Dealer Scratched My Wheels

[cbielat]

So I brought my truck to the dealer (Westborough Toyota, MA) only for an oil change. I had my new wheels installed a day earlier. I specifically told them to only do the oil change and nothing else. I see my truck up on the lift with the wheels taken off. I asked the service guy if he was rotating my tires/wheels and he said no. I asked "Then why are my wheels off of the truck?" He said "They were checking the brakes." I understand that is routine maintenance but I only said the oil change. After leaving the dealership, the next time I had really looked at my wheels, I had noticed that all of the lug holes had been scratched up. I called to speak with the Service Manager but he will not be in until Monday. This all happened this past Thursday. I hope I am not waiting too long to get this resolved.

What is the best way to go about this?

 

[philsey]

You know they're going to deny.

Does your service order state anything about "oil change only"?

Take your dated receipt with you from the new wheel install, to prove they are new.

Go to the wheel installer and determine what they suggest to fix/repair so you are prepared to tell the dealer what it's going to take.

Make sure you have an appointment with the SM, so you don't get put off.

 

[Barry694]

Wheels Scratched

You do not have to take the wheels off to check the thickness of the brake pads, which is one of the things they do as part of their oil change service.

 

[bluebullet]

You do not have to take the wheels off to check the thickness of the brake pads, which is one of the things they do as part of their oil change service.

Why is viglink inserting this ebay link here? Just to junk things up? What a waste.

 

[Ramzey28]

welcome to the club....dealers can never do things right....wft!

 

[cbielat]

It is one of the reasons why I bring my vehicle to the dealer. I would always make myself believe that they are professional with their job. I guessed wrong.

 

[Qjake]

That really sucks, you just had them put on. As mentioned bring the receipt for the mounting to show they are brand new. Did you write down what time you called and who you spoke to? Be sure to get the guy you asked about why the wheels were off to verify they were off! If it were me I'd be there tomorrow morning waiting for them to open this way you'll be there when the service manager gets there.

Any pic's of the damage??

 

[brockeverly]

Sucks man! It is a hard spot as it is your word against theirs as it was found after the fact. I can tell you that if it happened to me I would let it go. Reason is that I would get it fixed on their dime, then go scratch the hell out of the wheel myself and be 3x more pissed. :ybrick:

I hope it works out for you man!

 

[cbielat]

The scratches aren't really an eyesore but they are there. I know they will acquire scratches through their lifetime. It was just the fact that the tech was careless and my wheels were so new at the time. I just have a feeling they will not do anything about it.

 

[kmiller8821]

The scratches aren't really an eyesore but they are there. I know they will acquire scratches through their lifetime. It was just the fact that the tech was careless and my wheels were so new at the time. I just have a feeling they will not do anything about it.

Not necessarily! My dealer rotates my tires and a few days later I noticed that my center hubs were all scratched up on my limited. It was clear to me that they didn't take the hub off before they removed/reinstalled the lugnuts. I pointed it out to the service advisor on my next visit - and they replaced all 4 hubs. It just depends on the dealer, how long you've been a customer, etc. I'd definitely talk to them about it.

 

[mapdash]

That sucks. You should have looked and pointed it out when you picked up the vehicle. They should still take care of you though.

 

[4ShoreRunner]

The curse of new countersteers. I have a similar story.

I took my rig to the dealer for the 30k service a few days after I had the new wheels mounted and balanced. When I dropped it off, I specifically said, "Do not rotate the tires, the wheels are brand new, don't touch them"

Sure enough, I get a call about 2 hours later. "Umm...we were attemping to remove your wheels for the tire rotation, and we broke the wheel lock key" .... WHAT?

FN Wheels sent me the regular set of black gorilla lug nuts, and threw in a set of gorilla wheel locks as well. So I have 2 different lug nut keys. They grabbed the first one they saw in my glove box, threw it on the air gun, and split the key right down the center trying to remove one of the regular lugs with the wrong key.

THANK GOD they did not manage to scratch anything int he process...the wheels looked just like they did when I dropped them off...minus wheel locks and plus regular toyota lugs.

 

[Mason]

Wheels scratched on mine around the lugs. Quite noticeable on one of the four. Didn't realize until I left, and as Philsey said they would have denied it as well if I brought it up. I just let it go, figure its not too important since they are the stock 20" an they will likely get beat up further down the road. Gives me even more reasoning to upgrade to something else when the stock tires are worn. Side note: these guys also left oil marks on the center console, driver seat, and steering wheel one time after an oil change. :gun5:

 

[chetJ]

This happened to me the first time my dealer rotated my wheels. One of the things that I now do is- have the service manager walk around my truck and I take pictures (on my cell) of the truck as he is walking around so that both he and I are on the same page as to the condition of the truck going in. I let the manager know that I understand that there might be some minor scratches but anything above that is going to be an issue. What this seems to do is to have somewhat of a psychological deterrent effect- I have consistently seen the service managers make a note on their pad of the fact that the mechanic needs to be careful. Just my 2 cents.

 

[cbielat]

So I brought my truck to the dealer (Westborough Toyota, MA) only for an oil change. I had my new wheels installed a day earlier. I specifically told them to only do the oil change and nothing else. I see my truck up on the lift with the wheels taken off. I asked the service guy if he was rotating my tires/wheels and he said no. I asked "Then why are my wheels off of the truck?" He said "They were checking the brakes." I understand that is routine maintenance but I only said the oil change. After leaving the dealership, the next time I had really looked at my wheels, I had noticed that all of the lug holes had been scratched up. I called to speak with the Service Manager but he will not be in until Monday. This all happened this past Thursday. I hope I am not waiting too long to get this resolved.

What is the best way to go about this?

UPDATE
So I had finally talked with the service manager at Westborough Toyota. I went in to show him the damage to my wheels. They are now going to paint the flaws. I hope it comes out well. Do you think this is an acceptable route?

 

[cbielat]

UPDATE on my dealer scratched new wheels

After speaking with the service manager from Westborough Toyota, they are now going to paint my flawed wheels. I'm a bit hesitant on how painting a powder coated wheel will turn out.

Is this an acceptable route?

 

[gamerc]

No. Paint is not/not powder coat.

 

[gamerc]

wait.... 2 threads? AH MAH GAWD.

No, paint does not = powder coat.

 

[jimmied]

If they use a good wheel repair/paint guy you will be fine. Just don't accept it back until it is up to your standards.

 

[Antman]

If they use a good wheel repair/paint guy you will be fine. Just don't accept it back until it is up to your standards.

I gotta agree with jimmied.

Years ago I had a wheel repaired that was extremely scraped up. They painted the wheel- it was originally powder coated- and it looked perfect (and I do really mean PERFECT) when I got it back.

5 years later it still looked as good as the other 3 powder coated wheels.

Are you choosing a different color from stock?:art: