Why I hate dealerships

Damn that’s scary! Don’t ever go to the dealer unless I absolutely have to. Hybridpit in SoCal is the only place I trust.

 

That is criminal !

 

So why did you not go to the dealership that did the work on the car and let them know?
The service manage gets information from the mechanic and tells the customer.
Maybe the dealership didn't know about bad mechanic? If no one complains, how can they?
Maybe they would have offered to repair it correctly, or offer the bolts for free.

You can't blame ALL dealerships. Independent shops are no better. They just charge less.
It is very easy to get sidetracked while working on a car and forget to tighten something.
Should it happen, NO! But it does. No one if perfect.
I've worked at 3 different dealerships, and 2 different independent shops. There were good and bad
at each one.

I worked at a firestone place and the service manager tried to sell a young couple new pads, rotors, calipers,
and a brake flush on there one year old car! With less than 10,000 miles on it. The pads had more than
half the live left. I was working on the car. I had to tell the customer they did NOT need any of that and
not to come back to firestone again. I told the manager I was going to report him to the district manager,
and to the BBB. Then I quit!

I know not everyone can repair there cars themselves, but they can be informed!

 

wow, what a story! i was riveted right from the headline

 

+1

Recommending unneeded service: could be a bad dealer... or just a bad service writer. Was it really unneeded though? For perspective, my wife's 2013 wagon needed rear brake pads at 90K -- that's right *rear* pads, front were fine. Quite unusual for a hybrid with regenerative braking. Her previous 2008 was still on its original pads/shoes when it was totaled at 180K.

You should definately contact the dealer to let them know -- nobody's perfect, but it should be a teachable moment for the tech. I'm not a professional tech, but I do all the work on mine and my family's vehicles (cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, small engines, etc.) and consider myself a pretty competent wrench. But I have to confess, I missed torqueing those bolts once while servicing my wife's car. She had a slight clunk when braking. When I pulled the wheel, one bolt was gone, the other was finger-tight.
I was rushed while doing that job and hadn't done a final check of all the fastners -- just a dumb mistake. Remember what I said earlier about a teachable moment? That was one for me. You can bet your life I haven't made that mistake since. Now even if I'm rushed -- in fact, particularly when I'm rushed -- I stop and take 30 seconds to count off the fasteners and put a wrench on each of them.

 

I agree the dealer should be notified of the dangerous service you received.
That said, there is a reason Dealerships have the reputation they have. Frankly, the high pressure and tag team sales tactics are the number one reason in my opinion.
But service departments haven't helped.

Up until a few years ago there was a national survey that asked people to rate the trustworthiness of various organizations.
"Congress" was second from the bottom of the list.
Auto Dealers were last.

The owners and managers have to know there is a problem when you are rated less trustworthy than congress.

***edit***
Found a more recent one:
America's Most & Least Trusted Professions [Infographic]

It appears Congress has managed to fall below Car Salespeople.
Not sure if it was this one I was thinking of or another that rated dealerships as a whole or just car salespeople.

 

Agreed. There are many issues but the main one IMO is the talent pool of skilled workers is shrinking rapidly as every successive generation have been avoiding trade/skills careers in droves.

I don't like the dealership model either but I certainly don't want to be in the position of having to rely on only one authorized manufacturer service center where I end up with zero leverage and zero options and they know it. Out of the frying pan and into the fire as it were.

 

Part of that might be the "if you become talented and skilled, who hires you?" question, if the guy in the corner office is saying "why do we hire these talented skilled workers when we could hire lower-wage instruction followers and just give them complete perfect foolproof instructions to follow? what could go wrong?"

I admit this thread isn't much of an illustration, as "put the pins back in" ought to be a safe expectation of an instruction-follower. Not a lot of years of technical judgement required for that.

 

I am sadly reminded of this trend every time I need to read the service manuals in my newer cars. One of those manuals (German car) is actually even more extreme in that they seem to be trying to remove as many words as possible. Almost everything is pictures, probably assuming that is easier than publishing it in all the various languages European mechanics might need. No need to think, no need to read, just plug it in to the magic diagnosis machine and follow the pictures.

 

Especially ironic, given that the magic diagnosis machine only gives you evidence; it doesn't give you any diagnoses.

There is still a large opening for brain work in getting from the evidence to what caused it.

 

Great posts chap .... This thread is the main reason I logged in today after 6 months or so.
As I'm now replacing the OEM tires at 35k and at the wear bars, I've noticed the dealer added clipon
weights to the mags at the cars last service and they have already started to corrode the mags,
I mentioned previously that the tires were finally rotated at around 30k (if I recall correct like).
This is a little thing in the overall perspective of service, but at my first 5k service, the mechanic didn't
replace one of the tpms sensor caps, much less rotate the tires. Again, not a big thing to me, but I think it illustrates
the point the OP is making in this thread.
I'd also like to comment about hybrid dealership service quality and offer my take on one reason it might be lacking.
The dealership mechanics have to work on a wde range of vehicles every day. Hybrid / Electric service is distintly different
than gasser service in many respects. ie oil change intervals, etc....

Unfortunately, it seems we have to either get used to services provided or DIY/O (do it your/our-selves)

 

My bad for typing before knowing for sure. It looks like the clipon weights are factory. I guess it's a good thing that the OEM tires wear so quickly, but a few simple additives between the mags and the steel would definitely help reduce the corrosion between the two metals.
A few thousand more miles and I'd probably have a really tough time separating the wheels from the hubs.

 

It’s sorta like dealing with the government.