Unscrupulous mechanics "fixing" new waranty 4WDs in large dealership workshop?
Submitted: Tuesday, Jul 30, 2002 at 00:00
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Peter
My two brand new 4WD(Toyota/Nissan) needed a waranty job to be done. I went to the dealerships.
In both separate instances my car keys were taken from me and I was told to come back 6 hours later.
When I came back one of my 4WD had 280 km extra on the odometer and the other had the side panel of the engine wrecked.
I challenged the workshop supervisor who tried to put the blame on me. I was even told I like "arguing to much".
In believe that in the last 20 years the standard of repair has been used against the customer.
Specially the new "health and Safety" laws has been used against the customer. My cars are taken from me and "any" type of mecanic can work
on my car and do all sorts of things to my car and search all my personal items left in my car and press all the switches.
In most big workshop dealership the customer servcie standard and behavior has gone down.
As a customer I often feel treated like trash. In my days the customer was the "king". Certainly NOT now. Peter
Reply By: jono - Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
peter,
i too have had my run in's with a toyota dealership. Now i accept that i have a Surf and these cars are not imported to OZ by Toyota, but how come every other mechanic in the country can work on them without problems???? The reason is the dealers simply dont give a S H I T. They told me this big sob story about how hard it was for them, and how the parts numbers on Surfs dont match up with the parts numbers on their computer system, and how they have to send a fax to the Japan factory to get the propper parts numbers. That sounds fair enough, but when i picked up my car, they had fitted non factory parts anyway!! Which i might add, any mechanic can go and buy from Repco for about half the price the dealer charged me. I was also not happy with the time that i was charged for, and when i mentioned these two things to the service man he said "look mate...if you don't like it....dont come back". So guess what...i never went back to a toyota dealership again, and i called the Toyota head office to issue a complaint, and then i call the Consumer Affairs department in WA. The girl at consumer affairs told me that there had been 6 complaints in the last month about Toyota dealerships in WA, and she was very happy i had made the complaint because she was one of the 6 who also complained. Anyway, now i have a great mechanic who has no problems getting parts (he walks 100m down the road to Repco) and my cars running as
well as it ever has.
Cheers, Jono.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Peter - Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
I aggree with Rod. I will name the dealership and the workshop sevrice manager but also I suggest
that close circuit of television be installed in the waiting room, so ever customer can watch through the close circuit television there 4WD
being repaired or being damaged and their own personal belongings being totally searched in some cases(totally unethical practice).
Also by using a short circuit TV the difference between the hours spend on the car and the hours charged would be visually detected.
Sometimes the difference between the real work and the invoiced work as high as 1 to 16. Which is unacceptable.
The rule of the thumb and the guide line for repairs are usuallyin the ratio of 1 to 4 and not 1 to 8 or 1 to 16. Which is pure robbery.
I will name in my next posting the large worshop dealerships involved in over charging and producing shoddy worksmanship.
I will make sure to name the unethical workshop-service-manager are clearly mentioned. The workshop service manager is TOTALLY
responsible for the checking of the quality control of his/her employees. There is no excuses accpetable for a workshop service manager.
Or the job is of satifactory quality to the client or it is not. If it is not it should be redone at no charge.
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Reply By: Brian - Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
I have been reading these replies with interest. I do not own a 4WD but a Holden Commodore and I live in a very large town in NSW (No name yet, but it is famous for V8 car races) and have been taking my Commodore to the local Holden Dealer for services/repairs for quite some years. I have had doubts in my mind that I have been getting ripped off and after reading what you guys have said I think I might be on the right track. It seems that most times when I take it to have something done they find something else wrong. As I have no mechanical knowledge I have trusted these guys to be telling me the truth. I have kept every invoice for quite some time and after looking back thru them I think i am being dudded. The guys at the service counter are very polite and helpful but in the end it is the pocket that is hurting with large bills. I also have of late had to take my car back as the job was not done right in the first place.
I am now going to try and find an honest place to get my car done. We do have a few private mechanics about so now I will give one a go.
Hope to hear from anyone else who is having problems with the large dealers. Maybe a few of us could get together and I am sure that "A Current Affair" would like a story like this.
Cheers from a happy Commodore owner but unhappy with service owner.
