Dealer WAY too pushy about getting me in for the 2 recalls

What is up with the service writer calling me three times in a week to get me in to do the two recalls? I think I pissed her off in getting a battery replacement and wouldn't let them tow my Taco to do it. She said that Toyota would only warranty the battery if they could tow the truck in and check it out IN the truck. I told her no, that the truck was up on jacks because I was ceramic coating my wheels and was not going to cut that job short just to put the wheels on the truck so they could tow it. I told her that my son drives a tow truck and a vehicle should not have to be subjected to that kind of manipulation and towed 27 miles just to get a battery replaced. She had to relent, begrudgingly. Once there, they checked out the battery, open cell, replaced it and I took it home. Before leaving I showed her the pictures in my phone of the truck up on the jacks ad the wheel on the tables with the Porter Cable and Essence beside them. One of the pictures reveled my aftermarket grille and she seized on that and immediately pulled me up in her computer and cancelled the recall due to aftermarket grille. TWO days later she is on the phone cheerfully (too cheerfully) inviting me to set an appointment to get BOTH recalls done. I reminded her of the grille. She said, "we'll just get you to sign the waiver on that." To which I asked, "What if I don't want to sign the waiver after you have my vehicle. Are you going to give it back or pull that "unsafe to drive" crap on me?" "Oh no, no" said she, "We don't do that here." I know a line of crap when I hear it.

I'm thinking I shit in my hat with this woman standing my ground on the battery replacement and she has got it in for me, and wants to use the recall to sequester my vehicle to force my signature on the waiver. I don't sign waivers that limit my legal options in the future. So what are my options? Anybody got a Sport grille laying around? She even said that the radar sensor repair kit is a different part number for the SR5, Sport, Off Road and Pro. Really?

Your thoughts?

 

go to different dealer or deal with different service rep.

 

I doubt a service manager cares that much about a waiver. It's a recall, toyota corporate probably mandates they call customers x amount of times. And you have pretty much lost all legal options with anything regarding pcs/tss when you installed a different grill.

 

How can any dealer 'sequester' your vehicle as unsafe to drive for a feature than can be disabled at your discretion?

 

its free money for them. I'm pretty sure if you say not to call you anymore they have to comply.

 

You need a different dealer. Tow a vehicle in for a battery? At who's expense? It sounds like this dealership is hard up for money and they need warranty claims fast.
A good tech can do the recalls in half the time the dealer gets paid for.

 

In Texas if car is truly unsafe to drive, I think they can send something to DMV saying so. He would have to tow vehicle home and correct any defect or prove otherwise.

 

Still have inspections in Tx I guess?

So while that may be true, it doesn't answer my question re this particular situation.

Can't TSS be disabled via Entune at your discretion?

 

Yes it can.

He might have to get some type of waiver if he wants it permanently disabled.

I doubt dealership cares what he does.

 

I’m not sure what the recall exactly is, but having worked for a auto group for 10 years knowing recalls are safety related, it doesn’t matter if the TSS can be activated or disabled. If it’s a feature, even if you don’t use it, and there is a problem that knowingly can fail and cause some type of danger, a recall must be ordered and fixed.

If they are swapping out the front sensor, then there have been reports of failure, or Toyota discovered a problem and reported it. Failure could lead to an accident and obvious harm to the driver/occupants and/or other motorists.


Also one thing to think about, for the people who don’t get safety recalls done. In this case let’s say you neglect to get a recall performed. If tyou use TSS and said part fails, and you get into an accident and harm someone else. You could potentially open yourself up to a lawsuit.

 

I get all that. Really.

My point was the 'sequestering' comment the OP was having trepidation over.

 

I get the water intrusion into radar sensor.

What's the other recall?

I'm very interested in hearing how this works out. I'm very much against the waiver (how I last saw it worded) and disabling radar cruise.


Back when I had my Expedition, there was a recall on the cruise control switch not losing power when you turned off the cars, apparently fires were involved.
Brought it into the dealer like a good boy, where they completely disabled my cruise control until the part came in..... Months later..... And I regularly drove it on 16-20 hour trips. I was not a happy camper.

 

They aren’t hiding anything. The service writer probably doesn’t know any better. I’m sure she had to speak to the service manager about it. The waiver is simply to protect them and Toyota from liability. The grill wasn’t installed from the factory and if for whatever reason it cause some type of problem with the TSS system and caused harm to someone, then they can’t be liable for anything. People try to sue for everything these days so they are covering their own asses.



OP the reason they are probably being pushy to get you to come is is they want the work. They could be slow, but they also don’t want you taking it to another dealer where they lose out on the warranty money.

When the Toyota accelerator recall hit, our Toyota store was making a ton of money off the recall. In fact they even stayed open 24/7 for a few months doing the recalls. Had 1-2 guys staying late and coming in early to do them. They gloated the fact that it was because they wanted to make as many cars safe as they could, but the reality was they made good money doing it and there was a lot of vehicles that needed it done. We had a meeting about it because they were asking techs from other shops to try and help out.

 

That's what I thought too. Little profit to be made on an owner bringing in their battery for an exchange versus vouchering the tow, diagnostic, and replacement to warranty. As for the radar...I don't want it turned off. I don't want them to touch anything on my car. My radar is working just fine, despite what they contend. I think I can take that thing off and waterproof it myself.

Sequestering: Refusal to give your vehicle back due to a condition with it that they deem unsafe. If they give it back to you in that condition it could be argued that they had a duty to keep the truck until rendered safe to drive. By giving your truck back they breached that duty and therefore were negligent. Lawsuit. Basic tort law. There may be some law or case law in Texas backing them up in de-horsing you until resolved. I have heard anecdotal stories over the years to this effect. A vindictive person could use this ploy to really fuck with you. Your radar is defective. We can't give it back to you until you sign this waiver releasing this dealership and Toyota for all liability and you by signing this waiver ASSUME ALL LIABILITY. Basically you are signing a summary judgement against yourself and agreeing that your are negligent in driving the vehicle with the recall unresolved. If that's not bad enough, let your insurance company get wind of this.

My new worry is this: Are they going to mess with my truck if I take it in for a free oil change?

Should have not sold the grille so quick. Anybody in SE Texas have a Sport grille that I can borrow for an afternoon? And I forgot: asked about the ECM/TCM update, 063 or something like that. She acted like that wasn't something they did regularly. Really strange visit and calls.

 

I don’t see how this makes any sense?

Yes you can disable it yourself but you’d have to do it every time because it resets itself to on.

You can also have the setting changed (I’m guessing here- techstream?) to change the setting to auto default off. This is what I’m guessing your referring to, Why would they need a waiver to change that setting?

Whenever I do go in for my recall and if they do turn me away because of a sr5 grill in a sport… I planned on having them change that setting instead so I can permanently disable it. That’s why your post had me wondering

 

I don't want it disabled.

Take me Lord. Take me now.

 

I was speaking of the waiver OP was speaking of from dealership. acknowledging safety feature has been disabled by dealer.

I know new TSB allows user to set TSS off.

 

they will if they if they see an open bulletin or recall.

if it is a small issue.