Mechanics Plus

Short story:
Showed up 30 minutes late for my roadside assistance pickup and, as a reward for their timely service, helped themselves to a $ 50 gift card from my car!
Long story:
My car was having a problem, and after calling Volkswagen’s roadside assistance, I was told that Mechanics Plus would be picking my car up to take to the dealer. They showed up 30 minutes late to my house and sat in the truck for another 5 before getting out to get my information. After loading the car and taking off, I figured that’d be the last I had to deal with them.
It wasn’t.
I picked up my car from the dealership on a Friday evening, and on my way to work the following Monday, noticed that the gift card that I use to buy my daily coffee was missing from the forward storage compartment under the dash. I shrugged it off, thinking I had probably misplaced it, so I paid for the coffee and headed into work. When I got to a computer, I checked the transaction history of the card online and saw that it had been used while the car was in the shop and it was not in my possession. After some further investigation, I found a transaction for $ 18 at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Emmaus, PA (the home of Mechanics Plus) that was made on the day before I picked up my car.
Now, you might be saying that it was my fault for leaving something valuable in plain sight while the car was not in my possession. The problem with that is that it was NOT in plain sight, it was stored, as it always is, underneath a bunch of junk in a closed storage compartment under the front dash. That means that one of the two fine gentlemen who picked up my car were digging through it and actively looking for things to steal, found the card, and helped themselves to $ 18 worth of donuts and coffee.
I called the shop and spoke to a manager, who assured me that he’d look into it and get back to me with a follow up. That was weeks ago and I didn’t hear anything back, so I think I’ve given them their fair chance at getting back to me. In the end, it was $ 18 and I’m not worried about getting that back. That’s the idiot tax I paid for keeping anything valuable in my car while it was being towed; lesson learned.
I also called the dealership to inform how one of their service providers treats customers’ cars. They made a note, just in case anything else turns up «missing», and I was asked to make a report with Volkswagen directly, which I also did.
I hope the donuts were worth the negative review.

Excellent towing experience. Time from calling to the driver showing up was less than 10 minutes. Friendly, courteous operator and dispatcher.