Dear Honda,
I love my Honda. I love everything about my Honda. My Honda is fun and versatile and impresses the opposite sex. My Honda was my first new car ever and for three years I have beat it up, run it ragged, and faithfully taken it in for its recommended service before it was due. I know you all got together and engineered a car that only needs an oil change every 10,000 miles, but I like to average about 8,500 just to be safe. Besides, I can be a little rough on my wheels. I had some minor problems, and you dutifully took care of them and covered it under warranty, no less! You even dealt with the insurance company from Hell when somebody ran into my beloved ride. I liked the clean garage and courteous staff and rested comfortably knowing that my favorite little car was being cared for by the best in the business. But, now you’ve made me angry. :mad:
You see, I asked for the whole shebang. 40,000 mile service…bring it on, I’ve got my credit card out, and boy is it shiny! Tires rotated, alignment checked, oil, filter, gasket, fuel filter, tires and brakes, do it all! And I want my complimentary car wash, please. I wait 2 hours, which is no biggie since I took the day off and brought a book. And you have free coffee. Your nice, clean mechanic comes and tells me that everything looks good, except one brake pad is wearing faster than the others, but doesn’t need replaced yet. The tires are about half worn. I’m Ok with all that. I used my shiny credit card to pay for all the service you were supposed to do. Then I got out and get my car. You see, dear Honda, I had an unfortunate decoration from a bird. The 1.5 foot streak of white birdshit on the black door was a big clue that the complimentary car wash didn’t happen (again) but I figure that I didn’t pay for it, so screw it. My car never stays clean anyway. A few bucks at a car wash will remedy all.
Then, when I am hanging out in my car a few days later, talking to one of those members of the opposite sex who is impressed by my car, it hits me. There isn’t any new, white grease on my door hinges. I think to myself “usually they spray that crap all over the place.” I get out the helpful little check sheet they always provide showing me exactly what they did and what, if anything, needs worked on. The little box next to ‘lubricated door hinges’ was checked. So now, I’ve caught you in a bullshit lie. What else didn’t you do? The oil is new enough, and the wiper fluid sure is full. But, I can’t tell if you rotated the tires, and replaced filters, and all the stuff that the world will never know whether it was done or not. I’m sure as Hell not going to take another day off work to get my 40,000 mile service done again. And I’m sure that you would be happy to spray some grease on my door hinges and run it through the carwash for free, but that doesn’t make me sleep easy. For the first time in three years, I am disappointed in you, Honda. Now that my warranty is expired, I will probably look for a new shop without a big blue H out front. It will be cheaper, and they will probably actually do what they charge me for. Fortunately, I have another 8,500 miles or so to consider it and get recommendation.
Formerly Satisfied Customer, xbuckeye
I say, go back and call them on it - they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with shoddy service like this.
And this friends is why you’ll see me out in my driveway changing my own oil and performing my own scheduled maintanance. I only take my car to the shop for repairs beyond the capabilities of my driveway/garage. Sorry Honda cheapskated you on what appears to very inexpensive parts of the service as it is. It seems to show a lack of attention to details. I’d double check your lugnuts are torqued correctly too. If they rotated the tires in the first place that is.
I completely agree, except that A) how do I make sure they do it the second time around and B) how do I make sure that they don’t decide to do some ‘special’ service since I complained and C) how do I know what they actually did and didn’t do the first time around?
Unfortunately, I lack the necessary tools to ensure that the lug nuts are torqued correctly and my association won’t let me change my own oil. And Honda can deny your warranty if you don’t do service at a certified Honda Service Center. I have put on about a hundred miles since I got it serviced, and all 4 tires stayed on so far…so here’s to hoping.
I love, adore, the place where I take my car. And all the more since I don’t actually take it anywhere, Tom(wonderful man!) comes to pick it up for me at the office and then brings it back when they’re done. I wouldn’t switch for the world.
-Lil
Are you sure they didn’t just clean up the grease?
First off this is not true in the US. You can have the service done anywhere.
