A Problem With My Van (Un Problema con mi Furgoneta)

Abstract

Pablo and his wife have five children. As they like traveling by road with the whole family, often including the grandparents, they decided to buy a German van with nine seats.

On October 24, 2005, Pablo took the van to the a dealer to have the spare key repaired. But the spare key was not ready until 5 weeks later. Pablo sent this case to the CEO in Spain of the carmaker and he got the following reply:

"Having read very carefully what you grandly describe as case, I have the following comments to make:

I recommend that in future... you use the official complaints form or get in touch with customer service.

The action of posting your "case" ... seems to obey demagogic or exhibitionistic instincts rather than the ethical precepts to be expected of a professor.

Certainly, at Northwestern University, where I did my postgraduate work, the Ethics Committee would never have allowed faculty to give students a personal case.

What action plan would you recommend to Pablo?

Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish. The English version is available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=989561

Keywords: spare key, customer service, ethical precepts, Ethics Committee, action plan

JEL Classification: A13, D21, D23