauma and damages since it risked costing you business because of the client. You'll get a lot further.

why? why make a huge deal out of what seemed like an honest mistake? you ll be costing someone their job for sure and no client would leave because of this. once the situation was properly explained anyone would find it funny and the client would find it funny maybe even improving the chances of hiring OP.so there's really no need to take undue advantage of a situation to "get a lot further"

#25 are you a full-time or part-time asshole? because being greedy like that only makes people hate you

ok you do not understand even with a valid explanation the client would most likely not accept any deal from OP

Well as much as it sucks to go through all that, at least your dealer showed remorse for what happened to you and wants to make it right!