Report Assistant Service Mgr to dealership for joyride?

[Anonymous4Runner]

Long story short: had planned warranty work for the issues they uncovered when I had my oil change. Dropped off the 4Runner a week later for warranty work and was told it'd be rdy within a day or 2 depending on how quick Toyota approved their request to complete warranty work. a day later they called me saying they wouldn't be able to do warranty work but can do other work that would have been paid out of pocket. i approved and got the truck back the next day. i went through dash cam footage and saw my service advisor who is also an assisstant service manager take my 4Runner for a brief joyride to his local barber to get a cut. only fluids were drained at the shop and no major work done so i don't see any other reason for him to be test driving my 4Runner and not a mechanic. he had my 4Runner for approx. 1hr 25m with footage showing timestamps.

what should i do here?

1) report him to the GM of said dealership
2) confront him personally face-to-face and find out the reason for driving the 4R
3) shrug it off and say its ok for someone to drive my 4Runner without permission let alone take my 4Runner out for a joyride that lasted almost 1hr and half


oh the reason why Toyota declined warranty work is because the parts in questions were "seeping", and not "leaking". the dealership issued a report with the affected parts and labeled them as "red, requires immediate attention" as if it needed to be fixed asap. this report was issued without them knowing i already had warranty on the 4Runner so i'm wondering if they tried to encourage me to replace parts sooner than later to make $ even though it's a dealership. i know dealerships are expensive but i'd prefer to go through reputable ones


p.s. dealership is in nova so hopefully no one goes to the same one as this one haha

 

[Inv4drZm]

He's not going to admit to "joyriding", he'll come up with some sort of excuse if he can come up with something when he sees you walking up. I'd just go to his manager.

 

[99problems]

Honestly... if they had done all the work under warranty then I'd probably let it slide since it's a net benefit to you; but that's not what happened apparently. Since they've shown you no great love here, I'd return the favor and report the joyride bit to the lead service manager and the GM of the dealership. Ask for a meeting in person if necessary, and bring a copy of the video showing the joyride in question. That guy could just as easily have taken his own vehicle rather than yours, but instead he risked damaging your car, used your gas, etc.

 

[AuSeeker]

Long story short: had planned warranty work for the issues they uncovered when I had my oil change. Dropped off the 4Runner a week later for warranty work and was told it'd be rdy within a day or 2 depending on how quick Toyota approved their request to complete warranty work. a day later they called me saying they wouldn't be able to do warranty work but can do other work that would have been paid out of pocket. i approved and got the truck back the next day. i went through dash cam footage and saw my service advisor who is also an assisstant service manager take my 4Runner for a brief joyride to his local barber to get a cut. only fluids were drained at the shop and no major work done so i don't see any other reason for him to be test driving my 4Runner and not a mechanic. he had my 4Runner for approx. 1hr 25m with footage showing timestamps.

what should i do here?

1) report him to the GM of said dealership
2) confront him personally face-to-face and find out the reason for driving the 4R
3) shrug it off and say its ok for someone to drive my 4Runner without permission let alone take my 4Runner out for a joyride that lasted almost 1hr and half


oh the reason why Toyota declined warranty work is because the parts in questions were "seeping", and not "leaking". the dealership issued a report with the affected parts and labeled them as "red, requires immediate attention" as if it needed to be fixed asap. this report was issued without them knowing i already had warranty on the 4Runner so i'm wondering if they tried to encourage me to replace parts sooner than later to make $ even though it's a dealership. i know dealerships are expensive but i'd prefer to go through reputable ones


p.s. dealership is in nova so hopefully no one goes to the same one as this one haha

Blackmail him to get the work done for free, it's a Stealership turn the tables on them!!

I'm just joking on breaking the law by blackmailing someone, but now the thought is in your head, so do what you want with that thought!!:biggrin1:

 

[07V8]

**** that. Put it on the local news and never go to the dealer again.

Dealers are generally bottom dwellers when it comes to everything. I've only been impressed with 1 Toyotaa dealer. Lexus, Audi, and BMW are different.

 

[Anonymous4Runner]

I decided to write an email to the GM so we will see what he says tomorrow. I'm not going to blackmail these guys expecting free work even though warranty would have covered it for free no matter what.

its all dependent on the GM's response tomorrow whether i should leave a post on their Yelp page and do my good deed of the day uploading the video with appropriate hashtags or not


i hope the guy gets fired though - must be pretty comfortable driving other peoples cars without permission to do errands

 

[BlackWorksInc]

That's pretty skeevy, at both dealerships I have worked at that would get you fired pretty quickly. The only exception to that would be if a service writer or technician volunteered to drive a vehicle an extended time for an intermittent issue or for an oddball issue that requires a lot of miles; but of course that would be approved by the customer first.

Also the definition of "seep" by Toyota and what most people/mechanics might consider a light leak is a bit annoying.

