Comment by gojomo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gojomo | Hacker News Reader

I can believe there was a bad experience, but even without seeing FlightCar's response, this story doesn't completely cohere.

* The vanity-lights in the sun-visors shouldn't "short out" just from being "left open". (It might drain the battery, or shorten the life of the bulb... but simply being 'open' wouldn't/shouldn't cause damage.) The actual failure may have been due to lifetime wear & tear, or perhaps even atypical use prior to the rental period... in which case FlightCar's responsibility is murky.

* The VW dealer price for repair is insane. Yet even though customer is displeased at FlightCar having slightly overestimated the radiator/themostat fix cost (by $200), customer expects FlightCar to cheerfully accept highest-possible cost for his own reimbursement.

Doing what this customer seems to want – generous reimbursement for something that isn't indisputably related to the incremental use during the rental period – might not be tenable for the business even if everyone was acting in good faith. And if FlightCar had a reputation for generous reimbursements, it would also attract people acting in bad faith: blaming FlightCar for preexisting issues that could be snuck by the check-in/check-out inspections.

The difficulty of tracking and resolving such issues may be a fatal flaw in the FlightCar business model.

Can't respond to your first point as I don't really know, but I've only used those lights about three times in the lifetime of the car, so wear and tear is a hard thing to state. Proving anything is anyone's fault is an issue whenever insurance is involved, and generally comes down to trusting someone's word.

I definitely would take the car to another shop to get fixed, and the FlightCar rep knew this. The disagreement was not over price, it was over whether they'd cover repair at all.

I, too, have a VW with such visor lights, and I, too, have probably used them less than once per year in the last 7 years.

So if a friend borrowed my car and (somehow, improbably) 'broke' them somehow... I might not notice for months.

Are you sure they were working when you dropped the car at FlightCar? (Was one of the 3 times in 10 years that you used the visor-lights that same day, or was checking both part of the explicit check-in inspection?)

The last time I used them was earlier this year, around February. I opened the visor before and after the trip (but not slid out the visor lights), to put a garage clicker on it. The light was definitely not open.

FYI: In my 2009 VW Tiguan, you don't have to slide the cover shut to turn off the light. The light will also go off when the visor moves back up.

So I can easily believe – and in fact now think it's the most likely explanation – that the renter slid the cover open and the light didn't come on. Without the light on, there's no reason to even think the slider should be closed. Someone unfamiliar with this mechanism might not even realize that when everything is working, the slider works as an on/off switch.

afaik that's not how it works in the 2006 Pasaat, you have to actually shut the mirror door or it stays on, even if the car is off. The service rep said this was fixed in later models.

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