Star team trying defraud me! Need advice!!

[ShadowsPapa]

A winch has two electrical connections to the vehicle -
Ground cable typically going to the TOP of the IBS on the main battery negative post
and
Positive cable going from positive post on main battery - either directly to winch (not real clever) or through a solenoid or through a manual cut-off switch.
So to disconnect a winch electrically takes two steps -
I'd take a couple of metric wrenches (I believe mine would take a 10mm for both - but I'd take 10, 11 and 12 to be sure)
I'd open the hood on my Jeep, I'd have a friend make a video of me loosening and taking off the nuts holding the negative and positive winch cables from the top of the main battery.
I'd then take the video to them showing them that hey, now that winch is not connected to the Jeep in any way at all electrically.

A winch does nothing to the system assuming it's connected correctly.
In fact, if connected correctly, it can't even draw any current at all.
But hey, humor them - pull it to the public parking on their lot, open hood, spend a whopping 2 minutes pulling both winch cables off the battery. "just do it" without fanfare - then when done, show them - ok, it's done. Now the ball is back in your court.

I get it - the dealer shop I used to go to told me my winch was draining the batteries. Right - big red switch sitting next to the battery in the OFF position.
Ah, but they FIXED it by moving the winch ground cable from the battery negative (actually the top of the IBS) over to the fender ground.
Now think a bit - where does the main battery ground to? Yeah, that same fender ground post they moved my winch ground to!
Electrically they moved the winch cable from battery ground back to battery ground. On a schematic it would show no movement or change at all.
So that told me all I needed to know about their tech's intelligence on all things electrical - so yeah, I get it, but still, you can toss things right back at them by doing all they ask (save for taking it home to do it)
Simply take 2 or 3 wrenches with you, disconnect the cables. Tell them: done - now what?

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[ShadowsPapa]

A few years back I took my JK to the dealership to get a recall performed on the front airbag harness (under the grille / bumper area). They saw I had a winch and the cables ran through one of the grille slots. Grille removal was required to perform the TSB. They said hey, we cannot/will not perform the TSB unless you disconnect the winch and move the cables out of the way.

So, I took a few minutes in the parking lot to disconnect and pull the cables out of the way, then they took the Jeep in back and did the TSB while I played on my phone and had a cold drink. They brought it back out, I reconnected the winch and left.

*Shrug*

And frankly, that's exactly what I'd do if a dealer said "your xxxxxx is in the way, you can remove it or we'll charge for the extra time". I'd be there with any tools required and make the switch and pass the ball back to them.
If the dealer had asked me to remove my plow stuff so they could diagnose my temp sensor issue - how I could I argue that? Fine - we'll either prove it's a Jeep problem or a problem related to what I did. In the end - blush - my plow was causing the issue. The dealer service advisor was kind and didn't charge for the 45 minutes he spent with me. We discussed it all logically, agreed on the next course of action.
If they had asked me to disconnect the winch, I'd have done it in the parking lot.

 

[nocogobi]

I want some of you to understand something here you say I own a large company and how would you feel like if I come to your place and you had to provide a lot of the work and detail and you pay me full price of stuff??

My company is number one for service period!
You don't make it hard for the customer you make it easy because they're paying you a lot of money!
Say a lot of people miss the point on this and this is what happens when service goes downhill all that nonsense

What is your company?

 

[Ironman 67]

What is your company?

The you must like doing their job then?

 

[nocogobi]

The you must like doing their job then?

I just asked what your company is... I said nothing about the dealership. You said it's the best for customer service so I wanted to see what it is so I can support it if it's something I need. But now I am not so sure..

 

[Ironman 67]

I just asked what your company is... I said nothing about the dealership. You said it's the best for customer service so I wanted to see what it is so I can support it if it's something I need. But now I am not so sure..

It's none of your business what my company is

 

[ShadowsPapa]

And also, if you don't work with the dealer or with Jeep on this, you will probably have a hard time claiming lemon law as you are not giving them the ability to rectify the situation, which they must be given the opportunity for. As soon as they can show that you refused to cooperate, you're in rough water.

