Let me start off by saying this - I am not a complainer, just pissed.

A few months ago, truck went to the dealer for major service, to the tune of $1200. I was happy, no problems. done.

Fast forward to recently, I take my truck back there, it needs a new driveshaft. That is all I asked for. They call me with estimate.

Dealer: "Yeah, you're going to need new brakes in the front, new brakes in the rear, and its due for major service."

Me: "What about the driveshaft"?

"$1200."

Me: "What major service does it need?"

"timing belts, water pump, pcv valve, oil/lube, ..."

Me, interrupting: "You guys just replaced the belts, pump and all that 2 months ago."

*silence* "Sorry, I didn't see that."

Me: "So I need new brakes?"

"Oh, yes, they are 2mm in the front and barely 1mm in the back"

Me: "That's funny, I just put new front pads on 3k miles ago."

"Well, I will measure them again, but I could have sworn they were VERY low. Your rears are completely gone."

Me: "How much for the brakes?"

"$750."

Me: "No thanks, I will pick the truck up in 20 minutes."

they charged me an hour labor for the 'diagnostics'. On top of this, they guy who answered the phone when I called was a complete asshole.

This past weekend, I rip apart the front brakes, pads look NEW. Take the rear drums off, the rear shoes LOOK NEW.

Now this particular dealer's service dept has received the Presidents Award - so they are 100% geared towards client service.

What would you do? Nothing? write a letter? call a manager?

 

complain to the service manager.. and only the service manager. you'll get something out of it, most likely.

thats how it always is at my dealer.. they tried to tell me my battery failed a load test and wanted to charge me hundreds for a new one. then they told me my front brakes needed to be changed and that one of my belts was worn out.

i had just changed the belts, so i said dont touch em, i never had a single batter problem so i said dont touch it. my brakes did need changing, so i let em do that.

i got my battery load tested... it passed with flying colors. i checked the belts.. theyre beautifully new...

ugh. i hate the dealers.

 

yeah Lee, you know, I have always praised dealers; since my wife's car is always taken to our local Acura dealer, and they are AWESOME, and believe it or not, CHEAP!

My whole outlook of dealers is marred by this one experience. But could you blame me?

 

sounds like youve been lucky.

ive always been shocked at the difference between the way i am treated at toyota vs how my roomate is treated at mazda (he has an 03 mazda 6).

his car is washed everytime he brings it in, they give him cheaper rates on all work and offer a FREE LOANER everytime he comes in.

im blown away.

 

Same here, took mine for a service and "Hey you've a blown head gasket", WTF.....
They did it for free, but I had to pay for some other stuff but it took 2 weeks. Took it back last summer for a busted hose some where b/w the firewall and motor and replace shift solinoid. I get a call back,...."It's not your S.S., it's your tranny",....BS, I told them about what I saw on here. I knew what it was b/c I read up on it for weeks/months on here. You all saved me a few grand and some jail time. I've never been back there and when I complained the S.M. just laughted and said so you believe a buck of computer nerds over a Certified Toyota Mechanic and I said "Hell Yeh"

 

I rarely take my truck to anyone... but if I do, I have one general rule of thumb.

If the shop rattles off a list of items 'needing' repair/replacement, and any ONE of those items I know for fact DOES NOT because of recent repair/replacement, I don't let them touch anything and take it elsewhere.

 

Absolutely raise a stink to the service manager AND directly to Toyota. IF they're serious about customer service, someone's head will roll...

 

I wish I still had this guys number I got to know. One of my friends from school knew this kid (fraternity brother) and his dad was the Vice President of Toyota of North America or something like that. I got to know him pretty good and he would come down from Athens and party with us. I bet he could pull some strings. He would always drive a new toyota down.

 

I just hate dealerships for reasons like this!! I try and do all of the little maintenances on mine - and if I run into somthing I can't handle - I call my dad and a couple buddies and tell them there is a case of beer in it for them!!!!! It always works

 

The Toyota dealers here pretty much suck *ss, like everywhere else so it seems. SOP is to use the more colorful definition of 'service'.

The Acura dealer, or at least one mechanic who works on my cars, is pretty good. I don't like the shop manager much, just this particular mechanic.

 

Dang, I would definitely complain to the service manager AND the dealership owner. None of that stuff goes on at my dealership. I would say there are a few bad ones but a few good ones. Our shop foreman always tells us to "sell the customer what they need, but NEVER oversell them." Two friends of mine who graduated from the same GM class of mine went to a Toyota dealership 30 miles away from me and they told me they get bonuses for "up selling" anything to a vehicle. That may be where all of that B.S. came from.

