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| Page late and a dollar short |
Good for you chowser! I was in dealership fixed operations aka mainly parts from 1970 to 2017 and managed a service department in the 1980's concurrently with the parts department. My belief was that if I could not make a buck without ripping customers off I did not deserve to make that buck. One of the reasons I left the last store that I managed from 85-88. I could not abide what the dealer and his consultant said I must do which was blatant ripoff, aka highly inflated matrix pricing. For example a one dollar item was hiked to seven dollars. Sadly that is not true most cases anymore. Glad I'm out. -------------------------------------—————— ————————--Ignorance is a powerful tool if applied at the right time, even, usually, surpassing knowledge(E.J.Potter, A.K.A. The Michigan Madman) | |||
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Member |
Grumpy, thanks for the compliment and well wish. Believe it or not if you were to really look close the car is actually fairly dirty. The detailer just does pretty good work and makes a white car look good even when dirty. It's been almost two years since his last visit  This message has been edited. Last edited by: just1tym, Regards, Will G. | |||
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Legalize the Constitution |
My wife recently had her Jeep Wrangler in at a dealer for oil service. She mentioned to the service writer that the rear window washer on the Jeep wasn’t working and asked them to look at it. She came home with an estimate to replace the rear washer pump. I don’t recall what the figure was but seems like it was between $200-$300, P&L. I said, “I’ll bet that rear pump isn’t hard to change out at all, let me go look at it.” I turn on the ignition, hit the rear washer and I can clearly hear the pump trying to work. “Hmm, says I to myself.” I go back to the window at the wiper see the nozzle and scrape across it with my fingernail. Immediately my finger is wet with blue fluid. I spent a few more minutes scraping more carefully and the washer works fine. I don’t believe there are many mechanics any more. Just parts replacers. Took my F150 in a an oil service. Left to run an errand. When I returned, my wife said she noticed an oil spot on the garage floor. I told her that often happens, that they sometimes get oil on the cross member when they change the oil. I cleaned up the oil spot thoroughly and thought no more about it. Next time I’m driving into the garage I look ahead and sure enough, more oil. WTF! I must have a loose drain plug or oil filter, I thought. Checked oil level. Nope. Right up there. Called the dealer. Service writer said bring it right in. They found an oil soaked rag had been left on the cross member. Grr _______________________________________________________ despite them | |||
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| Member |
Interesting recaps so far, about what I have run in years past with dealers service departments. We took my wife's 2010 Santa Fe into a dealership to have them look at why the passenger seat belt was balky at retracting, or failed to retract at all. First time to this dealership or any dealership since moving to the Hills. The lady tech. came back to the waiting room after about 30 minutes, and said done! She said the mechanism was gummed up with dog hair, Shih Tzu now trimmed much shorter, so she had to pick and vacuum to get it functioning, and everything was fine now. So I took a chance and asked if she could check the cabin air filter, because of the gravel road dust, pollen, pine dust etc. She said sure and came in about 10 minutes, said it looked clean and she did not think it needed replacement! I had replaced myself about a year ago, had to order a new filter and door as the previous dealer replacement, another state, had broken the tabs off the door bottom, and said nothing! Total bill for everything was $65 + tax, shop supplies, etc. I was pleasantly shocked! So I will be trying them qgain for things I choose not to do. Sugar anything we have done around here, service, tires, oil changes, etc. on both vehicles has been pleasant, on time, and reasonable! I realize I may have just jinxed myself, but hopefully not! Jim | |||
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| Member |
Jim | |||
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| Get my pies outta the oven!  |
Damn dude. It's like 8 bucks on Amazon and about 60 seconds worth of work to get to it.  | |||
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| Member |
I don't mean to counter the legitimate bitch of the OP or the other folks who have had service departments try to rip them off as I've experienced a few as well over the years. Its one of the reasons I do as much of my own maintenance as possible, including brakes, oil/filter changes and tire rotations. I did have a good experience a few months ago at the Lexus dealer however. I had changed the oil and filter on my wife's RX350 and was trying to change the cabin air filter. I couldn't figure out how to disconnect the little arm that holds the glove box and prevents it from falling completely down so I could pull the glove box out of the way and get to the cabin filter. I watched several youtube videos and still couldn't get the arm to disconnect and I was afraid I was going to break it. So I left the filter change for later. Took the car in for a recall and asked the service writer if I could have a mech show me or tell me the trick to removing the glove box from that support arm. He had a mech come out into the service lane and the mech told me that it was way too difficult to get this particular arm to disconnect so the technique was to just hold the glove box down and squeeze your hand through the gap to get to the filter, being careful of course not to break the support arm. As he was showing me and seeing the filter there on the front seat, he just laid down and replaced it there on the spot in the service lane. It took him a few minutes and it wasn't nearly as easy as it should be if you could just disconnect the support arm. Then he took the old filter, all the trash and said I was good to go. I wasn't trying to get it done for free, I was just asking for the technique and what was I missing. I offered the mech a $20 on the spot as discreetly as I could and he refused. I went in with the service writer to finish the paperwork and I told him I tried to give the mech the $20 and he said yeah the guy couldn't take it. I explained that I wasn't trying to get work for free I would like to buy the guy lunch or some beers. The writer went and talked to the mech or his supervisor I guess and then said thanks but not necessary. I pressed and then he said maybe a $10 would be ok. I only had a twenty, service writer offered me a 10 and he would pass along 10 to the mech. I thought and then said but then you are out $10 and I told him I was happy to give the mech a twenty. So he finally agreed and took it back to the mech and both thanked me for the gesture. So there are some good folks out there in the automotive repair world who are willing to go a bit beyond the just about the money mentality. Sorry OP for the thread drift. | |||
