How a college graduation gift can cost you your job

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Honda-Driving-Employee-Fired-by-Dodge-.html?corder=reverse&pg=1

Honda-Driving Woman Told to Get Out of Dodge

Former employee claims impeccable work record

By DICK JOHNSON and BJ LUTZ

Updated 10:20 AM CDT, Mon, May 18, 2009

TINLEY PARK, Ill. -- When Heather Sallay proudly drove her family's college graduation gift to her part-time job as a cashier, her boss at Bettenhausen Dodge only had two words for her: you're fired.

The 22-year-old had worked at the dealership for three and a half years and had recently received a glowing recommendation letter from the office manager, but was let go when she pulled up in her new Honda Civic.

"I just wanted to confirm, 'Did you, in fact, fire Heather because she's driving a Honda?'" Todd Sallay recalled. "And he said, 'Yes I did."

Todd Sallay owns a Chrysler product and showed off 27 receipts he'd collected over the years for almost $5,000 worth of service at Bettenhausen. The only thing his daughter can imagine is that her termination was tied to tension at Bettenhausen Dodge this week as they awaited word about which dealerships would survive. Bettenhausen Dodge did.

[Deja Q]

1. Oh, that's lovely.

:sarcasm:

On the plus side, no doubt the dealer will be told the same thing in a few months.

:shrug:

:(

[vadawg]

2. idiot, guess he dosent want any of her family's business any more

if i was close buy id drive my toyota to his place just to show solidarity with the young lady.

[NNN0LHI]

5. solidarity with the young lady driving a car made by a company that hates unions?

:rofl:

[Deja Q]

8. Nobody's perfect...

:spray:

[cherokeeprogressive]

21. And how many gifts have YOU returned because you had a quarrel with the gift's manufacturer?

Your horse is what, 21hh? That's one very high horse.

[iamjoy]

33. What's An American Car Anymore?

Anyway, are all "American" cars built by Union employees when some are made in Mexico? What if they're assembled by Union employees, but the parts are built by non-Union employees (or vice-versa)?

The whole issue of Union made seems a little murky. Anyway, I bet most companies hate Unions. Some of them can't get rid of them directly because they're already established, so they try every sneaky way they can to undermine the unions' power. It's really not a matter of which car companies hate unions and which don't, it's a matter of which companies have already found ways to avoid dealing with a unionized work force and which companies are still working on it.

Does that sound cynical? Or does it just sound like I'm justifying something? In the interests of disclosure, I drive an Acura, but I bought it before I started paying attention to such issues (Union built vs. non-Union). Even so, when it comes time for me to look for a new car, I am going to place reliability ratings, fuel economy and safety ratings ahead of whether or not the car was built in a union or non-union shop. Union built may be preferred, but it will be one of several desired (rather than required) features.

[msongs]

3. how many chrysler factory workers own "foreign" cars instead of chryseler products? nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. If they do, they don't drive them to work.

[kestrel91316]

4. Well, they just guaranteed that I'LL never buy a fucking Dodge as long as I live.

Actions have consequences, dude.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Oh yea how many Dodges have you owned before?

[kestrel91316]

25. None. And now it's gonna stay that way, lol.

The Ford I owned was ok for a little POS. The Chevy was a true grand-scale POS.

[NNN0LHI]

29. What do you do for a living again?

Just so I don't make a mistake and accidentally do any business with you.

Don

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

63. The guy expressed displeasure with a product, and he's off your list?

Maybe you have the type of job, time and money to tend to a POS vehicle as a sign of your charity, but some of us don't. I'm a working man who needs to GET TO WORK OR I DON'T GET PAID.

I've driven a Toyota and currently a Honda, and they run like dreams with minimal need for visits to the shop. Meanwhile my brother finally unloaded his POS Explorer for a Toyota Forerunner after getting recall notices twice a year for seven years it seemed and always getting a half-assed job and attitude by the dealer's mechanics for every little thing that went wrong.

[NNN0LHI]

68. I noticed you didn't mention your product either

I wonder why?

What kind of work do you do their working man?

I bet I can find someone to do whatever it is a little better and a little cheaper if I looked around a little bit.

What goes around comes around.

Don

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

69. I'm just a piddling office worker, dude

I'm sure I'll never have to stand in judgement from you, other than here on your kingdom of the internets.

Then again, you're the guy who'd dismiss someone from what I'd imagine to be an important job to you not because of personal knowledge of their ability, work ethic or quality, but for an unrelated issue like the car they drove, so your approval is probably worth as much as a bucket of warm spit.

[TahitiNut]

12. Well, that's sure gonna get their attention.

:eyes:

[kestrel91316]

26. Given that NOBODY wants their cars, you never know. Maybe they

had their eyes on me as a potential customer, lol.

[michreject]

53. BFD

I doubt that this incident made a difference.

