Stealerships

[Baz]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

lol......

[mistertate]

I’d replace those pads if I were you

[red-beard]

I will, in about 35,000 miles!

[manbridge 74]

We’d get roasted for this at this Porsche dealership. Of course we always rank in the top ten of Premier stores, let alone the also rans, so can’t afford these shenanigans.... FWIW.

[oldE]

When I bought my '90 Miata from a friend and neighbour, I knew it had the small nose crank problem and prepared to do the fix. To determine TDC on #1, I removed the spark plug and was not pleased to find it was cross threaded , but luckily it was only in a turn or two. I asked my friend and he said he had taken it to the dealer when it wasn't running right . They changed the plugs, adjusted the idle mixture and finally told him it needed a new crank.
I understand a dealership wants no part of doing the Locktite fix on a car, but they should know how to put in a spark plug. I took the plug in to the service manager and he tried to tell me some other garage had worked on the car. I pointed out the car had a complete set of new plugs but only three had the crush washers engaged and their work order listed the spark plug change.
In all, it was my gain, as I was able to do the fix on the end of the crank nose, chase the threads in the head, re-set the idle mixture and drove the car for six years and another 30K miles.
To be fair, when I was re-doing the rear brakes on that car a few years later, and was trying to source caliper rebuild kits, the same service manager pointed out he could sell me remanufactured calipers for about the same price as all the components required to rebuild the calipers.

Best
Les

[manbridge 74]

These places live or die by the CSI.

Leave a bad but truthful review on all platforms...

[asphaltgambler]

It's the business model at fault. Largely unchanged since post-Depression era. While there has been some 'evolving' the customer always takes the hit. Maintenance opportunities have all but evaporated as the consumers want more of an appliance. Hyundai took the lead in 1996 - first to offer 100k mileage coverage on what was at the time a sub- standard car. They lost a lot of money on the back end, but won a lot of customers over, selling waaay more units than before.

There is really very little COD work anymore on the service side, just about all warranty. So up-selling is essential not optional now. The other issue is because warranty work is the major source of service dollars there is a lot more administrative work to be done as well as maintaining high CSI - customer satisfaction index. There is literally a staff of people working the customers via direct contact to ensure that the CSI comes in @90%+.

CSI is the driving force on the backend for parts / new vehicle discounts, preferential treatment. So administrative costs have soared, the main reason that labor hours average in the $125 + range

[masraum]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Took my F250 to the Ford Service dept since it needed a front end alignment (uneven tire wear). Had them do an oil change since it was due and we were heading out on a 5 day vacation.

They rotated the tires, but didn't reset front and back pressure. They didn't reset oil dashboard reminder. So, kinda irritated.

They also said my brake pads are down to 5%. This was after the service. Well, OK. I'll get that fixed after the trip.

Today I had front and rear pads in hand. Blocked wheels. Setup air compressor. Tools out. Looked and looked for my pad compressor, had to settle for c-clamp.

Jack the truck, put in Jack stand. Removed the wheel. Searched for the security nut adapter. Found it and removed last nut. Wheel off.

And then I pull the pads. Hmmmmm. Those don't look too bad. Check the new pads. Huh?

Needless to say, there is more than 50% pad left. I put the old ones back in and I'm returning the new pads.

WTF?!? That is fraud, straight up. I'm glad I didn't just take it someplace. My regular mechanic for the BMW wouldn't have done this.

I feel like that scene in Pulp Fiction. "What does Marcellus look like?"

My experience has been that most places love the whole "your brakes need to be replaced" bit. I've had dealerships and LOTS of other places give me that same story. I've then checked and found that there was tons of pad.

[shadowjack1]

I changed my pads, front and rear late Jan. Car suffered a computer mishap in March. Bring the car in for this and was told my brakes were metal on metal. Told the service manager he should fire the tech, either he lied to "YOUR" customer or he does not know a thing about brakes. Never going back.

