Are you worried that you may have bought a lemon? Do the repeated visits to the mechanic seem to do more harm than good? Do you want to avoid being ripped off in the future? One of the best things you can do is keep good documentation of your vehicle warranty repairs. Hang on to all “Repair Orders” or invoices, and make sure they all contain the correct information. A “Repair Order” or “R.O.” is what you should get when you drop off the vehicle–it should contain detailed accounts of each of your complaints. If you’re not careful, dealership personnel may make inaccurate “adjustments” to repair orders in an attempt to hide, minimize or get out of fixing a problem.
In a claim brought under the North Carolina Lemon Law (The New Motor Vehicles Warranty Act), it helps to have a “repeat concern.” The service writers at the dealership are trained in the “Lemon Law”. One of the tricks they employ is to make your complaints sound a little different each time you bring in the vehicle. It might be a “clicking noise” one time, a “ticking noise” the next, and then, just “noise.” Later they will argue that the noise can be attributed to three different problems, when, to the customer, it was the same noise each time. Consumers need to make sure the repair documentation is accurate and reflects their actual complaints before they leave the vehicle for repair.
There is a North Carolina Consumer Statute called the “Motor Vehicle Repair Act”, which states that a motor vehicle repair shop must present the repair order paperwork to the customer and obtain their signature before attempting any repairs–this is an “authorization to repair” the vehicle. The Act also requires that the repair shop provide an invoice after the repair that states what was done to correct any problems. Many dealerships “forget” to give these documents to the customer, so they can fill in the blanks later and leave off complaints they’re unable to fix. This is a violation of the Motor Vehicle Repair Act.
As a customer, make sure you always get a copy of the “Repair Order” before your leave your vehicle, and the “Repair Invoice” after each repair. You may have to “put your foot down” and demand that you receive your documents. The repair invoice should have the same info as the repair order–in fact it is created from the repair order–and it should detail what problems were found, and what the technicians did to solve them. The other things that should be checked for accuracy are the “mileage in” and “mileage out,” which should show the odometer reading when you left the vehicle (be sure to take note of this when dropping it off), and the mileage when you picked it up. The difference in mileage shows whether or not the vehicle was test-driven during the repair. The dates should also be correct for drop-off and pickup. This is often labeled as “RO Date” (drop-off) and “Invoice Date” (pickup).
Don’t leave the dealership without copies of legible, accurate repair orders and invoices!
