Post your terrible dealer service department experiences here

Most of my life my experiences with service departments has been terrible. And it continues to be the same with my 2022 Platinum.

So I took my Tundra to Toyota of Prosper https://www.longotoyotaofprosper.com/ outside of Dallas, Texas for all of the problems we are having. Mine specifically is:

1. right rear brake squeal
2. Body side molding is coming up
3. Rear door molding where the glass meets the door is coming up
4. Recall for the axle bolts
5. The infotainment system sometimes wont connect at all to my Iphone
6.Clunk when the vehicle is put in drive
7. Rear camera is acting up

When I got there a man that I have tools older than runs up to me and slings the door open and ask for the keys. I first said I want to talk to the service manager about the issues first. He looks at me with bewilderment.

This was going to be a long morning.

I go inside and there is NO service manager to be seen. Finally one comes up and says he will get the service manager for my appointment.

He comes up and says he is busy doing something else and the computers are slow.

I wait a while and the young man comes back and says he wants to check me in while I wait. So I do this and he proceeds to tell me that despite making an appointment weeks ago that I am "stacked" behind other people and my wait may be a while. Futhermore he told me he wanted to park my vehicle in the back lot while I waited.

1. Why the hell do you push for an appointment and then get there to learn it does not make any difference?

2. If I have an appointment why dont you bring the vehicle in the service bay rather than park it somewhere in your"back lot". Honestly I am not giving an 18 year old the keys to my 60K+ truck to park in the "back lot"

FYI I am still waiting on the service manager.

I go back inside and the service manager comes up and says he is still busy.

So now I am understanding. They just want me to hand them my keys without even talking to me about my concerns and showing them to them. Forget it I will cancel the appointment and go someplace else.

But wait. It gets better.

I have to go to not one not two but three people to try and cancel my appointment. And guess what? They are all on their phones or their computers and they cant do it right now. Even the young man(and nothing against him he was doing whatever they instructed him to do) was a bit shocked that no one seemed willing to help.

I took my keys and drove away. I will go back to my the dealer I bought my truck from.

Maybe this doesnt sound that bad but it is so frustrating that you go to a dealer hat in hand to ask for help with all these problems and they dont want to help you.

 

Gullo Toyota of Conroe. Pretty much does what that dealer did. Service advisors are hit or miss. The one I always got stuck with would have a look of indifference without sincere interest in whatever was going on in my truck.

My truck left there one final time with more problems than it did before I brought it in. They couldn't even clear a light on my dash without multiple trips back and forth.

They still harass me to bring it in for "required maintenance" and I tell them to take me off their call list cause I'd rather a one armed, one eyed kid from housewares in Walmart handle it before they do.

 

I love my dealership service department at Toyota of Rockwall.
Justin Hogue is my service advisor.
He is the only one I will deal with.

I don't like Toyota making me wait 240 days, and counting, for parts to come in to fix my truck.
At least they gave me a free 2021 Tacoma to drive while I wait.

Honestly, my 2014 has never been in for warranty work.
Just oil changes and tire rotations and now cat replacement.

I had posted on a thread a month ago:
They called me telling me I had maintainence due and asked when I'd like to schedule to bring it in.
I told her the truck had been sitting on their lot since November 16 and she should have known that..

Another issue was when I came in for an oil change.
Some guy walks up and starts rubbing on my windshield.
I honked and scared the shit out of him, told him to get his fucking hands off my truck.
He said he was there to fix windshield chips and was checking for depth.
You don't just walk up to someone's vehicle and just start fondling it with no explanation.

I asked my service guy about it and he rolled his eyes and said they have some agreement with management to do that.
He also said their chip fix is the equivalent of stroking clear nail polish on the glass chip charging $80 a chip.

 

For $80, I can get the nail polish with glitter in it

 

Who ever bought and is buying a 22 Tundra should have done their homework and known that there will be issues given that its first year production. There is no buts and if's about it. On top of that, you should know the supply chain issues that revolve with almost every product out there, this shouldn't be news to you. Even more so, service departments have always been busy, you had an appointment, and they were trying to check you in, but you wanted special accommodations so you can go over it with a "service manager". Your appointment was not with a service manager, it was for a service call. I understand that it sucks to wait, but not much backup for the complaint.