[Deja Q]

6. Doesn't the dealer owner realize it was a GIFT to her?

It's not like she bought the thing herself...

[BlooInBloo]

9. What shitty, shitty people some are.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

13. The funny part is, this dealer is "supposed to be" one of those ,,,,,

.... friendly dealers with "one price shopping" and "no salespeople". The shtick goes that they are all "managers" and don't work on commission (bullshit).

I worked for a Ford dealer in the same neighborhood back in the day - he would only fire people if they bought a new Ford or used car from one of his competitors.

[angstlessk]

11. being in Detroit..I sympathize with the dealer...who wants employees driving cars

not sold by the dealer? It would be like a pizza hut employee ordering a dominoes pizza..fired FUCKING YEAH!

[Greyhound]

20. That's the spirit!

When will you guys ever figure out that you're the one's that pay the price for management's arrogance and fuck ups?

Oh yeah, I guess you are getting it now, aren't you?

Too little, too late.

[angstlessk]

31. this is a dealer not the CEO of GM...get over YOURself!

[iamjoy]

23. Isn't There Some Middle Ground Here

I can certainly understand a dealership not wanting competitor's cars in their lot. Maybe they think it reflects badly on their brand. How about asking her not to drive the car to work? Or simply tell her she can't park that car on company property? Granted, that puts the employee in a tough spot (how is she supposed to get to work and why not use perfectly good transportation). However, we could then argue that the dealership has some private property rights or that not allowing employees to park certain makes of cars on their lot is similar to a dress code or code of conduct - it is a reasonable restriction on employee behavior. Of course, what constitutes reasonable restrictions and what doesn't is a matter of opinion and debate. Still, it's better than just firing her.

[angstlessk]

30. i concur...making her park it out of the lot would be a way...letting her know they are unhappy

but with the job market being what it is...why tempt fate? Hell if I worked for Microsoft I would NOT bring an Apple computer to work..and vise versa...If I worked for Cannon I would not take pictures with a Nikkon at work...just makes sense...if she had none...none should be given to her!

[Greyhound]

35. Now there's a good little serf.

Once you've acknowledged that your employer is in fact your owner, the rest is easy.

Now go bow down to your master and maybe they'll allow you to live another day.
:eyes:

[Dappleganger]

38. That's stupid.

You can't expect a girl who just graduated to buy a car on her own.
How she gets to work is her own damn business.

[NNN0LHI]

41. A college graduate isn't capable of buying a car on her own?

She wasn't graduating from junior high school for chrissakes.

Don

[Dappleganger]

43. Oh, my mistake!

I was thinking that she'd actually save up money for one. We all know that making car payments is a sign of being grown up, right?

/s

BTW, with the school debt kids have these days why would an employer expect them to buy a new car too??

[RedCappedBandit]

48. Hardly anyone my age has the money to buy a new car

Even if they did, why would they throw it away on such a poor investment? Pretty sure the majority of us have loans to pay off, etc.

Where do you live where this is not the case?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

64. Yeah, because we know college isn't expensive......

Man, for a guy who seems to think he's pretty smart, you clearly don't pay much attention to the world around you, do ya?

[RedCappedBandit]

46. I've worked in food service all my life

and I have never been fired when I don't buy food from them every day.

Because that would be absurd.

[jmowreader]

52. Your example is rather interesting...

considering that very few Pizza Hut employees would want to eat one of the round saltines with tomato sauce and cheese on it Domino's represents to be pizza.

[alarimer]

14. I wouldn't buy a Chrysler product if you paid me.

Our Dodge trucks (at work) have been such gigantic pieces of shit that my agency no longer buys them. It turns out they need more (and more expensive) repairs than any other make or model of truck. So out they go.

Stupid crap would go wrong with them too- like every single dashboard in the 1999-2000 year trucks cracked in a million pieces. Personally I have had a number of vehicles which mostly stayed outside, none of which ever had a cracked dashboard.

(Of course now it seems our year-old Ford has stupid issues too. The driver's side mirror fell off and somehow it is NOT under warranty. What utter bullshit. No wonder Ford is also in the toilet. So far nothing has fallen off the Chevy truck, but it only has 2000 miles on it, so I am sure something stupid is about to happen).

With this track record and prior experience with shitty American cars, I can't blame her family for buying a Honda. Still she might have told them that it would look pretty bad.

[NNN0LHI]

17. You tried the "driver's side mirror fell off" scam and Ford didn't fall for it?

Hell you should have told them they "fall off" real easy when you rip the motherfuckers off while backing out of your garage.

Don

[JerseygirlCT]

34. We had a Dodge Caravan years ago

hated that thing almost from day one. Saw far too much time at the dealer's.

Then later, a PT Loser. Hated that car with a white-hot passion, too, after its first winter. POS couldn't get up the driveway unless every speck of precipitation was removed. And again, spent far too much time at the dealer, who was a schmuck, which only added to our displeasure.

