Good old fashioned customer service

[JSR]

Hey folks,

not sure if I'll get much out of this other than a bit of venting, but anyway...

The wife just took our 08 Aurion in for a service. No small task, seeing as the nearest dealer is 250kms away, and we had to wait a few weeks for a booking. Car was in for the 90k service, so I'd expected a couple hours. She's brought the car in at 10.30 (when it was due) and left it with them, asking them to check the intermediate shaft as well while they were at it. Come 2pm, she gives them a call to see how things are going, and cant get any information as they're out for lunch. She then calls back at 3, and they say they're almost done with it, she can pretty much pick it up straight away. She gets the keys back and heads out to the car, only for it to not start. Went back inside to the dealer and they went and checked it again, turns out they didn't hook up the battery again. (?)

She then left the dealer, traveled about a block, and noticed an engine warning light was on so she turned around and brought it straight back to them. They then told her that they didnt have the equipment to find out what was wrong, so she'd have to go to the next nearest dealer, 50kms away. They also told her that it was safe to drive it there (how the hell would they know if they dont know the problem?).

So she arrives in the next town and heads to the dealer. They check out the error code and say that one of the sensors has been left disconnected, and that its getting a bit late (4.15pm) and that she'd have to come back again in the morning as there was nothing they could do then, as they'd have to pull it all apart to re-attach the sensor. They'd also said it was fine to drive for the moment, as there were other sensors still attached that would do the job. The service manager said it happens quite often with work done by the other dealer, and they have to sort it out often...

I'm tempted to name and shame the dealers involved publicly, still deciding what to do there. Not a lot I can do at the moment but sit, wait, pay for a night in a motel, and let the missus bring it back in to them in the morning. I'm baffled as to what sensor they are on about, they whinged that they have to remove the manifold to get to it, so could be anything. They'd also failed to check the intermediate shaft, so that becomes a problem for another day.

Bit of an update:

There's no accommodation in the second town, so the wife is driving out to her sisters place. The stability control is off, and she has a 45min drive ahead, mostly on dirt road...

Edited August 20, 2012 by JSR

[mattyrhodes]

I say name and shame, also let them know what they failed to do.

[Pittsy]

Contact Toyota and make an official complaint. Any extra expenses involved then I'd keep the receipts and they can pay you back for their mistakes.

[CROCO]

Hi seb, welcome to the forum mate,i also live in new south wales, so I would love to the know the dealer who gave such crap service or more to the point did a crap service, I fine it stupid that a toyota service department dont have the proper dianostic equipment to see whats wrong with you car and your got to take it to the next clostest dealer, and especialy when the next dealer said there they fix a lot of there stuffups, I understand mate if you dont want to name them for legal reason but this sort of customer service is not profesional what so ever and should shamed so no else has to deal with these turkeys, it makes it hard that each dealer is so far away, hopefully mate you get the car fixed right this time. unfortunally I think good old customer service is a thing of the past, I think people today have no morels.

[Andrew357]

l what so ever and should shamed so no else has to deal with these turkeys, it makes it hard that each dealer is so far away, hopefully mate you get the car fixed right this time. I think people today have no morels.

You're spot on. Fresh Morel mushrooms aren't easy to find but dried Morels are usually a suitable substitute. Funnily enough, I know a great recipe for pan seared turkey with Morel mushroom sauce.

[JSR]

Just spoke to my wife again, and got the story a little clearer now she's calmed down a bit. She hadn't left the dealership, they told her that the engine warning light was on as she picked up the keys. SO... they gave back a car in a worse condition than they received it, and told her to go to the other dealership to find out what was wrong. Also, its not being fixed in the morning, she's gotta call them and see if they can do it. Yeah, not impressed. To top it off, when she'd gotten to the second dealer, they popped the hood to find 3 spanners and a socket extension bar laying in the engine bay...

[Ronnyboy]

Might be worth lodging an official complaint.

Both with Toyota Australia and the dealer.

[Wildseven]

Agree with the above post. Imagine how many more poor people will be affected by this Dealership from Hell. Hearing this really sickens me and I feel for you JSR. Talk to the second Dealership about the dodgy one and get them to support you with the evidence. If the complaint is ignored, go to Fair Trade Australia and lodge a full complaint so they can investigate. You should not have to put up with this. These dealers tarnish the Toyota brand and should be made responsible for their incompetence.

[Brad - SX6]

Yep lodge an official complaint and ALSO (if you have a gmail account) put a mega negative review on the dealer's info link on google maps (as this is where most people find info on dealers)

[CROCO]

Just spoke to my wife again, and got the story a little clearer now she's calmed down a bit. She hadn't left the dealership, they told her that the engine warning light was on as she picked up the keys. SO... they gave back a car in a worse condition than they received it, and told her to go to the other dealership to find out what was wrong. Also, its not being fixed in the morning, she's gotta call them and see if they can do it. Yeah, not impressed. To top it off, when she'd gotten to the second dealer, they popped the hood to find 3 spanners and a socket extension bar laying in the engine bay...

Bloody hell mate, sorry about the language, you need to put in a official complaint, its bad enough they didnt fix your car, but to leave tools under the bonnet is past the joke, these bunch of turkeys shouldnt be in business full stop, the guys who work there obvisely dont know a spanner from there ring hole.

What I would do mate is take the tools back and show the manager of the dealer, if he or she give a toss about there reputation, they will get on top of it and kick some butt, because this kind of bad service is not acceptable and what another forum member said it only gives toyota a bad name,and undoing there good reputation, seb I like to know how you get on with your car, hopefully everything works out for you mate, any mate catch you later.

[alan.chalkley]

File a complaint with consumer affairs and use the tools as evidence.Then return the tools when you get a full refund for the bodgey service.

Toyotas are great cars and Toyota dealers should provide great service.

That's exactly why I have my own mechanic instead of Toyota service.

[the drake]

sorry to hear about your bad experience - certainly these days you don't expect such poor level of customer service.

You should take a photo of where the tools were found, and plus, you have witnesses from the second dealers' inspection to build your case on.

[viper33]

Sounds like a dodgy dealership

Every big and small workshop has a roadtester or someone who checks the car over after every job especially for things like spanners in the engine bay

To be honest though, leaving the tools is an honest mistake and happens quite frequently, but that is exactly why the roadtesters are there for

And i can understand leaving a sensor disconnected after a 90k, everyones left something disconnected once in their life, when you're working under pressure and disconnect a lot of things to get to 1 thing at times you forget to plug everything back, especially if its not in plain sight

But saying that they should've fixed it straight away even if it means staying back coz in the end they ****** up

They couldn't possibly have left the battery disconnected? I mean how did they drive it out the workshop and into the customers parking with no battery? Probably left accessories on for too long and let it go flat, but told you some bs story

And every dealer should have the diagnostic tool for their make

Coz some of the most common jobs at a dealership would involve it coz most small workshop mechanics might not have the scanners for it

Only thing i'll say in their defence is the service advisors are generally idiots who overbook jobs and a lot of customers are unrealistic with time requirements

For eg the car will be booked for 2 hours for a certain job and then the customer will have a few things he wants checked out on top but they expect it all to be done in the time not realising that we have plenty of other jobs where the same thing happens, and we aren't exactly all waiting for you to come in so we can start working on your car right away

So i can understand if the intermediate shaft didn't get checked if it wasn't booked in for it, but for everythign else theres no excuse