Sat Radio problem and final resolution

NEVER trust a car dealer. A dealer ship is only as good as the Owner want them to be.
Read my story from Toyota of Knoxville -
I purchased my Tacoma in August, 08. New 09 Prerunner, Sport Pkg, TRD, really nice vehicle. I would liked to have gotten a Tundra, I had an 02, but, the newer style of Tundra is a large vehicle and I thought that it was too long for my garage.
In the purchase of the Tacoma, I included an XM sat radio and paid extra. The vehicle has a sat antenna on the roof of the cab and I specifically chose the particular Tacoma for that reason - no aftermarket ant needed. Well, the dealer has a separate group of people that install such stuff. The sat radio was ordered and about a week later, the dealership called and said the radio is in and to come for installation. On the day of the installation, I drop off the vehicle, the wife and I go about our business for about 5 hours and come back to get the Tacoma. We go home and as I am walking by the passenger side, I spot a big black bump on the front of the roof, just above the windshield. What to my suprise do I see? A doggone aftermarket sat antenna. I call the dealership and ask about this and the answer came just as though I was stupid and didn't know that every sat radio needed an antenna!
Oh boy, I drove back to the dealership the next day or so to talk with them and I was given the most incredible answer. Toyota, in its' infinite wisdom had put those factory installed antennas on some of the vehicles in case someone was to order the super wamerdyne JBL stereo systems from Lexus. Since my Tacoma didn't have one of the super wamerdyne stereo systems, there was no way to connect the factory installed sat antenna. I would have to settle for an aftermarket antenna. The installation personnel even went on to tell me how there were other Toyota vehicles that had the same problem. I even came to this forum and asked if there were others out there that had the problem. (I haven't gone back to find that for responses.) This was all a lie. When this problem was initially discussed with the dealership, I reminded the salesperson that I specifically chose that vehicle because of the factory installed sat antenna. He said yes, again. Looking back now, this smells like a floormat story to me. Anyway, yesterday, Saturday, I visited the dealership again due too the extremely badly acting radio, the second one, that has been installed in my vehicle. I'm sure everyone knows that story - channel skipping, turning off/on, just plain goofy radio. Well, I have always taken every opportunity to ask the dealership if there was any resolultion by Toyota yet on the sat antenna question I have asked now every 5k miles, every maintenance visit. This time, I believe after all the bad press from the acceleration fiasco, I got someone (a lady that will be nameless but first name starts with an R) that wanted to fix my problem. She got the VIN, looked it up to verify what the vehicle is, went back to the original sale, found where I purchased the sat radio and the cost, determined that NO Toyota OEM sat radio had been installed, (an aftermarket, non-compatible, stupid, wrong, idiotic radio) found the right part numbers and together, the service rep and me, found the dealership general manager, and we arrived at a fix. The dealership ordered a new Toyota sat radio, a installation kit to fit the radio installation and will install upon arrival - FREE!
Since August, 08, the dealership personnel lied to me. An aftermarket sat radio was installed in the vehicle that was not compatible with the Toyota factory sat antenna. By the way, the person that I dealt with on the installation and that I always talked to, is no longer an employee of the dealership. She has been gone for a few months and was not released because of this incident. That person even wrote me a letter saying that should Toyota ever come up with a fix to allow the factory antenna to be connected, the dealership would fix my problem at no cost to me.
The lesson here is simple - when you buy a vehicle, from anyone, you better know what you are buying and when the vehicle is delivered, you better walk around that vehicle, check out everything, if there is the slightest difference in what you thought you bought and what is delivered, you better not accept those keys until there is full resolution - do not drive that vehicle off the lot until you are fully satisfied!
If anyone would like any more details, I think that I put it all here, send a message through the forum.

 

Lesson learned- Who gives a shit if it's OEM- cause you can get better service/information/products aftermarkets. And you'll pay less with less hassle.

Glad it seems to be working out tho.

 

I stated in the post above that I had not gone back looking for a response to my original post on the sat antenna problem.
In November, 08 is posted a question looking for anyone else that had the antenna problem - there were no replies.
I assume that I was duped alone!

 

It is the lie that matters. Not that it is aftermarket. If I had been told upfront and agreed to it, nothing would have ever been said.

 

Yeah....I'm pretty sure I've never been lied to by an aftermarket specialist. And I don't ask questions or ask for services at most dealerships cause I don't want to get lied to or over charged. That is more the route I was going. The dealership guys/gals are "experts" on all the vehicles in a brand....And you know the saying right "Jack of all trades- Master of none"

Altho- I'll plug my dealer in Pensacola here-Bob Tyler Toyota has been great to me. They do all the work every time. Never had major issues with their methods or communications.

Plus it sounds like you got a loser for a service/parts rep. The one who helped you this time seems pretty stand up.

 

Wow, I am glad my 09 Trd sport had the JBL and the sat already in it when I bought it new last March. It doesn't surprise me about a dealership giving you the runaround. I actually have had a good experience when I bought my truck. I just have to get a couple of tsb's done still.

 

That sucks. I researched the OEM satellite antenna issue as well. I found an adapter cable that allows use of the OEM antenna. Like you, I wanted to use the existing antenna.

 

KN, was that the Vais sharkfin adapter?

 

http://www.myradiostore.com/sirius/sirius-signal-distribution/sfa12m.html

 

Thanks very much, that's the one I was thinking of.....To confirm, with this adapter I can plug into my factory XM antenna plug in the drivers side kickplate of my 2010 and feed my Sirius Sportster 5?

 

If your sportster uses an antenna, then yes.

I don't know about XM equipment.