Went to the dealer for a speaker issue - Was lied to and caught them mocking me

*** This is going to be long ***

I went to the dealer in late September as my Front-Right speaker stopped working. Had it replaced a few days later, as they had to order it.

Fast forward to a few days ago (1200 miles later) and I'm hearing a rattling sound from that same speaker. It sounded more like something was loose (possibly in the door panel) rather than a defective speaker. Made an appointment and went it. Had the gentleman that checked me in, verify my issue.

I mentioned the song that they can play to easily confirm the issue. My bass and settings were all stock. You can listen to the song from volume 16 - 18 to hear it rattle. You don't need to crank up the volume, as mentioned. The gentleman said he'll get his senior tech to take a look at it.

Advisor wrote up my RO told me it'll be an hour and a half and they'll let me know what they find.

Advisor comes back after the 1.5 hours and said the tech opened up the door panel, tightened everything and found no damages, warping, bends, etc. They weren't able to verify the issue and if it happens again, it's all documented.

I went home and didn't trust him. He seemed suspicious on this one. Especially since I had the gentleman that checked me in verify the issue. I have a Garmin 45 dash cam and I went to review it.

This is where it gets interesting.

The porter that was driving my truck to the tech, didn't see three piles of tires (a total of 13 tires, give or take) in front of him and slammed my brakes. He was having conversations with everyone and mentioned how he goes working out while being high and that he should try and workout while being drunk.

He eventually takes it to the tech's bay and you can see the tech is working on an oil change. Porter tells the tech "I'm glad I didn't drive like a d***, he has a camera in the front." He mentions my dash cam, maybe they'll be more cautious. Nope. Time stamp said 11:06 AM when it's in the bay.

Time stamp says 11:15 AM when it gets pulled out of the bay.

Porter and my advisor are in my truck and they see the gentleman that checked me in. The gentleman came to the passenger side (where my dash cam is located) and mentions where the rattle is. The gentleman then says "This guy is b*tching because if you turn the base up loud, you hear rattling. No f*cking sh*t moron. This isn't an easy one to get away with. But it was vibrating when you turn it up" Then he says "You're talking about OC f*cking D."

The advisor then says "I'm not going to do anything about this one". They said turn it up and they start blasting my music for 20 seconds. My advisor says "f*ck this guy, bro". The porter laughs and says "f*ck this guy. You the man!"

So not only did they lie to me and say they opened up my door panel, inspect my speaker/tighten everything, put it back my door panel together, all while finishing up the oil change you were working on, which you can't do in 9 mins. They talked a bunch of smack and thought nothing of it.

I didn't want to go back to the dealer and I was hoping there was a regional office to contact, as the auto group of the dealer is conveniently HQ'd at that dealer. I found a regional office and they said they are sales-based only and to contact customer service.

I spoke to CS and they CS rep was in absolute shock. He probably was expecting someone to complain about being overcharged a few dollars or something. He apologized and created 2 tickets. 1 for a case manager, as I'm having an issue with what the dealer recently replaced and 1 to do the dealer. The dealer called me half an hour after that ticket was filed and wanted me to come in this week. He said he wants to talk and review the dash cam footage and wants to overlook my truck for the entire service.

I told him I'll come in to talk but I don't trust their service department. Especially after having to file a complaint and they know my dash cam also records audio. Who knows what they'll do at this point.

What would you guys do? I have no problem coming it to talk, but don't want them to service my truck. I'd understand if 1 employee was having a bad day, but THREE people? Not going to convince me.

I would be “drove” and I’d do about the same as you are doing. The exception, I’d start by showing the dealership the video. I wouldn’t trust them again either. That video is gold, as far as I’m concerned. Can you imagine what that would do for local business if it played on the nightly news? I’m not a fan of doing stuff like that, I’m just saying that I’d expect that dealership to do some serious ball licking.

I’m done with my dealership as well. I started out with a great experience there and now I just don’t trust them anymore. Can’t wait to hear how this plays out.

Go in. Listen. Then decide.

Who are you meeting with? Hopefully upper management. Find out first. Don't meet with less.

A question I'd pose is "given my experience, I think you can understand my reluctance to have your store service my car ... what can you tell me"?

Another: "What changes will you make as a result of this information?"

Just a comment ... If this were MY business, some heads would roll. But, that's just me. It would sure be interesting to see how much time they billed Toyota against your warranty.

If some one really didn’t trust the dealer, do the rest of us a favor, dime out the dealerships and Post on YouTube and yelp with video links.

