I was at work on my second car of the day. A truly disgusting 98 Sedan. Food everywhere, seats torn to shreds, stains on the carpet that I did not want identified and some of the owners dirty laundry in the back seat. We usually put plastic covers on the seats and paper floor mats to keep the customers interior clean, but I put them on to keep myself clean. Anyway I am going over my usual checklist and I open up the air-box to check the engine air filter and the filter is torn to shreds, and all the pieces of it are on the bottom of the air-box. Then the pieces start moving and a family of mice jumps out. Momma, Poppa and Junior (thats what I named them). Now they are in the shop somewhere and I am pissed. We try really hard to keep the place clean and free from infestation. Needless to say my investigation of the car stopped there and we had the customer come get his car. He was not happy with us.
I am not a lawyer, but I bet you could potentially sue the car owner for introducing the infestation. It’s unlikely that the individual in question is a high roller, but it’s entirely possible all the same. I have known some extremely successful people who have absolutely disgusting cars. At the very least you could charge him for the costs incurred in the disposal of the mice.
If your shop is as clean as you say, the mice will leave for the open spaces. The doors will be opening more and more. They will join the field mice.
I don’t see how the vehicle owner was supposed to know about mice in his air cleaner. This is your shop’s responsibility to take care of what comes in. If everybody serviced their own vehicles, you would be looking for work. Maybe you called the owner because you were looking for excuses for not finding the mechanical problems. Just saying…
You are right, if people serviced their own cars it would definitely cut my pay but the point is if this person just did basic maintenance (cleaning their freaking car) the mice would not have any incentive to be in it. The air box, I assume, was just their bedroom. The interior of the car was their kitchen and also their toilet. I realized later that those “unidentified stains” were actually mouse droppings.
As for not wanting to look for mechanical problems that would go completely against the point of me working. Unlike most other jobs I am paid on a system called flat rate. Meaning that every job I perform on a car pays a percentage of an hour. If I do not find anything mechanically wrong with a car with a problem, I do not get paid. I would have loved to find something wrong with the car that I could have sold but that car absolutely disgusted me. My boss agreed with me and it was his call to send the car out. I just did the oil change it came in for (which pays .3 of an hour).