Alignment shop tech disconnected my dash-cam - what should I do?

[JimLee]

Funny thing is - if he had just bothered to plug it back in - I never would have known, or cared - becasue then on my drive home, if I was in an accident I would have had my proof for the insurance company of what happened.

In recap: An employee of a company not wearing a seatbelt, in a customer's vehicle, talking on the phone, and then reaching up and over to the right side of the windshield - two times - while driving - to start unplugging a dash cam well let's just say I can't get on board with that.

And not sure how many people have dash cams where you live - but a fuq ton have them up here. If companies didn't want their employees "being spied on" I'm sure they'd make it a policy and tell people when they leave their vehicles.

So if I'm an A-hole for not wanting my stuff messed with in my Jeep, and let alone a guy driving illegally in my vehicle - then the world needs more A-holes.

I'd say if their employees know up front that they can be recorded as a condition of their employment then it's consensual and not even argument worthy. I also agree that the guy screwed up by not plugging yours back in. The shop should have had a policy in place before your particular incident came up, then nobody gets surprised. I don't blame people for not wanting to be recorded though, treating everyone like some kind of criminal suspect regardless of whether they are or not just isn't where I think any society needs to go.

Sponsored

 

[ZeroTrev]

I love how some people are wanting to give the tech more slack then the customer in this situation. like his privacy trumps all. Do you ever go into Walmart? Or a gas station? Guess what you're being recorded. I bet the shop itself had cameras!

Feels like a lot of people are having flashbacks because they got caught on camera.

The fact the owner said it was not what they do kinda kills it imo.

 

[Hound Dog]

1. Find out where his girlfriend lives
2. Rent the apartment next to hers
3. Create a fake identity. Something exciting like an aircraft pilot or white hat hacker.
4. Trick the girlfriend into falling in love with you.
5. Get her pregnant
6. Abandon her in the middle of the night leaving everything behind
7. Alignment dude will think the baby is his and will marry the girlfriend.
8. Alignment dude will spend the next 18 years raising your child.
9. Arrange for a letter to be sent to alignment dude explaining the cuckold when he is on his deathbed so he understands that his whole life has need a lie.
10. Checkmate bitch.

If someone has a better plan I’d like to hear it.

You sir, are one devious Mofo. If I run into you one day, I need to buy you a drink. I like your plan!

 

[Carolina Jeeper]

They do this with my dash cam at the dealership sometimes. I just plug it back in. Never really thought much about it. The first time it happened I felt a bit bothered that I had to discover it wasn't plugged in since they left it unplugged. Since then I expect it and just plug it back in. I've never even watched any of the video from them working on my Jeep.

 

[Packnbeer]

1. Find out where his girlfriend lives
2. Rent the apartment next to hers
3. Create a fake identity. Something exciting like an aircraft pilot or white hat hacker.
4. Trick the girlfriend into falling in love with you.
5. Get her pregnant
6. Abandon her in the middle of the night leaving everything behind
7. Alignment dude will think the baby is his and will marry the girlfriend.
8. Alignment dude will spend the next 18 years raising your child.
9. Arrange for a letter to be sent to alignment dude explaining the cuckold when he is on his deathbed so he understands that his whole life has need a lie.
10. Checkmate bitch.

If someone has a better plan I’d like to hear it.

This is definitely the plan I would recommend! Really, what other option is there? Funniest damn thing I have read in a hell of a long time!!

 

[No IFS]

Glad I'm old. The future scares me more and more.

 

[word302]

Uhhhhh, plug it back in?

 

[cns721]

This also happened to me. For those who are thinking it's not a big deal - what if you pull out of the dealer's lot and get into an accident while the dash cam was not powered on? Dash cams are meant to save your ass in situations like this. I for sure would be hella pissed if I got into a hit-and-run situation and have nothing to prove just because someone didn't want to be recorded. With all of the surveillance going on in this world, a dash cam should be the least of your worries.

 

[roaniecowpony]

I've driven for almost 50 years without a dash camera. How did I ever make it?

And yes, they had automobiles that long ago. Even some fast ones. My first car was a 13 sec quarter miler and could pull nearly 1 g on the skid pad.

Friggin electronics in autos have probably cost more lives than they've saved.

 

[Chrysler-Factory-Warranty]

Took my jeep in this morning to have the caster fixed.

Tonight I realized my dash-cam was not working - no lights on it. I checked it and realized the power cable and the rear camera cable were unplugged from the unit up on the window.

I plugged it in and looked at the footage.

While I was in the alignment shop waiting - a worker came out - instead of taking my jeep into the shop - he drove away from the shop for 3 minutes - the entire time not wearing a seatbelt (can hear the chime over and over) and he was talking on his phone to a friend about moving in with his girlfriend.

Then - he gets to this lot and starts to turn around - and it sounds like then - he realizes there is a dash-cam recording. He says something like he's surprised.