Hit them in the pocket book and they will respond. Especially if you have video footage. Ooh and make an extra copy of it Incase the dealership wants the original and conveniently loses it later

If you don't want them to service your truck, then there is nothing to talk about. Load the video to google drive and email them the link.

Then go as high up the corporate chain as possible with the video link and have things fixed correctly by another dealer.

post it on YouTube and show their upper management

This sort of behavior is entirely unprofessional, unethical, and absurd from any angle you look at it.

I understand talking shit about a customer, everyone does it.

I can some times understand that accidents happen, someone gets distracted, etc. But no harm no foul, that's fine.

But someone lying to your face about the work that they said they've done? Unacceptable. Let alone two individuals doing it? Entirely unacceptable. It would make me believe that this sort of thing is common practice and standard operating procedure at that establishment. Not to mention stealing in the form of hours that I imagine that they've billed for this sort of "work" performed.

If I were you, I would cut my ties with this stealership and locate a new trusted source. But only after informing them that they will fix this issue to your satisfaction, if they can't, then they will pay someone who can.

I would still leave a detailed Yelp/Google review of your experience. If they have no problem doing it to one person, they have no problem doing it to everyone who they do business with.


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1. Never trust nor go back to this dealer again for service.

2. Down load the video to a memory stick and give him a copy.

3. When you meet with them, tell them you filed complaint with the BBB and gave copy of video to Corporate office and the local OSHA Office. Consider sending it to Japan as am sure they would like to see it.

4. For sure post it to this site and others for warning to other consumers of this dealer.

5. The person talking about working under the influence.........major OSHA Violation (My Line of work). This person is endangering himself and others and the business is required to act eliminating the risk posed by this behavior. The risk of an imposed OSHA fine alone is very costly.

Just remember, if they did this to you, imagine how many others they ripped off and or damaged there vehicles with inappropriate handling.

echofoot said:

This sort of behavior is entirely unprofessional, unethical, and absurd from any angle you look at it.

I understand talking shit about a customer, everyone does it.

I can some times understand that accidents happen, someone gets distracted, etc. But no harm no foul, that's fine.

But someone lying to your face about the work that they said they've done? Unacceptable. Let alone two individuals doing it? Entirely unacceptable. It would make me believe that that sort of thing is common practice and standard operating procedure at that establishment. Not to mention stealing in the form of hours that I imagine that they've billed for this sort of "work" performed.

If I were you, I would cut my ties with this stealership and locate a new trusted source. But only after informing them that they will fix this issue to your satisfaction, if they can't, then they will pay someone who can.

I would still leave a detailed Yelp/Google review of your experience. If they have no problem doing it to one person, they have no problem doing it to everyone who they do business with.


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Click to expand...

If I may, I’d add that they are stealing from the customer as well. You paid for that warranty. After this, how do you know that they’ve done anything that they were supposed to have?

The person that called me is the Service Manager. I went on to their website to see the staff and the original gentleman that was helping me is also a Service Advisor.

Before I put the videos on YouTube, I'd like to see how the Service Manager handles the situation first. If it's in a professional manner or if he's going to brush me off. I still have the case manager who will be contacting me tomorrow. I don't want to forget about him, of course.

The videos are on my SD card in the dash cam, as well as my laptop. I'll make a third copy as well to my flash drive.

I don't want to go on emotions and throw out all these reviews and spit everything on the internet. Again, I'm willing to work with someone and see if they want to rectify the situation. If not, then I'll reach out to someone else or all bets are off the table.

I have a meeting Wednesday morning with the Service Manager, before I go to work. I'm off Thursday, but I'm pretty positive that I won't have them service my vehicle. Especially when things could have been taken care of when I first came in on my day off. If things were done properly, I would've never have known who the Service Manager was and he wouldn't know who I am, since this sort of issue would've never arose.

Hadelson said:

1. Never trust nor go back to this dealer again for service.

2. Down load the video to a memory stick and give him a copy.

3. When you meet with them, tell them you filed complaint with the BBB and gave copy of video to Corporate office and the local OSHA Office. Consider sending it to Japan as am sure they would like to see it.

4. For sure post it to this site and others for warning to other consumers of this dealer.

5. The person talking about working under the influence.........major OSHA Violation (My Line of work). This person is endangering himself and others and the business is required to act eliminating the risk posed by this behavior. The risk of an imposed OSHA fine alone is very costly.

Just remember, if they did this to you, imagine how many others they ripped off and or damaged there vehicles with inappropriate handling.

Click to expand...

Let me clarify #5 first before I head out to get some lunch. He mentioned about working out, as in going to gym. Not on the clock working.

