Pitting the Toyota service department. This is where I bought my car

The BBQ Pit
1

So. Message comes up on dash board that the car needs service. Ok. I make an appointment. This is a 100 mile one way drive for me.

Simple shit. Change the oil, replace the back up camera that no longer functions.

They need it for 4 hours. Ok. I’ll wait.

Get a text, ‘It needs an alignment’ Ok says I do it, it’s on the rack, do it. I’m a bit dubious about this. The car drives straight as an arrow.

Get a text, ‘It needs rear brakes’. Ok, says I do it, it’s on the lift. Clearly you have the wheels off.

Service guy says it needs a battery. Uhh. Ok, It’s a little long in the tooth, but It’s been starting in -5f just fine. Go ahead and change it out says I.

So I wait. 3.5 hours. I had an appointment that I met. It was supposed to be done at 1pm. Get a text. Well, we need your car all day. And it may not be finished today and we are closed tomorrow.

I’m 100 miles from home, with no wheels. I ask them it it’s drivable, is it put back together? Bring it to me, I’m leaving.

So, it 3.5 hours, what did they accomplish for $90? They rotated the tires and checked the fluids.

The last time I was there it took 7 hours to change the oil and flush the radiator. I was a fool to go back.

I’m gonna check the lug nuts to see if they where pulled off. The car is dirty, I should be able to tell.

2

Scam.
What Toyota dealer did you go to so I can avoid them?

3

Arapahoe Toyota on East Arapahoe Rd. Centennial CO (very SE Denver area).

It’s sad, it’s seems that the check in people are on the ball. I don’t know what the hell is happening back in the actual service department. Well, except they don’t seem to be working. Or maybe there are only two of them.

I’m a bit more than just a shade tree mechanic. What in hell are they doing back there?

I gotta check those lug nuts. Since my car is pretty dirty (mountain car) I should be able to tell if those wheels where pulled.

4

If I had to drive a hundred miles to get to the dealer for service, I’d tell them that and that I expect the car to be done ASAP or be provided with a free loaner to use until it’s done. Surely your car can get priority over those who are in town?

5

This is one of the situations that makes me call out for good, reliable, effective, and efficient Big Government.

I’ve seen no end of YouTube videos where either a private citizen or a TV news investigative report or just an interested professional ‘rigs’ a product (be it water heater, car, furnace, breaker panel) with a very simple flaw, and then calls out a few pro’s to take a look and give a bid.

It’s pathetic how often the answer is hugely expensive – usually, “You need a whole new … widget.”

Three thousand bucks.

They, of course, then prove that they do not need a new widget; they had simply disconnected a Molex connector or a ground wire or inserted a bad fuse or had a corroded solderless terminal connection.

I wonder how much the American consumer, in aggregate, is really ripped off for every year.

I know a little about a lot of repair things, and have taken to doing a ridiculous amount on my own, largely because I’ve had pro’s out for this or that and knew that what they were telling me was either flat-out false, or that the $275.00 fix would take me ten minutes and cost me eight bucks for the part (eg, a start capacitor on a furnace).

And they seem to act with impunity, because … they never seem to face any actual consequences.

6

I had an appointment. Got there 20 minutes early. They know I came from ‘far’ away. On this ‘service’ I just kept getting texts about we need to do this, and this, and this. Ok.

Did they do any of it? NO.

Took them 3.5 hours to rotate the tires. Should be easy enough to see it they rotated the tires, by looking for clean spots where hands, or air tools would be.

I’m gonna go full on ‘Monk’ on these guys.

7

Sounds like all it really needed was an oil change. There’s not much money in that, hence the reason for trying to scam you on the other stuff.

You don’t need to go to the dealer for any of those things. I recommend finding a good, independent shop near your home.

8

Actually, I don’t think any scheduled maintenance needs to be done at a brand dealer, though they’d prefer you do so.

9

Well, one of the things that needed done is the back up camera replaced. Only Toyota would have one of those. Or something else is wrong. Donno. It’s totally blank.

There are not Toyota dealerships in the County I live in. So Denver it is.

10

It sounds like they didn’t even replace the backup camera?

11

Severe contradiction in terms.

I wonder what the Yelp reviews on that service department look like.

For the OP, any mechanic can order factory parts, including a backup camera (or whatever it turns out to need) from the warehouse for that make of car. Plus, the advantage of a local mechanic is that you can establish a personal relationship, which is to their advantage to maintain at a high level of trustworthiness. I’ve been going to one shop for over 20 years, since we used to live in walking distance to them, they have done a lot of work on our two cars, and I trust them implicitly.

