Horrible dealer experience today

[stodgey]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Anyone can say whatever they want, but the stealerships in my area continue these crazed tactics which actually drive away clients!
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The ludicrous thing is that these dealers are paying huge sums to so called "consultanting agencies" that tell them to do just that.

Just goes to show you how dull many dealer management types are.

 

[SteveSRT8]

I agree. I have yet to see any other business model that consistently creates unhappy clients.

 

[demarpaint]

The dealership is not your friend, PERIOD. Having worked in car sales I can tell you, Saturday morning meetings, some an hour before the store opened were all about how to make the most money possible for the dealership. That often means telling lies, or what ever the customer needed to hear.

In this thread the shop got the job by telling a lie, mission accomplished. Trust me the guy telling the lie slept like a baby that night. I recall a manager saying a salesman's job is to sell a car for as much as he possibly can, and a service manager telling his staff, tell everyone they'll get their cars done today. They'd deal with the customers and vehicles that couldn't be finished on a case by case basis at the end of the day, by telling another lie. That is the nature of the business in the NY metro area, and I'd be willing to bet in most places in the USA. For every honest dealership there's 100 cheats.

 

[Vikas]

I think if you go to dealership and showed that you know what you are talking about, they back down a little bit. You have to be nice, courteous but firm and they have to get the feeling that you are not of the type to take the [censored]. Dealership get hundreds of other customers who are extremely easy to take advantage of.

- Vikas

 

[odie]

We know of someone that was a technician for a local TOYOTA service center and left because he didn't want to be part of the tactics they used to get more money out of its customers . He opened his own shop .

 

[k24a4]

Originally Posted By: Hootbro
Originally Posted By: oldmaninsc
Originally Posted By: Hootbro
Originally Posted By: CROWNVIC4LIFE


Just found out Pompano Ford Lincoln Mercury charged my sister 603 bucks for her 30K mile service for her 07 G.M.Q...I think that place deserves sign on top of the car.


That cuts both ways and your sister could actually get more involved with what car maintenance is actually about and not get taken next time.




Boy aren't we charming and full of sympathy today! Many people - male or female don't know enough about cars to know if they are being lied to or not. Some service advisers take advantage of this and try to sell many unneeded services.
I've been working on cars and trucks for several decades and I've seen first hand how much pressure they can put on people. Classic example - when I bought the Trailblazer I had the dealership change the oil while it was under warranty. Every time I went in for a warranty repair they tried to get me to have the oil changed at 3K miles, or the antifreeze flushed at 30K miles, etc.


My apologies if I came off somewhat gruff but I get tired of this victim mentality. I am not expecting people to know how to tear down and rebuild a car but if they just did the basics of popping open an owners manual and understanding the maintenance schedule, they can mitigate 90% of the B S extras a dealer may push on them.

Most people have the capability to learn and know this stuff, they just choose not to and will continue to pay the price for their ignorance. If they are mentally unable to understand, then they have no business operating a vehicle to begin with.


In fairness to Hootbro he was responding to CrownVic's original statement, which made no mention of the unfortunate details of the situation.

I would have to agree that becoming a better informed consumer does not require herculean effort. It took me one bad experience years ago to realize this. The service writers were boasting about how much service they were selling, "Yeah, I just sold this guy $700 worth" and so on. In my particular case, they went from most expensive fix to least, so that after 6 hrs of waiting I was exasperated and just wanted to go home, so I paid the bill, unnecessarily high as it was.

Picked up "Auto Repair for Dummies" (I was a Dummy then, and, some would argue, still am) the next day and have not looked back. I will probably not get much more involved with my cars than oil changes, tire rotations, and brake replacement, but I will brandish my informational artillery at the dealership if need be.

As a side note, it seems that many of the 15,000, 30,000 etc. mile services are comprised of "inspections" that require minimal time and effort on the part of the technician. So, yeah, the dealership's margin for such services is high.

I say all this in a general sense and am not referring to CrownVic's specific case, which as we know now had some extenuating circumstances.

 

[Vikas]

The two new cars which I purchased in 2000 never ever went back for the multiple of "7500 service". Both now have excess of 160K miles on them. On an average the said multiple of 7500 probably costs about $300 (because 15000 and 30000 and 60000 services are even more expensive), you can calculate how much money a typical customer would have spent at the dealer in the same time frame.

 

[NHHEMI]

I generally take the car mfg/dealer side of things on here as I have worked behind the counter( Parts & Service )and I know a lot of the dealer hate and bashing out there is unfounded and that for most people a dealer can do nothing right no matter how hard they try. It is fashionable to hate on dealers. I have been on the other side and know how hard it is to please people. I have also had great experiences with most dealerships I have dealt with( only one really bad one = Toyota )as a customer too. So, I give them a break compared to most people I guess you could say.

However, I have to side with the OP here and say this dealer blew it big time. He called to verify a part in stock before making an appt. He was not only told they had it but that it would take 1.5 hours to perform the recall. It doesn't matter if the vehicle had not been checked to verify it yet. This is a known issue and a customer called to inquire about a part and service time. If you answer the querry stand behind what you tell them or just simply say we need to see the vehicle 1st before any time commitals. Don't say you have the part and commit to turn around time unless you know what you are talking about.

Finding out if the part is in stock or not should never be something put off until the customer shows up IF you know before hand what is needed as in this case( most likely needed anyway ). Check that right off and reserve it if you have it in case it is needed. You already know more than likely it will be based on the call so plan ahead. Common sense.

It ends up with a 2 hour wait to be told they don't have the part which is totally ridiculous in and of itself, no apology for the OP's wasted time, and a return visit to get it done. Totally unacceptable IMO. I would never have done that when I worked at the dealer. I would have verified the part stock status 1st and reserved it for the customer if they made an appt as happened here. If for some reason it was not there when the customer showed up I would have apologized and done all I could to make it right. Total screw up by this dealer.

If I was the customer you can bet I would write to the car mfg. No brainer. The OP has a legit beef for poor service. That goes against the dealers rating. Most car mfg's take this stuff serious.

 

[HTSS_TR]

The best post of the day !!!

 

[ledslinger]

In retrospect, my wording of the title is a bit sensational. Horrible would mean they wouldn't do a large warranty repair or performed a big unneeded repair. My experience was more like stupid or inconsiderate. "Inconsiderate dealer experience" just doesn't roll off the tongue very well.

 

[Rix]

Holy carp.
Iunno where you guys are all from, but I can tell you MY dealership (the service department anyway, I don't know jack about sales) is NOT like you guys are describing.

I HAVE to ask, how many of you guys have this hatred towards DOMESTIC dealers vs imports?