Serious question, has anyone else had a customer insist on a specific fix that was dead wrong?

A guy came into the shop last Tuesday with a 2017 F-150 making a high-pitched whine. He was sure it was the alternator because his buddy, a 'shade tree guy', told him that's what it always is. We put a new alternator in, $450 later, and the noise was still there. It turned out to be a failing idler pulley bearing the whole time, which we found after another hour of diag. Has anyone else had a customer's 'expert advice' send you down the wrong path first?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_mila7d ago

Wait, he paid for a whole alternator based on that?

price.nora7d ago

Serious question" feels a bit strong for this. It's just part of the job, right? Customers come in with ideas they heard somewhere.