Having problem after taking car to dealer for routine maintenance...

[Stark77]

When your parent company is known for a certain trait, it trickles down. You go to McDonalds, you expect your order to get messed up. You go to Wal-Mart, you expect there to be 3 people working the registers, 100 people in line, and nobody to help you find stuff. You go to home-depot and you expect to see the pumpkin patch of workers being lazy. You work for a car dealership, people expect you're there to rip them off and overcharge them for unnecessary parts and labor. I work in the securities/capital markets industry and I deal with new clients (and old clients) who have false impressions and stereotypes of our industry. This is part of the working world. Instead of being angry at the people who have experience wrongdoing by the company, and choose to tell others about mistreatment - be mad at the employees within who create these bad experiences. Automakers should impose stricter standards and QC on the dealerships - not just the cars they put out. Getting a customer to come in and buy a car is easy. Getting a customer to come in to the same dealership and buy a SECOND car is a totally different game.
I am sorry if you take offense to general statements about car dealerships.

 

[JimC]

Dealers usually write the mileage down on the work order/paper work. What was your mileage when you drove off the dealership compared to when you dropped it off?

 

[chuck943]

When your parent company is known for a certain trait, it trickles down. You go to McDonalds, you expect your order to get messed up. You go to Wal-Mart, you expect there to be 3 people working the registers, 100 people in line, and nobody to help you find stuff. You go to home-depot and you expect to see the pumpkin patch of workers being lazy. You work for a car dealership, people expect you're there to rip them off and overcharge them for unnecessary parts and labor. I work in the securities/capital markets industry and I deal with new clients (and old clients) who have false impressions and stereotypes of our industry. This is part of the working world. Instead of being angry at the people who have experience wrongdoing by the company, and choose to tell others about mistreatment - be mad at the employees within who create these bad experiences. Automakers should impose stricter standards and QC on the dealerships - not just the cars they put out. Getting a customer to come in and buy a car is easy. Getting a customer to come in to the same dealership and buy a SECOND car is a totally different game.
I am sorry if you take offense to general statements about car dealerships.

Well it seems like when ever you see the rip off series on TV that they almost never seem to catch a dealership doing this but most everyone here wants to think they are getting ripped off by the dealer. Sure we have some bad eggs at the dealers, Like most business do, but the majority of the techs I have worked with over the years take alot of pride in their work and do a good job. In the case above most everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon just strictly based on the original post with no supporting evidence!! Even he admits he didn't think they test drove his car and if they didn't then I can't think of anything they would have done doing a simple oil change.

There are times though we need to test drive your vehicle for several miles like when repairing a check engine light, to prove out the repair it needs to be driven until all the monitors complete to make sure it is repaired.

And every day I see someone that has replaced several parts on their vehicle either themselves or at another shop and have spent several 100 bucks,just guessing, then they want to complain about how much we charged them at the dealer to fix the car when it would have actually been cheaper to bring it to the dealer in the first place.

Sorry to vent here but there is always 2 sides to every story.

 

[Stark77]

Definitely agree with you chuck. When I took mine in '07 my mileage didn't change, only the gas level. I have no prob at all with someone else driving my car (as long as I'm not in the passenger seat - let my GF of 3 yrs drive my car a lot, just not with me in the car lol) and when I go to my mechanic I tell them flat out, hey if you need to drive it around go ahead. I was just upset because when I took it in for the exhaust leak I asked why my car had lost more than 1/4 tank of gas and the guy tried to pass it off like it came in like that. Took it in again for non warranty work - needed tie rod replacement - and I came back and without my knowledge or consent they tossed on a new set of wipers and air filter and tried to charge me for it - I ended up not paying, of course. But just the nerve of them thinking I would be naive enough to say "only 35 bucks for wipers? good deal!". Really struck a sour note with me. Nothing personal at all against all service techs. As I said, there are bad seeds in every company. Every company pushes the high margin sales - it's what keeps the company afloat in hard times. I'm a hard working, honest guy and it upset me and instantly kills my loyalty to a store when dishonest sales folks try shady stuff like that. I, as I'm sure many on these forums are as well, am an unforgiving consumer that has a high elasticity of demand for substitutible goods/services.
And just for reference - I would gladly take my car in to ANY dealership / performance shop in Jax that has a Stangnet forum member that would be working on my car.