Post your terrible dealer service department experiences here

I agree about first year vehicles, never have and never will buy one.

However, he has plenty to back up his complaint. He had an appointment, its fair to expect your time to be honored. What do you think they'd say if you showed up a couple hours late and told them tough, I'm here now? Regardless of the year or where he bought it, its completely fair to request a conversation with the service manager or advisor. Especially when he is told that they are backed up.

 

My Lexus GX had the secondary air pump TSB so I scheduled an appointment with the dealer like 3-4 weeks out. The day of, I leave the house at 7 AM because its an hour drive and needed to be there for 8 am.

I get there and the service manager proceeds to tell me they never ordered the parts and to just come back tomorrow.



My F150 had a recall for the braoe master cylinder last week. Again, I scheduled it probably 2 weeks out. I get there and the service manager tells me he doesn’t think they have the parts. Seriously?

Luckily, after 10 minutes, they find the parts. I leave and come back a few hours later and the check engine light is on as I am leaving. Scan for codes and its the air intake pressure sensor by the air filter. NBD, I got to plug it in and realize one of the hose clamps on my intake is gone. Not just loose, gone. Look around, dont see it, take the truck back to the garage.

The tech proceeds to tell me they dont have a clamp that size so they couldn’t put one on. What happened to the one that was on there when I brought the truck in!? They find it down at the bottom of the engine bay and install it.

Next day my truck is double honking and wont remote start. What now? They left the hood release switch unplugged and left the plug jammed under the intake so I had to remove the intake to get it free.

 

I find dealerships are very review oriented (at least the ones that seem to care). In the past when I had similar experiences as the OP, I would detail the interaction on a google review. I would not hesitate to drop names and circumstances. Conversely, if I received great service, i would detail that also. That way those of us that need service can have a little more insight on the place we are getting our vehicles serviced.

 

However, I’ve had an awesome experience with my dealership in Ontario Canada. I brought my truck in for brakes and the first time they didn’t hear so didn’t do anything. I brought it in again and they did something with the pads. Fox didn’t last long so they replaced both front pads and rotors. Squeal is gone. The software update fixed the rear camera thing and haven’t had an iPhone connecting issue recently. For all the trim stuff I have asked them to record this officially.

with brakes done I need to figure out the clunk from park and wireless charger.

 

No worries... you didn't at all. Like I said, every customer should greeted in a timely manner, treated with respect, and work should be completed as requested. You weren't wrong in any of your expectations at all.

One dealership I used to work at I did warranty claim processing, and let's just say I was good at figuring out ways to pay technicians for efforts on those "no problem found" issues so they wouldn't just pass them off. I normally had 1 or 2 ace techs I'd refer the "odd duck" vehicles to, and tell them I could cover them for .3 to .5 of an hour for them to do some digging, and if they got on the trail, we'd call the tech line and get approved straight time for their efforts. Now, that still cut into their paychecks a bit (good techs beat book time significantly in most instances, so 1 hour of "pay" does not equal 1 hour of actual effort in most instances), but it was a happy balance.

Now, many companies review warranty claims for this exact thing, and I did get called into the GM's office a time or two to explain why we had some high "straight time" claims. But after sitting with him and explaining the process and the situations that made the claims necessary, and he blessed it with the condition that we need to track and keep an eye on it so he isn't blindsided from calls from corporate about.

Note that this was many years ago for another non-domestic manufacturer, so I don't even know if anything like that is even possible any more. But that was one way we kept our Customer Satisfaction scores high, while keeping technician morale up at the same time.

 

Not too many “great” experiences with a dealer in service - or sales for that matter.

Simply put - service is where a dealer makes their money - and profit centers of a business rarely are “customer friendly”.

Think of any high gross profit company - Apple comes to mind right off the top of my head - now not saying they are a bad company overall - but how many moves do they make that are “customer friendly”? It’s about their company/bottom line first - customer second (way down the list) and then only because they need to keep draining your wallet so they occasionally “do you a favor” and only half rape you on charges.

Last oil change was a great example for me - 1st of my 2 “freebies” with purchase - bought 6/1/21 - stopped in for state inspection and oil change - only have 825 miles - but it’s a year old. Initially refused saying it was fine - I asked nicely once “so your telling me AGE of the oil has no effect” - advisor said nope - oil can last in a vehicle for years without breaking down - said thanks for the info and walked away wondering what in the hell is wrong with these dumbasses.

Ultimately they did the change - of course I had to wait 3 hours for what was supposed to be a 5 minute safety inspection before asking what th hell they were doing - and in the mean time dropped Toyota Corp a nice message on the conversation I had with the service advisor earlier.

I suspect Toyota made the internet team aware at the dealer and they saw I was still there so “squeezed” me in for an oil change. Also suspect the tech simply didn’t feel like doing an oil change that day and the service manager supported that knowing they would only be paid the corporate rate for the job (so barely enough to cover materials and 10 minutes of tech time).

Nice thing about a Toyota - the NEED for a service department is greatly minimized overall. Hell - I’m sure there are Fiat owners who think their service department is wonderful - doing all those free repairs and recalls on their trucks.

 

I am in Eastern Ontario, Canada. My Toyota dealer has zero new cars & trucks on the lot. The GM dealer has zero new cars and trucks, same for Ford. You can go to the Fiat Chrysler dealership and have your pick of any new Ram you want. That tells you lots if you listen.

Buddy bought a 2 yr old Ram Cummings. 40K from the dealer. New 80k. The dealer made good money on the truck so what did they pay for it? Maybe 30k. Someone took a real haircut on that truck in 2 yrs.

