Did I get scammed - $514.82 "Hybrid Battery Service" ????

Couple of things:

1. The dealership is full of balloon juice.
Don't wait for some "advisor" to send you the schedule of maintenance!

Toyota Online Owners Manuals and Warranty

Both Massachusetts and New York are CARB states, IIRC, and the Hybrid Warranty is 150,000 miles or 10 years - whichever comes first, so this is important to get right.
If you're going to be keeping your Priussy for a while longer then you need to close the loop on this YOURSELF, and not rely on internet chuckleheads like me - or CROOKS like them to manage your car's maintenance.

B. The factory warranty is aptly named.
That means that the factory pays the dealership for the warranty claim, so you need to honor the FACTORY warranty and maintenance guide....not some ginned-up, mimeographed document that the dealership invented to scare people into unneeded maintenance.
In the unlikely event that these CROOKS cracked your battery case to inspect the individual terminals, they might have introduced more dust or caused more damage than if they merely cleaned your battery vent fan.
The battery is sealed and connectorized.
There ARE no "terminals" to check and I'm at a loss as to why they would try to crack the case to individually charge each cell...whatever the heck THAT means.

III. Warranty Laws mean that you have rights. If you live in certain....ah....."more progressive" states, then there may be MORE laws that protect these rights, not less.
They usually act to protect YOU...not the crooks.
Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act - Wikipedia
So...they rooked you out of $500 for unneeded maintenance.
There's really no law against that unfortunately and sooner or later car customers will get tired of being treated this way.....HOWEVER (comma!) stating that you have to have certain maintenance done or your factory (or CARB) warranty might be void, MIGHT be actionable, albeit probably only by complaints to the local BBB, or whomever it is in the Bronx that keeps local businesses in line.
These asshats are just trying to slow-roll you until the sting goes away.
For a normal car company, complaining to the mother ship (Toyota of North America) might get results, but as you are about to find out it is immensely hard for an individual customer to get Corporate to lean on some of the more unscrupulous dealers.

It MIGHT be possible to reach out to the owner of the dealership (this sometimes works in smaller dealerships) in the unlikely event that they care how their parts and repair counter is treating their customers MORE than they care how much money that this part of the dealership is generating.

Four. At the end of the day.....when all of the dust settles and the smoke clears, Toyota is the root cause.
THEY will not reign in their dealers, and while it is true that YOU are responsible for OWNING your car's ownership experience, you should not have to navigate a minefield of lies and scams when, at the end of the day, you're trying to do the right thing.
No...this isn't just a Toyota thing, but since I've been driving Priuses and haunting this forum (since late 2010) I've seen many more stories than I would allow from a manufacturer of cars that I buy.

Your call.

 

Ah! The Johnson Rod. Some service this every day. It's nice if someone is available to help, as this is typically a two person job.

 

Verify, with the dealer advisor in writing (email or text) exactly the description you state above. Quote the statement and ask the individual to verify that the statement is a proper reflection of their verbal exchange. Then send a demand letter asking for a refund, as they lied (how would they charge individual cells -- impossible; and the warranty statement). No refund: Small claims court.

 

If they did charge the individual modules, with a hobby charger for instance, they would have needed to disconnect the modules. Since this is maintenance, they would also have needed to clean up the links & re-torque the terminal connections.

A visual inspection should be able to tell whether they did that. If not, they did not even perform the tasks paid for.

 

Just a service advisor bs'ing.

I'd guess they cleaned the fan. And maybe did a hybrid battery check with Techstream?

If the $500 something is all-in, with the oil change and whatever else, it get's a little iffy to fight it. Maybe just chalk this one up to experience?

Canadian Tire (automotive, hardware, household, recreation retailer) has started mailing out their fliers with tedious regularity here. You'll see items like a multi-fold utility ladder, regularly around $350, on sale for 50% off. Lots of similar items. Which begs the question:

What if you need that ladder, just wander into the store when they're not on sale? Are you getting screwed? Yes and no?

 

Is the bolded even possible? Is there a replaceable battery filter? Does the Prolong system recharge each individual cell and doesn't that take days?

 

Everyone seems to overlook inspection/replacement of the credisphoric diazer manifold.

To the OP, sorry to make light of your predicament, but after reading replies to your post, should all other avenues fail, I would indeed take it to small claims court (as someone else mentioned). That should get their attention.

 

Darn, I missed that obvious maintenance item. Plus, they should check the alignment of the ambifacient wane shafts and the spurving bearings with the pentametric fan ...

 

So, I called that dealer and told them I had a 2017 Prius with almost 50K miles. "What needs to be done at 50K" and the answer was pretty much the maintenance schedule out of the manual. When I asked "is there any maintenance that should be done on the hybrid battery" I was told no - "you don't need to touch the battery."

 

you're in nebraska, he's in new york, 'nuff said

 

They don't know that at his dealer in New York. I didn't tell them where I was calling from and I'm sure they assume I'm local to them.

 

sorry, i missed that. thought you called a local dealer.

 

Maybe call display alerted their spidey sense?

 

I don't know what number was displayed, since I called them on Skype to landline. It's pretty common now for people to have mobile phone area codes that don't match where they actually live. One of my phones has a 650 area code, nowhere close to where I live.