It pays to know someone in a service department/mechanic that you can go directly to. Build a relationship with your next one and your time will go a lot more smoothly.

 

I wouldn't say mine was terrible, but it was not what I expected based on my previous experiences with them for my previous gen Tundra. I made my appointment two weeks out for the 5K maintenance, two recalls, and a couple of minor things like the rear window trim piece. The schedule that showed in the app had a ton of open slots all throughout the day, so I figured I would not have any problems. I made the appointment for 3pm so I could fit a round of golf in during the morning. At 9am the morning of my appointment, they call and ask if I can bring it in earlier because they were "way overbooked" for the time I was scheduled. I asked how early and he said 10-1030 was pretty open on the schedule. It was raining so I decided to skip golf and take the 45 minute drive there to arrive at 1030. A kid comes out to put plastic on my seat and take my keys. I told him the same thing as OP. I want to go over some things with the service advisor first. He too looked confused. He walked me to the service advisors desk where he also just wanted my keys so they could get started. I said nah bro, we need to do a walk around so I can point some things out. Also, this is a $65K plus vehicle so you are going to do a walk around with me and take pictures of the vehicle so I can prove any subsequent damage was caused by your dealership. He was not a fan of that, but did it anyway. I took pictures with my phone at the same time. I also made him take pictures of each wheel to include where the lug nuts are so if the wheels were damaged from a kid ripping off lugs with an impact gun I could prove it was them. After I pointed out the things I wanted checked out, he put them in the tablet he had and I handed my keys to him. The waiting room was absolutely packed. They were not "pretty open" on the schedule at that time. When they finally started working on my truck an hour later, I was able to watch through the glass. At about the 2.5 hour mark, the service advisor told me they were wrapping up. One of the things I was there for was for the axle bolt recall. I watched them with my truck the entire time. They never checked the axle bolts. So when he told me they were wrapping up, I asked if the "wrap up" included conducting the recall work for the axle bolts because I saw that was not done. He said let me check. He went into the maintenance bay and had a convo with the mechanic who preceded to lift my truck and perform the recall service. I watched him mark every bolt, take pictures, torque, then take more pictures. From what I could see, he did it in accordance with the instructions. 3.5 hours later, my truck was finished. I took another 20 minutes going over every inch of my truck to include the interior. There was no damage and all was well. Makes me wonder how much stuff they don't do that they are supposed to.

 

I think he might have meant "service advisor", could be wrong though. If he meant "service advisor", you do indeed make an appointment with that specific service advisor when you pick your time. If you are making an appointment without selecting a service advisor in the app or online, one is assigned for your appointment. It is the responsibility of the service advisor to "go over" all of your concerns before maintenance is started. It is in their job description. They are responsible for communicating with the customer to decide what work needs to be done/concerns need to be addressed. They input that into the system to create/submit the work order to the techs and then close the loop on the backside. I am not sure why you feel the need to be condescending about his post, but whatever floats your boat. He isn’t looking for "backup" from you or any other person on the internet. The OP asked for experiences and he gave his. If you don't have an experience to share, feel free to keep scrolling.

 

Thanks for backing me up Lord. I wasnt trying to be condescending as you pointed out. And I didn't ask for anything special nor did I complain about the truck(as someone said I should have done my "homework"). I just wanted to get it fixed and have a short conversation with the service advisor.

And for the poster that said I didnt have a specific service advisor-I did. You cant make an appointment at Toyota of Prosper without selecting one which I did. He is the one that had no interest in my service needs as I pointed out

 

1. Fine. The truck has issues. All I wanted the dealer to do was to fix it. And what does supply chain issues have to do with the way the dealer treated me?
2. You cant make an appointment at Toyota of Prosper without selecting a service advisor. His name and photo is in the email confirmation they send.
3. Special accommodation to ask a service advisor to speak with me for five minutes? A barber will talk to me a minute or two about the haircut I want and I don't have to give him 60k for it like I did for my truck.

And I have to have a friendship with a dealer to get them to do their job? Is this the new America? Did people forget that they are paid to do a job? Or is it like politicians where you have to be nice to them to get them to do theirs?

 

Agree 100%. The service center is for customers who paid good money to own one of these things and the difference between a good one and a bad one is simple courtesy and sincere consideration. Not sure if y'all have Sewell dealerships over there but they're known for their [annoying] commercials where real customers go on TV and talk about the "Sewell difference" - an entire commercial about how this dealership has real customer svc and how these folks will never go anywhere else.

