Not Pleased With Toyota Dealer Service

wow.

 

I get the same great service at the largest Toyota dealer, Longo Toyota. I try to avoid them all together

 

Wow, you should get something out of the crappy service, or lack thereof. Maybe a Heatshield windshield sunshade, or some other accessory you'd like?

 

I get the same "great" service almost everywhere these days.

I just traded my C in for another C.
Got such bad vibes from the sales staff at DeLuca that I went to Gainesville for my new C.
I'm still debating whether or not I'll go there for my routine service or not.

After your post, I probably will.

 

I must be lucky. I just had my 1st service done at 9,500 miles for an oil change. I had a 9:00 appointment and was out by 10:00. They even let me watch them do the work, and let me look under the car while they were doing it. When they were done, the car was washed and everything was clean, and all for free.They asked me why I didn't have the 5,000 miles tire rotation done I said I was 2,000 miles out of town, and didn't feel like wasting a 1/2 day for service in California. I have no complaints (so far) about the service at my dealer. (Russ Darrow West Bend WI.)

 

Mine had "lost" the parts for warranty repairs, reckoned they "must have been returned".

It wasn't till I remembered the ladies name who had spoken to me three times on the phone re the parts, did they go over and ask her. I could hear her say "I remember that conversation, the parts were definitely here and were marked "HOLD till {date}". They found them, had been returned to stock, but took about ½ hr from when I arrived. Fortunately they took much quicker to install than they'd estimated.

With tyre pressures, I always re-check them after either service or tyre service. Many of their pressure gauges aren't in as good condition as the one you keep. But even so - check them on one gauge, and the next gauge will read differently, they're notorious. When I check them at a service station when fuelling, I overfill, and next morning when cool I re-check with my gauge.

 

I had mine serviced at Gatorland Toyota in Gainesville and I was satisfied. I had my pre-purchase inspection done there and, as much as the dealer that I bought my car from poo-poo'd the inspection report, it was not exaggerated in any way. The tires were in pretty bad shape, the wipers were streaky, and a bulb needed to be replaced. After I bought the car, I returned to Gatorland for new tires (buy 3 get one free), alignment, and the bulb replacement. They even threw in a free carwash. I didn't have the Toyota work order history yet, I didn't know that I could get all of the prior work history online through the Toyota website so I wasn't aware that the last oil change had been done just a few months ago (about 1,000 miles before I bought the car); when I asked if the car needed an oil change, the guy was honest with me and told me that it wouldn't need it until around the 50,000 mile mark (he recommended every 10,000 miles.)

 

Those are very minor. I think you have to lower your expectations just a tad bit.

 

But, free side of chicken!

 

You have to understand a dealership sees many cars a day, different mechanics, different Jr. mechanics, different drivers all have access to your car. As a rule, you should always do safety checks yourself whenever someone else drives your car. You can't assume everything has been left the same after you hand your keys to someone else. I don't like to defend dealers because they are held to a higher standard because of the crazy prices they charge for "factory trained service", but there are some things you just have to let slide.

Your headlights might have been on AUTO, but if someone from the dealer had switched on your headlights and then switch them off, they would not know it was on AUTO. This really has nothing to do with attention to detail.

I can see complaints from bad dealerships that install your parts incorrectly on a recall, forget to drain the coolant (and lie to you afterwards they did drain it) after you request they drain it, keep my car for 1 month saying they needed parts when the parts been at the dealer all along, dent your car from the car wash, make you wait 3 hours for a simple 15 minute service, etc, etc. Those are issues I had to deal with at my crappy dealer.

Sounds to me, you've got it pretty good LOL.

 

This is an accessory attached car

 

okay.