Monday morning I was boarding my flight from St. Louis when I received a text message asking if my parents could hitch a ride from Boston. Of course I obliged and after twenty minutes of shoehorning five bags and three adults into my car we trekked home. During the trip my overloaded transmission started making a horrible noise.
The following day I ended up talking to Dan, a local transmission specialist, who suggested I find another car. That night I did a bit of research on the models Dan told me about and the next day I hunted down a dealer. I opted to limit my choices to factory certified, partly because this particular manufacturer includes a vehicle history report.
Wednesday afternoon I took delivery of my new-to-me car. It was a beautiful 2011 model with only 9,200 miles. I nicknamed it the Grandpa Car because it was supposedly owned by an old man who let it sit for years. The online car report noted the car had never been in an accident and it had a clean history.
After driving the car and noticing it didn’t drive as I would have expected a 9,000 mile car to handle, I did a bit of my own sleuthing. It turns out the right frame and fender section had been completely replaced and not reported. I bought a car that was never reported to have been in a collision.
How did it happen that my Grandpa Car made it past the digital checkpoint every dealer relies on? In order to have accurate data, accurate data has to be inputted into the system. Just because online reporting exists doesn’t necessarily mean it’s accurate. In my case the body shop never reported the repair so the vehicle history report was incorrect.
Though this car had been examined and tested by many knowledgeable pros, each relied on the history report. Just as the pros, I based the history of the car on a printout that led me to believe this car was perfect. After making the discovery myself I spent hours convincing a dealership full of automobile professionals their reporting service was incorrect.
Inaccurate reporting happens in every industry and at every level. Whether it’s caused by a keystroke error or simple neglect, every industry has incorrect reports. Computerized records are only as good as their data. Unfortunately the accuracy of reports relies solely on human input.
Imagine if instead of being at a car dealership I was at a doctor’s office being prescribed a potentially dangerous combination of medicines. Rather than ask my medical history the doctor looked at a computer screen and prescribed a medicine based on what he or she read. He or she could potentially create a life threatening situation.
Every time I brought the body damage to the attention of the professionals I was shown a copy of the report. One salesman out of the bunch took it upon himself to look past the computer screen and actually lift my hood. Twenty minutes later the dealership’s body shop manager was on the lot and admitted the report was incorrect.
Just because some official documentation company says something is correct doesn’t necessarily mean it to be the truth. Computers lie as much as humans and should be questioned. Everyone looking at data should pop their own hood once in a while and really question what they’re looking at. I questioned data and ended up turning my silver car black.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can call him at (978) 919-8059 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)