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Reply By: Member - Tony - Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
Everybody has their horror mechanic stories to tell. I live in western
Sydney. I had an EB Falcon, and as it was my first 'modern' car (i.e. computer EMS etc) thought I should have it serviced by the local Ford dealer. BIG MISTAKE. The Ford dealership gave sloppy service: overpriced, car required 'all day' when manual specified a 2.5 hr service, parts not replaced and so on. I got fed up when I drove it out once and it spluttered down the road. Took it to UltraTune, and the bloke there fixed it (and I still go to him with my 4Runner). Problem is many dealers have their apprentices do the work, and my experience indicates they weren't supervised. Having said that, I had major work done on the 4Runner (head work at 133K kms- factory fault- covered under warranty), and Toyota were great. Depends on where you go, as the cliche goes. Cheers, Tony
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Reply By: Goran - Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 at 00:00
Few years ago i took missus Comodore for recall work to a local Holden rep.An hour later police showed at my doorstep asking me who was the driving my car 10 minutes ago as it almost crashed into the unmarked police car.I managed to explain to the officer that the car was in for service and we went to the dealer together.Their answer was that secretary had to drop some mail to the
post office and it was good opportunity to
TEST the vehicle.Car was in for main gearbox oil seal replacement and secretary didn't even know what car she was driving let alone anything else.She got charged with dangerous driving and mechanic never saw me in his
shop again.Guys when you run into this sort of behaviour there is only one thing you can do.NEVER go back there and make sure all of the people you know dont go there either.
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Reply By: tim - Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00
you dont have to put up with poor service,are you aware that we can all take the dealer to a tribunal hearing with the dept of fair trading.this is low cost,no solicitors,and guarenteed payment from the dealer if you are correct and no penalty to you if you are wrong.it costs the dealer time and money that he cant afford and improves your negotiating position immensly.if the dealer doesnt attend the hearing,the case is heard in his absence,impossible for him to win,if after the judgement the dealer refuses to pay the dept has the power to confiscate the dealers equipment,sell it at auction to pay the judgement,
it has worked for me twice in the past,give it a try if you have a genuine complaint.
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Follow Up By: Peter - Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00
Tim, this sounds very interesting. I am going to contact the Department of Fair Trading. What is the process called?
Does it exist in Queensland and also in ALl Australian States? How long was your two cases heard after yiu
made the original complaint to the Department of Fair Trading?
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Reply By: Tim - Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00
Peter from memory the case is heard less than 30 daysafter you apply,but will check and reply with accurate info.it is an efficient process,also if the dispute occurred in say
sydney but you lodge the application in say
wollongong perhaps more convenient to you the dealer has to attend
wollongong,another incentive for him to reconsider your point of view.the dealer can not claim travelling expenses.
i have no knowledge of procedure in qld as i am based in nsw.
i took similar action against a tennant that owed approx $800 and had moved from
wollongong to
cobar,i applied in
wollongong sent summons to
cobar,the tenant was required to attend
wollongong he couldnt have the matter heard in
cobar. the tenant paid the money.
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Follow Up By: Peter - Friday, Aug 02, 2002 at 00:00
Friday, Aug 02, 2002 at 00:00
Tim, you are music to my ears. Please! please! give me the info related to NSW then I can find the same infos related to QLD where I leave.
I know the process exist, I thought it was the Small Claim Tribunals (SMC) but QLD does not seems to work the same because SMC does not seem to be connected to Consumer Affairs. May be I am wrong. Your detailed info will be valuable to me and others in QLD. Thank you also to ALL the other people answering and contributing to this subject which has never been propely addressed by any governments and consummer Affairs (as someone else further down the answers as pointed out). Tim you are making my day. I can not wait to have the b.....ds in court.
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Reply By: mudgutz - Wednesday, Sep 11, 2002 at 00:00
Wednesday, Sep 11, 2002 at 00:00
roflmao.......having worked in a toyota dealership..not as a mechanic
but seeing how they run.i wouldnt take my billy cart there to get fixed you are better off finding a good mechanic that you trust and stick with him ,,,,as for the warranty when you buy a new car or in fact a used car now days if its under ten yeats old and less than 160000 kms it is warrantable ....dont argue the fact of price with the salesman regarding warranty because the cost of the warranty is allready built in to the price of the car and the minimum price he will sell the car for includes the warranty anyway.....most used car warranties not worth a pinch of bleep
but if you have problems with a dealer ..scream at the manufacturers head office and you will soon see some action ..most workshop managers get payed a bonus on performance as well as gross profit from the
shop so they charge heaps but for the heaps you are fully entitled to have the job done correctly
AnswerID:
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