Business 12 www.aftermarketonline.net APRIL 2026 You cannot win against AI Garages vs AI: The new complaint challenge Rebecca Pullan, Managing Director of Carmaster Garage in Harrogate, has noticed that lately, customer complaints are getting longer, more polished, and are sometimes a little too well-written. The reason could be a new character quietly entering the conversation – artificial intelligence. Here, she takes a reflective look at how AI is changing the way complaints arrive in the inbox, and why garages may need to rethink how they respond. If you haven’t reviewed your customer complaints policy recently, changes in modern life mean you need to revisit it. My old policy, I thought, was a smashing one. It was clear, I liked it, and it was successful in achieving what I wanted: to listen to the customer, investigate their concerns, put them right if we did wrong, and, if not, vigorously defend our process and procedures. Now, however, there’s a new person who’s complaining; they’re complaining with their best friend Arthur Ingram, better known to you and me as AI. Arthur writes the most gorgeous letters. They are eloquent, stylish, and he presents them so they’re easy to read. He’s definitely got a degree, if not two or three. I suspect the degree might be more English literature and drama focused rather than journalism and law, but that’s just my take on it. The storytelling is truly wonderful. He has no need for evidence; this just spoils a good story. He’s happy to rely on fables; there is no reason to be held back from a complaint by lack of facts nowadays. That’s just pure old-fashioned thinking. Arthur, meanwhile, believes in his mate, his friend, your customer. If he thinks he might have a complaint, even a whiff of one, he’s going to find justice for him. Arthur is going to back him to the hilt, 150%, because, of course, he is his best mate and that’s what best friends do. ‘Give me the quill, I will write it now’. Complaining has never been quicker or easier. Now what? Arthur writes almost factually, but not necessarily your facts; facts from other scenarios. He finds extraordinarily flawed supporting evidence, then puts it all together in a way that makes the car’s owner believe, now more than ever, everything he reads. The issue is truly a worthy complaint. It is completely robust, and they believe wholeheartedly that they’re right; they can now see the evidence in black and white, right before their eyes. And again, I’ll remind you that Arthur’s written word is just beautiful, it looks the bee’s knees. This nasty spiral is self-fulfilling. (Big caveat here, of course, Arthur and his mate, your customer, could well be right. If he is, just sort it NOW.) So you need to respond; what you could do, of course, is use Arthur too. He’s not a loyal friend. But should you? And can you make your point? Can you win your customer over in this way? I don’t think so. So, back to my complaints policy. This is what it looked like before: Step one. Acknowledge the complaint and respond, allowing time for you to properly review the evidence. We always ask for 48 hours (so you can really look at it properly, take the pressure off, and take the heat off yourself). Step two. Then, of course, robustly do that check. Look at the problem, speak to your team, check the facts, and, of course, if it is your fault, put your hand up very, very high; make it right straight away. But, and this is a BIG but, the garage is not always wrong, and the customer is not always right. It turns out that the exhaust you replaced isn’t always the reason the engine management light came on the very next day. In which case, back to the policy. Step 3. Invite the vehicle back and check your work. Because more bizarre things have happened before. The radio you fitted actually did strangely make the light go on. So thoroughly check your work. But this is where it changes. Moving on from this, I would normally ensure that all correspondence stayed on email, as much as possible. I felt confident in our processes, in the recorded phone calls, and in the CCTV. I felt confident that my emails were well written, factually correct, and that I
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