Went to the dealer for a speaker issue - Was lied to and caught them mocking me

Funny story...

Really no big surprises. Happens all the time, the only unique thing here is proof. Always be very aware of your surrounds when working with a dealership. These are predatory environments to say the least.

I would just fix it myself or get them to fix it right and move on. Not worth the drama....
 
bamma said:
A crime is a crime whether reported or not. And yes, illegal wiretapping is a crime. The dealership or a tech could report it to the police. Recording audio without one party consent is illegal in op's state. If he gives them the file, they have proof. And I am sure the techs had no idea their audio was being recorded.
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**** it man. I'd roll the dice legally on this and sing this from the tree tops. Disrespect like this shoud be called out and I highly doubt a police report would be filed, would just add fuel to the fire and the bring the culture of this dealership into a very bad light. Lets not forget we are not merley talkng about one bad apple here.
 
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This story / post makes me think a couple of things....
1. I don't and never will trust a dealership. I will always advocate for myself with anyone associated with the dealership.
2. That said, I don't think I would ever consider recording a visit. I am curious if there is a legal precedent here (some states do not allow audio or video recording to occur unless there is two party consent). You may want to look into that law before your release any footage.
3. Give them a chance to make it right before you unleash fury. Fact is that the service manager and techs will probably get a reprimand or termination (which they deserve)......let them deal with the problem and give a few free oil changes and a new speaker or something.
4. It goes to show that you never know how many people are watching - I have had blow-ups at work and in life and have said some things I regretted later. I am thankful that I was never recorded. Yo never know what is going on people's lives that may contribute to them over-reacting, flying off the handle or saying things that they didn't mean. The things that were said here however seem pretty cut and dry, juvenile and immature and no business needs what was said reflecting on their business.

All in all, give them a chance to listen and respond. If that doesn't satisfy you, escalate how you see fit.
 
Find me one example anywhere, any time, of anyone having ever been either successfully prosecuted or sued civility for recording conversations or video of someone in their private car or home and it may be worth talking about further. I don't think it has ever been done or ever will be successfully done. Just my .02.

As an employer I'd want to know about that video. It's not uncommon to have one or a few people in a business that are toxic to the operation. And it's often hard for management to identify them and to fire them with cause. Often you know instinctively who it is and what the issues are - but don't have concrete examples. Firing bad people is as important to success in many businesses as hiring good ones. But you've got to know who to fire and why you're doing it. I certainly wouldn't demand that they be fired, but I would let the management know what happened and let them sort out what to do with it going forward.

I don't know what Toyota does to keep dealerships in line, but my general experience has been universally high quality service at Toyota dealerships. My experience at Lexus has overall been both good and very bad.
 
Hadelson said:
Watergate
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Not only did you not quote the entire relevant portion of his reply you ADDED a period where there was none to make it look like those were his words verbatim. Are you trolling or other*?

*Its possible he edited his post after your quote.......
 
I would argue that there was no reasonable expectation of privacy by any of the service employees while working on and inside a customer's vehicle in a public location.

Then again, I'm retired from law enforcement and haven't kept up on state / federal law. And it is very hard to imagine litigation arising out of the current instance, especially as relates to criminal law.
 
If I was looking for a dealer to buy a new vehicle or just get service and happened to see your video , they'd not get any business from me, at all, ever. Plus I'd tell all my friends to not use that dealer. I hope you post it.
 
I personally think it's a BS law when used in this context, but here's a good article:

The Surprising Legal Ramifications of Having a Dashcam in Your Car

That being said, the author does go on to say "Of all of the cases I've seen so far–and I've seen a few–I have yet to see someone get in trouble for "eavesdropping" in their own car."

This is the exact reason I'm incredibly weary of letting dealers perform minor service work on my vehicles... it seems like more times than not, I've regretted it in one way or another.
 
I believe for the dash cam to be an issue in Illinois it would have to be mounted in such a way that the service techs couldn't see it, and you would still have to record a private setting. I don't think even the service bay of a car dealership that is a very public setting would count... generally this would mean a bedroom, bathroom, etc.

Beyond the people who have expressed concern and if it's valid, I don't think any dealership would challenge something like this in court over such a small matter based on the fear of negative publicity.

Edit: I'm hoping this is not my dealership, I haven't had any issues yet... however, if it was the dealership I used prior it wouldn't surprise me.
 
Engineer said:
Not only did you not quote the entire relevant portion of his reply you ADDED a period where there was none to make it look like those were his words verbatim. Are you trolling or other*?

*Its possible he edited his post after your quote.......
Click to expand...

No edit in mine.

It's a very different thing to secretly record someone in a public or even potentially semi-public place. I would go further and say that secretly recording someone in a taxi or even an UBER car might be problematic. But in your own personal car, your own home, or similar places I'd say the odds of getting in legal trouble for that are about as high as the sun not rising tomorrow.

Of course there are exceptions - such as secretly recording or monitoring your spouse during a divorce if you still own the car. But I don't think that's relevant to this situation.
 
daveherrmann said:
lets just say in your state you have laws that allow you to record, they can turn around and sue you for slander. they may not have a case but they have deeper pockets than you and they can ruin your life. is it right? hell no, but that is how companies continue to grow and steal from us.

minimum thing I would do first is contact an attorney to know your rights so they cannot bully you. personally I would like to see you nail their balls to the wall, but I would hate to see you get screwed for standing up for your rights
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How can they sue him for slander? He's not the one making the disparaging statements?
 
Engineer said:
Not only did you not quote the entire relevant portion of his reply you ADDED a period where there was none to make it look like those were his words verbatim. Are you trolling or other*?

*Its possible he edited his post after your quote.......
Click to expand...

No I edited the post to the question. Not trying to mislead, but Watergate, the illegal office entry and the famous tapes did cost a President there job. Not going to lose sleep on this and OK to disagree......................................
 
Wrighter said:
How can they sue him for slander? He's not the one making the disparaging statements?
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you can be sued for anything. what I wrote is "they may not have a case..." which they don't. but they can still sue you for it.

my point was they could take him to court and drain his bank account with legal proceedings until he agreed not to show the video and withdrew any remarks he made.
 
Wrighter said:
There is no expectation of privacy when you are in someone else's property.
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I can tell you that you are unequivocally wrong. In fact, the opposite is generally true.

In public, there is less protection. In private, including a business, the expectations exist. I spent hundreds of hours researching legal issues for clients on this issue, from videotaping in the workplace, audio, to computer monitoring.
 
bamma said:
I can tell you that you are unequivocally wrong. In fact, the opposite is generally true.

In public, there is less protection. In private, including a business, the expectations exist. I spent hundreds of hours researching legal issues for clients on this issue, from videotaping in the workplace, audio, to computer monitoring.
Click to expand...

Can you point to any example - ever in any context - of a successful prosecution or civil claim against a person for recording audio or video of someone else in his or her own private car? (Outside of a divorce scenario).

Just one example. Otherwise I think we're arguing about bigfoot. But if bigfoot does exist - I'd like to know about it.
 
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Tisoy281 said:
Suddenly everyone is an internet lawyer.
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I understand what you’re trying to get at here but in general I hate that people get mocked and joked about for knowing the law. There is absolutely nothing wrong with researching and knowing your rights, there’s no reason you need to be a lawyer to do so. If you were required have a law degree in order to know your rights something would very very wrong.
 
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