So mad at my dealer!

Doesn't need an oil change now?

It is time to escalate up the management chain.

If that doesn't work, make a very loud scene, within easy hearing range of many other customers. One of my past coworkers, who had just discovered non-working brakes the hard way when picking up her car after a collision repair, was able to completely empty the shop's lobby of customers waiting to check in.

 

Sounds like the average visit to Toyota Sunnyvale's Service Department. If so, escalation to the management team is useless. It took a call from my attorney and another call from Toyota Financial's Customer Relations team to get anything done.

Only took the Toyota Sunnyvale Service Department 12 days to do a 5k service, without an oil change. I can't imagine how long an actual oil change would take there.


Only bonus of this experience, putting 2800 miles on their loaner car.

 

write a bad review on one of those on line sites.

 

I wrote a bad review on Yelp after a bad experience. I was detailed and it was so specific that the service manager was able to figure out who I was and called me directly the next day. He sorted out the service guys and I got my air conditioner fixed.

 

I would take the car to a different dealer and try that first. If I did not get any satisfaction with that dealer then I would contact Toyota Corporate. If you have a bad dealer dump him. He is not going to get any better.

 

You're always free to switch dealers.
You're always free to complain.

But I think I'd look at it this way. Your experience and dissatisfaction with this dealership is so extreme, that complaining to the dealership itself or even "Toyota" isn't really going to do much good.

I mean even if you got an apology, or some degree or amount of "free services" would you want to continue your relationship with this dealership? Usually if you complain in matters like this, the "best case" scenario, is you get somebody to listen, somebody higher in the management chain makes an apology, and the dealership get's the chance to placate you by "doing the right thing". And you have to ask yourself? Even if they were going to give you a free Oil Change and/or a complete brake system check, at this point would you want them to do it anyway? Sounds like the answer is no.

If it was me? I'd just search for a different dealership.

 

Yes, but this "Service Adviser" is now part of that dealership. They hired him and they evidently allow him to continue.

Sure you can always request a different adviser. You might just randomly get one next time. I seldom get the same one twice. I think it fair and reasonable if you ever seek further work done at that dealership to request a different adviser, I don't even really think you need to explain why, for whatever reason the two of you didn't start out very well, and you obviously have no trust in him.

"A firm talking to?" That might work with a toddler, but I doubt it's going to work in a situation like this. More than likely you'd just establish yourself behind the scenes, within the service department as being a "tough case".

I think your best choice...staying with the dealership OR changing...is to simply move on.

 

Just to trade horror stories:

I brought in a Honda Accord with a cracked front brake disk. I'd pulled the wheel off and verified, told them on the phone when I set up the appointment that it was cracked. Anyway, about an hour after I dropped it off the service writer called, with "good news", the car was ready for pick-up, there was no problem, false alarm.

Long story short, about an hour later I was talking to the service manager, who had the (cracked) disk on his desk, he apologized. Really nice guy, he didn't last long there though, too bright for them. He's teaching at local community college now.

 

I think it is our duty as customers to complain. If no one complains how will the service advisor know he is doing anything wrong? How will his superiors know who to promote and who to reprimand? A single customer complaint is an anomaly. But multiple complaints and the advisor needs to change his behavior or risk termination.

In my case, I had already invested effort and some minimal costs at diagnosing my problem so I was very much interested in a resolution with the same dealership. Likewise, I can forgive 1 bad advisor at a dealership as an anomaly.

 

Your change in dealers looks promising so far. I have found out that there is a difference in dealers. I had a bad experience with a Toyota dealer. I'm sure most of us has had our share of bad experiences.

 

I agree with you.

But I guess I was trying to offer my advice based on a path to resolution of least resistance and stress for the OP.

Also realistically, I think this type of dynamic rarely leads to massive change. Based on a singular complaint, of perhaps a communication break down, I doubt Toyota, who will ultimately back their dealerships, nor the dealership itself is likely to do anything.

I became disgruntled, and unhappy with the support from my original dealership and have since changed dealerships for further warranty work and support. I complained to Toyota Care, and their ultimate position was to support their dealership, I complained to the dealership and they ultimately made no tangible change in procedure or operation.

Do I think the OP has reason to be legitimately upset? You would think a great part of being a service adviser would be communication skills, which would include listening. Reading the OP's original post, it sounds like they both got almost immediately off to a bad start. It's the service advisers job to listen to the customer and try to match what is being done, with what they want and expect to be done. So I side with the OP.

But I'm glad to hear he brought his car into another dealer. Sometimes "faults" aside, it's just better to start over.