Do dealers do this often?

A

A_User55555

Joined
Dec 10, 2018
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294
Location
New York City
My friend bought a car at Dealership A a few years ago. The dealership installed black license plate covers with dealership A's name on it.

Since my friend regularly services his car at Dealership A and that dealer treats my friend well, My friend left those license plate covers installed.

Recently, my friend had to go to Dealership B to get some urgent work done.

When my friend drove his car home, he noticed that Dealership B removed the existing "Dealership A" license plate covers and installed their own "Dealership B" license plate covers. Obviously this was not on the work order.

So my question is, Do dealers regularly remove other dealership license plate covers and install their own?
 
I didn't know that dealerships would do that. However most dealerships add a small fee was $40 to the sticker price of the vehicle. The Lexus dealership that i worked for did that.
 
It happens. I personally take mine off.

Years ago my parents had a dog fence installed. About 15 years later, they had more installed. The guy who put the new fence in took down the little sign advertising who put the original fence in.
 
A_User55555 said:
My friend bought a car at Dealership A a few years ago. The dealership installed black license plate covers with dealership A's name on it.

Since my friend regularly services his car at Dealership A and that dealer treats my friend well, My friend left those license plate covers installed.

Recently, my friend had to go to Dealership B to get some urgent work done.

When my friend drove his car home, he noticed that Dealership B removed the existing "Dealership A" license plate covers and installed their own "Dealership B" license plate covers. Obviously this was not on the work order.

So my question is, Do dealers regularly remove other dealership license plate covers and install their own?
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I'd solve the problem by taking the dealer's plate cover off completely. No free advertising from me.
 
Yes, Audi Cape Fear used to do exactly this - when they dropped off my Q7 I noticed on my walk around that they removed my BFI plate frame and installed theirs.

My SA (a long time friend of mine) found it and FedEx'd it to me.

Perhaps a silly thing to raise Karen about but it was mine and they just tossed it (or the tech kept it).
 
Yes it is done. I would have made dealership B reinstall the proper plate frame [in my presence] and they would have lost me as a customer, but that's just me.......I try and avoid dealerships whenever possible, for reasons like that and many others.
 
Haven't seen it happen at our dealership. We have a same brand competing dealership in our town. I see their parts truck all the time. We tolerate each other.
 
I use to be a mechanic at a Honda dealer that offered to do this and told the customer car washes are free through the automatic car wash they had as long as the rear dealer license plate frame is on the car
 
Astro14 said:
Does anyone select a dealer based on license plate frames? Do they really work to influence future purchase decisions?
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It is a subtle form of marketing. If you drive around Fayetteville, NC you'll see "Bryan" on the back of every Honda and "Valley" on the back of every VW/BMW.

If it wasn't a proven marketing technique, dealers wouldn't spend money on it.
 
rooflessVW said:
Yes, Audi Cape Fear used to do exactly this - when they dropped off my Q7 I noticed on my walk around that they removed my BFI plate frame and installed theirs.

My SA (a long time friend of mine) found it and FedEx'd it to me.

Perhaps a silly thing to raise Karen about but it was mine and they just tossed it (or the tech kept it).
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Not silly at all. Imo that's theft. They stole something off your car that's rightfully yours.
 
aquariuscsm said:
Not silly at all. Imo that's theft. They stole something off your car that's rightfully yours.
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That's absolutely correct and is the "bottom line" per se but a minor one ( which doesn't excuse it at all)

I never really thought about it being a "dealer thing" until this thread but I also experienced this a few years ago on my vehicle taken in for a recall notice when they pulled my front tag off and put the standard dealer one on.

That was an infantry one with wings and a CIB so I noticed it rather quickly. That resulted in a return trip and a "corrective interview" with the service manager, apology, a new plate ( must have gone out with the trash- I was a few days after getting to it) and life went on.

I got the line it was routine and it got preferential services like washes (I did notice they seemed to do it with all the vehicles in there so when I realized i was not being singled out- that minimized the impact on me greatly) Still didn't make it "right" IMO but I didn't take it personally at that point.

I always thought it was just a one off- obviously not it seems.
 
Wolf359 said:
I always take them off when I get the car. Same with stickers. Basically it's free advertising for the dealer and as I don't get paid for it, I'm not going to give them free advertising.
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Same … and I shop high volume big city deals … but prefer small town dealers for service … So prefer no discussion of where I bought from …
 
I guess it's better than riveting an emblem on the lift gate or a double sided tape stick on. LOL

I've personally not seen local dealers do this when visiting different dealers for service, but it's been a very long time since I've done this.
 
The dealer who sold me the Sonata put their frames on both plates when they sold me the car. I removed the rear frame and replaced it with one from an organization I support. The dealership never touched the frames after that. A couple of years later the dealership changed hands and the SA asked if they could put frames on the car reflecting the new dealership's owner, and I said yes but only the front one since the rear frame was special. My request was followed exactly as outlined. Again, nothing was altered after that.

The current dealer servicing the Sonata has never asked nor have they touched the frames I have on the car.
 
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