Great Dealership Rip-Off story

Don't forget the voice recorder for when they try to give you nonsense about it.....and remind them about your father-in-law working for corporate.

 

I can do it myself, I do it in my other cars. It's just that I paid for the services already and I think that they should do it.

 

On a similar but equally as retarded note....the dealer couldn't give out part number over the phone for the 12.00 microscopic light bulb that illuminates half of the climate control panel. Always some new assness, it's just endless.

 

Ah ok thats different then, I have to say I have paid unused oil changes too. I decided cost of new truck is higher then "free" oil changes.

 

Well so far I've only had one done. I've got 8k miles on the truck and will be due in another couple thousand. The guy who sold me my truck is my friend (he thinks of me like a "daughter", he even gave me a name in his language) so when I go in he always takes my keys and takes the truck to the back and talks to the guys for me.

LOL one time when I got it back he put on a nice carbon fibre/leather shift knob on it!

I think I'm safe but who knows what the tech would do. So I'll mark it anyhow.

 

After having the truck in to get a leaking valve cover replaced and finding they didn't do it (under warranty), only putting some silicon sealant over the leak last summer I started to mark parts also. Well to make a long story short they did not change the oil filter this time around. Spoke to the service manager and he said he trusted the tech that did it as he had been there for over 20 years. Showed him the filter and the marks that I had put on it and he still backed up the tech. Got a call from the Auto manager to come in to see him about it. Day I showed up he was out sick, and nobody called me to cancel the appointment. He called me several days later and asked me to come in, has this filter on his desk with marks on it and states this was off my truck. I promptly took him out to my truck and showed him the filter on it and the marks that I had put there. He still said that the filter he had was the one off the truck and that he trusted the tech that did it. I also showed him the warranty repair that was still leaking and the fraud they had committed in billing Toyota for a gasket and labor. He had no comment on this, so we have parted company. I now take it to a dealer 50 miles away and get great service. I also called Toyota about this and they said my problem was with the local dealer not them. Some concern they have.

 

Wow.

Forget marking that filter.

From now on, I'm hovering at the opening of the service bay and giving the hawk eye to the guy under my truck.

 

That is an excellent point (about congealing) and I am sure it is possible for it to happen. I don't know how long Toyota has been using the new fluid but I can say it has been at least since 2005 when I got my truck.

I would think by now a large number of people have done the pan dump and refill change and if there had been a problem, it would have made it to main HQ via customer complaint or service department memo or call to HQ.

I would suspect the danger would be if someone went well over 100K and then did a pan dump only.

I have heard that a pressure system flush may cause a lot of sludge to break free and clog up the works also. I know that new fluid with its detergent properties can do this too but again this problem may only occur on transmissions that have high miles on them without any former service.

 

Oh lord, there's so many stories out there about service ripoffs. It's basically a given, even had a Lexus dealer try to rip me off. I have dozens of stories. I do every single thing I can myself, at least you know your f'ups are your own.

 

Yes I agree, probably higher mileage would be more of a concern for sure.
If you did a drain and fill every 20k or so, it would probably be ok and you wouldn't need to worry about flushing. In fact that's what I plan on doing now after this debacle.

 

Called them today, they didn't do a flush as promised. Service manager told me that they cannot do flushes on these transmissions, all they do is a drain and fill and then "suck out" some of the fluid out of the torque converter, however the fuck you would do that. He also claimed that getting about 4qts while doing this type of "flush" you would get about half of the fluid...which he said was 8.something qts. He also said that there is no machine to flush this tranny, and this procedure is what Toyota recommends., (even though I asked them three times if they had a machine to flush this transmission, every time the answer was "yes sir" before I had them do the service), and drove a hundred miles to have it done.

Not around my pickup till tomorrow BUT, Im pretty sure that the tranny takes more than 8 qts, and I'm also pretty sure that the receipt I have says they charged me for 8 qts of WS, not the 4 qts they have on THEIR ticket....kept it cool for now, I need to see the receipt tomorrow to give em another call. Pretty blown away by the whole thing, and have lost respect for Toyota. Wish I could afford the gas to run an old nuts and bolts solid metal 77 F150 4x4 at this point, better wheeler than the Yota anyways...

 

I just had a good deal with them. Went to the dealership tuesday for the recall on my spiral cable. While under there they found that my timing chain cover was leaking. Told me to come back in today to get it fixed. Took them 9 hours to get it fixed, but I know they actually did everything.

However, on Tuesday while I was in they tried to tell me my brake pads were at 2mm when they are at 5mm. They also said I needed my tranny and radiator flushed. I reminded him that they weren't due yet along with the front diff, rear diff and transfer case.
Then he said my spark plugs needed replaced. I am only at 48k miles. I reminded him they did my 30k maint... he looked it up. I have the service record where it stated they changed my spark plugs for me and he told me they were still original. They then coughed up 6 new spark plugs for me, asked if I wanted them to change them and told them to just hand them to me and I would take care of it. I told him if that was how they were going to do me, I would only come back in to get warranty work done. They then gave me 2 free oil filters and another set of spark plugs for free.

 

Im sure this is the wrong place to mention something like this, and I haven't checked to see if this already exists, but isn't having a sticky of dealerships and shops that have been caught doing this kind of crap exactly what this site is for??? If a mod sees this where should I post this as a suggestion?

 

Just get a comprehensive list of ALL the dealers in the USA and post that and be done with it. Assuming they all do it and compensating acoordingly is the best thing for you, your truck & your wallet. Treat them as the thieving corrupt fuckheads most of them are and have them prove otherwise if you must deal with any of them. What's in your best interest is none of their concern regardless of the act they put on.

 

I have NEVER had a dealership change my oil. When I do have someone do it, I get it done for $18 bucks at a shop down the street. Support local guys for small repairs and maintenance. Find one you agree with, make them a friend, pay them well for their work. Usually they will treat you right, their future depends on you coming back and being happy.
Your mechanic is very much like your doctor. get a good one.

 

Drive it into the showroom. Literally.

I feel like I've gotten off easy. The only dealership stupidity I've encountered was I went in for an oil change and the tech tried to charge me two hours labor to diagnose why my parking brake, abs, and traction control lights were on (I pull my abs fuses) so I laughed in his face, refused to pay, told him he supports his family by fixing disposable foreign cars, and walked out. I've never checked my oil filter though and after hearing all of this I'm definitely going to start marking it before I take it in for my "free" oil changes. Better yet I'll just rattle can it bright orange.

 

this is kinda scarey, u pay good money for a quality job to be completed and it seems like the dealers wanna screw everyone over. Currently i have a 07 corolla and basiclly using it as a credit builder before i go for a tacoma, sooo i have all the services done at the dealer, every 5k service for the purpose of having it on record and when i go to trade in towards a tacoma, i have the 100K warranty so to keep it intact is the only reason for the trips to the dealer........ should i say screw the dealer until my credit is bult up and i wanna trade in my corollaorr stay biting the bullet, go to the dealer still until i trade it in or do my own services and keeep some sort of records.... again only doin it so if anything major happens i can jus be like oh hey... toyota warranty..its on u guys (and drop keys off at dealer)..........hmmmmm again it is a lot of money between payments (i pay twice as much as is required to pay it off sooner) insurence and all the maintence costs on top of that

 

well, the dealer doesn't care if you have records on oil changes. You are allowed by law to get repairs made outside the dealership and keep your warranty valid. I would never go to the dealership unless I have warranty work done "or" specialized diagnostic services needed. period

 

For years I always did my own, oil change in less then 10 minutes(curious if I could) but now maintence wise ...hmm ill prolly encourage my self to do more my self