Im upset with a dealership

[Wombatsaw]

Hi all
Just a quick rant i'd like to get off my chest to make me feel better. Today i took my 99 4runner to the dealership for a alignment and i thought i have them install my new bilstiens i just got because i don't have the time to put them on. So when i get there at the time 9am. When the asst. service manager comes over to talk and look over the truck. I tell him what i'm there for. He tells me that they will have to charge me 150.00 for the rear shocks. Then 350.00 for the front. This after Fly'n high quote me 60.00 all around. Im pressed for time right now and Fly n high is a good distance away i accept and take it where i shouldn't from the stealership. So i go to work not happy for having to pay that but life sucks. So 5hr later i haven't heard from the dealership so i call to get the status. I'm told that the alignment is done and the there going to putting the shocks on soon. Ok i thought to myself a busy day for them. I'll just wait a couple of hours and they'll be done. It's just shocks right? Well a hour later they call me and tell me that front shocks don't match up. I know for a fact the part# match up as i check them and the place i got them from did as well. So i tell them that the i know they match and that all the parts are there. He tells me that he'll go look at then and check for himself. I get a call back in about 5min telling me that is was their bad and in fact all the right parts are there the tech missed placed them. Then he said that they get them on before they close up then do the alignment (WTF i thought the alignment was done). I only thought that didn't say it. This is at 5pm now a full 8 hour day. NO alignment NO shocks. So when i get there a 6:45pm 15 min before they close. I'll just pay my bill and be on my way. Well when i get there they say it would be done tomorrow at 12noon. They just have to do the alignment and the road test. I didn't look at my truck i'll wait till their done with it. They in up giving a rental a corolla at least a sport. They should of gave me a fj, taco, or a 4runner. If i have to pay for 15 hours labor for there f up's. I will pay the bill if they charge me for it put they will hear about it for all the years after this. Im on my 4th toy out of 4. i plan on having many more. IF THE DEALERSHIP ARE GOING TO CHEAT PEOPLE I WILL BY MY TOY'S FROM A NISSAN DEALER. Yes a nissan dealer i like to buy my toy with about 20 to 30 thousand miles on them. Only brought one Brand new truck the 00 taco.


Can anyone tell me the standard time it takes to do a alignment and shocks? Or a idea of the labor cost for this.

 

[toto]

The labor on the shocks might be expensive on the fronts if they're coil-overs and you have to mess with compressing the coil and removing it with the shock. The rears are easier because they should just bolt in after you get the rusty bolts out.

I had an independent shop put 4 new shocks on a 2000 Tacoma, and I think that took around 3 hours of labor plus the price of the shocks. The truck was in at 8:00 AM and out by noon. Parts (Monroe Sensatracs) and labor came to about $600. I probably could have saved a little money by getting the shocks on the Internet, but I didn't want to bother with that, much less have them blame me for getting the wrong thing or something like that.

I've had other work done at my Toyota dealer, and I also felt that they messed around and killed all day unnecessarily. I had that Taco in there for plugs and a bunch of fluids, and they had it from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. They didn't charge me that much labor, but it got to be a hassle calling them that late in the afternoon to see if they'd be done or not.

I'm sure you won't pay for 15 hours of labor. For any given repair job, there's a "book time" which stipulates the amount of labor time that should be charged for the job. A good mechanic will complete the job much faster, but you'll still pay what the book says, regardless. A good mechanic at a dealership is expected to perform up to 24 hours of book time a day!