 

Boat payments.

One of the Toy dealers in town was advertising an oil change for $23, so I bit (99 4Runner, 67,000 miles). I was feeling lazy and figured the synthetic oil and Toy filter would cost me mor than that. So they did one of their "summer checkups" at no cost.

They wanted $65 to cleanup my battery (just dirty, no corrosion), $125 to swap out my power steering fluid, and I can't remember how much to swap out the brake and clutch fluid.

Gonna take the '95 in tomorrow for fun. Bet they'll find enough wrong to try and sell me a new 4Runner.

NO WAY!

 

Ive never been impressed with the customer service of any Toyota dealer Ive been to. For me, that has been the only complaint I have ever had about the Toyota ownership experience.
I would complain to the service manager and see what happens. Most likely nothing will change but you might get lucky.
$750 for a brake job??? Brake pads/shoes shouldnt cost you any more than $100 front and rear, so where is the other $650??? Even at $100 for service, it should not take them 6 hours to replace the brake pads/shoes.
Sounds like a scam to me.
Cap'n

 

The problem with most car owners is that they have no clue as to what the regular service maintenance mileage is, much less what the actual service entails. Learn not to trust anyone until they have proven themselves trustworthy. Don't go into get service and have no idea what you expect...cause if you don't educate yourself, you'll get taken almost every time. Be an educated consumer and when they insult you with such an obvious rip-off as the one stated in the original post, complain up the chain of command. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and the other (3) just bitch about it.

 

My local dealer has been ok. A local non dealer mechanic had a list of things that had to be fix "immediately" when I tried him. I left that guy fast.
MIDAS has got to be the biggest ripoff I ever tried though, they wanted to replace every part of my brake system. Those guys are a fraud.

 

rob,

if it were me, i'd call the service manager. or if you have time, make an appointment with him and speak to him in person. sometimes seeing the person makes more of an impact

and i hope you got the upselling service (sales) idiot's name. perhaps if you make an appointment, you can have him in on the meeting as well. :evil:

bob

 

I would call the service manager and the owner of the dealership. If the owner was a dick, then I would write Toyota a letter.

 

In one of my CJ classes we were going over white collar crimes and the auto repair industry came up. Internal affairs came in with an old woman and a car that was totally gone over from head to toe, 0 problems. So they let air out of one of the front tires and got her to go to all the repair shops in town. Every shop but one said the car needed major repair that went from complete front ends to brakes, prices from 200 to 2000 $$$$ and the one shop said, "your front tire was about 20 lbs low, thanks". Also places like aamco, goodyear and midas were mentioned.

 

Ya know, this guy once said...

"The only thing necessary for the triump of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke

Now while some would say that this addage would be better applied to other, more dire situations, I feel that the "stealership" dealings with their customers are no less of a dire situation. Afterall, do they not win us over with their claims of reliability, expert training and "presidential" service only to turn around and take advantage of us while hiding behind their advertised laurels ?
Yes, I would definitely "write a letter". Actually, I'd photo it, document it, record it, get repair estimates in black and white and then I'd take it to the BBB and the local news "trouble shooter" to let them to a report on it that would be seen by one and all so that everyone would know how much of a screwing it is that they're getting for putting their trust in the people that say, advertise and report that they can be trusted because they know what they're talking about because, afterall, they are the dealer[stealer]ship.
They take advantage of our faith in them and that is no less evil than the idiot terrorists around the world and the only way that they've been able to continue to take advantage of us is because we do nothing more than "complain to the service manager"... call and set up a one on one with just the manager, etc.
The only thing that we are doing by keeping it person to person is insuring that, while we may manage to get our issues resolved, we've allowed the wolf's to keep their sheep's clothing on by not piblicly exposing them for what they are... remember, you're part of that same "public" and the only way that this type of widespread gouging is going to stop is if the knowledge of it becomes "widespread".
I'm done ranting now, just my two cents worth, with a little cents(sense) thrown in with it.

 

Standard faire for Stealers. When I had my head gasket recall done they called me after I had dropped it off and gave me an estimate on this that and the other thing...telling me my belts and hoses needed replacement to the tune of like $5k I rode those belts for a whole year plus more and they didn't break. Just tell em no thanks and take it to a mechanic that doesn't charge and arm and a leg or try to give you un-needed work.

Good idea to write a letter to the service manager though...might get you something out of the deal if you go in knowing they will try to sell you everything under the sun as well.