As for forging relationships with service centers, that works 2 ways and it damn sure don't start with customers kissing their asses to get some decent service.

 

I'm saying these days, due to shortage of material/parts, labor, you cant expect to be number 1 on their list, given you spent 60k. There are many others like yourself trying to get the same service and the parts that took 1-2 days to arrive now take weeks/months. I was just trying to say they are backed up and super busy because of it.
I shouldn't have assumed "service manager" but I was misled with that post. Your service guy should be the one meeting and greeting you if you had an appointment with them.

As for the relationships part, trust me do yourself a favor... that do your job line doesn't work anymore. As much as I understand your argument and hate what it has become, majority of the workers you talk to, are under payed. Nobody bends backwards for any company anymore, specially a dealership service department. Its not about kissing ass, its about having connections. That being said, my experience has been up to par because of it with multiple dealers.

 

Thanks for your input. Well taken.

Ok so lets get back to basics. Who else has a horror story to tell about dealer service departments?

 

One more happy post...................

A few posts back I commended my service advisor.
When my 2005 air pump disintegrated with 95K miles on it, I drove it in limp mode to Toyota of Rockwall.
Justin gave me a FREE loaner, for 4 days while they fixed it.
I didn't even buy 2005 from them.

Gave me a free loaner after an accident on the 2005 while it was in the body shop.
My loaner was a 2014 Tundra, I ended up buying my 2014 while my 2005 was still in the body shop.

So, is this karma or coincidence?
He just called me and told me my cats came in and my truck will be ready Saturday or Monday.
Hopefully, my 8-month wait for cat parts will soon be over, and y'all won't have to hear me bitch about it anymore...

Sometimes you just need to be positive and appreciate the good things in your life....
Happy weekend every one.

 

I'm lucky in that I have a brother in law as a salesman so any time the Corolla or Rav4 (and Tundra once I get it) needs anything done he just swaps cars with us for the day and takes it with him to work.

The only horror story I have is from a Ford dealership for our Explorer. The one we purchased didn't have the factory tow package so I negotiated to have an aftermarket hitch and 4/7 pin harness installed as part of the purchase. After getting home I crawled under the back to see how they did and realized they only wired the 4pin connector and not the 7pin. The service department argued with me that all they were told to do was wire the 4pin and I would have to pay extra to have the 7pin wired. It took several phone calls before they finally agreed to get it installed the way it should have been to begin with. Any extras negotiated at purchase definitely get in writing.

 

My salesman told me to bring the truck in for required maintenance at 5k miles or 3 months, whichever came first. I set up an appointment at the 3 month mark like they ask and service was telling me that information was wrong and I need to bring it back at 5k miles, after I already had the appointment made. They were able to address the rear axle recall while I was there but the guy was being rude about it and I’m explaining that’s what y’all told me. I also mentioned how I never had my cat shield installed when I purchased the truck as it was part of my package and service is giving me the run around saying I need to work with my salesman on that and basically gave no sense or urgency or care to the situation.

long story short they had to order a shield for me and I had an appointment set the following week to get it installed. I arrived yesterday for the cat shield and my service man is trying to get me to sign off on the paperwork to do the labor and it’s a $440 charge. I explain to him again how this was already paid for and that I came here specifically at this time because y’all set this appointment for me. A lot of back forth happened but they eventually took care of it and didn’t charge. So far both experiences have shown me that they like to deflect the blame elsewhere and get rude about it when they are called out on it.

 

Brought my Tundra to Brookdale MN toyota in summer 2020 for a brake job, when I went to pick up my truck the service advisor was acting funny, he said we had a little accident with your truck, he took me to my truck and one side was bashed in because the service runner is a idiot and smashed my truck int a wall. I completly lost my temper, you could hear me screaming at the service advisor a block away, I was not happy and every one in that building heard me and I did not give a shit. I wish I could have seen the runner that did this, I would have gotten in his face and called him every nasty four letter word I could think of at the top of my voice. I was told that this is the second time this person did this. And the thing about it is the entrance to the service area is huge you could easly drive a semi through it and have plenty of room. Needless to say I will never go back there again.

