Dealer swing and a miss......

demarpaint

demarpaint

Joined
Jul 3, 2005
Messages
40,470
Location
NY
My son called yesterday telling me of his experience with a local Hyundai dealer. He brought his Accent in for a recall and made the mistake of telling them to change his oil, I warned him.... Anyhow they call him, not once but three times to inform him he needs some GDI injector/intake cleaning procedure, and the brake fluid must be changed. The car has 35K miles on it and is well maintained. We did the brake fluid a little over a year ago. He called to inform me they wanted $800 for the services, and warned him if he didn't do it his brakes would fail and cost about $2,000 to fix, and the engine would need costly repairs if the GDI procedure wasn't done ASAP. He said you were right Pop. LOL He refused the services. When he went back they tried the tech/service writer face to face hard sell again. He said to them we did the brake fluid a year ago, and if Hyundai was such a great car why would it need this high cost GDI service with only 35K on the car. He paid the bill for the oil change and left. Hopefully they didn't mess something else up on spite! I told him there are three reasons to go to a dealer: to buy/test drive a car, for warranty work, and recalls. And on occasion if you're desperate for an OE part or you can't find it online, OTHERWISE STAY AWAY!!! I think it registered this time.
 
Sadly the upsell hard sell is part of the service "experience" at many stealerships. I'd like to think there are some still, that while they might politely "suggest" some other services as part of doing business, once the customer says no, that's the end of it. There's no doubt that one should be prepared for the upsell with any kind of dealer service. I would be curious to know what the GDI "service" involved. Bottle of Hyundia Complete Fuel System Cleaner (Techron)? Again, just SOP for many.
 
Sayjac said:
Sadly the upsell hard sell is part of the service "experience" at many stealerships. I'd like to think there are some still, that while they might politely "suggest" some other services as part of doing business, once the customer says no, that's the end of it. There's no doubt that one should be prepared for the upsell with any kind of dealer service. I would be curious to know what the GDI "service" involved. Bottle of Hyundia Complete Fuel System Cleaner (Techron)? Again, just SOP for many.
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I'm not sure what the GDI service entailed, my son said a "special cleaner." I was tempted to call to find out but didn't want to waste my time. My bet is a bottle of FI cleaner and a BS story. LOL I doubt they were tearing into it. It seems GDI opened up a new revenue stream for the dealers.
27.gif
LOL
 
demarpaint said:
I'm not sure what the GDI service entailed, my son said a "special cleaner." I was tempted to call to find out but didn't want to waste my time. My bet is a bottle of FI cleaner and a BS story. LOL I doubt they were tearing into it. It seems GDI opened up a new revenue stream for the dealers.
27.gif
LOL
Click to expand...
They put a can of snake oil in the gas tank and charge you a hundred bux.
 
There’s a Hyundai and Kia dealer near me that offers an intake induction service. It’s like a fancy CRC intake valve deposit cleaning where they hook up the hose through a vacuum line and run a bunch of cleaner through it, they use BG products at this particular dealer. It’s about a $200 or so service (last I looked) and includes a bottle of Techron for the gas tank. In my opinion it’s a waste of money.
 
Hyundai Respecter said:
There’s a Hyundai and Kia dealer near me that offers an intake induction service. It’s like a fancy CRC intake valve deposit cleaning where they hook up the hose through a vacuum line and run a bunch of cleaner through it, they use BG products at this particular dealer. It’s about a $200 or so service (last I looked) and includes a bottle of Techron for the gas tank. In my opinion it’s a waste of money.
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Which would leave $600 for a brake fluid change. ****, I'm still in the wrong business. ;)
 
Kira said:
Against this all-familiar backdrop, "Why's there so much dealership hate?", threads still pop up.

Why is that?
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Because of the upsell tendencies and bad workmanship and often outrageous pricing.

That said many would feel ripped off if they got good service and pricing.

People in general hate paying for maintenance. I find that the people that make the most money cry the loudest. Not saying some of the above isn't justified of course.
 
Kira said:
Against this all-familiar backdrop, "Why's there so much dealership hate?", threads still pop up.
Click to expand...
Along with all the incredulous "I've been taking my car there for decades and never had a single problem with them" posts...
 
Went to the Jeep dealer today to order a part for the Jeep. Got there early and while I was waiting for the Parts window to open, I stood and listened to all the “Service Writers” upselling EVERONE that was there to have their vehicle service. It actually hurt me to hear how they were all putting the customers in fear of voiding the warranty if “such and such” isn’t done to the car. I bit my lip, and just listened…….. I strangely felt like there was some sort of Dealer sponsored contest to see who could upsell the most!
It reminded me of how much I loathe going to the Dealership for anything!🤦‍♂️
 
demarpaint said:
I'm not sure what the GDI service entailed, my son said a "special cleaner." I was tempted to call to find out but didn't want to waste my time. My bet is a bottle of FI cleaner and a BS story. LOL I doubt they were tearing into it. It seems GDI opened up a new revenue stream for the dealers.
27.gif
LOL
Click to expand...
Say to them " if the engine is defective and it requires some special remediation service, it should be provided FREE OF CHARGE.
Also try "show me the TSB requiring this, as it is not on the scheduled maint. chart.

I had a Nissan dealer service manager holler at me for for doing my rear brakes that were worn out. - I had it in bc they did the fronts a couple months earlier and the car was still eating the (new) rotors alive.
He said, ' you cant be messing around with the brakes when you have a issue with the front brakes! I cant help you anyway, that is normal wear. His Mechanic buddy lead tech said "yup". I said, see you chumps later and traded the car for a Volkswagen.
 
ARCOgraphite said:
Say to them " if the engine is defective and it requires some special remediation service, it should be provided FREE OF CHARGE.
Also try "show me the TSB requiring this, as it is not on the scheduled maint. chart.

I had a Nissan dealer service manager holler at me for for doing my rear brakes that were worn out. - I had it in bc they did the fronts a couple months earlier and the car was still eating the (new) rotors alive.
He said, ' you cant be messing around with the brakes when you have a issue with the front brakes! I cant help you anyway, that is normal wear. His Mechanic buddy lead tech said "yup". I said, see you chumps later and traded the car for a Volkswagen.
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Good points. It's hard for me dealing on a phone 3,000 miles apart from my son. All in all my son did well. I will tell him this: I like it......."if the engine is defective and it requires some special remediation service, it should be provided FREE OF CHARGE." That should piss an overly enthusiastic service writer off. LOL In all honesty unless there's another recall or warranty issue he won't be going back to a dealership.
 
Dealerships are great for deciding what they want you to have, versus what you ask for, and have raised providing excuses for poor workmanship to an art form.

I took my '05 Sport Trac to the dealership for transmission service at 30K and 60K, and I specifically asked for fluid & filter replacement. I found out at 90K, when I had Kwik Kar perform the transmission service, that I should've asked the dealership for the old filter, because it was very obvious that it had never been changed. Dealerships want the low hanging fruit....a fluid drop & refill, and charge out the @$$ for it. They don't want to do actual work.

I've since encountered GMC dealerships balking at the notion of dropping the Canyon's pan to exchange the filter, feeding me the line that the filter should be good for 100K miles. I finally reached a dealership that had no issue dropping the pan and giving me what I want, so the Canyon went there for its 60K transmission service. When I got the truck home, I immediately crawled underneath to find that the fill plug was missing.

They can all pound sand. I now go independent for maintenance on items I can't do in my garage.
 
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