I'll respond after I get my lunch.

I really hope that the dealer takes it seriously and makes some changes. Please keep us posted.

Can you share the type of dashcam you have? Makes me want to put one on for all of my dealer visits. Thx.

hasoon2000 said:

Let me clarify #5 first before I head out to get some lunch. He mentioned about working out, as in going to gym. Not on the clock working.

I'll respond after I get my lunch.

Click to expand...

Thanks for clarifying. Just remember, that stuff in your system for several days impairing judgement. Come to work on the clock and have an accident and this is the OSHA violation.

Aligned with approach of seeing how sincere and serious manager takes it. Honey always works better-but back it with steel. Suggest you consider showing the SM the video first. When we do investigations, CCTV videos are admissible and stand under legal scrutiny. You also might inquire if dealer has CCTV video. If they do (Most Likely), then they should be able to view and validate your video - Just need Date/time stamp to go back to moment.

preeble said:

I really hope that the dealer takes it seriously and makes some changes. Please keep us posted.

Can you share the type of dashcam you have? Makes me want to put one on for all of my dealer visits. Thx.

Click to expand...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_wiretapping_law

Know your state laws before recording conversations. One party consent is usuall the minimum requirement. What OP recorded had no consent...

hasoon2000 said:

The person that called me is the Service Manager. I went on to their website to see the staff and the original gentleman that was helping me is also a Service Advisor.

Before I put the videos on YouTube, I'd like to see how the Service Manager handles the situation first. If it's in a professional manner or if he's going to brush me off. I still have the case manager who will be contacting me tomorrow. I don't want to forget about him, of course.

The videos are on my SD card in the dash cam, as well as my laptop. I'll make a third copy as well to my flash drive.

I don't want to go on emotions and throw out all these reviews and spit everything on the internet. Again, I'm willing to work with someone and see if they want to rectify the situation. If not, then I'll reach out to someone else or all bets are off the table.

I have a meeting Wednesday morning with the Service Manager, before I go to work. I'm off Thursday, but I'm pretty positive that I won't have them service my vehicle. Especially when things could have been taken care of when I first came in on my day off. If things were done properly, I would've never have known who the Service Manager was and he wouldn't know who I am, since this sort of issue would've never arose.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you have a solid plan and yes, cooler heads prevail. But, when it’s me, all of that time and mileage is a result of that dealerships actions and they are worth some compensation. Every employee there, or anywhere for that matter, is a representative for that company.

You’re right, best to give them a chance to really step up and do the right thing. That would be awesome. But, it would also be a rarity these days.

Years ago I got fed up with an Acura dealership I used regularly to service my Integra. The service manager was a really nice guy that I got along with well.

After having change ripped off from my console a few times I told them that I would no longer provide them with my business and sent a letter to the higher-ups at Acura explaining my dissatisfaction. (I was still employed in federal law enforcement at the time.) If I couldn't trust them to not steal change, they couldn't be entrusted to tell me when an expensive part required replacement or repair.

They wrote me back and offered me a number of free services and bent over backwards but I would never go back again. Period.

As the adage by Publilius Syrus goes: "Trust, like the soul, once departed never returns."

blue$ said:

Years ago I got fed up with an Acura dealership I used regularly to service my Integra. The service manager was a really nice guy that I got along with well.

After having change ripped off from my console a few times I told them that I would no longer provide them with my business and sent a letter to the higher-ups at Acura explaining my dissatisfaction. (I was still employed in federal law enforcement at the time.) If I couldn't trust them to not steal change, they couldn't be entrusted to tell me when an expensive part required replacement or repair.

They wrote me back and offered me a number of free services and bent over backwards but I would never go back again. Period.

As the adage by Publilius Syrus goes: "Trust, like the soul, once departed never returns."

Click to expand...

“In God we trust; everyone else pays cash”.

bamma said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_wiretapping_law

Know your state laws before recording conversations. One party consent is usuall the minimum requirement. What OP recorded had no consent...

Click to expand...

While I agree, isn't one party OP, and would be ok to record. Your state may require two party consent, which would be OP and the dealership.

Armchair lawyering aside, this is a good point to consider.


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echofoot said:

While I agree, isn't one party OP, and would be ok to record. Your state may require two party consent, which would be OP and the dealership.

Armchair lawyering aside, this is a good point to consider.

Click to expand...

OP wasn't a party to the conversation.

I would skip the meeting, not give out any copies of the recording, probably delete this thread and never go back there.

get a dash cam recording warning sticker:
Warning Sticker | Audio and Video Recording May Be In Progress - The Dashcam Store