What's your worst service experience?

zman1

zman1

Active Member
Worst service experience. There have been so many........
The one that chaps me the most. Took my eldest son's car to the local Ford dealer to have the A/C looked at.
I didn't want to take it to the dealer, but my wife didn't want to take it to the place I wanted, because her Dad just got fleeced there.
They estimated $400 and when I picked up the car the bill was a little over $800, to my surprise.. The next words out of my mouth were "how is this possible". Oh, Blah, Blah Blah we found more wrong, that's the way it goes. Next statement I made was " I can't believe that a Factory Trained Technician can't estimate the work a little closer to the actual repair, this is more than double. Am I to believe that you guy's are better than the shade tree mechanic down the street." After talking to the service manager, general manager, I left paying the $400.... A month later the A/C was blowing warm air again. Took it back and they found another leak so they say. This time the estimate was $600. "So you are asking me to believe that I have two leaks or did my last visit result in you replacing the condenser that wasn't leaking and now it's the compressor?" I didn't have it repaired. I threw $400 away and about $1000 in aggravation and frustration. We went across the street and bought a new vehicle from the competitor.
Oh yeah, I was told on my second vist " MR. Zman you will never be happy.. If you actually fix the problem and for the quoted amount I wolud be very happy.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah I hate car dealers. If you think you have it rough, try being a woman and dealing with any type of repairs. Women really get the bums rush with repairs of any kind, but especially cars.
 
tangman99

tangman99

Active Member
Try owning a Corvette. You get what's known as the "Corvette Tax". Usually about twice as much as what the same work would cost on another vehicle. That's why I have an extended warranty on mine. It the only car I would ever buy one for because when it goes in the shop the bill is usually between $1000 and $2000 dollars. My BMW is about the same.
As far as dealerships, they can be a racket but I use the dealership I bought the car from, I have only dealt with one service manager the entire 3 1/2 years I've owned my car and I built up a good relationship with him so he's pretty honest with me.
For me personally, I will only let the dealership touch my cars. They know them better than anyone else and I've seen the results of my friends who have used "shade tree mechanics" or even some ASE shops like Pepboys. There are some good ones out there I know, but the chances of finding them is not the best and in the end you can end up spending more money due to mistakes.
For women (and men also) if you want to lessen your chances of getting take for a ride, show a little knowledge when you bring it in. Go find a car forum for your car and ask some questions about what your car is doing. There are alway experience people that will give you some good leads. There are several C5 Corvette Techs that hang out on my forum. When you bring it in, don't diagnose the problem but use a few buzz words and educated guesses that show them you have taken the time to understand your car. For instance if your car is running rough and cuts out when push in the clutch you could say something like:
"When I push in the clutch, the RPM drops real low and car almost stalls. The symptoms may point to something like a fuel pump going bad or the throttle positioning sensor, but you guys have the equipment to figure that out."
That's much better than going in and saying "It just cuts out sometime."
Also, make sure you get a written estimate of the work to be performed and instruct them to contact you first if the cost will be more than the estimate. That's the purpose of the estimate.
There are dealerships that are known for ripping people off but there are some that will treat you right. You may have to drive a little further to get to one, but they are out there.
As for my own bad service experience? I've had a few, but not too many. I guess I've been lucky.
Sorry for rambling, I'll step down now.
 
hot883

hot883

Active Member
Originally Posted by scoobydoo
Try owning a corvette... whaa whaa whaa
AND
my bmw is the same way... whaa whaa whaa

LMAO
 
hot883

hot883

Active Member
I took my Carmen Ghia in several years ago and wanted front brakes. Quoted $300, went to pick it up, bill was $885. I told them give me my keys as I'm only paying the $300 because thats the work that I approved. They decided to do the back brakes too without asking. So..... make a short story extrememly long and boring; I got the back down for FREES!
 