 

I type up a list of the items I want taken care of during my service time. hand it to my service advisor when I arrive an go over it with them as they’re checking in the truck. Works well and avoids problems later. Also, my dealership, Cannon Toyota (was Estabrook) in Moss Point, Mississippi has been excellent.

 

Since I got my '21 new, they offered free oil change and service for 2 years or however many miles. Schedule the last one (15K, but I barely passed the 13K mark) and on the spot they told me they don't do oil change unless it was 10K miles since last change (then why is there an option for 15K service which includes oil change?).
I also asked for the receipt of the last service (Jan or Feb of 2022) cause they never give me one, the lady was super nice and printed one for me. LOL and behold, on it says "tire rotated". Sure, that bloody wheel lock key was in my truck bed box, locked, and just looking at the PSI told me it has not.
Yea, I am done with dealership after this trip. I have been doing my wife's Pilot maintenance whenever I can (stuff I can't I will send it to a local shop, family owned 2nd gen, super nice and knowledgeable) so no harm in doing my own from now on.
I asked for a service and Toyota was going to pay for it, but dealership decides it does not want that money. Fine by me, I will pocket the future and spend it elsewhere. Dealership will only get recall jobs from now on.

 

Curious about what you find about about the "clunk when put in drive". I had this but a but it would throw all kinds of errors. They found a bad solenoid in the transmission and it'll be weeks until they can get the part. Been sitting in the shop for a week already.

 

I can’t believe you’ve been waiting that long for a new cat. I’ve only been waiting about 120 days. And dang, you got a Tacoma to drive? Lucky. I’ve been putting around in a Corolla. Nice car and I’m appreciative. It’s just not suited for someone my size.

 

Wow, you ain't the only one who'd react that way. I sure hope they fixed it pro bono and no ins was notified as it would go on Carfax as structural damage....

 

Yeah I take mine to a family owned shop that is run by a Toyota Master tech who happens to own a 2nd gen Tundra and sweet ass old school Land Cruiser. The guy knows his stuff and doesn't rip ppl off. Forget the dealer!

 

There was this one time they didn't have any coffee in the waiting area....

Seriously, though, aside from the previous Ford dealership (natch), my experience has been great. The worst experience I've had with my current dealership has been the one or two rare times they forget to check some minor squeak. I simply say "Hey didja check such and such" and they say "Crap!" and run out there and take care of it.

I once asked if I could watch them rotate the tires and change the oil. They pulled up a chair and handed me a coffee.

 

Don't we have a thread about this already???? Dang that pesky search bar.

 

Everything we bitch about has been bitched about already

 

Previous service advisor here... just a little insight to some of the quotes below. Yes, you should expect courteous service and attention when you drop your car off. Yes things should be done right, and yes, most companies give incentives to the dealership for having high customer service scores.

With that said....

Ok, so they way they handled your arrival is probably a function of the times. Unfortunately, it actually IS hard to find good people, and more importantly, enough good people, to make a service department run smoothly these days.

Now, about your list of issues... One thing to remember is that the technicians at most dealerships are paid "flat rate". That is, they don't get paid if they don't actually find a problem to fix and correct it. Your list is a lot of "fit and finish" as well as a "it happened one time but not all the time" kind of stuff, which flat rate technicians will lose money on. We'd actually send that car over to our body shop for all the moulding stuff because our tech doesn't need to spend time at the parts department figuring out which moulding is needed and getting it ordered.

And, depending on how the service teams are set up, and paid, it may actually cost your service advisor money as well because they wouldn't get any billable time from the majority of that list. Ever wonder why when you have a complaint about "sometimes won't connect..." and you repeatedly get "no problem found / unable to duplicate" as a result? Well, that's why. The technician has other paying jobs that he/she knows he can bill for, so yours will get rushed out.

Now, the way it SHOULD work is your service advisor should say something like, "Is it having the problem connecting now? Can we try it out now so I can recreate it for the technician?" And if it is reproducible, it will get attention. If isn't acting up at the time, I would always tell the customer he/she could give me a call and swing by when it was doing it so we could get it addressed.

Now the good news is, when people would try to recreate the issue, I'd often notice they were doing something wrong, or weren't pressing the right button, etc, and I could correct the situation right there in the service drive without having to "waste" a technician's time.