[Rick Lee]

Long ago I was offered a pretty well-paying job as a service adviser at an Audi dealership. I couldn't believe that job could pay so well. But the service mgr. said they always got huge CSI bonuses from Audi Corp. Just by sheer coincidence, I needed something done on my '87 Carrera and the shop I used told me they were slammed with Audis and it would be a while before they could get to me. I asked why they were slammed with Audis. Turns out that Audi dealership referred all non-warranty work to them, so customers wouldn't be able to get revenge with a bad CSI rating when they got a monstrous repair bill.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Long ago I was offered a pretty well-paying job as a service adviser at an Audi dealership. I couldn't believe that job could pay so well. But the service mgr. said they always got huge CSI bonuses from Audi Corp. Just by sheer coincidence, I needed something done on my '87 Carrera and the shop I used told me they were slammed with Audis and it would be a while before they could get to me. I asked why they were slammed with Audis. Turns out that Audi dealership referred all non-warranty work to them, so customers wouldn't be able to get revenge with a bad CSI rating when they got a monstrous repair bill.

There's almost always a way to game the system.

And frankly, when customers are involved, sometimes the system needs to be gamed.

I once worked at a place where you potentially got a customer satisfaction survey after helping customers (think "tech support" type work). The surveys had something like 5-10 questions that could be answered 1 (bad) - 5 (good) and we were expecting to keep our avg above 4.6.

I had a guy call once with a well known issue. I knew the issue within 60 secs of talking to him and gave him the fix which was simple. He gave me all 3 across the board (which was BS since one of the questions was about whether I was courteous). All 3 across the board is a big ding on an avg of 4.6 and takes a bunch of all 5s to get back up. His reasoning was that the problem was "obviously too simple" to warrant anything other than "avg."

You can also get a guy that you bend over backwards for, but they are twits or don't like the ultimate answer, and those guys may give you all 1s across the board (again, if I didn't call you an arsehole, then you shouldn't give me a 1 for being courteous).

All 1s are horrible to try to avg back up to over 4.6.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by masraum

There's almost always a way to game the system.

And frankly, when customers are involved, sometimes the system needs to be gamed.

I once worked at a place where you potentially got a customer satisfaction survey after helping customers (think "tech support" type work). The surveys had something like 5-10 questions that could be answered 1 (bad) - 5 (good) and we were expecting to keep our avg above 4.6.

I had a guy call once with a well known issue. I knew the issue within 60 secs of talking to him and gave him the fix which was simple. He gave me all 3 across the board (which was BS since one of the questions was about whether I was courteous). All 3 across the board is a big ding on an avg of 4.6 and takes a bunch of all 5s to get back up. His reasoning was that the problem was "obviously too simple" to warrant anything other than "avg."

You can also get a guy that you bend over backwards for, but they are twits or don't like the ultimate answer, and those guys may give you all 1s across the board (again, if I didn't call you an arsehole, then you shouldn't give me a 1 for being courteous).

All 1s are horrible to try to avg back up to over 4.6.

Like working sales at Pelican. Under Wayne they took 20% of your owed commissions for any return. When you're making 10% to start with it's hard to get back to even especially if the return item was a big ticket sale. I lasted 2 months.

It might be different now, that was years ago. But I agree that points or any demerits are simply ridiculous when there isn't ample explanation. I don't work well with bosses anyway. Everyone I've had was unreasonable at one point or another.

I never forget nor forgive. Benn burned every time I gave a 2nd chance.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by masraum

There's almost always a way to game the system.

And frankly, when customers are involved, sometimes the system needs to be gamed.

I once worked at a place where you potentially got a customer satisfaction survey after helping customers (think "tech support" type work). The surveys had something like 5-10 questions that could be answered 1 (bad) - 5 (good) and we were expecting to keep our avg above 4.6.

