Feel sorry for folks who trust and rely on dealer service.

[jellyrug]

None of my vehicles will see a dealer again.

Interesting, I had numerous issues with this Toyota dealer, generating as much unneeded work as possible, with a once $2,000 quote of BS and several instances where what was really needed being totally ignored. They will go as far as offering you a free DMV check, or a free oil change, just so they can make you think the vehicle needs major repairs once they have looked at it.

Asked for a transmission service, meaning drain the oil, drop the pan, clean the pan, replace the filter, replace the pan with new gasket and fill with new oil. $500+ job. I marked four of the pan bolts with a sealer, got the truck home, none of the bolts were removed. The service manager made the excuse that they had a new tech who did not work out and got fired.

The final straw was when they broke a light bulb needing replacement in it's fitting and tried to get me to place an order for $400+ to replace the entire light fitting. I did the repair myself and dug out the broken bulb. It cost me $2.50 and five minutes of my time.

Took this to the dealer general manager who was embarrassed and complained to Toyota USA who said it is not in their hands, as it is a privately owned dealership.

So, today I understand why this happens in the industry. They posted a Service Advisor job, copied below. One of the key performance areas is to make sure that the service technicians times are fully booked. So, if the guy does a good job for the dealer, he is going to try and generate all kinds of BS work which probably won't even be done.

See highlighted key performance area below.

Job details​

Job Type
Full-time

Full Job Description​

Service Advisor
Responsibilities

• Oversee flow of Drive Lane. Ensure that customers receive prompt, courteous, and effective service.
• Take ownership of the customer's experience by carrying out those additional assignments that allow the dealership to leave a positive impression with the customer.
• Provide concierge support for all owner inquiries, whether phone or in person, to assure the customer does not get mishandled
• Ensures that the daily inventory of technicians' time is consistently sold to service customers.
• Distribute work between technicians efficiently

Qualifications

• Organized and friendly personality
• Demonstrated ability to manage others
• Time management skills
• Fantastic communication skills with your customers
• Professional, well-groomed personal appearance.
• Clean driving record
• Willing to submit to a pre-employment background check & drug screen

 

[Red05]

I hate to hear these stories. I've worked in General Motors dealerships for 40 years and places like that muddy the name of some very well run dealers that do a great job; sometimes a last resort for problems no one else can repair.

 

[Bumblebee]

On the other side of the coin, the dealership I go to for my Ram truck are stellar, they look after me very well and if any work needs to be done, they take into the garage to show me what it is they found...

They know I am very picky when it comes to my vehicle and reflect this in the service they provide.

 

[JeffSyh]

None of my vehicles will see a dealer again.

Interesting, I had numerous issues with this Toyota dealer, generating as much unneeded work as possible, with a once $2,000 quote of BS and several instances where what was really needed being totally ignored. They will go as far as offering you a free DMV check, or a free oil change, just so they can make you think the vehicle needs major repairs once they have looked at it.

Asked for a transmission service, meaning drain the oil, drop the pan, clean the pan, replace the filter, replace the pan with new gasket and fill with new oil. $500+ job. I marked four of the pan bolts with a sealer, got the truck home, none of the bolts were removed. The service manager made the excuse that they had a new tech who did not work out and got fired.

The final straw was when they broke a light bulb needing replacement in it's fitting and tried to get me to place an order for $400+ to replace the entire light fitting. I did the repair myself and dug out the broken bulb. It cost me $2.50 and five minutes of my time.

Took this to the dealer general manager who was embarrassed and complained to Toyota USA who said it is not in their hands, as it is a privately owned dealership.

So, today I understand why this happens in the industry. They posted a Service Advisor job, copied below. One of the key performance areas is to make sure that the service technicians times are fully booked. So, if the guy does a good job for the dealer, he is going to try and generate all kinds of BS work which probably won't even be done.

See highlighted key performance area below.