Hmm... weird. No need to really "cancel". Just ask for your keys back and say you need to go. I've had customers do that when they were waiting and something else came up before we could get to their cars. No big deal.

Not sure if it's called the same at all dealerships, but the typical form is called a "We Owe". And it will list what the dealer "owes" the customer as part of the deal. If it's not on a "We Owe", then there's no place to bill for whatever was requested. And, in most dealerships, if a sales manager believes the customer, and the salesman promised something and DIDN'T happen to mention it to the guy closing the deal, it will get charged back to the deal and taken out of the salesman's commission. So that is why you get the run around. It's not the service department's fault. They need something to charge their services to... and if there isn't anything, then sales can take a while to get to do anything.

Oh, and guess what, for every salesperson that lies and promises something and forgets to include it in the deal, there are plenty of folks that have purchased cars that didn't get any "We Owe"s and still try to get free stuff later. As always, the dishonest ones ruin it for the folks that are actually owed something, creating the "red tape" issue.

See the "We Owe" above...

Have had that happen to a customer's car, but it was a much more expensive car, and much worse damage. Dealerships have insurance for this, but it's never a pleasant thing to have to explain to the customer. It helps if the customer understands that sometimes "shit happens", and well.... yeah. It sucks. But I don't recall anyone ever intentionally doing anything to damage a customer's car when I was in the business.

A lot of the systems in automotive service allow for "boilerplate text" to be filled out for certain job codes. Many of the "x" K services are like that. When the service advisor puts in for say, the 10K service, the system already completes what was "done" before the car is even touched. Now, of course, it's not good if they flat out forgot, but, especially with more expensive cars, the technicians would often tell me "no wheel lock key" on the repair order when they couldn't do it. And if I didn't catch that, the boilerplate text would go out. I'm not saying that it's good, but it wasn't anything nefarious. At least not when I was working...

Again, not wanting to make excuses for any poor service visits, but sometimes, knowing what the "other side" is facing can help you have a better experience and manage expectations.

 

Very well put and thank you for your insight. I also worked at a dealership, in the service dept, I was a lowly helper and I'd get the squeaks, squeals and leaks. Never did a tech fix those unless it involved a substantial amount of flag time. I worked at a Chevy dealership and the Avalanches would come in with leaks all the time. Sometimes the entire interior would have to be gutted and techs would want those due to being able to strip it in no time but bill book time for it.

Joe Public doesn't know that a helper does the test drives/diagnoses as well as the fixes on the little things.

 

Hey, I appreciate your taking the time to "address" this. I get it, billable time vs questions/problems that are not billable/re-creatable is problematic but unfortunately, until fixed, customer(s) are going to come back again and again until fixed/give up and move to privately owned shops to fix the issue, and usually for cheaper because they actually take the time to figure out what's wrong.

But, I wish you are at my dealership, I have no problem with not doing a minor service when needed (like tire rotate, it ain't gonna fall off the truck if it didn't) but I do think that being honest and telling me that, hey, we didn't get the key so we didn't do it, then I have no one to blame but me, cause I have the key.

And like I said, I am moving on to this local family shop for more complicated repairs and stuff, or, to hell with it, open my own shop and hire some master tech to run the show. I really don't mind paying for good service, but I do mind paying for sub-standard and worse service just because.

Sorry if I sounded like a jerk, it is not against you, but the overall environment itself.

 

We owe is what it's called around here too and I had one. The problem in my case was the salesman wasn't specific on the form. He listed "class III hitch and wiring harness" but didn't specify a 7 pin connector. The salesman knew I wanted a 7 pin from our talks, but since it wasn't specifically listed on the We Owe the service department only did a 4 pin.

 

I had a dodge dealership overfill the engine oil with 12 quarts of oil. This was on a friday

I noticed the truck was running but acting like it was trying to pull a large overloaded trailer.

I checked the oil on saturday morning and could not believe what I saw. I called the dealership and was told by one of the service guys, what do you want us to do about it? I replied fix it, change it again but correctly, he laughed.
I replied I will be on monday to speak to the service manager.

I drove the truck all weekend LOL

Monday afternoon after a 5 minute conversation the service manager and 2 mechanics were like oh shit, how did that happen? Damn the seals held LOL...

Service manager had the oil changed again, gave me 2 free oil changes and yelled at the service advisor about what he said on the previous saturday.

Ya fun times back then.