A dealership story...

[domi]

Don't really know why i decided to post this, maybe i just like whining, maybe there actually is a point to it:

Two days ago i realised the Autocross season here opens up this weekend and my car is still not running properly [i have a whimper thread in the Tech forum, don't read it unless you agree to leave a supportive and sympathetic comment, i need the motivation kthx] and because of work have next to no time to work on it and get it fixed, so the obvious decision was - drop it at a dealer to fix the wiring. Even though engine is not stock, they should be able to fix body wiring, how bloody hard can it be, right? So yeah, there I am, dropping my car off at a dealer called Lou Fusz's or something of the like. I demand to have a word with the tech that's gonna work on the car, so i can explain what needs to be done and what not to touch on it. Guy comes up - slightly redneckish, but cool nevertheless. I show him the two connectors that he needs to start following wires from until he finds where the shorting with the ground is and if not fix them, then at least tell me where it shorts so i can do it myself. 35 mins into the explanation his manager shows up and starts telling him how he should ignore everything i say and do jack and then charge me per hour even if the car doesn't get fixed... quite the obnoxious bastard, truely. I ask them if they have the wiring diagram for the car, so they can fix what i initially brought the car in for. Turns out - they don't. Not only that, they start explaining to me how the manual cannot be obtained and blah-blah-blah random excuses and stuff. I ended up actually e-mailing it to them, so they can not use that as an excuse. Later same day i receive a call, the manager dude in his divine electrical-engineering-degree-posesion explains to me how the reason for my engine not revving properly [or as he worded it: 'falling on its face'] is not at all the fact that i have 12V running through the body of the car to which everything including the ECU grounds, but infact one of the wires of the TPS seems to not send/receive voltage. That conclusion he reached after having some wiring-guru-dude spend 3-4 hours on the car, working on the 20V with the stock 16V wiring diagrams in hand. Pure genii, those people, i tell you. Anyway, i tell him he is an utter fool [in a more politically correct manner, ofc.] and that with the battery minus terminal disconnected and the car running on alternator it revs just about as fine as i want it to, the TPS does not all of a sudden fix its own wiring miraculously - when the f**king grounding circuit goes open it just doesn't lean itself out. The guy tells me to 'chill' and preceeds to disrespectfully insult my amateur knowledge, or lack thereof, about how cars work and the whole 9 yards. At that point i'm considering spending an year or two in jail for killing the dude with a toothpick i happened to have in my pocket. He wants me to pay 120 USD per hour [my paycheque is low 500s for two weeks working, he wants about 480 paid] for doing everything i told them not to and not doing anything i told them to. I told him i'm not paying unless they spent their time working on what i want. He says they don't intend to listen to me and my uneducated demands and so on. By the time i'm considering a lifetime in jail without parole for burning the building down. After my second refusal to pay for their refusal to obay simple instructions, he calls my car an 'electrical nightmare' and starts sweating and turning sadly red from the neck up. About five minutes later i drove my car off the lot without paying a penny.
So, yeah, if there is any moral to this it would be 'if you want it done right - do it yourself'. With that said - wish me luck i have 2 days to make the car not 'fall on its face'.

Cheers and sorry for the time wasted.