My Car Dealership Service Dept Tries A Rip Off

I used my last service package I purchased w/ my new car 4 yrs ago.
Oil change + tire rotation done.
I mention my AC is not working check it,please.
"Sir, that'll be $150 to check + then we will charge for any work to be done"
I said "ok"
They said it needs This + that for a couple hundred bucks......
"and you need (immediately ) front brakes + rotors = $350"
I paid the $150 and had NOTHING DONE.
I left + took it to my tire place that I trust./how
Tire place didn't charge me $125 to check AC = just $49 to replace a cap + fastener.
Tire place said "In no way do you need ANY brake work."
I never mentioned I had just come from another place of business.
*
I am disgusted and will not buy my next car at that dealership.
*
Then today I get an e-mail from the Service Dept manager asking
me how my wonderful check up went with his terrific service dept.
^
So what / how do you think I should reply ?
I am so disgusted I wasn't going to bother = I hate em so bad.
Co workers said "Tell that manager what happenned."
I don't think it'll do a damn thing.......he;s gotta know this is how they make $$$ ?

 

I would just be honest. No more, no less. If they are up to shenanigans like that, they do not deserve your business.

 

Ditto that . . .

 

There's a reason they are sometimes referred to as stealerships.

 

Another ditto.
If you say nothing don't expect anything to change for anyone.

 

It may not be the policy of the dealership to run a crooked service shop...but, the dealership may put undo stress on the mechanics to find a quota of work that has to be done or they may tie bonuses onto mechanics' paychecks that are proportional to additional work they find. If the management doesn't know that this type of fraud is going on they can't alter their policies to correct the situation. I would tell the manager but because you don't know where the fraud is actually being perpetrated from, I would never go back.

 

I once bought a BMW 335i coupe from an authorized dealership. The dealer said, if you get Lojack, the interest rate on your loan is 1% lower. So I went for it.

A year later, I'm driving from DC to Baltimore on the Baltimore-Washington Highway. The car completely shuts off. I reach desperately for the flashers, and swerve from the left lane to the center to the right to the shoulder, all the while narrowly missing very serious collisions. I manage to call AAA and get towed to the nearest dealership (not the one where I bought the car). First, they didn't ask if I was OK, despite the obviously harrowing experience I'd described to them. Then, they said they couldn't possibly give me a loaner because I only had a 3 series, rather than a 5 or 7 or whatever. Pardon me for my mere $54,000 car.

I finally talked them into letting me borrow a used Corolla with about 130,000 miles on it to get to Baltimore. They badgered me to bring it back by 9 am at the very latest. Made a REAL particular point about that. I go to B-more, get back right around 9 am. Walk over to the same lady who took my car in to begin with. "Did you get Lojack on this car?" "Yes." "We decline to perform the repair." "But it was an authorized dealer who installed it." "Well, that's between you and that dealer."

Long story short, I get them to make it driveable enough for me to get it to CarMax. They look it over and offer me $6,000 below Bluebook, because I guess they could tell from Carfax and whatnot that they were about to be put through the ringer on repair costs. I took my check for about $200, as their offer only barely covered what I owed the bank, and rode the subway home.

Dealers, man. Dealers.

 

sounds like standard practice for most dealerships. I would let them know, even though the wont change a thing. I would speak to the manager before completing the performance survey.

 

Tell them, and tell them you'll use your extensive social media network know too. Don't worry if you don't have any such thing. Threaten to malign the whole brand. Of course you would be nothing but telling the truth of your experience at their dealership, not making stuff up. That's bad. Don't do that.

You also might find a higher-up who didn't know this was going on. Ok that's unlikely.

 

Takes car to dealer for service and wonders why its so expensive,

i have some beach front property in new mexico i can let you have for cheap. Let me know.

 

My wife worked in the car business for a few years. She was too honest to do the things they push them to do and eventually got out of it. It's a slimy business and they don't seem to care one bit.

 

Sounds tempting, C0usineddie, but I promised a time-share salesman by Fatburger that I'd stop by to listen to his pitch on my next trip.

Maybe it's for property near yours?

RICHARD

 

I would be honest. I actually think it does a business more damage for customers to say nothing, (or worse, say nothing to the company but then shred them on yelp or something), and then be angry for years....versus letting them know there is a problem. People can't fix something they don't know about.

Now, it doesn't mean they'll act on your feedback, but at least you've given them the chance to correct an issue...if they choose to. My grandfather always said "don't ask a question if you don't want to hear the answer", and they DID ask.

And I think it'll make you feel a little better versus saying nothing. Then the onus is 100% on them, they can't say "we didn't know."

Good luck, and so sorry for the stress on this...that is a terrible experience

 

Im sure there is a special place in hell for dishonest auto dealership workers.

 

...But it's a dry heat!

RICHARD

 

Years ago (decades, actually) when I shifted to reverse it would not immediately do so. It would spin and clunk and eventually go into reverse.

I took it to a (then local to me) Aamco Transmission shop. They looked at it and gave me an estimate of several hundred dollars!

On the way home, I just casually mentioned it to the guy at the gas station (this was back when they pumped it for you) and he volunteered to take a quick look at it. He added A PORTION of a can of transmission fluid, tested it forward and backwards several times, and charged me a grand total of $1. It worked fine ever since!

Now recently I've been becoming très disenchanted with body shops! I noticed a dent in my left rear fender, probably from a parking lot incident that I did not see.

I took it to Carstar, Intertech, and a local body shop with a good reputation (B Street Body for those in the Omaha area). All of them wanted over a kilobuck to fix it.

Then I took it to (please don't laugh) Maaco. He was more reasonable and gave me three options, saying that the other places were pricing to do the job to insurance industry standards and they would all be the same. He gave me that option and two cheaper estimates, but still high. I did not want to use Maaco simply because of the bad reputation.

Eventually, I found a FOAF who does body work in his spare time and he showed me a car he had worked on and it looked great. He has a desk job now but takes a couple jobs for spare cash and to keep in practice. He said $500 and if I honestly can tell that is was worked on, I don't owe a thing. He has it this weekend, we'll see on Monday.

 

Unless your vehicle is under warranty find a local mechanic who has a reputation for honesty. If you buy a foreign luxury car the best thing is to unload it after the warranty expires unless you want to spend a ton of cash on parts and service.

 

did some of you actually read what he wrote?

that's why he went to the dealer in the first place. smh

 

Just yesterday, I went to have a bum tire pressure sensor repaired. Oops, well sir, you need a new one, $180. BTW, the service technician feels you need your air induction and fuel induction doo-hickeys cleaned and flushed, that's another $200.

Um, no thanks, we'll look at the doo-hickeys at a later date.

 

The biggest dealer ripoff is the "scheduled service" at say 30K or 50K, where they'll charge several hundred bucks to check a whole lot of stuff that is running just fine. Another one is the free oil changes a lot of them give you now after you buy, they know that once they get you in they can recommend services that a lot of people cant refuse.