if you think dealerships screw people

[blackfang]

I always hear how dealerships screw people, and yet people dont realize we get people who do it to us.

Had a guy and his wife come in this morning complaining with a Neon they bought fron us back in January, how Walmart wouldn't change his oil because the drain plug was bad. They told me that we broke it. I told the lady, that we dont know that and the oil hasn't been changed since you bought it 8 months ago so how do we know what is broken and what isn't.

We pull it in for him and look at it. No oil change was done since January, yet there are fresh marks on the drain plug where someone rounded it off with pliers or vice grips. I go to offer to put in a drain plug, and charge for the oil and show him the marks. He says that Walmart never touched it, but I said someone did and damaged it. Customer dropped the issue and left.

He tried to get us to fix his screw up for free because we sold him the car.

 

[Miles]

That sucks.. you must hear a lot of BS. Wish people would just be honest and fair... this includes the SOB that dented my ford focus at the train station this week

 

[nwapache]

Dealerships have a bad rep for one big reason....the owners are all about the money. They train the sales staff to give as little as possible for trades, charge as much as possible for the cars they sell...add on useless and overpriced crap in the finance office, and try to get the service people to replace whatever they can at retail plus!
If you run a business that way, karma says people will try to treat you the same way. Yes, it was stupid for some knucklehead to make up a story about the drainplug, but i'm guessing that would be a pretty rare occurance if the dealership had a reputation for really taking care of people, ie low profit margins, etc....

 

[blackfang]

It usually is this way in the business regardless of a dealership or small shops. I have had customer try and pul lfadt ones on me when I worked for both the dealership and small repair shops.

Last week I had a guy specifically ask for a synthetic oil change. I told him it was 64.95. He mentioned he was charged $15 for a state inspection that should have been free(slip up, no big deal). I told him I will deduct the $15 bucks off the oil change.

We do the synthetic oil change

He goes to pay and i explain everything on the bill and he flips and states he never asked for a full synthetic oil change and I told him it was going to be 20.05 I showed him where he signed the repair order asking for a full synthetic oil and the price.

Nice try buddy, but trying to get your ***** for cheap failed this time.

I do everything I can to take care of a customer, sometimes not charging something when some say i should.

 

[blackfang]

Dealerships have a bad rep for one big reason....the owners are all about the money. They train the sales staff to give as little as possible for trades, charge as much as possible for the cars they sell...add on useless and overpriced crap in the finance office, and try to get the service people to replace whatever they can at retail plus!

Actually that is the used car manager/sales manager. The salesman is the guy that tries to help you out, but the Sales manager and used car manager are the ones who offer the trades and sign off on the deal.

 

[DTNODYA]

I have mixed feelings on the subject.

The last time I took my car to Ford was in like 2000 and some people took it out joyriding that night ... needless to say, I have not and never will again take my car to a shop (unless it's something I can't do at home, which isn't much). It's a matter of principle for me now.

On the other hand, I worked at a dealership for like 3 years in the service department and saw it all ... some shady mechanics, some good ones, some that try to do right but don't know WTF they are doing, and some excellent ones. The sales departments are rediculous but we all know that. Having said that, I had to deal with so many dip****s trying to make us do work for them for stuff that 'we messed up'. For example, one day a guy comes in with a brand new Z28 (yeah Chevy dealer) and claims that his gears are 'all messed up' and we need to fix it because it's under warranty. So, no problem right? I looked under the hood and see a K&N sticker so I already knew that he had modified the car a little. The tech. takes the differential cover off and finds out that the gears were like 4.11's (or something) that definitely was not stock! So yeah, I know how customers can be too. It is a crappy balance of screwing each other.

 

[blackfang]

I too have had a dealership take my car and put 100 miles on it over the weekend, draining half the tank and they left an empty 6 pack of beer in the car.

I still have faith in dealerships because with all businesses including your own have dishonest people that tarnish the entire company/industry. There is not a single honest company out there.

 

[Dusstbuster]

Just be happy that you don't have to deal with a LARGE quantity of people trying to screw you over. Ive worked at McDonalds for over 2 years now and i'm not joking when I say that on an 8 hour shift we EASILY have around 100 customers try screw us over. People everywhere are greedy/lazy bastards. I hate customers and people in general because of my employment at mcdonalds too, i used to love the public and stuff like that and now that i've dealt with them 2 years straight I can tell you that the person who is sitting next to you at church (personal experience) will go to mcdonalds at some point and try get free **** (aka steal) because they are bastards. I feel for ya man...

 

[Mike97gt]

Well i got one for you guys.. I kind of don't blame this guy BUT it sure pissed me off after I spent HOURS trying to find his noises with no guarantee I would get paid for it. and It shows the crap I have todeal with everyday at work.

Younger man ( early 20's I would say) comes in with a 06 mustang GT with 1,900 miles on it, the car has two different rattles in it with multiple failed repair attempts by two other techs..

Well now this thing ends up with me since nobody else can seem to fix it. I put the chasis ears ( mircophone pickups that I can place in different parts of the car and listen while I drive) and I go for a ride.. I had to move the sensor around to different spots and keep trying to localize the problem.. Well finally after driving 2 different new dealer mustangs and his car many times with the chasis ears I find the source of both noises, we order the parts and give the guy his car back..

