Need advice on dealership abusing my truck

Toyota corporate doesn't care at all. They leave everything in the hands of their shit dealers, I tried to report a service manager for telling me it's not his problem that they don't know how to fix my truck. They said since he's the manager, he's basically untouchable.

 

Probably true.
Better idea then. Local news !

 

Im sure some do and some dont. Short of having a privacy lawyer im not sure we can get a real answer. But I do feel this would be a good topic to explore with some of the other gen owners in the off topic area.

 

Following to see what the dealership says.

 

Here is the best legal advice anyone can provide. Read the statute for yourself. All an attorney will do, is provide their educated guess at what the law means. If you want to know the outcome with 100% certainty, you need to go to court and have it decided.

Lawyers are not magical beings that decide the law. Every single case that is won by a lawyer, is also lost by another lawyer. Remember that if you were to rank every practicing lawyer top to bottom, then half of them are below average and some of them provide worse guidance than a guy off the street guessing.

The sad part, is that someone is waiting to talk to one of the bad ones at this very minute. Probably in a crappy leatherette chair in the lobby.

 

Your in luck! I got off the phone a little bit ago with them.

I got the usually damage control, "oh they shouldnt of done that, thats on the tech for doing this" Overall, not very satisfied with the response.

I did get some excuses, the manager said the tech probably needed to get up to speed to let go of the wheel to check the tracking, I called BS on that since the test road has a heavy crown to it. The service manager agreed with me that the advisor changed the ticket to "car pulls" yet I didnt say it pulled, I said it tracks straight, only the steering wheel is off. He agreed that the tech should not of even needed to do a test drive outside of the parking lot.

He is going to talk to the tech, the advisor is out for the next week, so he cant talk to them. But they do have a engineer coming out to look at my paint aswell as I get to work with just the service manager to get this issue fixed.

So, some progress I guess, but progress that shouldnt of even been needed if the ticket wasnt changed from what I typed up, and the tech fixed it right the first time.

Here is what I wrote

• General Service Request - Steering wheel is slightly to the right. Truck tracks straight no issues with alignment, not a issue with road crown either.

Here is dealer changed issue with tech notes

VEHICLE PULLING (PRELIMINARY CHECK & ROAD TEST) ~|~STEERING WHEEL IS SLIGHTLY TO THE RIGHT. TRUCK TRACKS STRAIGHT NO ISSUES WITH ALIGNMENT, NOT A ISSUE WITH ROAD CROWN EITHER. ~|~TEST DROVE VEHICLE AND VERIFIED PULL TO THE RIGHT NO MATTER WHERE ON THE ROAD ~|~2062 PULLED VEHICLE IN AND PERFORMED INITIAL ALIGNMENT CHECK AND THEN PERFORMED CROSS ROTATE AND THEN TD AND PULL STILL PRESENT, FRONT TO REAR ROTATE AND PULL WAS STILL PRESENT, PERFORMED ALIGNMENT AND ADJUSTED BOTH FRONT TOES AND TD AND VERIFIED REPAIRS

 

That sucks man. That's why I got away from flat rate techs. You should post the vids and name of the dealership

 

Not making excuses, but I have seen where someone says that their steering wheel is not straight and it is because they constantly have it turned to offset a pull that is caused by the tires. This is where it is on the service writer to ask the right questions. When someone would tell me their steering wheel wasn't straight it was followed with "when you take your hands off the wheel, does your car pull?" That narrows down what the problem could be. If they checked the alignment, I would expect a print out. That is the only proof that it was actually checked and would show that they actually centered the wheel because your left and right toe numbers would change.

I don't think I would be happy with the service manager's excuse, but if that is the way they run their shop it isn't shocking. You may want to remind him that you are the person that always responds to surveys and you will make it a point to express this issue in that manner. That really is the only thing you have on them. Surveys are extremely important in the dealer service world.

 

When I checked in, I told him several times that the car does not pull at all. While driving on a flat road, the wheel is tilted to the right. If I try to turn it to the correct location, the car turns left.

I wouldnt push this issue if my state had heavy crowns on all the roads, but we dont, most roads have no crown.

In the videos that I have, the 2 times the car is on the alignment rack, when the tech lowers the car each time you can see the screen of the alignment machine.
First alignment, right was green, left was red. Then test drive, put it back on the alignment machine and do it again. This time when he lowered it both side were green.

 

Yes meet with the general manager...show the video. Tell him you want the steering wheel aligned properly and advise them the cameral will be ON !

 

I just emailed all the videos to the GM

 

True, didn't think about the disc profile.

 

The dealership can file a lawsuit, but will likely be found as having no standing to sue. The person recorded might have standing, but the dealership lawsuit will likely be dismissed.

If the point of the dealer is to minimize exposure and damage to the repuutation caused by the video, a lawsuit does the opposite. It makes the matter very public.

Cease and desist letters are the tools of the shitty lawyer. When sent in response to a video, they can get the attorney disbarred as this tactic known as SLAPP and every lawyer should know that video evidence does not meet the standard of "libel". So state bar associations can and do take the actions of the attorney writing the letter to be abusing their athority as an agent of the court.

You don't need to hire an attorney when in receipt of such a letter. Download a form response letter, fill in detail...."This case is completely without merit..etc" and mention the attorney is acting in a way that is meant to prohibit public participation etc. Send a copy to the state bar along with the attorneys iD# and name.

It is worth the extra 15 min.

 

Do you have a link to the Go Pro mount?

Nevermind...saw you already answered that

 

I made it my self. Give me 10 minute and get pictures up of it

 

Here are some pictures of the GoPro mount if still interested.

http://imgur.com/gallery/vIkLpgS

 

I can't remember the last time I actually met the tech... it's always the middle man shielding the tech from the customer. Sometimes some hotty chick, sometimes some young dude, sometimes an old-timer... but never someone with grease on their arms.

 

Insist on having a few words with the service Tech. When I worked at Toyota we wouldn't stop a customer from feeling taken care of, and if meeting the person who will be touching your 40k truck would make you happy we wouldnt have any issues with that

 

I unplug every dash camera for this reason, you can't record audio without one active party's permission where I live. I've seen lots of techs get in shit over dash cameras.

 

There is one on Shapeways btw.