- Customer says dealer removed parts without permission while vehicle awaited unrelated repairs.
- Video captured service manager admitting parts were borrowed for another customer’s vehicle.
- Dealership fired service manager and apologized after footage spread rapidly across social media.
You might worry about a dealership scratching your car when it’s in for service, or selling you one with a hidden past. But a Louisiana Kia owner says she had something much stranger to worry about after allegedly discovering the service department had been helping itself to parts from her SUV.
Shirley Poullard brought her Kia Telluride to Kia of Lake Charles, Louisiana, after suffering a tire blowout on the interstate. She says the SUV then sat at the dealership for weeks with little information about when the repairs would finally be completed.
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Growing frustrated, Poullard decided to visit the dealership herself, according to a report from 7 News KPLC. That’s when things took an unexpected turn. She noticed the hood was already open and began recording video, questioning why the engine appeared to have been partially dismantled.
Poullard alleges she was initially told nobody had worked on the vehicle before the explanation changed. But the manager then acknowledged that a couple of fuel injectors from her SUV had been “borrowed” while repairing another customer’s vehicle.
“Taking Is Stealing”
Poullard didn’t hide her feelings during the confrontation. “Taking something without permission is stealing,” she can be heard telling workshop staff. “Which is what y’all were doing is stealing.”
“[Had] I not come up there, I wouldn’t have known,” she continued. “Y’all would have just threw my car back together and expected me to drive it. And later down the line when something went wrong, I would’ve been the person they tried to say was at fault.”
After posting the video online, it quickly spread through the local community, attracting enough attention that the dealership launched an internal investigation. The outcome was swift.
Contract Terminated
Kia of Lake Charles told 7 News KPLC said it had taken the complaint very seriously and reviewed the incident. The dealership confirmed the service manager involved “is no longer employed with our company” and added that customers should always be treated with professionalism, honesty, and respect. It also apologized directly to Poullard.
It’s not known exactly why the dealership allegedly resorted to borrowing parts. But there’s no doubt that borrowing used components from one customer’s vehicle to repair another’s is the kind of shortcut that can destroy trust instantly. Although she has since collected her SUV, Poullard reportedly remains uncomfortable driving it and is looking for legal representation, the report says.
