Bad dealer service, am I over-reacting?

And a reputable shop would do just that. I could write a book on what I’ve seen shops do, and bent over backwards to make customers happy and right. Others with nefarious reps, not so much, so I say stay away from those.

But you’ll rarely hear an OP say, “they shop went over and beyond to make things right”.

I’m I right?

 

As someone who works in repairs I have to question this. People trash their equipment, and even though I clean it and give it back in better condition, there's always a karen busting out the white glove and a magnifying glass questioning every single ding and smudge that has been there for 3 years.

Your doors and hood look like every black vehicle I've ever seen, unless it was waxed in the last 20 minutes.

In all fairness, my dealer runs every car they service through the car wash, I'm sure to avoid the massive amount of karens in the world today.

 

They all appear to be minor issues, but I definitely see your viewpoint. Use some interior detailer on the steering wheel with a microfiber to knock down the fingernail scratch and wash the truck yourself from now on. It's black paint and it's high maintenance. The dealer will run it through their basic wash and use old rags to dry it causing a ton of swirl marks. I recommend the rag company for detailing supplies:

https://theragcompany.com

Guaranteed the service manager will do nothing but blow smoke up your rear while apologizing and offering to wash your truck. For what it's worth, I've worked at few dealers and seen a few things. Brand new Porsche's rolled by techs, cars dropped off lifts...I'm sure you get the picture. Take my advice and avoid the service department unless you have a direct contact of someone you know and trust.

 

i know you have to take it to the dealer cus they have that toyota care crap, but this is why i personally do all the work on my cars cus in the past everytime i would get my truck itd be full with grease all over. Are you overreacting imo no, but I wouldnt send an email lol i would raise hell at the dealership cus thats how i am but you are overreacting with your email, you gotta go ape shit ON THE SPOT

 

When was the last time you sent them an email about how happy you were with the service?

After many good visits, you have one bad one and immediately jump to slamming them online.

Working in service is a tough and thankless job.

 

Yes, do. I'm sure he will read it.

 

It's threads like this that make me get down on bended knee to thank God that my job does not require me to deal with the general public.

 

To the OP, do you use the same service writer each time you go in? If so and you have a relationship with them, just let them know next time you bring in one of your vehicles that the last time you were in you got your truck back all dirty and full of fingerprints and you'd appreciate that not happening again. He/she will have your truck run through the wash before returning it to you and probably take a quick walk-around when it comes back to make sure. That's as far as I would take this. FWIW every vehicle I've ever owned with a leather-wrapped steering wheel ends up with a scratch on the leather like that sooner or later. Honestly you have to be looking for it to find it.

Is it right that they gave your truck back to you like that? No. But if your dealer normally does right by you then a quick mention next time is all it will take for it not to happen again. This is minor stuff that is not worth getting worked up over.

 

yes the service was paid for with the purchase cost of the truck.

 

I recently had my truck in for service at my local Toyota dealership for an oil change and had exterior smudges all over as well. It was worse than any other time. I went home and cleaned things up without complaining. I think the techs these days, like many of us in our respective occupations, are likely pushed to get to the next thing, or customer. More times than not, it’s a staffing issue. Customer service tends to get lost in all of this, and that’s unfortunate.

 

And dam, those MT Tacomas have climbed up in price a lot since I got my 2017. 45k seems high for an OFf Road MT, I paid like 34k for my 2017 sport MT.

 

Holy balls this place has gone down hill. For the record, I haven’t asked for a thing from the dealer.

What do I expect? Honestly a sincere apology and some assurance that this was an isolated incident.

I don’t care about the grease the scratch in the steering wheel is annoying but shit happens. My big concern is that they are getting sloppy an next one it isn’t cosmetic stuff, it’s someone forgetting to torque the lug nuts or put the oil filter cap back on properly.

I’ve been blue collar my whole life and one thing I know is that pride in work shows in the final product. Either the guys in the shop don’t give a damn or they are being pushed so hard right now that just getting them through is the only thing that matters.

Now, to address the quote. How much did I pay for this service? $106.84. I’m fine paying for every other oil change, I plan to keep this truck for a LONG time and am not cool with 10k oil change just yet. It was ~$70 for the oil change and $30 to change the taillight bulb that I specifically said I would change myself if there was going to be a charge.

 

Paid 34K for my '18 4wd Sport Auto.
No haggling, so I'm sure many did better.

Also, there were fingerprints after both my master cylinder, and fuel pump recall. I wiped them off.

Took a pass on the ToyotaCare freebies and changed my own oil.

 

MSRP for the basic MT OR was just under 37k. This one has all the boxes checked. I just wanted heated leather with an MT, but was able to get a really great deal on this one so I went for it.

 

I had something similar with the steering wheel in my vehicle. Brought it to the attention of the service advisor ASAP, they replaced the steering wheel at no-cost. The dirt/grease/grime is a by-product of mechanics. If you requested no-wash then it’s on you, if not then they should’ve washed it for you. No mechanic/technician will ever be as careful with your car as you are. I always request no-wash because I’m crazy so I expect some finger prints/grease. The only time that bugged me was when my white leather had what looked like fake tanning oil all over it. That was disgusting.

 

Yeah I don’t trust those clowns to change my oil or do anything else to my truck for that matter, the first oil change I had on my Tacoma right after I bought it they put the wrong size drain plug in my truck and I noticed the next morning I had oil on my garage floor (yeah my truck sleeps in the garage) so that was the end for me of letting them touch my truck but I’ve kinda always been like that and prefer to do my own work but that’s just me.

 

They did wash it. I’m fairly certain the grease is FROM the wash - over greased bearings flinging it or something. That’s the only reason I bring it up.

that’s nuts that they replaced your wheel, way over and above.

 

It’s funny isn’t it, the range of comments in here from “light that dealership on fire!!!” to “light yourself on fire!!!”

People post these threads to vent, to check and see if they’re being ridiculous, or as a heads up to watch out for something / post warning about a particular dealership. Triggering abounds endlessly.

If it’s a “am I being crazy” type thread, then you’re probably being at least a little crazy or you wouldn’t ask. At least you didn’t torch the dealership publicly. I say, you do you. If the steering wheel and the grease ticks you off, not just immediately but the next day, ok go complain about it. The email was fairly even keeled. I would’ve gone in and had the conversation in person but that’s me, maybe the dealership isn’t nearby. On any given thread like this you’ll get everything from “you’re a psycho” to “the dealership sucks” because there’s a whole wide range of TW humanity out there.

You want my input? I wouldn’t care about the grease. Any excuse to break out my foam gun, quite frankly. I can’t really see the steering wheel thing in the photo, but if it was actually jacked up it’d probably bother me. Maybe if it was bad enough I’d ask for a new wheel. Probably not.

And for the love of Pete do your own maintenance!

 

I think his whole point is kinda that there’s no customer service anymore no matter what you’re paying for from an oil change to going to a restaurant, in the old days you’d get great service with a smile and they’d automatically wash your car with any service at the dealership and now they just clearly don’t care and don’t even pit down the white service matt on your floor mats when they take your truck around back, also when you buy a new truck they throw in the first few oil changes for free which is probably why the he went in in the first place but in my case anytime I go in for an oil change they either overfill the oil or under fill it atleast in my case so that’s probably why he took it in because it was something like that Id have to guess? Just in my opinion anyway which isn’t much. Now this morning I’m headed to the mechanic to get my alignment done so hopefully I won’t have anything to bitch about because I normally do all my own work but alignment is above my expertise level. Lol