NOT even 10 minutes latter we get a call from this guy saying how I beat on his car and put 20 + miles on it and I changed his radio station

Well i tell the writer to let me talk to him and I calmly explain that I HAD to drive the car and listen with the chasis ears to find where the noise is.. And I HAD to turn the radio on so I would not hear the noise thru the car I only want to hear it thru the headphones. If I hear it thru the car and the headphones I will never be able to tell what sensor is picking up the noise..

He starts to calm down a little and says it sure looks like my car was being used on a joyride. and I told him I am sorry it looks that way but I only drove around the block in circles over a bumpy strech of road many times so I can try to figure out where the hell th noises is coming from.

I understand some of you guys have had your cars beat on before.. But I have way better things to do with my time than beat on a stock 06 auto GT.. Hell if I was going to pound on a customers car I would have picked either the 04 cobra I worked on the day before or the GT500 vert I worked on latter that day..

 

[DTNODYA]

I too have had a dealership take my car and put 100 miles on it over the weekend, draining half the tank and they left an empty 6 pack of beer in the car.

I still have faith in dealerships because with all businesses including your own have dishonest people that tarnish the entire company/industry. There is not a single honest company out there.

Ya know, I've never really looked at it like that ...


The thing that got me was that the Manager lied to me and at the dealership I worked at, if we made a mistake, our Manager would tell the customer the truth. No matter what.

You make a good point though.

Well i got one for you guys.. I kind of don't blame this guy BUT it sure pissed me off after I spent HOURS trying to find his noises with no guarantee I would get paid for it. and It shows the crap I have todeal with everyday at work.

Younger man ( early 20's I would say) comes in with a 06 mustang GT with 1,900 miles on it, the car has two different rattles in it with multiple failed repair attempts by two other techs..

Well now this thing ends up with me since nobody else can seem to fix it. I put the chasis ears ( mircophone pickups that I can place in different parts of the car and listen while I drive) and I go for a ride.. I had to move the sensor around to different spots and keep trying to localize the problem.. Well finally after driving 2 different new dealer mustangs and his car many times with the chasis ears I find the source of both noises, we order the parts and give the guy his car back..

NOT even 10 minutes latter we get a call from this guy saying how I beat on his car and put 20 + miles on it and I changed his radio station

Well i tell the writer to let me talk to him and I calmly explain that I HAD to drive the car and listen with the chasis ears to find where the noise is.. And I HAD to turn the radio on so I would not hear the noise thru the car I only want to hear it thru the headphones. If I hear it thru the car and the headphones I will never be able to tell what sensor is picking up the noise..

He starts to calm down a little and says it sure looks like my car was being used on a joyride. and I told him I am sorry it looks that way but I only drove around the block in circles over a bumpy strech of road many times so I can try to figure out where the hell th noises is coming from.

I understand some of you guys have had your cars beat on before.. But I have way better things to do with my time than beat on a stock 06 auto GT.. Hell if I was going to pound on a customers car I would have picked either the 04 cobra I worked on the day before or the GT500 vert I worked on latter that day..

I so know how that goes. I used to have to drive customers' cars to try and find noises or just to see if the POS would break down ... Many times we had customers saying, somebody took my change, wallet, cd player, gold ring, and got my doors dirty .. people are effing retarded. Most of the time they were trying to get their work done for free or get a free car wash. Then there were the drunk customers (at 9:00 AM sometimes!) Man they were fun.

 

[trock]

Dealerships have a bad rep for one big reason....the owners are all about the money.

At the same time you have to look from it as if you were the owner. I honestly doubt that you would just give everything away and not try to make money off of anything.

My parents have owned a small business for 5 or 6 years now and people always try to get deals on things that aren't on sale. It is a landscaping business and people are always trying to see if we will do extra work and not charge them for it. If the customer doesn't pay for something, then the business has to pay for it.

 

[BurningRubber]

There are some great dealerships out there, and some really shady ones that will rip you a new one with a big grin on their face...


How about going in for a brake job that was supposed to be calipers and pads, which really isnt that expensive for the vehicle it was on (try like under 150 for EVERYTHING needed parts and tool wise). Anyway, expect a 3-400 dollar repair considering it was a dealership.

Anyway, almost a week later (supposidly it was going to take 2-3 days) Im hit with a 1100 dollar bill. I asked what in the hell they had to do for that outrageous number, and this is what unfolded. "Well, we charged for new calipers, pads, front brake lines, a rear drum was leaking, fixed that, oh... and we broke your master cylinder while we were fixing the rest, so all of those parts plus labor is your bill".

Ok, well if a drum needed work, and the brakelines really needed replacing, fine... but THEY broke the master cylinder themselfs and tacked onto my bill. That is NOT right. Never will I go to a dealership again, unless its one of the ones I have had good luck with.


Aside from that friggen ******* of a dealer the other ones I have dealt with are really cool, and they are very honest and straight forward about what they do.

