Proper Charge By Dealer?

Shouldn't Toyota cover EVERYTHING until your warranty expires?

My Subaru dealer would never charge me anything for diagnosing the issue.

 

I would say "Hell NO" they conned you, go back , complain, if they get stupid , mention that you are going to take this up with Toyota Headquarters. They will give you the 800 #. If they said free before the job, they cannot turn around and charge you because THEY did not find anything. I hope you refused on the spot and did not pay them. Be polite, and diplomatic. The people you talk to are mostly Robots obeying orders from somebody higher. Always go higher if unsure. On your problem with the 12V (?) battery, go to a place like batteries are us, and let them look at the battery. The dealers are incredibly inefficient when it comes to condition, charging and straight talk. :rockon:

 

It's a tough call, I'm a bit torn on that one. If the tech really did make a legitimate effort to find the problem but could not duplicate it, they should get paid IMO.

I'm guessing that the techs at your dealer must get paid even if they could not find anything wrong. So, I guess you as the customer gets to pay that.

On the other hand, I know a lot of dealers don't pay their techs if the car is under warranty and the problem can't be duplicated.

 

Then complain. They obviously did not try to reproduce the problem under the circumstances that you described.

However, techs are almost always paid on a flat rate system. They are essentially paid by the job. An oil change may pay 0.3 hours or 0.5 hours, a set of brakes may pay 2 hours, etc.

 

Are you going to have to replicate the failure yourself by leaving it parked overnight on their lot, where you can personally demonstrate the failures in the morning?

 

No such thing as a salary auto tech, hourly maybe if it is a union shop but for the majority it is all flat rate. This means you have to take a different tactic to get an intermittent fault reproduced and repaired. Basically you have to tell them you have an intermittent issue and that they need to duplicate your circumstances exactly. Pulling codes might give a clue on where to go but as in your case there weren't any so they should have kept it overnight at least to see if they could duplicate the issue. Your car is under warranty, there is NO charge for warranty work and that includes finding the problem. I don't know about Toyota but many other companies pay techs to use the diagnostic equipment if the car is under warranty, I'm just not buying the "diagnostic charge" and you should take it up with the service manager.

 

IF: this is only a 12V battery problem, you can deliberately duplicate the problem by putting the car in accesory mode and turning on everything that will turn on. If the battery is really bad, it will fail quickly, the tech will be able to duplicate the problem, they will have to charge the battery ( if they can ) to move it. You can do this by waiting in line or park at some slightly remote area at the dealership. As far as the dealership is concerned, if it can't be duplicated, the problem is not there. So help them!
:cheer2: PS It makes no sense to duplicate at home.

 

This won't replicate his problem. It will simply, and intentionally, run the battery flat, which the dealer should properly diagnose as a problem with the operator, not the car.

 

I saw in your prior posts that this was a "Certified" used car warranty, prior fleet car. When you say it's under warranty, is it still within the factory 3 yr/36k warranty, or is it under a Certified used warranty? If it's the latter, what does it say about electrical and other non-powertrain claims? There can be a big difference depending on the particulars.

 

The car does NOT beep when you unlock it. It also does not beep when you lock it. It DOES beep if you try to lock it, but the door or boot is open. In that case it doesn't lock, and if the interior light is on, will drain the 12V battery overnight.

The dealer is probably justified in charging, because at this point it sounds like operator error.

 

This didn't sound right to me so I just went out to my car to check it. Touching the door handle sensor area to lock it causes a single beep and the hazards flash. I waited a minute and grabbed the handle to unlock it and I got a double beep and hazard light flash. All doors are closed securely. This is normal operation for me, so what gives with your assertion, are the cars all programmed differently? Mine is a 2010 II.

Mick

 

Mine does, on both events.

Is this a functional difference between UK and US markets?