Secondly, different technicians use different lubes for things. some technicians may use spray white grease which shows up. Other technicians in the same dealership might use a product like this which is a hell of a good thing to lube door hinges with. Way better than white lithium IMHO, this stuff rocks. But leaves no white trace. It is clear.
If you aren’t sure, call the service manager and ask. At most you need to stop back for 15 minutes to have the hinges lubed.
You don’t have to let them actually do anything to your car; the minor stuff (greasing door hinges, free carwash) you can do yourself easily enough.
But I’d go back there and tell this to the Manager, explaining why he won’t ever see you as a customer again. Could be just a lazy mechanic goofing off, and the Manager might like to know about that. (But even if that’s true, it won’t do anything to make you trust them in the future.)
Shame to hear that. Perhaps a polite phone call to the manager to check on how things are instead of letting him know you won’t be back. The worst he can do is check and explain.
When we had a Honda their garage saved us (sort of). A brake and tyre centre up the road gave us some dodgy pads at a service, a quick jaunt out the road revealed this to us. A disbeleiving mechanic took the car out the road and returned pale faced to let us know when he tried to slow and turn back, the car’s brakes locked and it skidded through 180 degrees. The Honda garage did the job properly, replaced the brakes and showed us the old pads, coming apart in his hands :eek:
The not-so-angry update is that they sometimes use a silicone lubricant that isn’t the white lithium spray. The manager is going to check in with guy who worked on my car (who wasn’t in today) and look up the service records that he can (alignment numbers). I guess I feel better about it, but I still find it suspicious that you can lubricate hinges and not the dirt and dust on them. He also apologized for the car wash and asked my permission to send me a free oil change voucher. There is some controversy over my aftermarket roof rack not being compatable with automatic car washes.
I just hate having to trust somebody that I get the feeling is trying to screw me 'cause I don’t have any proof they are trying to screw me.
B shouldn’t be a problem. As long as you are reasonably polite and don’t act as a problem customer.
There is a saying in the automobile industry that I have heard.
“The salesman sells you your first car. Services sell you all the rest of the cars you’ll buy” The manager will be more than willing to help sort out any problems with the servicing. He wants you to buy your next three cars from them. Probably they had a paper mix up or bad day, or maybe they have a staff member soon to be fired.
If you don’t get a satisfactory result from the manager, try a different local Honda dealer, I’m sure they would be happy to take up the servicing jobs with the hope of selling you your next few cars.
Really dealership servicing allready screws you somewhat with overcharging base prices. THis is so they can give you extra service to keep you a sweet customer.
Those who do their own servicing, how do you sell the car when you want to change vehicles. Without a dealership service history aren’t potential customers put off?
P.S. what Honda did you get?
'03 Element. Sweet, sweet ride. I love my car. 
I considered the other Honda Dealership thing, and there just isn’t one close by (in the county).
As for self-serviced cars, I know I would never buy one. I don’t know what your level of care and expertise is.
I know I pay more for Honda service, but there are things you can’t or shouldn’t do at home and part of what I am paying is Honda to check the VIN for recalls and keep digital records of every time they have ever looked at the car. I am good at my job, they pay me money, I pay my money to other people who are good at their job which is taking care of my car for me. And there are details about Honda maintanance that other shops don’t know about, like the oil filter gasket that is replaced at every oil change. CR-V’s that are taken to non-Honda shops for an oil change tend to burst into flames shortly thereafter because the gasket wasn’t replaced and oil dripped onto hot engine parts. Many shops don’t know that Honda recommends oil changes only every 10,000 miles.
Oh. I thought you did that because civilization had collapsed and you needed to take special care of the last of the V-8 interceptors.
Sailboat
Not sure what state your from but in Minneapolis we just had a bunch of Honda mechanics go on strike (unionized). It seems that the dealers decided that their high paid Honda certified mechanics would only be doing the difficult jobs i.e. electrical work, engine work, etc. For maintenance jobs like fluids, filters, adjustments, lubes they would get some cheap non-union non-honda certified mechanics to do the stuff.
Like I’m going to pay top $$ at the dealer to have a non-honda certified mechanic touch my car. It was only about a week after that that my co-worker took his Odyssey in for maintenance, got it home, checked the fluids himself and noticed none of them had been changed or topped off.
