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The
Repair Order Invoice...
Arguably the
most important document to a California Lemon Law case/claim.
The Repair
Order Invoice serves the customer with a bounty of information,
including, but not limited to:
1. Date
vehicle went into shop.
2. Date
vehicle repairs were completed
3. Date
vehicle was picked up by customer
4. Odometer
reading when it went into the shop.
5. Odometer
reading at completion of repairs.
6. Customers
original complaint(s)/symptom(s)
7. Notes
if any parts were ordered.
8. Potential
verification of defect/symptom.
9.
Technicians notes on diagnosis/repair.
As you can
readily see above, the “invoice” is the “the story” of
your car’s warranty repair visits. It is what you use to make
the argument with the automobile manufacturer for a lemon law
buyback request, or request for a replacement vehicle.
Can an
“invoice” have hidden benefits? - you bet! Very often the
technician’s notes and the parts listed for repairs performed
tell a second story about the car. Here is an example: A
customer presents the car four times for transmission shifting
complaints, and three additional times for “loss of power”
and “sluggish performance” and/or “CHECK ENGINE” light
on. These repairs have technician information (often encrypted)
that these two repairs actually were addressed by doing
transmission repairs or re-programming. A vehicle owner might
think in this scenario that he or she has had four repairs for
the transmission, when in fact there were six. Six repairs for a
transmission would obviously be better to a lemon law case/claim
than four.
California’s
largest statewide lemon law firm has a Technical and Research
Department that disseminates these repair invoices to find just
this type of “bonus” repairs.
The single most important protection
a consumer can afford to themselves is to make sure to get a
copy of the invoice when picking up the vehicle after repairs! I
cannot tell you how many times I have heard of customers saying
“they said they would mail it to me” or “the dealer said
they hadn’t closed out the invoice yet, and they would fax it
to me”. Do NOT fall for this baloney. I would strongly
recommend that you leave your car at the dealership until they
can hand you an invoice, then you drive your car out. If you
don’t, then you may be in the “good luck” category of
trying to get it later on.
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THIS WEBSITE
The California Automobile Lemon Law Insider
1960 Deermont Road
Glendale, California. 91207
Ph: (818) 548-6070
California, law, lemon, warranty, state, statute, consumer, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, Ventura, Santa Clarita, Orange County, Newport Beach, Bay area, automobile, truck, SUV, van,
rights.
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