One of the first things stated on some of the state AG sites is that the company must be given a chance to make it right by making repairs - an effort in good faith to repair the vehicle.
First rule - they get a chance to make it work as designed/intended/sold.
Then after xx strikes or yy time (varies a little bit with various states) to enter into that process of lemon law territory. Then again, you have a choice - let them fix it, buy it back, or provide a replacement vehicle.
It's not all free for the consumer and 100% on the seller/company/factory.
The consumer has rights, but they also have obligations as well.
If I don't allow my dealer, or a dealership, an opportunity to diagnose and repair, then I've not filled my obligations under the laws and can't claim they didn't fill their end.
If there were not such provisions, anyone who had a problem or decided they just didn't like a vehicle could force a buy-back or different vehicle. It's happened - people buy something, decide a month later they don't like it or it doesn't fill their wants or needs and then claim it's a bad item and they go after the manufacturer or dealer. There's got to be protections for both sides for as much as people on the internet love to claim dealers are always crap and customers are always seen with a halo and angel wings, it's not always the case. We owned a business and thankfully MOST customers were pretty close to that halo - but there were enough who literally tried to claim fraud when none existed because THEY made a mistake in buying or using the item. But my wife being who she is - the asshole is also always right and may as well save the stress and be exceedingly nice to them in public and make them look like jerks LOL
Yeah, really busy thursday night - our stay open late night, sale, farmers market outside on the street, store is full - woman (won't use the word lady)comes in and making sure she's heard over the din exclaims that she was shorted in the kit she bought. There wasn't enough fabric we were ripping people off and she demanded this and that and wanted everyone in that store to know how bad we were.
My wife walks over and talks really calmly and politely and asks - what did we do wrong? the woman tries to show (but in her demonstration it's obvious she made the mistake in cutting and did not follow directions - we always added EXTRA above what was actually needed). My wife admitted it's possible that there was a mistake made and the woman still carried on about the money she spent - she got her attention, by that time everyone was watching and listening.
My wife calmly apologized for "our mistake" and gave the lady a whole new quilt kit - value about $50 bucks. The woman lost her steam, grabbed it and left and after that sales actually picked up that night. We heard some mumbling about "well done" and "she handled that very well" referring to my wife later that evening. (also heard "man, that woman was rude!" LOL)

 

[whysoserious]

Maybe I'm seeing this differently, outside the simple winch fix. The dealership told you to come get the vehicle, fix it, then bring it back. And you are refusing to pick up your vehicle that's currently parked on someone else's property? Even after they told you to come and pick it up?

 

[dmwphoto]

It's none of your business what my company is

you are being kinda rude here.

 

[HooliganActual]

you are being kinda rude here.

Right?!?! He didn't get the answer he wanted to hear. Was probably trolling hoping for a pile on of the dealership.

 

[gladtohave]

Unhook the cables so they can proceed with the diagnosis and remedy . Seems they just want you to unhook your aftermarket wiring from your truck that has electrical issues before they dig into it .

 

[Rahkmalla]

i'm still trying to figure out how OP thinks disconnecting the winch is a "gotcha, you touched it, now we deny the claim" moment he thinks it is...

You've already touched it. They have proof of that. What makes you think if they wanted to deny the claim they'd need you to touch the winch twice? They already have all the evidence they need to deny you if they wanted to. They aren't doing that, and you are coming across as rude, unfriendly to people voluntarily talking your through your problem, and frankly a touch paranoid.

 

[obrianmcc]

I just asked what your company is... I said nothing about the dealership. You said it's the best for customer service so I wanted to see what it is so I can support it if it's something I need. But now I am not so sure..

I think he was being rhetorical .... sounds like he needs to take a breath and think this through.

 

[HooliganActual]

I think he was being rhetorical .... sounds like he needs to take a breath and think this through.

…or metaphorical. But definitely not logical, lol.

 

[ZoMojave]

Keep trollin' trollin' trollin'
Though the streams are swollen
Keep them doggies trollin', Rawhide! ?

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