 

Took my Tundra to Mcgill's Airport Toyota in Knoxville for a recall
after 3+ hour wait (I had an appointment), turned out the tech who was supposed to work on didn't show..and the other master tech "got lost" reading the SB and couldn't (all he needed to do is to tighten the damned nuts)

(I've also witnessed the sleaziest, nastiest sales process I've seen in 17 years of working with Toyota)

On a bright side, Schaumburg Toyota techs (yes, 589 miles from Knoxville) were super prompt, and knew exactly what to do, and had the truck out of the bay within 35 minutes

 

I found a great dealership to go for service in the DFW area. I saw that someone recommended Justin at Toyota of Rockwall https://www.toyotaofrockwall.com/
I took a chance and made an appt there after talking with Justin who was super helpful. I arrived an hour before my appt and they said Justin was not in yet. I was approached by a service advisor who I was skeptical at first because I was expecting to talk to Justin(though I had arrived early).

She turned out to be a great service advisor. Her name is Stefanie.

Unlike other dealer service advisors I had encountered she listened to everything I had to say rather than having a 18 year old run over and grab the keys to my 60k+ truck without saying a word. She made sure I had a quiet place to work on my PC while I waited and she kept me informed the whole time. I was there about 2.5 hours and they addressed all the service campaigns. Not a scratch on the truck when it was returned.

Bottom line is it is possible to find a good service advisor. She was the polar opposite of the others I have worked with.

 

But....But..... what happened to Justin?
I would agree with you, you can find a good advisor/mechanic but it takes time and hard try and error

 

I didnt get to talk with him. Evidently he was promoted and is a manager now and not a service advisor.

 

I took my 19' in to have the trans fluid changed out and it was a terrible experience. They took 5 hours to do it with an appointment and they left the fill plug so loose it was ready to fall out. The service manager was older and had earbuds in listening to music which I though was rude as hell and he didn't listen to any of my other concerns. I am most concerned if the work will even be do correctly if at all.

 

Great post, and as someone who works in a service-oriented industry of a sort (server admin), I do my damnedest to separate what "I want" from what "is promised."

For example, I once took my previous truck ('13 F150) to the dealership because it was making a god-awful racket when you put it in park. The issue was obvious - there was a TSB out for a valve body separator plate that had cavitation issues, and when you switched it in park, it squealed like a stuck pig.

The 'service tech' brought it out to me and told me they couldn't replicate the issue - WHILE IT WAS SQUEALING LOUD AS HELL.

On the other hand, the local Toyota dealership took an entire year to find and fix an issue with my dual-zone HVAC. As infuriated as I was....if it's not doing the thing when I bring it to the dealership, I *can't* blame them, no matter how much I want to. When I troubleshoot issues I go by the very same mantra - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I have to *see* the error in order to be able to address it.

 

Can I ask why you took your 19 in for a Trans fluid change?

 

I purchased it used with @ 60k miles and I plan to tow with it. I also had suspicions that the previous owner had towed with it too. I just wanted to know where I was at with the vehicle and be sure it was fresh on all fluids. I also changed the diffs, oil, transfer case, coolant and blinker fluid myself.

 

Did you get any info from the Dealership about how the fluid was at 60k?

 

Not really, they just said it didn't look bad but I question if they even really knew what to look for. I have piece of mind though knowing it was done.

 

I did my 6 month oil change and tire rotation which I gladly paid for. This morning I took the truck in for the year service and tire rotation. I watched them because it was at 7 AM and there was no one around and I could stand outside out of their way. I asked that they do not use the impact and they agreed, I even loosened the lug nuts for them while my service guy did the paperwork. I feel helping them out would be nice being that I do not like them around my tires with the impact wrench. Everything was fine ( I mean c’mon it’s rotate tires and change the oil right!!) until they started to tighten back the lug nuts!! The first tire I watched as the kid took the torque wrench and at three attempts with all he had for strength tighten up one lug until the wrench made the tell click! I entered the shop and told the guy there is no way that is 100 ft lbs and that is more than 120 and I would never be able to get that undone if I had a flat!! He said yes sir it was 120! I told him my wheels were not steel and that was incorrect and if he did not believe me go ask some of the crew and look it up. Finally one guy got on the computer and confirmed they were supposed to be like 108 or something and I asked that they just do 100 and that would be fine! It pisses me off that you have to watch everything these days to make sure things are done correctly!!! and you pay for that type of service! Keep an eye on the service departments as they ram those on with the air gun (which is probably already passed specs before they even do the torque wrench!) and if it is not done correctly call them out and ask that they do it the correct way! If I would not have been there all four wheels would have been over torqued and I would not have ever known!! I recheck them when I get home every time now!

 

Alloys are supposed to be 97 if I recall correctly but even the steel wheels don't take all my strength and I'm a pretty small guy...

 

Toyota of Lincoln Park in Chicago: gave my Tundra for yearly maintenance and was shocked to see what they did to my valve stem caps. They apparently were unable to get them off and proceeded to use pliers on the metal caps (TRD?). Of course they ended up destroying all 4 caps (not sure why they didn’t stop at just one) and the kicker was: they did not bother to tell me they had done this to my truck!!

Three weeks later I went to check air and I find out what had been done. Took the truck back and they acknowledged what had happened and asked for ~800$ to replace all 4 as they would replace TPMS as well (a lie).

I took it to a firestone shop and got all replaced for $100, TPMS is not required to be replaced.

Stealers is one thing, cheats and thieves is another…screw Toyota and it’s free mai ten e for 2 years, now I know the real motivation (to throw us to their wretched dealers and their usurious ways)!

 

I have non, cause never went there