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'We Get Paid Off Our Reviews': Cadillac Driver Comes Into Dealership for Software Update. Then He Rips His Service Tech In Survey

"My own mother annihilated me on a survey."

Cadillac driver comes in for software update

Photo by: AdobeStock

Alexandra Samuels

By: Alexandra Samuels

Dec 18, 2025 at 10:00am ET

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A man is going viral on TikTok after sharing a story about a demanding customer who nearly ruined his day at work.

User @mymechanicsaid, a self-described "car guy" and service advisor for Cadillac, says the saga started a year ago with a man coming in for a recall involving several software updates. @mymechanicsaid and a coworker explained up front that the work would take all day.

"He didn't think it should," @mymechanicsaid says. "The letter that he got said it should take 30 minutes, but we explained, in our experience, that wasn't the case."

Even though the customer knew it could take a full day, he still complained and left a negative review for @mymechanicsaid's coworker on an exit survey, which directly affects employee pay.

"We get paid off our reviews," @mymechanicsaid explains.

The story picked up again a year later when the same customer returned. As of this writing, @mymechanicsaid's video recounting the year-later encounter had more than 3,000 views.

What Happened Next to the Cadillac Service Advisor?

The repeat visit was for a new recall on a different part. @mymechanicsaid says he called the customer and left three voicemails before finally getting a call back.

When the customer called, he demanded to speak to the service manager, claiming that no one had reached out for three weeks.

"He says, Nobody's called me for three weeks. This is ridiculous," @mymechanicsaid recounts, adding that he calmly told the man that he had left him three voicemails.

Still, @mymechanicsaid claims the customer refused to back down, insisting he "wasn't going to argue" even though the shop had clearly tried to reach him multiple times.

@mymechanicsaid tried to remain calm, scheduling the repair while worrying about the potential impact on his survey-based paycheck.

Then came the kicker: the customer was a fellow General Motors employee.

"So he knows how important and how detrimental those surveys are," @mymechanicsaid says. "Not only did he tank one person, [but] now I'm living in fear of my life because a huge portion of my paycheck comes from surveys, and I don't know how he's going to act when I did everything right. Ridiculous."

How Do Surveys Affect Dealership Employees' Pay?

According to Forbes, surveys can significantly affect pay and bonuses for dealership employees, especially service advisors and salespeople whose bonuses are tied to customer satisfaction scores.

That means even one bad survey can spell trouble for dealership employees. After all, bonuses often depend on getting near-perfect scores on customer surveys. Edmunds reports that some dealerships treat the system as "all or nothing," meaning a nine out of 10 can count the same as a zero. As @mymechanicsaid suggests, that pressure creates real stress, and consistently low scores can even affect job security.

That said, there are obvious downsides to linking an employee's salary to their survey ratings. For one, employees might pressure customers for high scores. It might also have employees uber-focused on achieving a high score, rather than genuinely improving the customer experience. And, if customers know their feedback directly impacts an employee's pay, they may be less honest—or, as @mymechanicsaid believes may be the case, you might get a customer who intentionally gives an employee a low score because they know it can cause harm.

Workers Confirm That Difficult Customers Affect Pay

Viewers who watched @mymechanicsaid's video weighed in on how a handful of demanding customers can directly impact someone's paycheck and morale, especially in jobs where customer surveys carry so much weight.

"Yup… grinds my gears when people do this," one man wrote. "Aren't even big enough to say sorry, it was my mistake."

Another commenter who identified as a service advisor shared their frustration with the system.

"As an advisor myself, I absolutely hate getting paid on [customer satisfaction index.] I can do everything and anything and beyond for the customer and still receive a bad survey because the part took too long to get, or the recall or repair takes too long with no loaner, etc. These companies need to have a system where our CSI is completely just on us as advisers and not on everything else," they wrote.

Several others noted that average or mid-tier survey results don't help employees at all.

"It's worse to get no survey back or get one with average or slightly above average ratings," one person commented.

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Some viewers even suggested ways to avoid giving the difficult customer a second survey. "Change his email so he doesn't get a survey," one person wrote.

Motor1 has reached out to @mymechanicsaid via a direct message on TikTok and to General Motors, which owns Cadillac, through email. We'll update this if either responds.

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