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| Unapologetic Old School Curmudgeon  |
Who do you think taught him what he was trying to pull? I'm sure he just went in the back, had a laugh with the guy, and they moved on to rip off the next guy. These service techs don't get commission, they are pushed to try this crap by the management. Don't weep for the stupid, or you will be crying all day | |||
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Member |
This. Most service writers work on commission. It’s one big racket and they’re ready to pounce on the unwise/unknowing. My parents just dealt with this at a dealership after a visit for an airbag recall. They were told their battery was weak and needed to be replaced, their ball joint boots were cracked, and their valve cover gasket was leaking and needed to be replaced. I inspected the vehicle the next day, tested the battery and only one of those (ball joint boots) needed repaired, which I performed myself. Attempting to take advantage of the elderly is the lowest of the low. Thankfully, they had someone (me) to inspect/repair. ——————————————— The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1 | |||
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| Member |
Grumpy, may I send an email with a couple of Accord questions? I don't want to derail your OP anymore than I already did. Thanks. Regards, Will G. | |||
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Sure. I edited my profile to add email address. | |||
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I've never had a warm feeling about our local dealerships, more lately than in the past. My wife took her Pilot in for the air bag recall, they did their safety check and handed her a list of items. tires, quoted $200.00 higher than locally available and she didn't need them. Fluid maintenance $350.00, not sure what that is? The list was extensive and not needed to be done. They don't get my business. ________________________________ "Nature scares me" a quote by my friend Bob after a rough day at sea. | |||
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| Member |
My Lexus had a recall for the transmission (sweet my car has 90xxx miles and I'm getting a free transmission I have 1 dealer within like 5 miles of my work, but the sales department at this dealership was very strange and not at all helpful when I was purchasing my Lexus (I wanted to see 1 car and 1 suv they had and the salesman was condescending and told me that the two things I was looking at were completely different types of vehicles and damn near refused to show me both of them. NO SHIT I just don't know if I want a car or a little suv) so I purchased my car elsewhere and take my car to a dealership 30 miles away. I've never had any issues at the 30 mile away dealer I take my car in, they always give me a loaner and everything goes smooth. When I went in for transmission recall I get a call a couple days later saying my battery is dead so I need to buy a battery (its Arizona so I've been expecting this because batteries die often out here). Lucky for me the only place I can buy the battery for my car is Lexus so shopping around isn't really an option and I already got a price on the battery previously because after looking everywhere else I was curious how much they were going to stick it to me at the dealership. The service advisor tells me its $450 for the battery. I tell him there's no way I'm paying you over $200 to install a battery because I've priced them out from their parts department and they are $230ish + tax and I am perfectly capable of changing my own battery but because of the location of my battery (its in the trunk and you have to remove a bunch of panels to get to it) I'm ok with you guys doing it, but definitely not for $200. So I told him to jump my car and I'll drive over there and install the battery myself. He tells me they cant even get the car jumpstarted. I said that's fine I have a portable jump pack that will start anything and I will come jump start it and drive it out. He then tells me I can't go into the shop where the car is to do that. I told him that's fine he can push my car out (it's got a transmission similar to a prius where without power there's no way your getting it into neutral, but that's not my problem). Finally I told him I had all intention of paying 1 hour of labor which is roughly $100 to install my battery so if he wants to stop with the games I'm willing to pay $350 for them to install a new battery in my car. He called me back a few minutes later and said he could do that. Long story short. Definitely a good idea to fact check many dealerships because most of them are all about lying to upsell stuff. | |||
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Frangas non Flectes |
TL;DR recap of what I just posted: I basically went Les Grossman over the phone on the writer at a local shop when she quoted me $3,500 in flushes, checking a rattle in the front shocks and an oil change. They dropped the bill to $300 something in diagnostics and I promptly turned into someone that writer never wanted to hear from ever, ever again, because I got put on hold for a few minutes, and then told that there would be no charge because “proper diagnostic procedures weren’t followed.” I ignored the voicemails I got from the shop’s owner a few days later, apologizing for the “miscommunication.” ______________________________________________ Carthago delenda est | |||
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Go Vols! |
When I bought my certified used Subaru it needed a balance and alignment. I scheduled it. When I took it in I marked the lug nuts. Guess who’s lugnuts we’re never removed. I was pissed. That dealerships entire certification process was BS. | |||
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| Member |
True they don't get direct commission, but the way they are paid (flat rate) promotes these types of shenanigans. Take TMats story as an example. Some tech would have done the EXACT same thing he did and it would have taken 5 minutes. However, the book has it has a 2.5 so the tech is reporting that and the dealer is charging that. "Oh yea Mr. Tmats, that pump was changed, here's your $300 bill." And meanwhile, that tech can bounce to another job after the phantom pump change is over to make more money. The flat rate system is a joke IMO. If the tech is getting paid hourly, he would scrape that nozzle for 5 min, give the car back to TMats and look like an f'n hero. | |||
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Member |
I went to a German car repair place for an oil change on my BMW. I knew my coolant was low and asked if they topped it off. They said yes. Documentation said yes. On the drive home the air was still luke-warm so I checked the coolant. Low. I called and then brought the car back. They blamed it on a leak in the system. So they did a pressure test. It passed. They topped it off and said "We can't find the leak, bring it back when the fluid drops again". Still haven't brought it back. Hedley Lamarr: Wait, wait, wait. I'm unarmed. Bart: Alright, we'll settle this like men, with our fists. Hedley Lamarr: Sorry, I just remembered . . . I am armed. | |||
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