Let's talk about how badly dealership service depts suck!

I had no where to be so I was kind of curious to see how long it would just sit there. And if I had said anything you would fire me as a customer.

 

My dealer is going to repaint my hood and quarter panels under warranty, pray for me...

 

I went to the same local garage for years until I bought the new truck. They were good, fair, honest. The once botched an oil change and I had to stop on the highway because it all leaked out, and they once misadvised me on an expensive repair. Didn't matter, because they proved themselves many times over and unfortunately everyone makes mistakes. With the dealerships, these were first-impression mistakes, and especially in the first case, two problem my first two visits to them.

Don't get me wrong, I asked for criticism so accept it, just trying to make my case.

 

Ouch.

 

Wait, you are ok with a botched oil change and a misdiagnosis on an expensive repair, but you get all bent out of shape over a broken latch and a stripped bolt?

 

The internet has turned men into Kevin which is the male equivalent of Karen. He expects a deal, he expects it now, because he had his oiled changed there once and the fucker had a coupon. Kevin got a little pissed, because someone went through his glovebox to find his wheel key and his Doritos wrappers were not neatly stacked in the glovebox. These Kevin's show up at the parts counter and proceed to run their trap and waste of bunch of the counter guys time having them look up shit, write down part numbers only to run home and order it off Amazon. Why? Because he needed to save $15.00 and needed an industrial sized tube of hemorrhoid cream, so industrial that it can be applied with a caulking gun. Where does the $15.00 go that he saved, well he'd like to tell people he's investing the savings, when it reality he pickles his liver three times a week with Bud Light. This is his life. Sometimes it's not the business that's the asshole, it's the customer.

 

Interestingly, took my 2019 in for the first 5k service today. Which = glorified tire rotation. Brought my laptop. Two donuts, a cup of coffee, and some emailing, my son and I were were out of there (he tags along so he can sit in all the new TRD Pros in the showroom. Btw, have you seen the new Rav4 TRD OR? That thing is sweet). 45 min tops. Of course, 8:00 am on a Monday morning probably helps with the efficiency. But I get it, not all dealerships are created equal.

 

A lot of Toyota service departments suck, but they're actually one of the best when comparing to other manufacturers. You should see FCA, those are the real bad ones.
All of the FCA service departments near me are either 2 stars or 2.5 stars on review sites. I have 3 years of free oil changes with them I'm so excited.
FCA is rated worst in customer service I saw somewhere. Fiat is last and Jeep is 2nd to last.

I usually have good experiences with Toyota actually. I just hate how they try and play my sister. They installed a cabin air filter in her camry without her permission and tried charging her for it. Car was only a year old. She called me and asked me if that was right. I said fuck no tell them to take it out and put the old one back in. She did that and they said she can keep the new one for free..

 

I started out as New Car Prep kid in a Toyota Dealership and all the Mechanics there took real pride in doing quality work and they would watch very close at my work to make sure it was something they would let out the door. With that said No Not all Toyota Dealership suck it depends on who runs the shop for the most the ones that are successful are the ones that are probably best bet for quality work.
Check them out I asked for a Tour of the Shop where I purchased my Truck before I did, Then because they are too far from me for typical service I asked for a Tour of the shop where I have Current service done and No problem.
I looked to see what kind of toolboxes are lined up in the work bay areas is the floor clean? are the benches covered with piles of crap or what? I don't just walk in some place and hand over my money without a clue.

 

It is real easy for me . . . I NEVER go to the dealer and let the millennial jacktards there do maintenance on my truck. I have a local mechanic that has been in business for over 20 years do all of my work. I teach school, leave my keys in it, he comes to the school gets it, and returns it by the end of the day. He is a little expensive, but it is done right. Mine goes to the dealer for repairs under warranty.

 

I've never had a bad experience with my local..though I don't take it there except for warranty work or if there's a good sale going on.

That said my wife has bought several vehicles there and I got my Tacoma there.

 

People get too obsessed over clean work spaces, sometimes before the surgeon is done it's going to be a total mess.

 

Every time my truck gets serviced it's the same millennial fuckwit dropping tools and getting oil all over the place. How do I know this?

 

Hey wait a minute, I hate Doritos................AND I used to own auto parts stores so wouldn't dream of wasting the counter people's time.

 

^^^^^^ THIS^^^^^

 

On my last trip to the dealership, the service advisor actually put his clipboard on my hood and started writing.
Luckily he didn't scratch the paint.
WTF???

 

Legitimate question.

The tl;dr version of my origina rant is -- Dealer 1 sloppy in my first consecutive vists to the point I can't trust them . Dealer 2 wouldn't respect a decision I made about my truck until it became confrontational. Both are bad first impressions (though I certainly made a bad first impression with Dealer 2).

The oil and misdiagnosis were good faith mistakes. They took full responsiblity for the oil situation. I wasn't happy about the repair, but over the course of 7 or so years, it was the only real mistake they made.

 

Sorry to hear you had service department problems. My service department has been outstanding. Both my 16 TRD & 18 Avalon are taken care of meticulously. They’ve even saved me $!

 

Years ago I had a VW and found a great dealership service dept at one of those big multi-brand lots. They eventually dropped VW, so that was that.

 

I’m just going to leave this here

https://youtu.be/VIE9PqWWoRw