Extended warranty and labor gotchas (sun visor)

Minor repairs and minor expense, but its still a "wtf?"experience.

On my truck, the sun visor fits into the holder very tightly. Whenever i try to pull the sun visor out, i have to use alot of force. Well, last week, i pulled really hard and the whole damn holder popped out of the headliner. I checked the passenger side and it was loose as well. I am beyond my factory warranty, but i still have many years and miles left on my extended warranty. So i went to the dealer to see about replacing the 2 visor holders.

I started at the parts department and found that each holder is about $8.50. so, under $18 with tax for both. i told the parts guy my situation and asked if he could just give the holders to me because of my extended warranty. He told me that in order to use the extended warranty, i would have to go through the whole service process and a tech would have to inspect and do the work. Ok, fine. I figured 5-10 minutes to inspect and push a couple of clips into the headliner? Right?

I went back up to the service desk and spoke with a service advisor. I explained everything and she wrote up a service ticket. She said that she would have to make a call to verify the extended warranty coverage and that it was going to take an hour for a tech to look at it and fix it. I said, "an hour? Really? To push 2 clips into the head liner?" she said,"yes, we have to wait until a service bay opens up." I tried to explain that they didnt need an open bay to do this work, but i realized that she was just following procedure and arguing about it wouldnt change anything.

Again, ok, fine. I will wait. However, before i sit and wait for an hour, i wanted to make sure that this work was indeed covered by the extended warranty. So i had the lady call to check the warranty coverage. If it wasnt covered, i was just going to buy the parts and put them in myself. If it was covered, saving $18 was worth an hour of my time. She came back and confirmed that this work was covered under the warranty. However, she said that there was a $50 deductable for the work. No biggie, right? This work shouldnt even come close to $50, right? Well...... she said that the total cost of parts and labor is $70. Huh? $52 for labor? Are you kidding me? She responded and said, "yes, its half an hour for labor." i tried to explain how simple it was to clip in the 2 pieces, but she was going by how she was trained and she was clearly not empowered to deviate from that.

I suppose i could have talked to the service manager and pushed the issue, but i was already there for 30 minutes and i wanted to be done with this whole situation. So, i had her cancel the service ticket and i just bought the 2 holders. I drove around to their customer parking area, and, in 2 minutes, i opened the package, removed the old holders and pushed the new holders into the headliner. Done.

So, what did i learn today? For the small stuff, its just easier and faster to fix it yourself. Ohh.. also, if you push from behind, rather than pull from the front, the sun visor comes out much easier

 

It sounds like a typical Ira Toyota experience.. did you go there? I was going to buy my truck from them last year, but I backed out and bought from Harr Toyota instead (less expensive truck and free car washes for life).

My wife and I bought her '12 Highlander at Ira, they do and give nothing for free/complimentary.

 

yes, ira toyota in milford.

well.. i have prepaid scheduled service so i dont pay for my oil changes at the dealer. the last time i brought the truck in for an oil and lube, they did lube my upper control arms for free. and, i do have to say that they are very professional and courteous.

 

Yeah it sucks, but that is the way extended warranty companies work. If the service department wanted to get paid for doing your work, then they have to follow procedure.

Did you not know you had a 50.00 deductible? If you did, then once you found out the parts were only 18.00 it should have been clear installing them yourself was the way to go.

Sorry your time was wasted.

 

ya, i didnt know about deductables on the extended warranty, but from what the service advisor said, the deducatables are only on certains repairs.

 

Do you have the toyota extra care warranty? Or a third party?

 

i have toyotas 7 year, 75000 mile Platinum Plan.

i just checked my extended warranty documents and it does show a $50 deductable for each repair.

 

Yeah okay that makes sense.

There was so many times I wish I could have just installed something for a customer, or given them the part. Extended warranties are a hassle, especially the fly-by-night ones that want to send an "inspector" out to look at everything.