There are a lot of people out there who are handy and able to save money by doing labor themselves.

There are also a lot of people out there who think they’re handy, but end up costing themselves more in the long run.

This customer was one of the second kind.

You’re going too want all of the juicy details on this one.

Sir, those break pads were installed upside down…

This was probably 10 years ago at this point, but I worked at an auto parts store right out of technical college.

We sold brake pads with a lifetime warranty. The warranty covers manufacturing issues as well as long term wear (you wear those brake pads down from normal use.

You can then buy new ones and bring back the old ones for the warranty, or bring us the old ones and we can swap them out right there).

What is NOT covered is improper use (installing on something other than the vehicle(s) the pads were intended), modifications to the pads, or (as in this case) improper installation.

Here are the players.

Cast:

Mekanik – the “mechanic” guy who purchased and apparently installed the pads

Me – yours truly

Boss – my boss, duh

CW – my coworker who was a master mechanic at a car company with a blue logo before a motorcycle accident prevented him from actually working on cars anymore.

(I say that all because he’s the guy who would know what he’s talking about).

He was also in the back of the store and didn’t hear any of the interaction.

You see, his brake pads have worn out in record time.

Mekanik guy comes in with the brake pads he purchased a short time ago.

They are not at all usable anymore. He bought our top-of-the-line ceramic brake pads.

These pads were a fairly new product in our store at the time, and we didn’t know how they actually performed.

But they were marketed as the best ceramic pads you could buy for every day driving as well as a little high-speed fun on the weekends.

So to have them go bad in a short amount of time was odd to be sure.

Mekanik – “These pads are garbage! I bought them a few months ago and they’re already trashed! AND they ruined my rotors! So you guys need to give me new pads and pay for new rotors too!”

I explain that we’re sorry about the issue and we’d be glad to help in any way we can and blah blah blah…

This guy thinks he sees the problem.

I take a look a the pads and immediately notice the odd wear pattern. It looks like the pads were installed upside down.

Me – “Umm… Sir, these pads look like they were installed upside down…”

Mekanik – “UPSIDE DOWN? No! I am a mechanic! I have been working on cars for loner than you’ve been alive!” (this goes on for a hot minute but the conversation followed those lines. how dare you, who do you think you are, threatens my job blah blah blah)…

But he’s a joker, so the guy needs another opinion (or two).

Boss man hears the commotion and steps in to try to calm things down.

Boss man – “Hi sir, what seems to be the issue here?”

Mekanik – “This punk seems to think he knows better than me and claimed I installed my brake pads upside down!”

Boss Man – “Sir, the wear pattern on these pads show that they were installed upside down. With that being the case, unfortunately we cannot warranty the pads out. The warranty does not cover improper installation.”

Mekanik – “What kind of a store is this? Is this how you treat all of your customers??” (Blah blah blah… you know the drill)

Boss Man – “Sir, if it would make you feel better: we do have an employee who was a master mechanic for [car company] and keeps his ASE (Automotive Service Excellence) certifications current. Would you like him to take a look?”

Mekanik – “Absolutely. Get someone up here with a brain…”

Boss Man – “Hey, CW? Can you come up here for a second?”

CW – “Yeah boss.” walks up to the counter “What’s up?”

Boss Man – “CW, do you notice anything odd about these brake pads?”

CW – “Yeah, looks like they were installed upside down.”

What else could he do?

Mekanik guy is fuming at this point. He finally leaves with no new pads, and no new rotors.

My coworkers and I had a pretty good laugh about that as well as a conversation about how the hell he installed the pads upside down…

Some context.

This is hilarious, though I’m sure the customer didn’t think so.

Some context: I did look like a punk. I was 18-20 years old, long shaggy hair, and was fresh out of mechanic school. I was in no way assuming I knew everything about cars.

I just noticed the wear pattern and the notches worn out that indicated that the pads were installed upside down.

ASE certifications are needed to get a job at any reputable mechanic shop. Getting one is tough, and getting multiple takes specialized training and studying.

Master mechanic certifications are even tougher to get because you need specialized training from a specific company (car manufacturer, semi manufacturer, agricultural machines manufacturer, motorcycles manufacturer, etc…).

So CW absolutely knew what he was talking about.

Anyone who has done a break job before (it’s really not that hard if you have the right tools and a little know-how) knows it’s pretty difficult to put new pads on an old caliper the right way.

The pads and caliper are literally curved with the curvature of the brake rotor How this guy got them on upside down is beyond me…

Let’s find out what Reddit thinks.

Bless their hearts.

Very carefully, I guess.

Everyone is confused.

Let’s hope he learned at least one lesson from all of this.

Apparently there are a lot of talented people out there.

They were unanimous in their diagnosis.

Rare, but it happens.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.