These companies ought to realize that their dealers often make or break people's opinions of their cars, too.

Jerks like the one in the OP just hurt them.

[proud2BlibKansan]

51. We had a piece of crap Caravan too

It was either an 85 or 87. Can't remember which. Worst car we have ever owned. Second worst was a 93 Chevy Blazer. We haven't bought any American cars since.

[NightWatcher]

15. and how's Dodge doing? oh yes flirting with oblivion

[KillCapitalism]

16. Fucking neanderthal.

Last time I checked, no one could tell you what to drive in this country. This isn't Soviet Russia where we are forced to purchase shoddy products.

My parting words would have been "OK, I'll find a new job to maintain my car that will be running long after the hunks of shit you sell here are in the junkyard."

[Wednesdays]

18. K&R

:kick:

[Greyhound]

19. If they gave me a Chrysler product for free, I'd just sell it and buy something that works.

Oh and BTW, my family may be slow, but they eventually figured out that it's not normal for a car or truck to require regular, major repairs.

After pouring who knows how many thousands of dollars into Chrysler and Dodge products for 50 years, they finally figured it out.

Dad bought a Toyota last year and everybody else is driving Honda. And surprise, surprise, they don't spend every weekend in the dealership's service waiting room anymore. When it eventually dies, dad said he is going to look at what Ford is offering, but after 90,000 trouble-free miles on his '07 Yaris, it doesn't look like that's going to happen too soon.

We do still have a '92 Ram 1-ton diesel for heavy hauling (towing the horse trailer and alfalfa) around the farm, but even that has been a real disappointment. All the fancy stuff stopped working within the first three years, it goes through brakes and rotors like candy, 2nd AC compressor failed after four years (big deal in AZ), all the trim fell off within 3 years except for the side molding on the passenger door, the tailgate is held on with door hinges and latched with a hasp and padlock, but the engine (Cummins) is still strong and it still goes (stopping is another issue, but you learn not to follow too closely), and third gear is rarely necessary.

Somebody should have told them that planned obsolescence doesn't work anymore... Oh wait, we did.

[NNN0LHI]

22. 90,000 trouble-free miles on his '07 Yaris?

I have a 2000 Explorer with 200,000 trouble free miles on it.

Which only goes to prove the first liar doesn't have a chance.

:rofl:

Don

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2009/01/recall-alert-2006-07-toyota-yaris.html

Recall Alert: 2006-07 Toyota Yaris

Toyota has issued a recall for 130,000 Toyota Yaris vehicles from the 2006 and 2007 model years. In a statement from Toyota, the automaker warned that the mechanism that tightens the seat belt strap expels a gas in the event of a “severe front-end collision.” This gas could cause a nearby foam pad — used for sound insulation — to ignite and start a fire.

According to Toyota, this has not actually happened in the U.S., but the recall includes 1.3 million vehicles worldwide that are based on the same platform as the Yaris (on other shores, that would be the Vitz and the Ractis). They didn’t comment on whether or not this phenomenon has been reported elsewhere.

[Greyhound]

32. Wow, quite the rebuttal. I guess reading is not your strong suit.

"in the event of a severe front-end collision." and "this has not actually happened in the U.S.".

As explained in the rest of the reply, after 50 years of pouring money into Chrysler products...

But I guess one could argue that a "severe front-end collision" is unlikely with the car in the shop.
:rofl:

[Greyhound]

42. Oh, and one more thing. Japanese manufacturers, upon discovering defects,

actually do recalls and fix them instead of covering them up and trying to weasel out of fixing them.

Nissan recalled and replaced my whole fuel injection system with a newly designed replacement, completely FOC, and four years out of warranty. All to keep/create a loyal customer.

Everybody makes mistake, honorable people admit them and make good. Something else the formerly Big Three have forgotten.

[NNN0LHI]

44. So in your view the anti-union companies are the honorable people?

Thats all I needed to hear.

Now I know what I am dealing with here.

Don

[Greyhound]

47. Has nothing to do with being anti-union, I'm vehemently, even violently, pro-union,

but that doesn't mean that I'm stupid either.

I take it from your reaction that you work/worked for an auto manufacturer. Well I'm sorry as hell about what has been done to you guys, but that doesn't excuse the shit that the people you work for have done. As we've all seen for 30 years, no matter which way it goes, you guys were going to get fucked.

Did you design the shit that "Detroit" pumped out for the last 40 years? No.

Did you piss away decades of huge profits going into every fucking business imaginable, except auto manufacturing? No.

Did you ignore all of the warnings for years and make the wrong vehicles at just the wrong time? No.

I'm not your enemy. The auto execs, politicians, and so-called union leadership are. I'm the guy that just got tired of being ripped off by the same people that rip you off.

