Making time for an oil change, let alone dropping your car off at a mechanic or repair shop, can be an entire ordeal.
For one woman on TikTok known as @frenchietopiafinding time to bring her car to the repair shop was actually the least of her worries. When she picked up her car, which had been in the shop for a minor bumper replacement, she noticed the mileage was significantly higher than when she dropped it off.
“Who’s been driving my car?” she angrily asked in her video, looking for advice on the best path forward.
“I’m in shock. My car was in the body shop for about 10 days,” she started in her initial video. “Why does my car now have 28,879 miles… it’s over a thousand miles extra?” While her initial video was filmed just a few minutes after picking up her car, she said she hadn’t yet confronted the mechanic for the unexplained increase.
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Being that they recorded her initial mileage on paper when she dropped the car off, it seemed like there was no way for them to deny having driven it — unless they tried to convince her it was some kind of “typo.”
Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t the first time a customer took to social media to express a similar situation. A Reddit user posted an eerily similar experience, arguing that their mechanic drove almost 500 extra miles in his car without permission. However, when he confronted the mechanic, the body shop blamed it on a “typo” at the drop-off.
With the burden of proof — needing to provide evidence other than the body shop’s record of the mileage increase — he ultimately had no grounds for legal action.
However, Frenchie on TikTok wasn’t willing to acquiesce. Instead, she’s been searching her car and reading online recommendations for the best way to move forward.
In a follow-up video, Frenchie again expressed her general frustration with the situation and her ongoing pursuit of legal action. “I know the mileage in my car… not to the exact number, but I knew that it was 26,000,” she said. “I’ve spoken to the right (legal) people and they need me to provide the exact mileage, which I cannot.”
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“Another (piece of) proof that my car was touched,” she said, “I have my navigation set where the streets are very close, instead of long distance. This was modified, but no address was entered … the backseat also had the air conditioner running on low. I don’t drive anyone around.”
Frenchie insisted that she’s continuing to gather other changes made to her car, hoping that she can build a case strong enough to hold her mechanic accountable.
“This happened to me once,” a commenter wrote. “I’ve started taking pictures of my dash now before dropping my vehicles off… Let this be your reminder to start.”
While some suggested the mechanic should be obligated to compensate her for the extra mileage, Frenchie said it’s simply “not enough.”
She trusted that her luxury car, which she bought herself, would be safe with her mechanic, and that she could trust in the integrity of their business. “The money is not good enough for me… I’m not going to be paid $1 a mile (for this).”
“This was a bumper guard replacement,” she said. “At the most, it needed to be driven 5 to 10 miles for it to be checked. They didn’t even need to drive it for half a mile.”
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Others suggested she check other parts of her car to provide evidence for legal action, including her Bluetooth history for other connected devices and her navigation system’s history. “If you’ve made a claim with insurance recently, they ask how many miles is on it at the time of filing,” another commenter reminded her. “Maybe that will help.”
At the end of the day, this woman’s fight is still ongoing, and she said she’s not going to focus all her content on the “whole ordeal” it’s become.
She hopes to hold the repair shop accountable for taking advantage of her trust, including gathering enough proof to build her case securely. However, if that’s not possible, at least her experience can be a lesson for others to always know the exact mileage on your car before leaving it for repairs.
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Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories.
