Failing
to provide a Chevrolet driver with roadside breakdown service on Christmas night
in 1997 cost General Motors do Brasil a fine of 20,000 reais (about $US8,000)
in Rio Grande do Sul state court recently, writes Rogério Louro Alves.
GM had advertised that its roadside rescue service operated all year round,
24 hours a day but it would not come to the aid of a doctor in a broken-down
Blazer SUV on Christmas night in Rio Grande do Sul state nearly four years ago,
the court was told.
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A call centre operator who received the doctor’s request for help told
him that the service did not operate at Christmas and would not dispatch a rescue
truck.
The court fined the automaker for falsely advertising that the service was
available.
The doctor gave the court a cellphone bill confirming that he made a seven
minute call to the Chevrolet rescue service on the Christmas night in question
along with a call to the highway police.
GM is to appeal the decision.
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