Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.
Some types of business relationships are based entirely on trust.
Especially when you’re dealing with so-called experts.
These, after all, are supposed to be people who know their stuff and would rather bathe in the detritus from a thousand gutters than have their reputations sullied.
Me, I tend to trust the people who service my car, for example.
Principally because I trust Gene, the service advisor who’s looked after me ever since I bought the car.
Daniel Sheikhan says he had a slightly difference experience when he took his Mercedes S63 AMG for a service in Mississauga, Canada.
Well, when I say he says he had a slightly different experience, it would be more accurate to say he saw a slightly different experience.
You see, he left the dashcam on and then played back what happened. (Warning: the language isn’t pretty.)
Which was that the technicians appeared to take the car for a joyride.
Yes, it appears to have been taken to a Wendy’s in order to get some ice cream. 4 ice creams, to be precise.
Shekihan says he found ice cream residue in the car when he got it back.
First, though, a service does seem to have been attempted.
For 11 minutes, that is. Sheikhan says he was charged for 90 minutes of labor and the transmission service that he’d asked for wasn’t even done.
He ended up putting the evidence it on YouTube, of course.
This all allegedly occurred in 2015. And Shekihan says he’s still not happy with the reaction — or non-reaction — he received from Mercedes.
“In no way do we condone or tolerate the unacceptable behavior shown in the video. We investigated this incident when it was originally brought to our attention in 2015 and appropriate actions were taken,” Mercedes-Benz Canada told City News.
Sheikhan, though, says he wants to know whether Mercedes actually changed anything about the way it services cars, so that no one else endures what his car did.
Of course, how can one ever know?
It’s not likely that his experience was unique. After all, here’s video of a woman who caught her mechanic taking her Indy 500 Pace Car Edition Camaro for his own little spin.
Oh, and here’s a Canadian investigation into some of the interesting practices that occur.
Recommending work that’s not really needed, for example.
So-called Factory Required Maintenance is one ruse that appears to have been employed.
This isn’t to suggest that all service operators are the same.
It does, though, show the importance of at least an element of trust in every business relationship, especially when a substantial amount of money is involved.
As for Sheikhan, you might be wondering why his video is emerging only now.
“My lawyers also told me not to share the video anywhere until we hear back from Mercedes because if we share the video there’s not much to negotiate so I held onto the video and then after two years when I realize they are not replying or even interested I just decided to post it to raise awareness,” he told Jalopnik.