I needed an oil change last week and, after making an appointment, I received a text with an estimate of $76. My friendly neighborhood garage has over the last few years gone high-tech.
I dropped the car off at 8 am and went to a nearby café. About an hour later I received a text from the garage, with a new estimate of over $500. Apparently, I needed a new battery – news to me – and a change of brake fluid. And the rotation of the tires, which used to be included, was now an additional charge because I’d bought the tires elsewhere, not through the garage. I passed on the new battery and the brake fluid.
When I went to pick up the car, I told the manager that I came to his garage originally because whenever I took the car to the dealer they would always find things the car “needed” to up the price. He insisted the car needed everything he suggested. Perhaps, I said, but in the old days someone would call me, and tell me over the phone what they had found, and ask me if I wanted to go ahead with the work. Now I get an impersonal text.
Most people appreciate getting a detailed text, the manager said. But I suspect the real beneficiary here is the garage: It’s much easier to lie, or at least fabricate, in a text than in a conversation.
