Having to pay $8000 for a bad fuse clip

Great! That's the place I would take my cars. That mechanic is a real mechanic and not a part-swapping monkey.

 

i'm glad to hear you got it all sorted!

it bears saying that i've heard this exact wording for every single vehicle brand. my neighbor refuses to ever buy a ford because 'they all rot out'. another buddy refuses to buy chevy 'because their electrics suck'. another refuses nissan because the shady local dealers literally ask new buyers to 'fog a mirror' to get approved for financing, regardless of if they can afford it or not.

i once spent 3 hours(the first hour was frustration, the next 2 was to make a point) wandering a local dealership showroom to be ignored, or jumped over for older-looking vehicle buyers. apparently my money wasn't any good to them. ironically, now that same dealer is struggling--turns out pinning your success on people that are literally dying off tends to not be the best idea long term...

the reality is that ALL BRANDS/DEALERS SUCK. the best option, as you learned, is to treat it just the same as you would any other commodity--get it with as little sales interaction as possible, and treat it as your own from the get-go, with zero expectation of service/support from the originating company.

 

Well, I wasted my time answering a satisfaction survey from Ourisman. They reached out to me personally and said that they wanted to help us resolve the problem. They did NOTHING to resolve the problem or try to get us any kind of reimbursement for the $800 diagnostic we paid. I told them I didn't understand why they were wasting my time and that they did nothing but make me feel worse. But I made sure to let them know I will never go to another Ourisman again. We will likely never go to another dealer, period but have all of our cars serviced at local mechanics or at the nearby Goodyear. What a joke.

 

Hang on $646 to do that. Total ripoff!! Hour job probably .5 hour

 

Umm, that's way better than the $8000 that the Toyota Dealership quoted us.

 

Definitely cheaper but a 2 cent part and an hour time should be around $150-$200 max. Drives me nuts how these companies rip people off.

 

DO NOT forget to contact the state attorney general's office as well. They can get a business's attention very quickly.

 

Man if this thread doesn't piss you off you are dead inside and have zero compassion!

I am thrilled to hear Good year saved you BUT they are way overpriced compared to a great independent tech with a couple of employees and few bays.

Really really ask your friends and family and find a great local independent tech in your community and start a long lasting relationship with them and them only! Great honest knowledgeable techs and hotrod builders exist! If you were in Cleveland, Ohio I would have steered you right toward one instantly.

Massive props to ya'll forum pepes...

 

Yeah, to say I'm insanely irate and pissed off is putting it mildly...especially after I got off the phone with the moron at the dealership. He had zero sympathy.

 

I second that props to the forum. I've gotten a TREMENDOUS amount of help here. The whole thing is super sad really though. I think the very worst part was how the guy at the dealership literally guilt-tripped me for going to Goodyear. He basically said that he didn't know what they did to fix it but he's confident that they probably did it wrong and it will likely fall apart on the highway. I felt like I was being shamed for having someone other than Toyota fix my Tacoma. I wanted to punch the guy.

 

Do you think that would actually help? I'm sick and tired of people like this getting away with highway robbery.

 

I can't remember if I had asked in this thread what dealer it was at. I know I read the thread early on. My 4runner was just at that dealership. I don't know that I could've helped much, but I would have tried. Ah well. I'm glad you got it sorted out. I was all for the suggestion of your eventual fix. I wish I would have caught onto everything earlier, there's a well-regarded automotive electrical shop nearby. That's all they do. My apologies.

I don't have experience with all the Toyota dealers in the area (I think there's four or five), but so far, I'm not impressed with any of them. Ourisman could have won some business from me, but they were trying to upsell an additional $1200 worth of work that was completely unnecessary at 30k miles. That's a quick way to piss me off.

 

It was Ourisman Chantilly Toyota. And I'm not surprised that they tried to upsell you. They are all about making money. I told the service manager that I thought $200/hr for a diagnostic was ridiculous to which he responded, "well, we are in one of the richest counties in the country." And I replied, "That's nice and all but I called 4 other local dealerships and the next highest price was $150/hr (which is still ridiculous AF) so nice try." Unfortunately at the time I didn't have the option to shop around bc my truck had died on a major highway 150 miles from home and that was the nearest one (my shit luck).

 

It has worked for me in the past and you have nothing to lose but a bit of time, a postage stamp and envelope. I tend to write letters as emails are easily lost, deleted or simply ignored. Use the shotgun approach and send the same letter to the Better Business Bureau, your local, state and national representatives. Perhaps even the local mayor and city Counsil members where the dealership is located. Playing nice is for recess in the school yard. These people tried to screw you, seek revenge and be passionate about it. Just be factual in what you write and include copies of any quotes, emails, etc.

 

Yikes. Really wish I had read through the thread a little later in the game and I would've tried to lend a hand. If you happen to break down again nearby (I really hope not!), just message me and I'll see if I can help in some way. At the very least, I could've gotten you home!

 

my dad used to work for an electrical contractor. this contractors father had created and named the business "[town-name] Electric". it was handed down to him, and was a well known company within the community. because of the name, and the long-term legacy behind it, this contractor took on the impression that ANY electrical work performed within that town was supposed to be his, and his alone. he would drive around, and if he saw any other electrical outfits working within the town, he would get irate, and look for ways to harm them--either through code 'violations', or review methods. also, any past employee that ever stopped working for him for any reason would become 'dead to me'. to the point that he would refuse to even acknowledge that persons existence in any public setting.

fortunately, that contractor has since realized that such actions needlessly increased his personal stress level for absolutely zero benefit other than the amount of pills he now needs to take, and in many cases, those actions started to the disadvantage of his later personal and professional needs, which knee-capped his own business that he so vehemently protected.

my point in all of this is that there's a ton of people that think this way. that "ONLY I CAN DO IT RIGHT, EVERYONE ELSE DOES IT WRONG"

the reality is very much the opposite, and anyone that tends to talk this way, anywhere (and there's just as many independent shops that have staff with this thinking) is very much someone to avoid.

the best counterpoint in the above conversation you had with them, could've simply been "if you recall, the truck was already randomly dying on the highway, so i doubt their fix could do much worse given the low bar you've set"...