Inflated environmental oil disposal-fees at Toyota dealership

Who isn't tacking on charges for something anymore? That's the current name of the game, Back to the shops, a lot of shops burn their used oil in space heaters.

But if they don't bun it they can't take the risk of being named in a hazardous waste clean up site law suit because an unethical collector disposed of it in an illegal manner. There are a lot of other chemicals used in the auto repair industry, antifreeze, solvents etc and those also have to be properly disposed. The "ethical" hazardous waste companies keep the small business owner out of trouble. It's a racket the way the environmental laws work, industry helps create the laws that they then use to make a living, biomedical waste is another big one.... no one cares because it's gets tacked onto the bill with a little profit added for having to do the paper work.

How to recycle your used oil products Free program

Yeah, I'm aware of this program. It's free too.

This puzzles me even more. The car dealership is about 1/2 mile west of the Westwood oil recycle drop off. If they were to continue charging me a small token fee, I would have taken it in stride and marked it up to the cost of doing business. But the $25 fee was over the top.

The county where my farm is located (Perquimans County, North Carolina, USA) has sites to drop off garbage, used motor oil and used antifreeze. I was told that the county actully makes money by selling the used oil. They have a big container at the disposal site that is routinely emptied by a company that collects used oil. So it seems to me that charging a Customer for disposing of used oil is totally bogus. I feel certain that the used is oil is at worst taken away for free and more likely sold for a nominal amount.

Ed

It seems to me that for someone who lives in Perquimans County, North Carolina, USA to assume that because he has a used oil recycling facility near enough to make it profitable, that anyone doing business in a foreign country far away also has this ability is totally bogus.

Having said that, I doubt if a fee of $25 is justified, and I will be asking questions of the Toyota dealership before I get my next oil change there.

Dave S.

Perquimans County has 12,000 people and three drop off cneters. Surely a city with 100,000's, even in Canda, has better facilities. I expect any decent size car dealership to collect as much oil a month as the local PC drop-off point collects in a year. But my point is that there is value in recycled oil - it is not worse than worthless, which what charging you $25 to dispose of it implies.

Ed

I just called Woodhaven Toyota to make an appointment for an oil change and recall items. I asked about the fee, and was told there is no such thing - oil change is $39.95.

Dave S.

I just dug out the invoice for my last service appointment. I got an oil change, manual transmission gear oil change, wiper blade change, and maintenance inspection service for a total of $283.94

At the bottom of the statement there is total misc chg. $25.33 which applies to Environmental levy/supplies. As mentioned, my other recepts have similar charges but they are around $5 or so. I just left a message with their service department for a further explanation.

The Toyota service department calculates their Environmental levy/supplies at 11.1% of the total bill ( parts and labor ) before taxes to a maximum fee of $26.75. So your $39.95 oil change quote will have this fee included. Check your itemized statement when you go to pay the bill and complain about it. I just told the service rep that Canadian Tire will recycle the oil and oil filter for free, but her response was " I'm sorry, but there is nothing that can be done about the fee."

Yeah, there is. Take your business elsewhere.