Just wanted to share a recent negative experience I had at the Darcars Toyota, Silver Spring, MD dealership. I just joined here at T4R but I'm a member of numerous other automotive forums.
First off, I'm 25, and I don't own a 4Runner, but my mother does. I've worked on cars for a while now, including my own, and I thought I'd start tuning up and repairing anything missed on my moms 4Runner. She has a maintenance package through this dealership which we paid about $900 for, but it gives discounts on services for the period in which we own the vehicle. We use this primarily to get oil changes at the dealership at $8 bucks each, otherwise I would not be bringing in my car here.
Rewind to last week, I come visit her with my sister and we go to trip to New Jersey, I also ordered an air filter (brand new OEM Denso, from a Toyota dealership dealing through an eBay store) which I brought with me because I had a feeling it would be dirty. End up changing the filter as well as the transfer case fluid. Drive there, on the way there the A/C isn't blowing as much as it should, so I hit up a Walmart and cut up a furnace filter to fit into the cabin air filter housing, as shown on a thread on here.
Okay, so forward to two days ago, Tuesday. My mom takes the SUV to the dealership for a scheduled oil change, the service adviser convinces her to get the class B service I think it was. I take her to the dealership in my car when her car is ready to be picked up. Go there and she pays for it she also introduces me to her service adviser (I will not mention a name) dude is cool and seems down to earth. Anyway total is $270 for the service. Read it and I see the air filter and cabin air filter has been changed, so I am a little disappointed, not I'm not surprised that a dealer would replace unnecessary new parts just to rack up the bill. As long as they take care of that, I'm not going to cause any problems with the service dept. So I asked him why'd he change it because they were new.
And this is where my problem lies. He comes on to be a total douche about the whole incident. He responds to be in a semi-professional manner, using sarcasm and mockery while addressing me. You should also know that I came dressed up kind of sleazy in sandals, well because I was on vacation and I did not realize that I need to be dressed up in a $1000 suit to be taken seriously at the dealership. Ridiculous. I did an internship at a BMW dealership a long time ago as a tech in the service bay, so I know my fair share about cars, believe me, Toyotas do not scare me. I asked him why he changed it and he says it was on the Service bulletin ticket. Again, ridiculous but he says hell get me back my old part and take out the new filter and refund me.
He comes back with my old filter, he pulled it out of the trash and he expected me to put it back in my car. I find that insulting, but I'm reasonable so I shook it and reinstalled it. With my cabin air filter rig though, he brings it back and pulls it out and says "I don't even know what this is, its a cut off piece of filter it'll get sucked into the blower motor," starts to wave it in the air trying to embarrass me for being cheap or something. Well I'm sorry I was in a pinch and on a trip that I could not stop by a Toyota dealership to pick up an OEM cabin air filter, I also did not realize that something I made that fit snug into the filter case would get sucked into the blower motor (sarcasm).
We all go back into the service department and he has the cabin air filter I made, in his hand. He again reiterates the fact that I ghetto rigged it but now he holds it up and waves it, speaks loudly about what I did so that all of the customers and his service buddies can hear. I know, I should have changed the cabin filter with an OEM when I arrived home from the trip, but there is not justification to try to embarrass a customer like that in front of others. I couldn't believe the immaturity and unprofessional-ism, lack of ethics that was directed to me. But it didn't bother me, considering the fact that in retrospect this was a service adviser at a TOYOTA dealership trying to act condescending towards me, not even a BMW or Mercedes dealership. He doesn't even have a notable career, so I just left it.
All the while his sarcasm/mockery included things such as "your a mechanic, right, you should know"- he said this about 10 times during my visit at the dealership. The receipt at Darcars also gives you a service advisory plan of action that includes tasks that should be done for the vehicle right away. One of them was the transfer case fluid. I told him that I did change it, he said he bases that off mileage. On the receipt it also says on the list of tasks done, that "Fluids were inspected," well they breached my contract, didn't they, because if the did inspect the fluid, they would have had to open the fill plug, look at the little bit of fluid that drops out and replace whatever was lost; they didn't.
At the end, I told him I don't him or any other adviser here giving recommendations to my mother about her car. She comes here to get an oil change, not get manipulated into getting some uneducated guesses about what should be maintained in her vehicle. He says he "can't do that because that's his job, we do a professional job here and that what we have to do."
So according to Mr. Service adviser, professional job now has the definition of replacing parts that are practically new, attempts to embarrass a customer, and directing sarcasm and mockery to him/her.
I'm sure we've all had something like this happen one way or the other. I was just surprised how a "professional" at his job would act so down to earth when I was not pointed out my dissatisfaction with the service, but when called out turned into a complete douchebag. It just comes to show, that Service Departments at pretty much any dealership will prey on the helpless customers who don't know squat about cars, and will say "yes" to pretty much everything. All I was trying to do was help my mom and get her money's worth of what she paid for, because a service receipt is in fact a contract, and they could be held liable, but after all it was less than $300 so its no big deal.
Just comes to show that how much employees will assume about their customers, they'll treat you different if you're young, or don't present yourself like you are about to go to church or whatnot. Sad how everyone does business nowadays compared to 10 years ago when people actually put ethics and had morals as a standard business practice. The saying "the customer is always right" has disappeared."
Unfortunately, our maintenance package applies at this dealership and there aren't any respectable dealerships in the area. Closest one that is decent is Darcars Toyota of Frederick, but being about an hour away, it isn't practical for any Toyota owner here.
