Texas Lemon Law Blog

Often times, a frustrated Texas lemon law client will seek my advice on what they should do when taking in their new vehicle to the service center for repairs. Last week a client of mine from Houston, Texas was so frustrated with the Chrysler service manager, that he threatened to leave his truck parked at the dealership until they fix the “check engine light” problem.

I hear it often, the client will say, “every time I take in my car/truck, they tell me they can’t find anything wrong with it… they tell me they can not duplicate the problem and put NPF… no problem found on the repair invoice.”

My response to the client starts off with the following quote by Albert Einstein: “Insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

In the case of dealerships and service centers, it is important that the client or consumer be prepared BEFORE bringing the vehicle in to be looked at. I suggest the following:

Take photographs or video camera recordings of the vehicle’s defect. Bring the photograph or video and show it to the service manager of the car dealership. For example, if it is an intermittent noise issue and the service manager has been unenthusiastic in replicating the problem, then showing this “video” evidence will help the service manager swallow his or her own words.

In this day and age, the consumer or client has no excuse not to have proof of their complaint,…a cheap cell phone should likely have a camera or camcorder functionality built into it.

For photographs, make sure that you keep track of when the picture was taken — having a date and time stamp on the photo is recommended. For video recordings, make sure you state your name, the date, the time, the description of the vehicle, and the current mileage on the vehicle.
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Each time you take your vehicle into the manufacturer, ever notice how the repair invoices you receive are stated a specific way? Most often, it will start off by stating “customer states…” Also, ever notice how the repair invoices are worded in a way that is mostly true, but not 100% accurate? Inaccurate repair invoices written by car manufacturers is perhaps the biggest reason that consumers in Texas lose when filing a Texas Lemon Law claim or lawsuit.

Service managers and employees who work for the service department of each manufacturer’s car dealership have been trained, if not over-trained, on how to write these repair invoices. Why? This is to protect the vehicle manufacturer and dealership.

In case you decide to open a Texas Lemon Law claim or file a Texas Deceptive Trade Practices (DTPA) lawsuit, these entities will already be 100 steps ahead of you. They have been prepared to be sued before you actually have purchased or brought your vehicle in for repairs.