Job details​

Job Type
Full-time

Full Job Description​

Service Advisor
Responsibilities

• Oversee flow of Drive Lane. Ensure that customers receive prompt, courteous, and effective service.
• Take ownership of the customer's experience by carrying out those additional assignments that allow the dealership to leave a positive impression with the customer.
• Provide concierge support for all owner inquiries, whether phone or in person, to assure the customer does not get mishandled
• Ensures that the daily inventory of technicians' time is consistently sold to service customers.
• Distribute work between technicians efficiently

Qualifications

• Organized and friendly personality
• Demonstrated ability to manage others
• Time management skills
• Fantastic communication skills with your customers
• Professional, well-groomed personal appearance.
• Clean driving record
• Willing to submit to a pre-employment background check & drug screen

I personally work with alot of people that don't give a F. But with semis everything is tracked and record electronically. So if I hook up to a truck with aftertreatment they know right away when I did and where and who. So if I mess it up and ends up at another dealer world wide they know and will come back to our dealer and we foot the bill. But to get back to the point I put pride on my work and I don't want things to come back, I think most automotive "technicians" don't really care because of trash wages and most of the good guys move on to do their own thing.

 

[jellyrug]

On the other side of the coin, the dealership I go to for my Ram truck are stellar, they look after me very well and if any work needs to be done, they take into the garage to show me what it is they found...

They know I am very picky when it comes to my vehicle and reflect this in the service they provide.

I personally work with alot of people that don't give a F. But with semis everything is tracked and record electronically. So if I hook up to a truck with aftertreatment they know right away when I did and where and who. So if I mess it up and ends up at another dealer world wide they know and will come back to our dealer and we foot the bill. But to get back to the point I put pride on my work and I don't want things to come back, I think most automotive "technicians" don't really care because of trash wages and most of the good guys move on to do their own thing.

I use to train and certify Mercedes Techs, way back in the 80’s. The dealers would promote the best tech’s to service advisors back then, with good salaries. It means the customer deals with someone who intimately understand everything about his vehicle and the customer has a competent technical person doing quality control and test driving if needed before signed off.

Today a Service Advisor is almost at minimum wage and has no technical skills. It means the techs in the shop do whatever they like and are managed by folks who know very little.

 

[WuzzaCBXRider]

The dealer I took my Caddy to has been holding it hostage for over a month now. Several problems have occurred that (all) have to do with the management of their service department. The main problem is that I’ve dealt directly with the service department manager from the start, not a service tech or mechanic, (the) service department manager! I’m waiting on another rental car from Enterprise. When I get the car back, if I’m not in jail for assault, I’ll try to detail what’s been going on. Simple words fail me at this moment.

 

[michael parris heuberger]

The dealer I took my Caddy to has been holding it hostage for over a month now. Several problems have occurred that (all) have to do with the management of their service department. The main problem is that I’ve dealt directly with the service department manager from the start, not a service tech or mechanic, (the) service department manager! I’m waiting on another rental car from Enterprise. When I get the car back, if I’m not in jail for assault, I’ll try to detail what’s been going on. Simple words fail me at this moment.

Hi My son in law has a 2016 honda hrv with 104000 milrs thr cvt trans craped the bed. the dealer wanted $7,400 to fix it. My friends shop fixed it for $2,800. and he mad a good profit too.

 

[JeffSyh]

I use to train and certify Mercedes Techs, way back in the 80’s. The dealers would promote the best tech’s to service advisors back then, with good salaries. It means the customer deals with someone who intimately understand everything about his vehicle and the customer has a competent technical person doing quality control and test driving if needed before signed off.

Today a Service Advisor is almost at minimum wage and has no technical skills. It means the techs in the shop do whatever they like and are managed by folks who know very little.

Our service writer knows very little mechanics but is good with customers and understanding. In our shop I'm the most knowledgeable and I'm only 30... but we have over 40,000 hours of online courses, plus I get sent away for on hands training on everything and ontop of all that we have a good system that if we can't figure it out we have engineers we can rely on and ask questions at anytime anywhere. But the biggest thing is 24 hours turn around, so if a truck comes in it should be gone in 24 hours if it's warranty (parts usually hold us up). I could never personally work in the automotive industry, no money, no job security (most automotive mechanics have been laid off here from covid) the support system is awful and the vehicles change to much to often.