 

[kevinpt]

I decided to write an email to the GM so we will see what he says tomorrow. I'm not going to blackmail these guys expecting free work even though warranty would have covered it for free no matter what.

its all dependent on the GM's response tomorrow whether i should leave a post on their Yelp page and do my good deed of the day uploading the video with appropriate hashtags or not


i hope the guy gets fired though - must be pretty comfortable driving other peoples cars without permission to do errands

come down to Richmond for work mcgeorge toyota has been good to me

 

[Anonymous4Runner]

come down to Richmond for work mcgeorge toyota has been good to me

That's on my way back to Virginia Beach where I have family there! I do have a longtime account with Charles Barker Toyota off Laskin road in Virginia Beach - I might check out other Toyota shops here in the area and use VB's (and maybe even yours!) as a last resort. I live in Fairfax so it's about an hour and half away to Richmond

If nothing pans out by tomorrow, I'll share the deets with you all and include a bonus video! :cheer2:

 

[YetiX]

Looking forward to hearing how this turns out.

 

[Anonymous4Runner]

So I talked with the GM today - they did not do anything to satisfy my complaint pretty much. The GM apologized repeatedly and informed me he took appropriate actions with "all those involved", which included the mechanic who inspected my 4Runner and promised me it would never happen again.

The GM also "hoped to gain my trust" after my last service experience with me coming back but it is very unlikely. I guess the GM also had the assistant service manager send me an email to apologize for his actions. I'll include the SS of his email to me which I have yet responded. Will be writing one after I complete this post. I also looked over the receipt and noticed the miles were never updated at the time of check out

I do not have any quality editing software to edit out boring parts of a video so I merged the clips together and rendered as a single video. I will post YouTube time stamped links for useful info

https://youtu.be/7D-qNr3rlKI?t=33
-leaves the secured lot only accessible by employees with a pin

https://youtu.be/7D-qNr3rlKI?t=706
-this proves he was not 'doing a minor pit stop' as he entered a certain neighborhood to get to his destination. this is not a route a typical mechanic would take if they needed to test drive the vehicle. besides he is an assistant service manager, why is he doing work that mechanics are supposed to do? essentially doing grunt work.

https://youtu.be/7D-qNr3rlKI?t=829
-say cheese mr. assistant service manager

https://youtu.be/7D-qNr3rlKI?t=2095
-returns to the dealership into the lot area where customers pick up their 4Runners if they do not wait at the dealership during service


Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet (just in case link doesn't work)

[IMG]http://imgur.com/a/XGA1b


NOTE: the date/year is off but the time is correct. Thank god I decided to leave the dash cam behind when I dropped off the 4Runner for service otherwise I'd have never known about this.

I was told the 4Runner would be ready for pickup by 5:30 but this video proves it was already ready by 12 pm that day.


For those of you who lives in NoVA - at this point based on their GM's response, I would strongly avoid this dealership for any work and look elsewhere.

Priority Toyota Springfield is the name of the dealership in question.

Thanks for all of your posts guys, bummed they did not really do anything to satisfy my concerns. They just lost a potential long time customer.

 

[hearno]

Unauthorized use of an automobile is a crime in VA, state code 18.2-102 to be exact. Were I sent to a call about this, I'd probably need to confer with a CWA before securing warrants due to the consent given to drive the vehicle to work on it. This definitely falls outside of the scope of that consent though and they might prosecute it. Esp up in Fairfax... you never know. Talking to the police might get you somewhere, if that would make you feel better. Also, throw up a google review and link the youtube video.


OP, what's your real name so I can include it in the email I'm writing to Mr. Rana (I'm guessing that's who you talked to) and their president, Dennis Ellmer. Thanks!

 

[AuSeeker]

So I talked with the GM today - they did not do anything to satisfy my complaint pretty much. The GM apologized repeatedly and informed me he took appropriate actions with "all those involved", which included the mechanic who inspected my 4Runner and promised me it would never happen again.

The GM also "hoped to gain my trust" after my last service experience with me coming back but it is very unlikely. I guess the GM also had the assistant service manager send me an email to apologize for his actions. I'll include the SS of his email to me which I have yet responded. Will be writing one after I complete this post. I also looked over the receipt and noticed the miles were never updated at the time of check out

I do not have any quality editing software to edit out boring parts of a video so I merged the clips together and rendered as a single video. I will post YouTube time stamped links for useful info

https://youtu.be/7D-qNr3rlKI?t=33
-leaves the secured lot only accessible by employees with a pin

https://youtu.be/7D-qNr3rlKI?t=706
-this proves he was not 'doing a minor pit stop' as he entered a certain neighborhood to get to his destination. this is not a route a typical mechanic would take if they needed to test drive the vehicle. besides he is an assistant service manager, why is he doing work that mechanics are supposed to do? essentially doing grunt work.

https://youtu.be/7D-qNr3rlKI?t=829
-say cheese mr. assistant service manager

https://youtu.be/7D-qNr3rlKI?t=2095
-returns to the dealership into the lot area where customers pick up their 4Runners if they do not wait at the dealership during service


Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet (just in case link doesn't work)

[IMG]http://imgur.com/a/XGA1b


NOTE: the date/year is off but the time is correct. Thank god I decided to leave the dash cam behind when I dropped off the 4Runner for service otherwise I'd have never known about this.