So at the same time while I may dislike most dealerships, I know that its gotta suck for the honest guys that work at the good dealers that get screwed over by the costumers.

 

[blackfang]

My question.

How come you paid for something YOU did not authorize?

You authorized for a certain price on a certain job. If something else was needed, they were supposed to call you and tell you and give you an estimate.

I would be fighting that one.

 

[Kraw]

what gets me is how dealerships have this disclaimer that they aren't responsible for **** that happens. We had the GT in for work a few weeks ago, they left a few small scratches around the gas tank filler, and one on the front bumper. My wife takes exceptionally good care of her car and is proud to say that it hasn't received a single scratch on it since she bought it in 01, but some dip**** at the dealership that could care less will gladly scratch it the **** up and say "wasn't us, we aren't responsible"

**** them. I make sure they hear about it on their surveys

God that just burns me up

 

[Mike97gt]

what gets me is how dealerships have this disclaimer that they aren't responsible for **** that happens. We had the GT in for work a few weeks ago, they left a few small scratches around the gas tank filler, and one on the front bumper. My wife takes exceptionally good care of her car and is proud to say that it hasn't received a single scratch on it since she bought it in 01, but some dip**** at the dealership that could care less will gladly scratch it the **** up and say "wasn't us, we aren't responsible"

**** them. I make sure they hear about it on their surveys

God that just burns me up

We take responsibility of damages we cause.. The problem is many of the people who work at the dealer will not let the management know when they cause damage to a customers car. How are they supposed to know if it was like that before or if it was caused on the lot. The dealer has to do this to protect themselfs from scammers that have a damaged car and then want somebody else to pay for it.

I have damaged several cars over the years and I just tell the service manager and they fix the car. Maybe it helps that I have worked for the same guy for 7 years now but if a place gave me a hard time over some lot damage I would quit and go someplace lese.

 

[2013 Geee T]

I have had pretty good experiences with dealers except for 2 times.

I had a squeeky rear window on my 01 that they could never fix. First they tried to blame it on being lowered for some reason and maybe thought it was riding too rough? They did try to fix it by replacing the rear window seal. But the bad part is that they couldnt fix it even after bringing in a Ford factory tech or something like that. They had it for a week and when I picked it up it was so dirty it was actually brown (white car).

I traded it in for a Tacoma 4x4. It was dark and raining when I bought it so I couldnt give it the once over and they didnt do the wash thing. So the next day I look at it in the garage and the hood is all spotted/pitted like acid splashed on it. So I took it back and said I dont want it and want a different one. They said its too late and I am out of luck. I dont know if that was true or not. I would think 1 day wouldnt make it where I couldnt return it. The dealer istalled sunroof also made so much wind noise on the freeway it was unbearable. I only drove it on the street when I test drove it. So they ended up painting the hood and bought me a anti wind thing for the sunroof. I also got 4 tanks of gas and new rims for my troubles. 6 months later I traded it for my 03 Mustang because I couldnt handle not having a Mustang!

 

[DBMSTNG]

i know of one case where a kid had a ZX2 that had a blown engine after 11k miles. this car was blue with all sorts of crappy orange stickers on it. the front tires were completely bald, the rears were almost new. the kid was racing the car every chance he got and never once rotated the tires or changed the oil! the dealership ended up freplacing the engine under warranty.

 

[BurningRubber]

My question.

How come you paid for something YOU did not authorize?

You authorized for a certain price on a certain job. If something else was needed, they were supposed to call you and tell you and give you an estimate.

I would be fighting that one.

Honest answer...

I was 16 when it broke, I was paying for a large chunk of the bill, but I was paying my parents, who were paying them (I didnt have that much to fork over at once). I told them that it wasnt right that they were making me/us pay for it, but they didnt really care about what I said. I told them I would be fighting to get the dealer to pay for their own damages, but whatever. I work on my own stuff now aslong as I have the tools and knowlege, ive come a long way.

 

[DropTopPony]

Dealerships have a bad rep for one big reason....the owners are all about the money. They train the sales staff to give as little as possible for trades, charge as much as possible for the cars they sell...add on useless and overpriced crap in the finance office, and try to get the service people to replace whatever they can at retail plus!

I'm a salesperson and you bet i offer low for trades and try to get as much as i can for the car. Nobody is forcing people to buy from me. I am trying to make as much as i can off a deal. I need to buy a bigger beach house
An educated consumer will get what he/she will deserve on the trade and know how to get the best price on the car. With these type of customers i make $50...its the rest of the knuckleheads that pay my bills. Do your research before you shop and you won't be ripped off.

 

[03ghoststang]

I'm a salesperson and you bet i offer low for trades and try to get as much as i can for the car. Nobody is forcing people to buy from me. I am trying to make as much as i can off a deal. I need to buy a bigger beach house
An educated consumer will get what he/she will deserve on the trade and know how to get the best price on the car. With these type of customers i make $50...its the rest of the knuckleheads that pay my bills. Do your research before you shop and you won't be ripped off.

i know how that is when i bought my 03' GT sticker price was 25K but after tax and license and other california stuff it was going to be 28K walked out with the car for 23K