Overpriced Maintenance Service

I took my Tacoma in for it’s 60k service appointment this morning. I had a service warranty from the dealership up until this point, so I never had to pay for routine maintenance. But that warranty is now up. When I dropped my truck off, the rep broke down the charges for the service which came out to $1,300!! Insane! The service is nothing crazy either. Just routine stuff. Brake inspection, oil change, tire rotation, alignment, filters, fluids, etc. There is spark plugs which I know typically runs higher for labor costs, but that alone was $700!! I gave in and gave the okay to do it but I haven’t paid yet. When I pick it up later, I’m thinking about negotiating the price with maybe some price matching and threatening to take my business elsewhere in the future. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

Sorry, looks like shot yourself in the foot. You can try to call them right away and see if you can decline spark plugs (or all of it for that matter). But you gave the go-ahead. If they already did the work Id say theres not much you can do now other than take this as a learning experience

 

Did you take it to a Porsche dealer by mistake?

Refuse most of it and see if you can get an indie to do it.

 

So you agree to the services knowing the charges, then want to complain about it to try and save some money? This is some Karen stuff right here. Eat a bag of cement and harden up. Either call them and ask if they started yet and tell them you had a change of heart or take it like a man on the chin.

 

Nope, sorry. Once you say go, negotiation is over.

The "proper" way to do plugs is you have to remove the air plenum to get to them. It's a bit of labor. It's not $700 with of labor, but it's a bit. Other garages might do it for a few hundo less. Or you can DIY it for about 100 bucks, depending on finding a deal on plugs.

I'd try to cancel, but I expect that you're gonna hear "oh sorry, it just went on the rack 5 minutes ago."

Lesson learned.

 

Acknowledging the charge, only to attempt to 'negotiate' it?

Really?

Holy shit...what a real piece of work.

 

Lol. I was ignorant of the actual reasonable cost the service should of been. After the fact, I researched and realized I was getting ripped off. $1,300 is a lot of money. Why wouldn’t I want to try to save some money after knowing I would be overpaying? I just called them and told them to stop. Only will have to pay $200 for the work they’ve already done.

 

I don’t understand the issue. I didn’t pay.

 

I just called them and told them to stop. Only will have to pay $200 for the work they’ve already done.

 

You can withdraw consent midway into the act!

 

I just called them and told them to stop. Only will have to pay $200 for the work they’ve already done.

 

It's an issue because you acknowledged a price; anyone ever having done business anywhere knows that if you acknowledge said price and tell him or her to continue with said work you are agreeing to their mentioned price.

It will even state on the work order when they spoke to you, and that 'customer acknowledged' in order to get the work going.

We've sent people to collections for this in an attempt to not pay simply because they did not want to pay the agreed/acknowledged price after the work was done.

You're a POS for thinking otherwise.

 

The work has not been done yet. That’s very different than a collections issue where the service was already provided and the customer refused to pay. I called the dealership to stop. Sorry I don’t want to get ripped off lol

 

I'm so glad that I've never had to deal with consumers.

 

Yeah, calling it off is no issue obviously.

I was going off the scenario that you acknowledged and told them to proceed, and would attempt to negotiate after the work was done when you pick up your vehicle.

There's nothing wrong with doing any due diligence and trying to save money; labor rates are stupid high.

But that's the price you pay if you lack the tools, time, and mechanical ability to work on your own vehicles.

 

Right?

Just retire

 

I have same engine in Lexus RX350. I presume setup is similar in 3rd gen in that the engine has iridium plugs, which are good to 100K, but Toyota/Lexus wants them changed at 60K under the emissions warranty. You can roll the dice and not do plugs till 100K. I think you only have to make it to 80K for the last covered component. May be 100K for the cat, your manual should state the coverage. I just bought plugs for our RX. Denso makes two versions. On rockauto, one is eight bucks a plug, the other, the Long Life, is twelve. I got the regular which is good for 100K.

 

So you take your vehicle to the dealer, and don’t do any research in advance to compare the quote to. And then do the research after the fact and expect that you’ll be able to negotiate the maintenance price after approving it.

That’s great that you hit the pause button after only $200, but you still inconvenienced the dealership (not that I’ll cry for them). The expectation that it was totally sensible in theory to argue the price after initially approving it is, well, absurd.

A hint of advice is not to take your truck to the dealer for preventive maintenance.

 

You were very lucky I hope you will learn from this adventure .

You were not getting ripped off Any dealership has very high overhead that needs to be paid for.

So service and parts are priced to make money . After all it is your choice to where you take your vehicle.

 

$700 alone for spark plug replacement? That IS a rip off any way you look at it. I just did the spark plugs on my 2019 Tacoma V6. Bought plugs at local Toyota dealer $98 for the set. Took all of 45 minutes to replace them WITHOUT removing the intake plenum. It’s all about having the correct tools and a little patient. Over $600 an hour to replace spark plugs is ridiculous regardless of whatever overhead the dealer needs to cover.