Appointments at the Car Dealer

[Phillbo 11]

Ask to speak to the service manager.

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Ask to speak to the service manager.

that does not help, the technicians are the ones in charge at the dealer.

if you want quality work done on your car, drop it off at the dealer with a friend to drive you away. drop it off in the AM and come back in the evening..

we don't have magic fucking wands that tells us what is wrong with your car.

and If I do NOT look over your car and tell you the problems it has, you come back BITCHING, "why didn't you tell me that last time I was here.?"..

drop it off and go on about your business...

(signed) disgruntled!

p.s. it is up to you, the "car owner" what you want to do "preventive maintenance wise" with your car.
if you decline the work needed, you also decline the right to bitch when something that we recommended goes wrong.

[TonyJ 0]

oh please...dont you have a thing you can hook up and tell you whats wrong....we here this all the time...its amazing people will wait hours for jobs that should have been drop offs...the scheduled time at our dealer is the time your car will be written up...not worked on...lifts tied up...dying on the previous job...i hate being right in the middle of rebuilding a trans and i get a waiter..the waiters are given some preference if its something simple....but usually its an intermittent problem or something that takes some real diag.......signed disgruntled #2

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oh please...dont you have a thing you can hook up and tell you whats wrong....we here this all the time...its amazing people will wait hours for jobs that should have been drop offs...the scheduled time at our dealer is the time your car will be written up...not worked on...lifts tied up...dying on the previous job...i hate being right in the middle of rebuilding a trans and i get a waiter..the waiters are given some preference if its something simple....but usually its an intermittent problem or something that takes some real diag.......signed disgruntled #2

just break out the magic box, it will tell you what is wrong with it....

waiters at the dealer, irritate the hell out of me....

I got work to do, don't you? if so, why are you waiting on me? just drop it off.

[Jewels 0]

I have no problem with preventative maintenance. I appreciate knowing what needs attention. I am NOT saying that every dealership works the way mine has because I've been to others that are more reasonable. What I *am* saying is that when I'm presented with a long list of "to do" items that totals over $1,200 above and beyond the scheduled work, I have no way of determining what's a real priority and what's an extra. I've been diligent about taking my car in for regularly scheduled service and preventative maintenance. I expect to have some costs to keep the car going before a repair is required. But when I get a long, expensive laundry list of things I could do to the car, the result is that I don't trust ANY of what I'm being told. It just becomes another sales pitch. Kudos to all the people who work in auto repair and have a different approach, but I'm not apologizing for my frustrations. Until I get a reasonable discussion about what needs to be done and what the priorities are, a $1,200 list of "extras" on a car that receives ongoing preventative maintenance isn't going to do anything for me except make me skeptical about whether any of it is necessary.

Oh--and we expect all sorts of service professions to make and keep appointments. If the repair is a lengthy repair or the the service department doesn't think they can get to it right away, just say so. Other arrangements can be made. It's the frustration of having a scheduled appointment that is ignored that becomes tiring.

The thing is, both the issue of preventative maintenance and the scheduling of the appointment itself can be handled in such a way as to keep the customer from hitting the wall of irritation. Prioritize. Make reasonable suggestions about what needs to be done. If someone is frustrated about the wait, do more than shrug your shoulders and walk away. Even a little empathy goes a long way. It's even better if there's an understanding explanation--e.g., sorry, we're short-handed today and we've called someone else in but for now we're still trying to catch up. And it goes one better if it's a very long wait over and above what was quoted and the service department actually tries to come up with a solution.

TPM Sister #102

[TonyJ 0]

i think if you worked in the business you would understand better what we go through....nobody wants to wait to get thier car fixed....im just as impatient as the next person...people are frustrated when they get to our door....sometimes we get 3 waiters at one time, usually we try to figure out which is the fastest, which one only wants to wait on diag... we do offer onsite rentals...shuttle....and a valet service on thursdays for $10....a good writer can make the situation better by updating the customer, but if the customer chooses to wait....we have a saying," thats why they call them waiters." but in the end, the appt time at our dealer is the time to be written up, not your car going in the door....also in your service manual should be the service schedule....tony

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I *am* saying is that when I'm presented with a long list of "to do" items that totals over $1,200 above and beyond the scheduled work, I have no way of determining what's a real priority and what's an extra

some of those things on the "to do" list, are very low priority. just ask the tech.

ask to speak to the tech, it is the only way you will get a straight answer.

and as for the "how long will this job take" question, is only answered correctly by a tech.

when i say, the "techs run the place" I am serious.

get to know one of the techs there, you will have a much better time with getting your car serviced or repaired.

[airdvr 197]

We had a saying at our dealership:

Our repairs are Good, Cheap, & Quick.

Quick & Cheap...won't be Good
Quick & Good...won't be Cheap
Good & Cheap...won't be Quick



Seriously though, there is so much more that this particular dealership could have done better. Biggest thing is communication before you got there. They should have told you that you might wait a long time. We actually never let people wait on their car. They had to drop it off and pick it up later.

More and more I notice customer service at alot of places just plain sucks. And in this case it goes straight to management (as it does in most cases). I would complain to the owner or general manager. Many times they don't even know this stuff is happening.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Jewels 0]

Hi, Tony!

It's not a lack of empathy for the people who are actually working on my car. I realize people can only be in one place and do one thing at a time. It IS a lot of work to turn around vehicles when you have a busy day and it still needs to be done correctly.

However, whether it's a scheduling issue or just a communication issue, it sounds like Lisa's dealership needs to do a better customer relations job so that everyone's expectations are on the same page. In my case, if you can't tell me when you'll get to my car, I'd rather know that so I can take the shuttle or the loaner or make other arrangements and get on with my day. If I have an appointment time, there is no reason that I'm going to assume that's just really a drop-off time. After all, if it's just a drop-off time, why bother scheduling the appointment at all?

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the suggestion that I talk to a tech. I DO have the maintenance book and that's the one I'm following. The $1,200 worth of extra work was off of the scheduled maintenance list in the book. That's why it's so frustrating. If I'm doing it by the book and they can still come up with that many other things to do, we have a problem. It's either a horrible car, or they're going over the top in terms of what "needs" to be done. I have no way of knowing which it is, and at the end of the day, if I can't reasonably trust what I'm being told, I'll go elsewhere. Even if everything I'm told is correct, I need to understand why it's outside of the norm and I need to understand priorities. Sounds like the tech can help answer that--but really, as a practical matter, I'm not going to bother talking to a tech if I just feel like I'm being taken for a ride. I might not do things that really should be done. Sometimes, being overly inclusive has a negative effect in the opposite way.

TPM Sister #102

[TonyJ 0]

its impossible to schedule for a dealership to suit everybody, that is why we schedule a write up time...i seen people bring a lawn chair, we say so you have been here before...we try not to rush the customer during the write up... what happens there determines if the complaint is accurately stated to the tech, which alot of times it isnt....i have a vibration, what speed, on the gas, off the gas, only when cold, hot...etc...other stuff is easier, oil change...waiter oil changes take priority, but usually they have a list also...we have walk in's...tow in's...just stuff we cannot schedule for....typically were a small dealer...we may see 50 cars a day, some more, some less...so if everyone shows up for write up at he same time, everybody will be frustrated....including the writers...as to the extras, ask which is most important and why i need them...we do an inspection sheet on almost all vehicles...so you know that next time you are going to be looking at a brake job, or coming up next time will be your trans service....they say you need something ask to look...i understand the push to sell, i hate that, thats why we try to prepare the customer ahead on time....tony