Dealer drops the ball, but makes a save in the end...

I recently took my Tacoma to Toyota of Clovis for service + new tires and front brakes. The pads and discs were still usable but I wanted some spares, and my brakes have been dragging a bit from dust buildup on the calipers. They never clean the things when they inspect them, and I always have the tires rotated & balanced, so the things are exposed right there.

Anyhow, they really balled up when they changed my tires and installed a different tire than I'd selected. (I wanted the exact stock tires.) They never called me to OK the substitution & I would have rejected the tires anyhow as they were not suitable for a truck IMO.

The manager agreed to order the correct tires, and I drove around on their tires for a few days waiting. They'd installed the Bridgestone D840 instead of the 684-II
& the traction of the 840's was quite poor by comparison.

In the end I got the correct tires, but I had started this transaction in September & didn't get the right tires until Oct 2. After the start of the October $1 tire sale.

Now I'd already paid $40 each over tirerack.com prices for these at the dealer, hoping that they would know better than to screw up the TPMS. So I was rather miffed about the 3 times I had to return to the dealer (having taken off work each time...)

I asked them to just re-do the paperwork, to show a return, then put my actual purchase into October. It worked & I got a $208 rebate for the $1 tire sale deal.

They screwed up 3 ways, but in the end they did do everything required to get me the right tires, and I got the rebate, so their Karma went up a tad in my eyes.

Since they were bought out by Penske last year, I was expecting things to change but I didn't know whether to expect the best or the worst. In the end I got something in between that was close enough, so I'll keep taking my business there.

But in the future I'm going to be very plain about what I will & won't accept from them.

So has Penske bought out your local Toyota dealer? And if so, how's it going?

 

Glad we figured that one out. Congrats getting a proper repair.

 

I did finally get some satisfaction.

So I took our 2012 Camry in for service & they didn't want to change the oil. They told me, "We only change the oil every 10,000 miles on these because they have synthetic oil."

I told them, "We live in the desert. It's hot and dusty. It's been 6 months. Change it."

They wanted to argue with me instead of making an extra $60 ???

My truck came with 5w-30 oil, but I've been putting 10w -30 in it, because, well, we live in the desert.

Every time I go in I have to tell them this and still they've missed it in the past.

Next time I go in I'll print out a big sign & tape it under the hood:

"10W-30 oil ONLY PLEASE!"

That way I don't have to rely on the service advisor actually communicating with the mechanic.