Thief at the service department...

What is the name of your state? Texas

I believe this is the best place to post my question. I was at the dealership yesterday to get a dead battery replaced under warranty. Prior to pulling up into the service bay I placed my iPod in the charger located in my glovebox. On my way home I decided I wanted to listen to music on my iPod through the vehicle's stereo. I was having problems getting it to work and assumed that with the battery being changed out settings in the radio were lost and thats why I couldn't get the iPod to play. (My car has a a cable in the glovebox that charges and allows the ipod to be controlled remotely via the radio). When I got home to reset all my settings on the radio and still couldn't get it to work I popped the glove box. My iPod was stolen. I called the dealership this morning (since they were already closed) and they "will get back with me".

What is my recourse? Am I screwed? The service manager advised me that one of the techs had to get into my glovebox to get the unlock code for the factory radio. That's as far as it's gotten so far. Advice?

Thanks!

My advice? Don't take your personal belongings to the car dealership when they need to work on your vehicle.

That's wonderful advice for future visits...but that doesn't address the situation I'm in now. Or is that your way of stating I'm SOL?

You are free to make a police report, but it probably won't go very far. They won't do fingerprint analysis or DNA testing to determine who was in your glovebox (even then, just because someone was in there, doesn't mean they stole the ipod).

I doubt you'd be able to do anything in small claims court either. You don't know who stole the item, and it's likely that when you signed the work order, it stated they would not be responsible for any loss, damaged or stolen personal items.

It's just one of those things the isn't fair, but there isn't any magic answer. The dealership doesn't owe you an ipod. It isn't their fault. The person to blame is whoever stole the ipod, but they probably won't be advertising that fact.

Well I guess those surveys are really important or something. I had a call asking me to rate my experience at the dealership and I tore them a new one. They transferred me to the company that owns the dealership and will cut me a check to replace the item once I fax them a receipt. It's still been a horrible experience, so either they know their folks are crooks, they have proof it was stolen, are are just doing the right thing. Regardless, I'm glad its behind me now.

Lesson learned, clean anything valuble out before going to a stealership.

thats awesome! congratulations. now make sure not to leave your ipod in your car anymore!

mark1210 said:

Well I guess those surveys are really important or something. I had a call asking me to rate my experience at the dealership and I tore them a new one. They transferred me to the company that owns the dealership and will cut me a check to replace the item once I fax them a receipt. It's still been a horrible experience, so either they know their folks are crooks, they have proof it was stolen, are are just doing the right thing. Regardless, I'm glad its behind me now.

Lesson learned, clean anything valuble out before going to a stealership.

Click to expand...

Awesome... Thanks for reporting back and letting us know. Sometimes you do not need legal means to get things done. I think the dealership did a stand up thing, and hopefully, you will still stay loyal to the company. After all, it is hard to control all of your employees.