Over the past year, hundreds of you have asked Whistleblower for help. While we can't investigate each tip, we want to share more of what you tell us. In 2009, we started publishing a few tips each week to stimulate online discussion and create ways for our readers to help each other. Unlike our news stories, we have not verified this information, so we do not include the names of the parties involved. If you have a tip, send it to whistleblower@startribune.com.

A repeat customer at a Twin Cities car dealership was shocked when he tried to schedule a service appointment and was told to go somewhere else. The dealership didn't want his business because he had once made a minor complaint about service on a customer satisfaction survey sent to him by the manufacturer. He complained to the manufacturer, but was told that it didn't have any control over what the dealerships did with the information from the survey.

The dealership's general manager eventually cleared up the issue, but the car owner thinks the manufacturer's survey is unfair.
"They heavily penalize the dealerships financially for anything other than a perfect rating, which is just not a realistic way to use a survey as a learning tool," he said.

Have you ever been retaliated against for being honest on a survey?