I was told the 4Runner would be ready for pickup by 5:30 but this video proves it was already ready by 12 pm that day.


For those of you who lives in NoVA - at this point based on their GM's response, I would strongly avoid this dealership for any work and look elsewhere.

Priority Toyota Springfield is the name of the dealership in question.

Thanks for all of your posts guys, bummed they did not really do anything to satisfy my concerns. They just lost a potential long time customer.

Unauthorized use of an automobile is a crime in VA, state code 18.2-102 to be exact. Were I sent to a call about this, I'd probably need to confer with a CWA before securing warrants due to the consent given to drive the vehicle to work on it. This definitely falls outside of the scope of that consent though and they might prosecute it. Esp up in Fairfax... you never know. Talking to the police might get you somewhere, if that would make you feel better. Also, throw up a google review and link the youtube video.


OP, what's your real name so I can include it in the email I'm writing to Mr. Rana (I'm guessing that's who you talked to) and their president, Dennis Ellmer. Thanks!

I'm not surpried that all you got was an apology, this is probably a common practice at that dealership as well as others, using a customer's vehicle for going to luch, etc.

Unfortunately using the video as evidence in a legal proceeding most likely isn't going to work beacuse of the incorrect time stamp.

I would follow up with Toyota Main Headquarters as well, but not sure if anything would come of that either.

 

[banilla16]

Sounds like a weak excuse and the GM is trying to cover this up


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Nervo19]

I'd possibly call the local news since you have footage. I also think calling Toyota corporate might be good. But what would satisfy you? I'd want that warranty work done but would be hesitant to return to that shop. I can't figure out why you have a warranty on an older 4Runner. The dealer service shops are seldom kind to older vehicles. The exist to sell you a new car.

I'm trapped by a two year warranty on my Tacoma. They went to do a software update and they fried my ECM. They had my new truck for a week and all I got was a free oil change (which I had to ask for). Haley Toyota Richmond.

 

[hearno]

Unfortunately using the video as evidence in a legal proceeding most likely isn't going to work beacuse of the incorrect time stamp.

Not correct, his testimony that it's off would suffice. Also, it's clearly at a dealer being driven by its employees.

I'd possibly call the local news since you have footage.

We have one of those local news idiots that loves these types of stories, he'd run with it and NO business wants that. Def a possibility if you really want to stir the pot.

 

[Anonymous4Runner]

All good guys. I sent the GM another email and will probably be my last one.


In the meantime I will need to figure out how my camera can run 24/7 while in parked situations like this...I'd have loved to see him coming out of the barbershop. Do you giuys have any ideas how I can do something like this? It's connected via USB cable from cigarette lighter port to the dash cam

 

[Anonymous4Runner]

I'd possibly call the local news since you have footage. I also think calling Toyota corporate might be good. But what would satisfy you? I'd want that warranty work done but would be hesitant to return to that shop. I can't figure out why you have a warranty on an older 4Runner. The dealer service shops are seldom kind to older vehicles. The exist to sell you a new car.

I'm trapped by a two year warranty on my Tacoma. They went to do a software update and they fried my ECM. They had my new truck for a week and all I got was a free oil change (which I had to ask for). Haley Toyota Richmond.

I picked up this truck up with very low miles and ended up paying a little extra for the warranty that will keep me safe for the next few years. I picked it up with 47k miles. I can't afford a 5th gen and always liked the look of 3rd/4th gen

I feel the same way with the warranty work but the GM assured me he spoke with the service shop manager as well as the technician who inaccurately issued a report marking items that should have never been recommended to replace ASAP. Trust was broken here and as of now I see zero reasons to return to the shop based on their responses. Maybe I'll look into local news stations here in NoVA, I'm new to the area so I don' really check local news that often. I just stick to national/international news sites haha

 

[hoggy46]

I might feel inclined to let them know you'll pass on their clearly satisfactory resolution to Toyota corporate so they know what a "great" job they did handling the situation. Also let them know you'll double check with law enforcement as well to make sure no crime was committed. Reassure them that you are sure they were diligent in their search for a fair and proper resolution to the the situation and wish them well in all future endeavors, all of this should be said very gracefully as well. Even if you don't pursue it any further, it would make me check a bit to think they might squirming a bit over it.

 

[V8inVA]

Ugh. I'm awaiting dashboard replacement at the dealership!

Anonymous4Runner, THANK YOU for sharing your experience.

Can anyone recommend a dealership in the NoVA area? I'm wondering if I can transfer my dashboard to another dealership.