12

I used to do a lot of this stuff myself. Rebuild a transfer case on a 4x4 truck? OK. Drop an engine in a car? OK.

I’m 64 years old now and my property is ass deep in snow. Not gonna do it. So I go to the ‘pros.’ Shit I could have this done while ass deep in snow. AND NOW it would been done.

13

I am going to guess this is what derailed the service. Per your own admission, you don’t know what is wrong with the camera. It is an almost certainty that they do not either and even if they did, they don’t have a new camera at the dealership. I wouldn’t surprise me that the closest new camera is in a California warehouse (although that is merely an illustrative guess), The point is they can’t simply replace the camera because they don’t have one to replace it with.

If they just changed your oil and told you to bring it back in a week once they have the camera, they’d have to charge you for the camera (since they’re not going to pay for it). There’s a good chance you’d pay for the oil change and say “Let me think about it,” on the camera and only pay them $150 for the oil change and be gone.

If you had just wanted an oil change, they probably would do it in 4 hours. A quick change oil place would do it in 15 minutes. In that 4 hours, they’d tell you about the battery, alignment, brakes, and maybe even an air filter.

Unless the car is under warranty, I think it is a bad idea to take it to a Dealer for service. Their techs are only trained on the latest models. Techs that have more than 5 years exp (or so) will either open their own shop or go to work an an independent shop and work on the older models they were trained on.

14

But why did the not do anything else? Said it needed new rear brakes. They rotated the tires, so they had it on a lift and the wheels where off. Wouldn’t that be a good time?

They said it needed aligned. It was on the alignment rack. Wouldn’t that be a good time to align it?

They said it needed a new battery. Umm I’m sure they have those.

They said they just needed more time to trouble shoot the camera. But they didn’t do jack for 3 1/2 hours. They let me sit and wait, and then said they needed it for the rest of the day, and it may not get done. And they are closed on Sunday.

I made sure the tires where actually rotated, I checked the lug nuts. They where ‘clean’ they had been handled.

I prefer a dealership because no matter what dealer I go to, they will have records of that car. It’s only 5 years old, so the techs shouldn’t have any problems.

15

We have a regular mechanic for all our fleet vehicles at work. They charge a very competitive fee for an oil change. Spring and fall they will complete an all points inspection, and I have to trust them to give us an honest report and recommendations for upcoming repairs and maintenance.

Some of the staff rather bring their vehicles into a quicklube service, and thats okay for a basic oil change, but we need to have the vehicles regularly maintained, and its well worth the loss of vehicle use for a day.

When a recall repair is required we send it to the dealer, but otherwise I much rather use our regular mechanic, who we are significant customer. We are a nobody to any dealer.

From what you describe of this dealer I would avoid them for everything but what is absolutely required to be performed by a dealer.

16

They sent me the typical response on how the service went. I gave a detailed response :imp: And I will find a new dealership for the things like the back up camera. That’s gotta be Toyota. Sheeeess this is a huge dealership, nice people. But I don’t know what the hell their mechanics are doing. Apparently, nothing.

17

When you call them, tell them exactly how far you’ll have to drive for the appointment and that you expect the necessary parts to be ready so that the work can be completed within the day. No bullshit. Unless, of course, they’ll willing to give you a loaner, free of charge of course.

Edited to add that I’ve read posts here or stories elsewhere of someone on a long roadtrip who need to have car repairs done in an emergency and I get the impression that the service station or dealer basically puts them ahead of others just to get them back on the road. The same thing ought to be the case for someone who needs to drive 100+ miles just to get to the dealer for service.

18

So you approved it and they didn’t do it? That is weird.
Maybe one of the service managers caught the tech trying to scam you and told them, “You don’t do that to our customers.” Obviously the tech wouldn’t admit that to you so let’s all ignore what he told you.

19

hahahah. That information NEVER gets through. I’ve asked them to expedite (when I already had an appointment that I come early for).

A 100 mile one way drive to rotate the tires, cost me $90. That’s what it turned out to be. Tires did not need rotated.

20

Yup. I got texts from the ‘service guy’ and I said fine. Do it. They didn’t do jack. 3 hours and they rotated the tires. Not very impressive.

I asked if my car is drivable? I paid the $90 to rotate the tires :roll_eyes: and left in my car. Phuuulleeaase.

Oh but they checked the fluids. That probably costs a lot of money to do.