re: Who’s got some dealership service stories?

Back in the 90’s I had a Ford that had the higher transmission gears go out on a Sunday in the Mobile tunnel heading back to Baton Rouge from the beach. Since everything was closed I couldn’t get anyone to look at it and limped back to BR at 40 mph, as the lower gears were working. The next day I took it to a Ford dealer on Florida Blvd and they said it would be $6,000 to repair. I drove it to a private mechanic and he calls me later that day and says he did some research and that year and model were under a recall due to transmission bands slipping and that Ford should fix it free. I call the Ford dealership back and they say, oh yeah, there was a recall and they would fix it. I was livid that they were so dishonest about not telling me about the recall when it was in their shop. I called Ford in Michigan and my complaint fell on deaf ears. Never even looked at a Ford since.

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Went to get new tires. I arrived as soon as the service department opened at 7am. They finished installing the new tires at 4:30pm.

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Not quite as bad as that but I brought my truck to Walmart today to get my valve stem changed out because it was leaking air from it. There were no cars in the parking lot and none in the bay. They took my truck right away and I got a text 2.5 hours later saying my vehicle is ready.

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i mean can you fricking imagine if i test drove a car and brought it back with something not working?

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Uh... Yeah. It's a new "insert american name that actually has too many components made in china to list".

I bought my daughters jeep to Ralph Sellers in Gonzales for an oil change (got a free one when purchased the vehicle used). This female comes over to me after they took the jeep back and advised the technician looked it over and the rear break pads were done to 30% and she recommended that I get the pads and rotors changed as well as flush some fluids. She explained the price of parts and labor would be $1100.00 plus tax and I loudly (for the whole room to hear) explained to her that I was just outside talking to my wife on the phone and explained to her that my vehicle wasn't even on the lift yet and was just sitting inside the bay door. I told her that she was a horrible person and never been back. I will never do any kind of business with them.

Couple years ago my wife’s Infiniti QX60 battery was dead in our garage one morning. I went to Walmart and bought a battery and changed it and it started fine. Next day my wife tells me that her rear lift gate won’t open at all. There’s three different ways to open it. A button on the dash, with the key fob, or a button on the lift gate. None of them worked. I found online how to take the cover off the inside and manually open it but that required crawling in the back.

So my wife calls the Infiniti dealership here in Lafayette and makes an appointment. I take it there a couple days later and let her use my truck. I tell the service manager how it stopped working after I changed the battery and that I was positive that it was the module that controls the lift gate actuator/lock and not the actuator itself as it had never happened before.

An hour later he comes back and tells me it’s the lift gate actuator/lock that is out and needs to be changed. Over $600. I tell him it’s not the actuator and decline their offer. Had to pay $100 for their “diagnosis” but at least they washed it.

I went home, found the QX60 service manual online and located the module. I had to remove the whole third row seats and panels to get to it. Found the module in the side wall and unplugged it and removed it to inspect it. Looked fine, so I plugged it back in, and voilà, the lift gate worked again.

So these dumbfricks would have charged me over 600 bucks to change a part that was working and not fixed the problem. Then they would have probably replaced the lift gate module instead of just unplugging and plugging it back in and charged me about $1,000 for that.

frick dealership service centers for anything except free warranty services. I will never ever bring a vehicle to them.

Poor design of a shock cased the spring to become dislodged on the shock body. Spring ended up with an odd wear mark in the finish and dealer refused to submit a warranty.

Called manufacturer directly, explained situation, and that I buy two or more units a year.

Yamaha said to bring it back to the dealer and provide him with a phone number. I walk in, service manager stands up, old shop guy tells him to sit down. Before I can say anything, the old guy says he will submit it but they are going to decline it. GM hears it.

GM gets him back in the shop out of earshot. I walk outside and hear him giving this old guy the reaming of a lifetime.

I walk back inside laughing. They pull a brand new unit in the back and swap the shock out.

Right as they are finishing up, original service manager comes up and says he can't believe it but they approved it. GM tosses me the keys and lays into him in front of the whole shop

Both of those guys were gone inside of three months.

My dealer repair story started out at Agco in BR. 98 Neon with the shitty Mitsubishi 2.0 engine. Shitty because major oil leak at 65k miles. Headgasket.
When the mechanic calls and it starts with "how long you plan on keeping the car?" Is probably not going to be cheap. He gave me the price and said I should call Dodge and tell them what the problem is. Said I would be the third call that day. 10am. Thought about for a bit and filled out the contact form on Dodge.com. I get a call from Salisbury to bring it over. Paid Agco a couple hundred for parts and time, took it to Dodge and they had a goodwill deal. Total spent still cheaper than Agco price. It wasn't a bad car before or after that. Sold it to buy a house not long after.

Had the oil changed in my truck at a dealership. Picked it up, drove across the street to get fuel and just as I shut the truck off the guy at the next pump yelled “hey, you’re leaking something!” Look under the truck and there’s a steady stream of oil running out of the oil pan, right where the drain plug should be. Followed the stream of oil to the middle of the street and found the drain plug. Walked into the service managers office, put the drain plug on his desk and smiled at him. He says, uhhh, can I help you? I said yeah, you can explain to the dumbass that changed my oil that the drain plug needs to be tightened to keep the oil in the pan. Service managers face turned beet red.

They carried oil across the street, put the plug in, filled the engine, downloaded the ECM to see if it logged low oil pressure and sent me on my way with a thousand apologies.

Had a John Deere dealer try and charge me 1.5 hours $210 to press out an old bearing in press in a new one in a hub. I told him Ive done them in 10 minutes and told them step by step how it's done. The service manager looked surprised and told me to pay them what I thought was fair. I ended up paying a half hour labor.

Friend of mine daughter brought her car to Change 5 in Zachary to get oil changed. They didn’t put the oil plug back in and it burnt up her engine. The did agree to pay for a new engine if he signed an NDA. They didn’t want him bad mouthing them.

My grandfather had a motorhome with a Cummins diesel. It was a bout 6 months old and he brought it to Margot in BR to get all the filters changed before the took it to Alaska for a month long trip.

They get up to Oregon and get an engine light warning. They found a local Cummins dealer. Margot put the wrong air filter in and it sucked trash in. Engine has to be rebuilt. This was in the early 90’s and it cost 9K. They had to fly home and leave it in Oregon.