Re: Rant of the Month
 

LOL, nice try :P

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get professional help now.

Re: Rant of the Month
 

April Fool's Day. That one day of the year when one would get a great deal on such a trade I suppose. Good story.

(I pity the po' fool!)

Re: Rant of the Month
 

Okay, it is getting close to the end of the day on the East Coast here. Before anyone actually takes me seriously on this trade in offer, I will tell you it is an April's fool day joke.

Even though I like the way the Tahoe looks now (compared to previous models), I could not afford to own one. I could imagine it cost close to $100.00 to fill the tank every few days... Not something I could do at this time.

I will say, I rented a Chevy Van over the weekend to move stuff out of my storage unit into my new house. I actually, NO JOKE, saw the fuel gauge meter move....

In one day time, I had to fill the tank, that really sucked.

06hch2, professional help is overated. Most of the time they just tell you to relax.. (I am very relaxed) :)

Hope you guys tune in for my new Rant, I hope it generates a lot of good back and forth


Anyway, I hope you all had/have a great April Fools day and please, JOKE ON!!

Re: Rant of the Month
 

IT IS FINALLY HERE, ANDREW’S RANT OF THE MONTH!!


What is with car dealerships that believe that they know more about how to service your car than what is recommenced by the manufacture? This is the topic of my “Rant of the Month”.

My car finally got down to 5% oil life. Not knowing how much further I could go on that percentage I decided to use the only option this dealer has which is an Express Lube (Jiffy Lube type) service.

Luckily for me, the day prior, I received a coupon from them showing $24.95 for complete oil change and car wash. The coupon only had an expiration date of 4/30/08 and did not have an exclusion clause for hybrids.

Well I get to the dealership and went (in) to see if my salesperson was around, (really more of a chit chat session) but he was not there at that time (he went to get lunch). I proceeded to the service lane and informed the person on duty that I was here for my first oil change. The first thing he told me was why I had the key in my hand? I had a “Jeff Foxworthy” moment in my head on the lines of “Here’s your sign”. The person continued to inform me that I need to leave the keys in the car so the oil technicians can drive the car in without interruptions. (Okay, fair enough but would have went about explaining that much better) How about a sign in the front of the Lube center stating that?

Okay, so I usually like to find out what places charge for services before using a coupon so I asked what they charge for the A1 service on the Honda Civic. He informed me that it is $29.95 for regular models and $57.95 for Hybrids. I figured that wasn’t too bad since it is synthetic oil or half blend. (Honda oil). I presented the coupon I got in the mail from them and the first thing that came out of the person’s mouth was we cannot accept that coupon it is expired (He didn’t look at the coupon he just saw $24.95 in big bold letters). He did however seek the advice of his manager which then (he) came over and said the exact same thing. “Sir, we cannot accept this coupon, it is only for regular model cars only, we will lose money on this, and the oil is expensive”. I pressed on to see if he would just accept the face value of the coupon but in the end he didn’t move.

Now I was dealing with the manager and he was willing to bring the service down to $49.99 but then he went on with a speech about how this car should be serviced EVERY 3000 miles. Also I should do the B1 service which includes a bunch of additional service items. The charge for B1 will cost $125.00. So being the person I am, I then asked him why should I do the B1 service, what in addition does it offer that is not covered by the A1 service that the car is currently calling for? He basically told me it was a tire rotation and an oil change.

The manager in the very beginning lost my trust because he was not conforming to what Honda recommends. I made that known to him that I will follow Honda’s written service intervals. I then informed him that if Honda is wrong in service intervals for this car, it will be on Honda’s dime to repair (if engine seizes). I also told him I just want the oil change, when the car informs me that it needs a B1 service I will note that it is “just” a tire rotation and then check with Honda as to what else is needed.

My point is this, why mislead customers for your own personal gains? In the end these customers that find out that you over charged or over serviced their cars will go elsewhere for service. The ultimate penalty will be to the dealership, they can lose a customer when it comes time to buy another car. All aspects of a company need to revolve around customer service and satisfaction. The term “You get what you pay for” should not be a beacon for future “lack of” or “great” service. Companies that do not extend training to the managers or managers that have the “I have arrived” attitude need to be disciplined or removed.

