The Expert Podcast

So you bring your car in for repairs to a service center or maybe even the new car dealer for a oil change tune-up repair some type of problem with the vehicle and if you notice on your repair order when you first bring in the car it's going to say customer States customer says almost always it'll say customer States you might wonder why does it say those exact words on every repair order it's a very common question and the answer is because if the automotive repair center puts down what you say on the repair bill it might be construed as that's actually a problem with the vehicle.
For example if you say the engine's making a noise check it out they'll put down customer States engine making a noise if they put down engine is making a noise now you may actually have a record of the fact that that vehicle actually has a problem until they diagnose the fact that the engine is making a noise they're not going to State on the repair bill that they're saying the the engine's making a noise it's a illegality it's a legal way of defining who is actually saying this is a problem with the vehicle because if you're saying it as a customer that's one thing if they say the engine's making a noise now they're admitting that there's a problem with that vehicle and that may come into play under warranty work under um claims against who sold you the vehicle it may come into claims against if they repaired a vehicle you know if they put down engines making a noise and they don't find it and then a month later the engine is making a noise now they're liable because they put a car back on the road with the engine making a noise.
So you're almost always going to see customer States whatever customer States the brakes don't work customer States transmission slips whatever the problem is you are bringing to them they will initially put customer states that that's the problem now it's very important how you handle this when you get your vehicle back you want to make sure that they've made a notation of what their findings were if they do not discover the same problem make sure it's notated technician did not duplicate the problem technician did not find it because you want to put on record you heard this thing you noticed this thing and they didn't that way if it comes up later you can show that this particular mechanic wasn't good enough to find it.
So if you are a consumer make sure that your issues are addressed if you're a repair shop if you're independent garage I'm sure you already know this make sure that you are putting customer States until you can actually find the problem yourself you don't want to put it on record what the customer's saying because they could be wrong not that they're intending to be wrong but what if the customer says engine's making a banging noise well if you fix something you find maybe there's a a loose tie rod and that's what's making the noise from the front end of the vehicle where the engine is you fix that and you even as a Goodwill gesture hey we tighten up a bolt everything's fine well now if the engine ironically coincidentally blows up two months later the customer is going to say look you put here engines making a noise my engine blew up now it's on you right.
So you want to make sure that you very carefully say customer States engines making a noise technician found noise was coming from the ball joint we tightened it and go from there so it's a legality with the way that repair bills are written up you get a repair order they're diagnosed reported back to the customer if you follow that chain of command everybody's going to be happy the technician the repair shop is going to have it documented the owner of the vehicle if you're a consumer are going to have all of your issues and claims documented so that way at a later date you can show on what date and time you presented something to a mechanic.
If you are bringing something to a mechanic and you are stating a problem make sure it's on the repair Bill don't worry that it says customer States that's a good thing that says you're bringing that to their attention.