I got fed up with a local mechanic after they repeatedly screwed up minor things. It made me wonder if they were just completely scatterbrained.
The first time I went to them (to replace the struts), they discarded my brand new license plate holder for no apparent reason. I had literally put it on only days before. It took me a while to notice, and then longer to track down, but they did replace it, and gave me a free oil change as an apology.
The next time, when I got my new (to me) car smogged, they first submitted the paperwork under the VIN for my old car. I noticed that when I went to pick it up, so they had to keep it and run the test again. Then, a few days later, I went to fill up the tank, and the gas cap was missing. They never put it back in after testing it.
Had a similer problem myself last week.
I use synthetic in my 2005 Toyota Camry. I’ve been getting it done and some local quick lube place and know you’re not supposed to bounce back and forth between synthetic and regular oil. So evidently there’s a couple of checks they like doing at 15,000 miles to see if everythings going OK so I bring it into the dealership instead.
Long story short they bring me the bill…it’s $50. Ummmmmm…they synthetic oil surcharge ALONE is usally $50. So I ask them and they said they didn’t but will bring it back in quickly and do it.
Sure it pissed me off, but it also made me think…SHIT…how the fuck would I know if they really changed the oil out. Maybe they just drove it into the bay…took a nice BM and drove it back out?
Not true, at least here in the USA. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. If there is a serious problem, one that could only be fixed by expensive repairs done under warrenty, do you trust them to tell you? Go to your own trusted local mechanic. Except maybe just for Oil Changes where Jiffylube is OK- except that they’ll try and sell you an air filter, ect tens of thousands of miles before you need one.
Very simple- you are supposed to check your own oil every once in a while. You’ll see that before you take it in for an oil change it really does look dirty. Right afterwards it’s nice and clean.
I really suggest to everyone that after you get an oil change- before you drive more than 20’- check you own oil. Make sure they remembered to re-ill it, and not overfilled or still dirty or they forgot to put the plug back in- all of which does happen once in a while.
Your first sentence is true, see post 8, but I disagree with most of the rest of your post.
First off, even the dumbest guy at one of my dealers sees more Volvos (Chevys, Toyotas fill in the blank) than most independents. Dealership technicians have access to factory technical service bulletins (which are available to the aftermarket for a price, and a time lag. Do you know if your local guy has bought them, and reads them?)* Dealerships also have access to factory technical hot lines, as well as technical specilists.
Next you are confusing just how a warranty on a car works. The car maker issues the warranty. The car dealer finds the problem and repairs it. The car maker pays the car dealer for the repair. Warranty is in many shops the single largest source of revenue. (Sure the customer pay repair orders often total more, but the factory is the largest single customer)
From a factory point of view we rarely have a problem with a shop not doing warranty work, we have a huge problem with them doing too much, many times this involves the replacement of parts that are not bad.
If you have a trusted local mechanic who knows how to work on your car, and has the proper tools, by all means use him. Use him for everything. Don’t go to Jiffy Lube. I can tell you way to many horror stories about Jiffy Lube and the like.
BTW
It’s OK for Iffy Lube to sell you shit that you don’t need? Christ isn’t this the biggest single complaint about the auto repair industry is that they oversell repairs? How is it that these assholes get a bye, but your local dealership or competent independent shops doesn’t? Some of Iffy Lubes overselling borders on fraud, and this is OK with you? Whisky Tango Foxtrot? Over.
Go to a real technician either a local mechanic or a dealership, but for OG sakes stay out of Iffy Lube and the like.
*None of this should be taken as a slam against any competent independent shop. In today’s day and age, anyone that can run a successful, competent independent shop has my admiration. It is damn hard to fix cars now, even when you only work on one kind. Working on many different kinds only makes the job that much harder. Guys like Gary T impress the shit out of me.
On the other hand, assholes that either rip off customers, or just keep throwing parts at a car with no diagnosis are beneath my contempt. The “I can fix any car in 20 minutes or $20,000 dollars” attitude is not right. They are scumbags and I hope they will rot in hell.