bigb

bigb

Member
Originally Posted by Beth
Yeah I hate care dealers. If you think you have it rough, try being a woman and dealing with any type of repairs. Women really get the bums rush with repairs of any kind, but especially cars.
The wife needed repairs to pass the lame state inspection so I figured she could handle it herself..... She told them only to do the work needed to pass inspection. Well I didn't pay any attention to what she was agreeing to (she did it over the phone) and after getting the bill for 768.00 I just had to see what she had done. Included was 98.00 for changing sparkplugs.
 
him6616

him6616

New Member
I just bought a chevy uplander and when I got it the dvd player didnt work. It took them a couple weeks to get it in and by them the turn signal messed up somehow and that had to be fixed. I already made a payment and still couldn't drive the damn thing. Then as soon as I got it back, the air conditioning went out. Took them three days to fix that, and now the speakers are fuzzy again when the dvd player is on. We just bought the car and nothing works right!!! I have a feeling this will be the most expensive purchase that i have ever made that is complete junk!!!!!
 
laust

laust

Member
Originally Posted by him6616
I just bought a chevy uplander and when I got it the dvd player didnt work. It took them a couple weeks to get it in and by them the turn signal messed up somehow and that had to be fixed. I already made a payment and still couldn't drive the damn thing. Then as soon as I got it back, the air conditioning went out. Took them three days to fix that, and now the speakers are fuzzy again when the dvd player is on. We just bought the car and nothing works right!!! I have a feeling this will be the most expensive purchase that i have ever made that is complete junk!!!!!
sure hope you bought the warranty with that uplander...... wait till your engine seizes... i work in the maintenance department for a major car rental company and we've replaced a mess of them this year.
 
stang66200

stang66200

Member
Originally Posted by him6616
I just bought a chevy uplander and when I got it the dvd player didnt work. It took them a couple weeks to get it in and by them the turn signal messed up somehow and that had to be fixed. I already made a payment and still couldn't drive the damn thing. Then as soon as I got it back, the air conditioning went out. Took them three days to fix that, and now the speakers are fuzzy again when the dvd player is on. We just bought the car and nothing works right!!! I have a feeling this will be the most expensive purchase that i have ever made that is complete junk!!!!!
You might want to look into your local lemon laws. Document everything. If they can't fix it after a certain number of tries, they have to buy it back in most cases. A lemon brand new will only get nastier with age.
 
S

sinner's girl

Guest
I simply don't deal with them. My husband does. He knows cars. My check engine light came out last week, before it was totaled, took it to pepboys, the guy was saying something I knew to be wrong, told me to restart the car to get the light to go away. No, you have to pull the battery.
ugh, I can't deal with service people. My car is totaled, not my fault, some stupid 16year old girl's fault. The stupid rental company gave us a huge four door truck, I drove a kia...so, they said that's all they had, but we could exchange it the next day. (this was wed). On friday, my husband goes to exchange it for a car, which he was told they were holding, and is told they rented it out. Fine, we paid double in gas for our trip. Today, he calls early, gets back on the list, they say they'll call. I get home around 2pm, husband calls, calls again at 4, and at 5. When he called at five he didn't say who he was, just asked if they had a car. They said they called us. Umm....nope, phone never rang. Anyway, it took forever at the rental place, but I got a car.
The kia dealership was cool, we bought my car used, but at 5958miles, still under 60,000. took it in. They gave us a rental while they fixed the car. If we had problems with them, I don't remember.
Is this just about car service or service in general? My worst experience was with my wedding ring and engagment ring. I hated those people. I clearly said what I wanted. I wanted my diamond placed in a while gold four prong raised tiffany setting. I get it back and it's GOLD with five prongs. I flip, they don't understand (the 5th prong makes the heart stone look like a triangle), they fix it. They screwedup my wedding ring more times than I remember. I didn't want to see it till our wedding day, but one night I was in the library when sinner came up with a look. My ring, while it had the right stones, wasn't set right. We go back, they screw up, we go back, they screw up. I think they thought since they were dealing with 'kids' they could get away with it, but I knew what I wanted, and I was going to get it, no matter how many trips it took. Stupid people.
 
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