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Frustration with car dealerships

Well, I had yet another bad experience with a car dealership today. I had an

11:00 appt. for a routine oil change and tire rotation this morning, and at 11:55 I decided to check on the status of my vehicle. The young service rep came back to the waiting room and said, "I'm sorry, no one ever entered any information for your vehicle and we haven't even started on it yet." Needless to say I was starting to get torqued off at this point. I had also asked them to check out the driver's door latch because it had a tendency to stick/jam at certain times. Not every time, but on occasion it just required too much force to release the door latch from inside and outside of the vehicle. Okay, once they FINALLY finished servicing my car, which included a half-assed wash and vaccuum job, I sat down with them to settle up on the bill. For some reason, they charged me $32.00 USD more than they did the last time I had my oil changed and tires rotated there. So, I had to get the service manager involved to get my 32 bucks back. Then I went outside to get in the car and there was white lubricant all of the way up the driver's side window in about a 3" inch wide pattern. It was also all over the black door frame's rear, vertical post. How can a technician lubricate a door latch mechanism and end up smearing white lubricant on such a large area of window glass?! :-( This 'dealership thing' really, really rots. It has happened to me at Nissan, Lexus, Ford and GM dealerships over the years. I take a car in to have it serviced and they end up doing one of the following things to it:

-Scratch it

-Dent/ding it

-Get grease, oil or dirt on large areas of the carpet/headliner/exterior

-Screw up other aspects of the mechanicals or electricals

It's just unbelievable how often this happens to friends, co-workers, family members and myself. Regardless of the vehicle manufacturer that they support, these types of dealership behaviors seem to be fairly common. At least in my neck of the woods. I just cringe at the thought of having to tak e ANY of my three cars to be serviced at a dealership. The two that are no longer under warranty are always taken to an independent garage where I truly trust the owner/mechanic.

Surely I'm not the only one that has had multiple, negative experiences with automobile dealerships....

V.H.

Reply to
V.H.
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That happens sometimes with any business. Haven't you ever phoned an order in for a pizza to pick up, and gotten there only to find out that for some reason your order slipped through the cracks?

Mistakes happen.

Reply to
Elmo P. Shagnasty

Be aware that ALL mechanics are independents; some of them happen to work for dealerships, and others don't.

And some of them are good, and some aren't. Me, I've found a couple who happen to work for dealerships who are extremely good, and I use them exclusively.

And some shops that are NOT affiliated with a car dealership are as bad as you describe.

You can't make a blanket claim that all dealerships are bad, and everyone is better off going to a non-dealership service shop.

Reply to
Elmo P. Shagnasty

With all due respect, pizzas are not a $70000 product and do not command the same consumer expectations. Part of what I bought, and pay for with Lexus service prices, is Getting It Done Right. I can service a car myself and not ding it, break things, soil the upholstery, forget things, leave rattles behind, mar the trim, damage electronics, put in the wrong kind of brake fluid or engine oil, tool-mark fasteners, or leave bolts lying on the carpet. The local dealer can't. It just frosts me that I have to drive my car almost 200 miles out of state to get it serviced competently when there's a dealer 7 miles away.

But the good news is, there's a superb dealer only three hours' drive away in Tulsa. Those gentlemen have Got It. Lexus: pay Tulsa's owner anything he wants to run your USA service operations.

-- Pete

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

Reply to
Pete

Well, I had yet another bad experience with a car dealership today. I had an

11:00 appt. for a routine oil change and tire rotation this morning, and at 11:55 I decided to check on the status of my vehicle. The young service rep came back to the waiting room and said, "I'm sorry, no one ever entered any information for your vehicle and we haven't even started on it yet." Needless to say I was starting to get torqued off at this point. I had also asked them to check out the driver's door latch because it had a tendency to stick/jam at certain times. Not every time, but on occasion it just required too much force to release the door latch from inside and outside of the vehicle. Okay, once they FINALLY finished servicing my car, which included a half-assed wash and vaccuum job, I sat down with them to settle up on the bill. For some reason, they charged me $32.00 USD more than they did the last time I had my oil changed and tires rotated there. So, I had to get the service manager involved to get my 32 bucks back. Then I went outside to get in the car and there was white lubricant all of the way up the driver's side window in about a 3" inch wide pattern. It was also all over the black door frame's rear, vertical post. How can a technician lubricate a door latch mechanism and end up smearing white lubricant on such a large area of window glass?! :-( This 'dealership thing' really, really rots. It has happened to me at Nissan, Lexus, Ford and GM dealerships over the years. I take a car in to have it serviced and they end up doing one of the following things to it:

-Scratch it

-Dent/ding it

-Get grease, oil or dirt on large areas of the carpet/headliner/exterior

-Screw up other aspects of the mechanicals or electricals

It's just unbelievable how often this happens to friends, co-workers, family members and myself. Regardless of the vehicle manufacturer that they support, these types of dealership behaviors seem to be fairly common. At least in my neck of the woods. I just cringe at the thought of having to tak e ANY of my three cars to be serviced at a dealership. The two that are no longer under warranty are always taken to an independent garage where I truly trust the owner/mechanic.

Surely I'm not the only one that has had multiple, negative experiences with automobile dealerships....

V.H.

Reply to
V.H.

Any business that pays folks < $20 an hour will get the same results.

Reply to
Dan J. S.

My advice to you is to go to the Lexus website and contact the company directly with your complaints about this dealer. When searching for a dealer to give me the best price on my ES300 I requested quotes from local dealer through the Lexus site. Some replied to me with a quote and some did not. I also recieved an e-mail from Toyota/Lexus in Japan asking if these dealers got back to me or not. If the dealership treats you poorly it is in the best intrest of the manufactuer to straighten these people out or get rid of them. As a Quality professional myself I would advise you to bypass them with your complaits and refer them to the factory. This will get their attention.

Reply to
Ice

WHY post it AGAIN????

Reply to
Karl

It was a mistake Karl! Something you've probably never made in your entire life I would guess. Chill out.

V.H.

Reply to
V.H.

I was already aware of this Elmo.

There's a guy 8 miles from my house that works on Asian vehicles exclusively. He's done some great work on various Nissan Z cars of mine throughout the years. With the exception of expensive warranty work that could potentially be required downstream for my Lexus IS300, I'll be taking my car to him from here on out. The reason I didn't have him doing the oil changes and tire rotations up to this point is because he doesn't work on Saturdays. Lately, I've been so busy at work during the week that I haven't been able to take off for car-related issues, etc. So I just started making Sat. morning appointments for service at the Lexus dealership. Big mistake. I'm going to start MAKING time to take it down to the local guy's shop for routine service.

True. I have witnessed this as well. But I am basing my commentary on the personal experiences I've had as a whole over several years' time. I've had both good and bad experiences with car dealerships and independent shops over the years. But as a general rule, I've had a lot worse luck with the various dealerships I've dealt with.

Nowhere did I state that "all dealerships are bad". I simply stated that myself and many other people that I know have had some terrible experiences with car dealerships supporting myriad vehicles.

V.H.

Reply to
V.H.

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