This past weekend I needed a battery jump. Billy's Imports showed up for me for roadside with AAA…read more "Darren" was the technician. Do NOT let him touch your car, and do not leave it out of your sight there while he is working there.
I have a 2001 Toyota RAV4. I did roadside for a battery jump. Should be no big deal. My girl scout troop went over this in high school, changing tires, jumping batteries. Basic stuff. Darren with Billy's Imports showed up. He took one look at the plastic cover over the battery, and said "We don't deal with all that now." referring to the plastic cover over the battery that keeps rain off. I said I would take it off, let me get my pin puller (it attaches with little plastic brad things; "trim panel push retainers" if you want to Google it). He said he was going to get a screwdriver.
I was taking the plastic battery cover off, with my pin puller that I keep in a toolkit in my car. Darren came back from his truck with a big flat head screwdriver, came up behind me, reached the screwdriver under my arm, stuck the screwdriver under the big plastic battery cover (not under the edge of a pin), and went to pry using the edge of my hood as leverage and scratched the paint off from my hood. I got my hand on his screwdriver and pulled it away from my car, so the paint scratching stopped almost immediately. I showed him the paint scratches, and told him he shouldn't scratch the paint all up, because now it will rust. He told me, "A 2001 car, you've gotta be kidding me."
Kept saying bad things about my car. I told him he needed to take some steps back and I will use the appropriate tool to take off the battery cover. I got 4 of the 6 plastic pins things off in not even 2 min, and he again reached under my arm pushed all in, bent the plastic cover back (plastic cover was fine and did not break from this), and put the connectors from his jumper thing on the battery.
It was stressful for me starting the car, and the hood blocking my view of what he was doing and him touching my car when I couldn't watch him, because: 1) he showed up for a roadside job without basic tools, 2) he had been grabbing around me from behind while I was doing the prep (prep that I didn't know I had to do ahead of time because every single other roadside jump has taken the plastic battery cover off and I have had this same car since 2005), 3) he rammed a flathead screwdriver in where he shouldn't have and tried inappropriately prying against metal and scratched the paint up, and 4) he told me it didn't matter that he mistreated my car because it's a 2001 car so I shouldn't care.
Did connect the red and black correctly, and not explode the battery right in my car. So there's that positive.
I did call the number on the truck, and the owner, Pam, answered. She apologized, but also spent most of the phone call telling me it wasn't their job to take the plastic battery cover off for a jump start. She also seemed dismissive that the damage he did was small and just a few small scratches, but the reason that it's just a little damage is that I was there and saw it and I grabbed the screwdriver and pulled it away from my car. She was more dismissive than an apology, and was more interested in saying why taking the plastic cover off the battery is too much work for a jumpstart. Well, I took it off, and I didn't complain about that. I complained about him scratching the paint all up on my hood, which means it will rust. At least, you can get ahold of the owner. But, also, she never really apologized or seemed to take it seriously.
I bought tough up paint at the auto parts store, and took the time to clean it and paint where Billy's Imports scratched my car up. So, hopefully that will hold up and not rust, and minimize the damage they did.
They just do not respect an older vehicle. They are not upfront. They took a ticket from AAA that said the make, model, and year of the car. Could have declined the ticket. They messed up my car, then told me that they have a right to mess it up because "A 2001 car, you've gotta be kidding me." This specifically is Darren who did this.
That was with me right there watching, and telling me to my face why they feel justified to mess up my car. How much worst would it be if I weren't right there watching?
When you take a car for service, anywhere, you need to take a pic under the hood, of all 4 sides and the roof, of the interior, of the dashboard, of the trunk, of each wheel well. When you pick up your car, you have to look at the pic of each and compared to your phone, and look for anything amiss. Then drive in figure 8s in the parking lot, so if anything is wrong and a piece falls off, then that will be in the parking lot before you get on the highway. You have to do that everywhere you take your car, because some places will do a bad job. It is people like Darren at Billy's Imports that is why you have to do that.