First off, I'm 25, and I don't own a 4Runner, but my mother does. I've worked on cars for a while now, including my own, and I thought I'd start tuning up and repairing anything missed on my moms 4Runner. She has a maintenance package through this dealership which we paid about $900 for, but it gives discounts on services for the period in which we own the vehicle. We use this primarily to get oil changes at the dealership at $8 bucks each, otherwise I would not be bringing in my car here.
Rewind to last week, I come visit her with my sister and we go to trip to New Jersey, I also ordered an air filter (brand new OEM Denso, from a Toyota dealership dealing through an eBay store) which I brought with me because I had a feeling it would be dirty. End up changing the filter as well as the transfer case fluid. Drive there, on the way there the A/C isn't blowing as much as it should, so I hit up a Walmart and cut up a furnace filter to fit into the cabin air filter housing, as shown on a thread on here.
Okay, so forward to two days ago, Tuesday. My mom takes the SUV to the dealership for a scheduled oil change, the service adviser convinces her to get the class B service I think it was. I take her to the dealership in my car when her car is ready to be picked up. Go there and she pays for it she also introduces me to her service adviser (I will not mention a name) dude is cool and seems down to earth. Anyway total is $270 for the service. Read it and I see the air filter and cabin air filter has been changed, so I am a little disappointed, not I'm not surprised that a dealer would replace unnecessary new parts just to rack up the bill. As long as they take care of that, I'm not going to cause any problems with the service dept. So I asked him why'd he change it because they were new.
And this is where my problem lies. He comes on to be a total douche about the whole incident. He responds to be in a semi-professional manner, using sarcasm and mockery while addressing me. You should also know that I came dressed up kind of sleazy in sandals, well because I was on vacation and I did not realize that I need to be dressed up in a $1000 suit to be taken seriously at the dealership. Ridiculous. I did an internship at a BMW dealership a long time ago as a tech in the service bay, so I know my fair share about cars, believe me, Toyotas do not scare me. I asked him why he changed it and he says it was on the Service bulletin ticket. Again, ridiculous but he says hell get me back my old part and take out the new filter and refund me.
He comes back with my old filter, he pulled it out of the trash and he expected me to put it back in my car. I find that insulting, but I'm reasonable so I shook it and reinstalled it. With my cabin air filter rig though, he brings it back and pulls it out and says "I don't even know what this is, its a cut off piece of filter it'll get sucked into the blower motor," starts to wave it in the air trying to embarrass me for being cheap or something. Well I'm sorry I was in a pinch and on a trip that I could not stop by a Toyota dealership to pick up an OEM cabin air filter, I also did not realize that something I made that fit snug into the filter case would get sucked into the blower motor (sarcasm).
We all go back into the service department and he has the cabin air filter I made, in his hand. He again reiterates the fact that I ghetto rigged it but now he holds it up and waves it, speaks loudly about what I did so that all of the customers and his service buddies can hear. I know, I should have changed the cabin filter with an OEM when I arrived home from the trip, but there is not justification to try to embarrass a customer like that in front of others. I couldn't believe the immaturity and unprofessional-ism, lack of ethics that was directed to me. But it didn't bother me, considering the fact that in retrospect this was a service adviser at a TOYOTA dealership trying to act condescending towards me, not even a BMW or Mercedes dealership. He doesn't even have a notable career, so I just left it.
All the while his sarcasm/mockery included things such as "your a mechanic, right, you should know"- he said this about 10 times during my visit at the dealership. The receipt at Darcars also gives you a service advisory plan of action that includes tasks that should be done for the vehicle right away. One of them was the transfer case fluid. I told him that I did change it, he said he bases that off mileage. On the receipt it also says on the list of tasks done, that "Fluids were inspected," well they breached my contract, didn't they, because if the did inspect the fluid, they would have had to open the fill plug, look at the little bit of fluid that drops out and replace whatever was lost; they didn't.
At the end, I told him I don't him or any other adviser here giving recommendations to my mother about her car. She comes here to get an oil change, not get manipulated into getting some uneducated guesses about what should be maintained in her vehicle. He says he "can't do that because that's his job, we do a professional job here and that what we have to do."
So according to Mr. Service adviser, professional job now has the definition of replacing parts that are practically new, attempts to embarrass a customer, and directing sarcasm and mockery to him/her.
I'm sure we've all had something like this happen one way or the other. I was just surprised how a "professional" at his job would act so down to earth when I was not pointed out my dissatisfaction with the service, but when called out turned into a complete douchebag. It just comes to show, that Service Departments at pretty much any dealership will prey on the helpless customers who don't know squat about cars, and will say "yes" to pretty much everything. All I was trying to do was help my mom and get her money's worth of what she paid for, because a service receipt is in fact a contract, and they could be held liable, but after all it was less than $300 so its no big deal.
Just comes to show that how much employees will assume about their customers, they'll treat you different if you're young, or don't present yourself like you are about to go to church or whatnot. Sad how everyone does business nowadays compared to 10 years ago when people actually put ethics and had morals as a standard business practice. The saying "the customer is always right" has disappeared."
Unfortunately, our maintenance package applies at this dealership and there aren't any respectable dealerships in the area. Closest one that is decent is Darcars Toyota of Frederick, but being about an hour away, it isn't practical for any Toyota owner here.
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