I had a guy call once with a well known issue. I knew the issue within 60 secs of talking to him and gave him the fix which was simple. He gave me all 3 across the board (which was BS since one of the questions was about whether I was courteous). All 3 across the board is a big ding on an avg of 4.6 and takes a bunch of all 5s to get back up. His reasoning was that the problem was "obviously too simple" to warrant anything other than "avg."

You can also get a guy that you bend over backwards for, but they are twits or don't like the ultimate answer, and those guys may give you all 1s across the board (again, if I didn't call you an arsehole, then you shouldn't give me a 1 for being courteous).

All 1s are horrible to try to avg back up to over 4.6.

This is a problem. When 3 is "Average" but the required "average" is 4.6, you have a problem. The scale is wrong. The expectation of everyone to be above average is ridiculous.

[asphaltgambler]

Rick, if you never worked as a Service Advisor / Writer for a new car dealer, you have no idea just how bad it is - 60+ hours minimum, there's always some hold back on your commissions, you're stuck between angry techs, angry customers, angry Service managers. The pay might look good, until you realize you have to sell your soul and be chained to your desk for 12+ hours a day, and some Saturdays......

[masraum]

Originally Posted by red-beard

This is a problem. When 3 is "Average" but the required "average" is 4.6, you have a problem. The scale is wrong. The expectation of everyone to be above average is ridiculous.

Yep. Now you understand why any time you call someone for help these days, before you get off of the phone, you often get something like "we want to make sure that your service has been great. If your service hasn't been great service, let me know now so we can make it great service."

Where I worked, that was called "pimping for bingos" (the survey was called a bingo survey). And asking for a good review was eventually forbidden. I guess not everyone was smooth and subtle about it.

[thor66]

so they trained their oil change monkeys to check the needs new pads on their computer?

or maybe the service writer did it?

you're in Houston so be glad they didn't sic a tiger on you

[Scott Douglas]

Within two weeks of buying that Taurus, the battery went dead on my wife. Luckily, for me, it was in her parents driveway. I was just going to jump it, until I read the owner's manual. I wasn't about to risk blowing up the computer doing that as it said to turn on every friggin' thing electrical before hooking up the jumper cables. So I had it flat bedded to the dealer. They said they'd get to it the next day as service was closed by the time it got there. Next day, we hadn't heard from them and it was approaching 5PM. I called to ask what was up. All the techs that do battery work have gone home so I'll have to wait.
OK, I'll be right down for my FREE LOANER CAR that you owe me because it's a new car.
By the time I got there they some how managed to find a tech that could put another, way too small battery in the car, I was good to go.
That car never ran right until I put a new, big-as-can-fit battery in it a couple years later.
Bean counters really didn't do dealers any favors with those cars, which made the Consumer's Report 'Do NOT buy' recommendation list for that year.

[tabs]

Pulled into a service station when I was 35 with my Mothers Corvair, tech said it needed a new radiator..said sure go ahead..

[David]

My last visit to the BMW dealership when my ex-wife's warranty was about to expire went like this.

Service rep, "your brake fluid needs replacing"
Me, "really, how about you look up the last time YOU replaced it"
Rep, "Oh, it show's we just did it a couple months ago"
Me (getting louder and louder as this comes out of my mouth so everyone in the service department could hear me!), "Yeah, it shows that but that's not true because I checked the fluid when I got home that day and it wasn't changed, so you know what I did? I flushed it myself so that fluid is practically brand new. So either your service tech's lying or don't know what they're doing or you're lying!" At this point I'm looking toward the service manager who has seen me as a good customer for years. The service manager looked like he wanted to crawl in a hole. He wouldn't make eye contact with me and sure as hell didn't come over to see what I was pissed about. I walked out and never went back.

[asphaltgambler]

…..Oh forget to mention that other service writers will steal jobs / labor hours / pick up the phone that rings when any writer is away for more than 3 mins. Also the service dept, overbills the sales dept, shucks and grind the parts dept out of money, and each other dept is trying to do the same as well.

Its a f*****n money circus.