Some of you are familiar with the term I use for this dealership, I akin them to Walmart, a place for low prices but a failure for customer satisfaction.

I have been thinking about what I want to do about this, I did the customer survey card, but I still feel jaded. I also feel really bad for any customer that have been there and are coming back every 3000 miles for oil changes…

So what have been your experiences with dealerships servicing your Hybrid? Do they give you the Lexus treatment or do they see sucker written on your forehead?

Thank you,

Re: Rant of the Month
 

Way to go arbittan !!!!

This is the type of attitude and approach we need when dealing with shops that generalize, underestimate and disregard the proper servicing intervals in the name of greed.

If these shops always have their way, they will not only be performing unnecessary oil replacements and other maintenance that not only costs money to the average folks, but also adding to the environmental burden.

This is totally unacceptable and shops like this (dealerships or not) should be avoided at all costs.

Good Job, and a good rant topic too :)

Cheers;

MSantos

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MSantos,
Thank you, the pressure was one this month from Spinner... :)

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Welly, welly, well....

My first servicing was with a dealership that has a web-based maintenance request form. In the description field I put, "Maintenance: A/1", as that was what the Maintenance Minder was calling for (which is oil change and tire rotation). They came back with a suite of unnecessary work, including lubricating locks and hinges, topping up fluids, and changing the oil filter, yet all at a reasonably low quote. I called to get this straightened out, and I thought I did. But when I drove up, handed them the key, and talked to a Service Advisor, they had the idea that I was still doing the extra work. After I straightened them out, they recognized that my request was a Maintenance Minder request. They pulled out a pamphlet that was a copy of what I remember from the manual and apologized for the confusion. Indeed, the servicing work would be just an oil change and tire rotation, with a free wash as a courtesy for my first appointment with them. The cost would be higher on account of the hybrid's oil requirements.

In the end, I paid a little shy of 100 CAD (tire rotation was around $35, including inspection), and my car was returned to me sparkling clean, except that the door hinges were lubricated and the fluids topped up. But these superfluous things weren't billed to me. Other nice things was that the service personnel didn't adjust any of the cabin components so I didn't have to re-adjust them, except for the radio. It was turned on and tuned to a station I don't listen to. Hey, if the Mechanics like to rock out on the job, I say let them. They should be in good spirits.

I believe they did an excellent job, and I don't think I was gouged, unless they found a way to bury unlisted services.

Andrew, you and others should come to the shop fully prepared, knowing exactly what the Maintenance Minder is calling for. Then you can cut through the bull when you're confident that you know what you're talking about.

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That is very good point. For the most part, I knew it called for an oil change without changing the oil filter. They change the filter anyway on their cars so it wasn't a big deal for me. Now I will say, at least for Hybrids, the dealers have to pour the oil in by hand (no gas nozzle auto filler like they would use for regular oil based cars) So all in all, paying a little more is not a bad thing. Just as long as they don't over do it.

Sad part is I got another coupon today from them for $29.95 with free tire rotation and car wash....

Oh well :)

Re: Rant of the Month
 

WOW! That was the perfect topic.
My dealership also quoted me a price of about $60 for oil change and tire rotation. It ended up being $70 for oil change and $30 for the tire rotation. The manager wouldn't do anything about it.
Another thing they do is advertise all over the waiting room about how good they are; how fast they will be, how they will wash your car, how nice they are, etc. After waiting nearly 5 hours to get my upper control arms replaced (without once being notified of the status of my car), I received my car back dirty! I was the last one to leave and they were all closed down, so I went back the next day to complain. Their excuse was "We usually don't wash the cars of people who are waiting, because they would have to wait longer". First, I really wouldn't mind waiting an extra 5 or 10 minutes for a clean car. Second, if you never wash people who wait's car, why do you advertise that you are doing it all over the waiting room?? Do you think that people who aren't waiting are going to go read that?

The only reason I went to the dealership was because my mechanic told me to for the 1st oil change and the second time was to get my upper control arms replaced. I will not be going back there unless I have a warranty-related issue.