Well... our local GMC dealership is crooked as Lombard Street in San Francisco.
father in law's 00 GMC Savannah G1500, swears by dealership work only.. well he did.. but the van would be in constantly. I KNOW this dealership makes things break, my parents bought cars from the same one and experienced the same things.
Anyway, one day the brake pedal goes to the floor. he gets it into the dealer and was [censored] off. they said the van was defective and they would buy it back from him and give him a new van. OK.. we all know it's either a leaky wheel cylinder or a master cylinder. this dealership convinced GM it was a defective unit. GM told him to pick a new van. so he got an 02
G3500. GM paid to have the equipment reinstalled into van.
the 02 van.. he buys the extended warranty bumper to bumper 6 years. OK.. a few things happen and he goes in and out.
As he's cussing out GM and American Cars, I take the invoices and debunk all of them. So I convinced him to goto another place. He reluctantly does.. the guy hooks up his scan tool into the car computer and finds a whole boatload of engine codes that were registering, and were programmed to be ignored so the SES light wouldn't come on. The van simply need a pcm flash. BAM.. Van's 100% again.
Something else happens to it, the SES light lights up and gives a cylinder misire. Goes to GM. they tell him he needs a new engine. So he comes back a week later and gets a $3400 bill for motor and labor. Warranty?? Nope. there is no warranty on ANY GM vehicle that has been modified. the van had a carpet steam cleaner on it, with a power take off unit, (thus the mod).
So warranty was voided immediately. GM sent someone to approve the motor swap and it was caught. the extended warranty was also void (he got a refund for that).
So he refused to pay for it, AND the dealership never called to tell him any of this.. they assumed it was a go (as everything else was). So he calls me and I said, well the van is your livlihood, pay with your american express card, then call them when you get off the lot and put in a claim with them, they can fight with am-ex! I also told him to tell them the old engine better be put back into the crate it came in and put in the back of the van before it leaves. I was going to investigate it myself and have the cylinder walls examined.
So he tells them and they start backpedalling. Then they raise the price of the core to $750 (which I knew it was only $200 because I called the chevy dealership where they got the crate motor from). so I told him.. pay the core fee too. you'll get it back later. So he tells them no problem with the core.
So they tried to convince him otherwise and finally said OK.
the service guy was good.. he wrote a very detailed diagnostic on the motor, everything I could think of was there, even a leak down test. They made it look like the #6 cylinder failed.
So he goes to get the van, the motor is in the crate, but in pieces. They did it on purpose saying they had to tear down to diagnose. [censored]!
Then he asked them to forklift the crate into the back of the van. they refused and said it was a liability. (on their property). so he calls me and I said, tell them to leave it outside, I'll be there in 3 hours with my truck and a buddy.
The service manager comes out and says the crate will stay here until my father in law says otherwise and he made a handshake promise.
He paid them with am-ex then called and Am-ex stopped payment.
the owner of the dealership called him and asked for a face to face meeting with the service manager. so he goes and while he sucks at negtiating, I told him to not be afraid to take them to small claims court for fraud. Well the owner comes back with a deal. $500 flat. Pays for the technician's time. He agreed to it.
I took over maintenance from that point.. used synthetic fluids as the motor revs up 2500rpm for hours on end he had pretty much no issues whatsoever since. worst thing that went out was a fuel pump, the gas filter was installed backwards, and I never changed it. But I started to every 3rd oil change afterwards.
At Saturn, my Relay van was in a few times, they didn't try anything dumb with me.. one service writer was a complete jerk. somehow he stayed employed. I avoided him. But the cooling system service I had them do went well.. was the ONLY service I've had done with them.
my friend went to honda for his prelude service, exclusively.
He went in for the 60k service. He needed tires, he was at 3/32". the service guy hands him a price for 4 tires and installation and a pen for approval AND a promise to be done in 30 minutes. my friend declines the service writer says the tires are at the wear bars and by law he could not let the car leave the lot with the tires. My friend asks.. show me the law. The service guy says, he doesn't have it with him but he knows the law. so my friend says,give me my car or I'm going to own this place. So the guy gives him the keys and he pays and never goes back to a honda dealer for any services.
So they may not have liked the DOT dates on the tires......but anyways, no they didn't attempt to "up sell" me anything.