[Greyhound]

59. So now you have nothing to say? n/t

[NNN0LHI]

62. When someone spends so much time talking about being vehemently, even violently, pro-union as you do

My bullshit meter red lines.

Know what I mean?

Don

[Greyhound]

67. Ah, I see. Well good luck, I'm sure a rugged individualist like yourself will do just fine

[Buzz Clik]

24. When the only way you can boost sales is by extorting the staff, you know your product sucks.

[pinniped]

27. How the F can this be a legal cause for termination?

.

[Greyhound]

36. "Right to work" and "At will". It is all in the employer's favor.

All sheep share a common destiny.

[Kievan Rus]

55. This is why "at will employment" needs to be abolished

Then again, I'm for abolishing every pro-corporate law on the books.

Fuck corporations. This nation belongs to the people, not the greedy asshole CEOs.

[Greyhound]

58. Corporations, as they were originally

(created, conceived, implemented, I'm not sure of the correct term) in the USA, were necessary and valuable.

They were chartered for a specific purpose and for a limited time to accomplish that purpose, then they ceased to be.

What we have now is an abomination, the result of several of those "non-existent conspiracies" that we know don't happen.

[WillowTree]

70. "At will" employment works both ways.

I used to be of the opinion that an employer should be required to have some sort of legitimate business-related reason to let an employee go until someone pointed out that "at will" was a two-way street and if I think I ought to be able to quit any time I want to for whatever reason I have, it's only fair that it works the same way for the employer (barring verifiable discrimination, of course).

I didn't have a reasonable comeback for that then and I still don't.

[dysfunctional press]

56. illinois is an "at will" employment state.

you can be terminated for just about any, or even no, reason.

[flvegan]

28. She didn't buy it.

No idea if she was given the choice of a vehicle, but a Honda Civic is a fantastic graduation gift, and I fail to see what Dodge has on their lot that compares with the Civic. Hate the parents or whomever, but firing her seems kind of stupid and deserving of the bad press they're getting.

[tabasco]

37. I bought a Ford Ranger, brand new, a few years back.

It was my second Ranger, actually.

It broke down, due to an electrical problem, in a tunnel, in Pittsburgh the day I bought it.

After pushing it out of the tunnel, I had it towed to another Ford dealer.

No loaner, no respect, just "fuck you."

Had to call a cab and go rent a car at the airport.

A couple years later:

Bought a used Toyota. Took it to the dealer for a routine service. Gave me a loaner. Treated me like royalty for driving the cheapest Toyota available.

Needless to say, I will never own another Ford.

I'm guessing Mr. Sallay will never own another Dodge.

Some of the dealers are just as stupid and arrogant as the pricks that ran the companies into the ground.

[NNN0LHI]

39. Why did you push it around for?

There is an 800 number in the the little book that you would have found in the glove box if you had looked. While under warranty they send someone out to get you going at no charge. Even if you run out of gas.

Your story sounds fishy if you know what I mean?

Don

[tabasco]

45. There was no telephone in the Liberty Tunnel, genius.

They fixed the truck but gave NO LOANER.

Take your fishy and shove it, pal.

[NNN0LHI]

50. It was easier to hand push a couple of tons of steel around than just walk out and make the call?

OK friend.

That makes sense.

Don

[tabasco]

57. You sound like a weakling.

I pushed it a couple hundred feet out of the tunnel to the service garage at the west side of the tunnel.

Your muscles must be as weak as your mind.

[knitter4democracy]

54. That's not how my Ford dealer is at all.

They have a shuttle service for the service center, loaner cars for anything that'll take longer, amazing service at the same prices locally (I've called around), and they guarantee the engine of any used car you buy there for the life of the car if you get all oil changes and engine work there. I love my Freestar and will definitely buy from them again and have written to Ford asking that they keep this dealer around.

[tabasco]

60. There is a great Chevy dealer where I live now.

Really good people and they really take care of customers.

I hope they have something worth buying in a couple years.

[BuyingThyme]

65. One Toyota Tacoma is worth five or six Ford Rangers.

[aikoaiko]

40. That's really poor treatment by her boss, but she'll be better off w/the Honda and pursusing...

... her goal of a teaching job.

[mnhtnbb]

49. My son took a lot of grief because he drove an Altima while working as a sales person at a GM dealer

The dealer is now gone. My son is still driving his Altima 3 1/2 years later and he's working
at a better job.

[tammywammy]

61. I work at a VW dealer

The employees own a wide arrange of cars. Off the top of my head I know there are Volkswagens (of course), Hondas, Saturns, Fords, BMW and Chrysler.

My coworker bought a Honda Accord maybe 6 months ago, no grief given.

[NutmegYankee]

66. What an asshole employer.

Part of Freedom is driving the car you want. He may have had the power, but ethically, that was wrong.