Then you hear a hand on the dash-cam - brushing against it - and the rear camera is disconnected at that point.

He keeps driving - then realizes it is still recording and then has his hand on it - and disconnects the power.

So, I then drove home and around for the day with no dash-cam... And is just lucky I found out at all....



What would you do?


BTW - the shop is over an hour away - it's not easy for me to just drive back there...

I would contact either the manufacturer directly, or if you have an extended service contract on it, then I would contact Mopar directly, if you need either one of these phone numbers just let me know.

 

[four low]

All new vehicles 2023 +, will have surveillance cameras trained on at least the driver, to make sure no sleeping on the job. No joke . Of course this is touted as a safety feature, just imagine the torrents of data streaming to servers Somewhere. Check it out.
As to the original poster, no harm no foul. You were spying on him. Privacy is a 2 edged sword

 

[Vinman]

Y’all get this upset about a dash cam being unplugged must get downright ornery when you discover the tech moved your seat for the test drive.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Y’all get this upset about a dash cam being unplugged must get downright ornery when you discover the tech moved your seat for the test drive.

You should have seen the threads about being the first ones to drive their new Jeeps.

I had a lot of friends that drove the tractor-trailer trucks that deliver new cars/trucks. They pick them up in rail yards. But they or a near minimum wage worker have to go find them in huge lots and drive them around to stage them for the truck loads. Those guys drive em like go-karts at the fairground. I ordered a new truck in2014 and my truckdriver friend got the VIN from me and located it when it came in the yard. He drove it a few feet and then layed under it and marked the muffler with a felt tip with his signature and the date he drove it.

 

[BrntWS6]

I work in the trades and tell my guys to conduct yourselves like your always on camera. We are in people's houses all day long and there are often interior security systems now days. It's not a big deal if your not doing anything wrong.

I think I may lose a few clients if I went around disconnecting their cameras first. I judge a business on how they deal with problems / complaints. The shop owner handled it very well and I would have no problem going back there.

 

[Shots]

.... Any time people don't want you to know what they are doing, there is a reason. If you have a reason for me to NOT know what you're doing in my vehicle, you have no business in it in the first place and won't be invited back.

You're right there is a reason. All I'm saying is that maybe that reason was simply because it makes him uncomfortable, not because he was doing something wrong.
My prior example was simply to illustrate that just because you said no to the search doesn't mean you were doing something wrong like carrying guns/drugs/ect. It's very possible it simply made you uncomfortable. You don't want your wife touched. Likewise the tech didn't want watched/heard. It doesn't mean he had to be doing, or was planning on doing anything wrong. Now agreeably he could have been, but it's not an absolute. Suspicious? Sure, but far from evidence of wrongdoing.

....... what if maybe people just don't like being recorded without their consent.

Exactly this.
I would recommend he pulls over before disconnecting it, and stay off his phone but those are other issues.

I certainly understand your points. I haven't seen the need to outfit my vehicle with a dash cam yet, so I'm probably not as sensitive to the issue. I tend to be a trusting type,....

I recommend one. They're cheap and can be very beneficial in the event of a crash/vandalism. Buy it for that, not for trust issues. I don't think it's needed for service. If there's any damage you don't need the camera. If there's no damage then who cares if they were on their phone or not wearing a seat belt.

Funny thing is - if he had just bothered to plug it back in - I never would have known, or cared - becasue then on my drive home, if I was in an accident I would have had my proof for the insurance company of what happened.
.......

That is absolutely the issue here. Who cares that he unplugged it, the problem is that he didn't plug it back in. If you going to alter a customer's vehicle (other than the requested alteration) then you need to put back whatever you altered.

.... I don't blame people for not wanting to be recorded though, treating everyone like some kind of criminal suspect regardless of whether they are or not just isn't where I think any society needs to go.

Agreed.
Cameras are everywhere now, but you shouldn't be assumed to be doing something wrong just because you don't want to be on them. Maybe it comes down to millennials being more comfortable with being watched since they post every detail of their lives online. I guess they're used to having no privacy unless they're taking a poo.

I love how some people are wanting to give the tech more slack then the customer in this situation. ....

Give him slack for what exactly? The only thing he did wrong was that he didn't plug it back in? He didn't hurt the camera by unplugging it so who cares. If he plugged it back in there's no issue here. I agree with being upset that it was left unplugged, but that the only issue.

I've taken vehicles in for service before and when I got it back the radio was turned up and on a different station. Okay so the tech listened to the radio while they worked on the car, so what. Are we really so picky that we'll get mad because someone touched something? If so you should probably be doing your own work.

.... I judge a business on how they deal with problems / complaints. The shop owner handled it very well and I would have no problem going back there.

Agreed. People make mistakes, it's how they handle them that tells you something about them. To err is human.
The company addressed it, and apologized. Problem solved.

Sponsored