Dealership rant!!

[blaisetd]

I just wanted to vent! I took my '90 in to the local "5 Star" Jeep/dodge dealership yesterday cause I was going grey with an all RPM miss that I’ve been troubleshooting/throwing money at for a few weeks now. I figured that they would be experts on Jeeps and for a $70 diagnosis they would point me in the right direction. Well....when I call they say they ran the diagnosis and didn't come up with anything. The service rep then states that their guys just aren’t trained on the older vehicles and that’s all they can do for me unless I wanted to get into 10 hours of diagnostic time. I wasn’t even given a chance to agree to the ten hours. Ummm….WTF?
Maybe it’s better if I didn’t pick up my Jeep right away and I had some time to cool off…….does anybody have a bullhorn i can borrow? I might need to make a few announcements while leaving the dealership. blaise

[Beej]

They aren't called stealerships for nothin'...

I had a weird rear diff noise that was buggin me and since I know jack about diffs, I brought it in to the "experts". I asked for an estimate before they began work on it. They phoned a couple of hours later and said it would be $400 and change plus taxes. Since I know jack about diffs, I gulped and said okay.

When I picked it up, they told me they were unable to find the problem in the diff and didn't think there was anything wrong, but they replaced my front rotors and brake pads all around. That was the phoned estimate they gave me! The guy had no idea why I was mad. I can do my own brakes, thank you very much! When I asked about the diff, they told me it still made noise and they could look into it further, but pulling it apart again would cost me another charge. Since their shop rates are about double the local guy, I had my keys in hand and then told them and all their customers what I thought of them in my best crazy-guy-loud-in-public voice.

I firmly believe the worst service is at a dealership...

[mdl]

I think all service centers are scams. Doesn't even matter what for, their all in it for the high markup on labor. Trust me, I know. I work in one.

[Crusher16]

Great. I'm about to take my Jeep on Monday to one of our dealerships (not the one that already ripped off my grandma after she bought the Jeep) to see what they can do about my ABS system since it makes a very comforting grinding noise when I press the pedal. Hopefully, they won't try anything funny, and if they do, they are going to get hell.

[MuddinJeeper]

hey crusher...have you checked your rotors and pads? it might just be a routine maintenance thing...not worth the $$ to have a tech diagnose it

[Crusher16]

hey crusher...have you checked your rotors and pads? it might just be a routine maintenance thing...not worth the $$ to have a tech diagnose it
Pads were changed 3 months ago, and rotors resurfaced. I'm taking it in for the ABS recall they had in 1996 since I don't think my Jeep has been taken in. Yes, they will do it for free if they find a problem, but if they have to replace anything thats not covered under the recall, then I'm sure they'll try to do something about that, or if not that, then charge for something completely irrelavent to it.

On top of that, I'm leaving the day I take it in for a 2 days, and I'm a bit nervous to find out what they do with it for those 2 days.

[Bryan C.]

WTF is right! Sounds like they did you a good service by not taking any more of your money. I bet if you talked to the service manager he might give you some or possibly all of your money back since they were clueless about your Jeep. I will tell you this, if a car that some dumbass customer has been hacking into and changing parts out for no apparent reason comes through my service bay at work, my estimate would be for 10 hours too. Usually I spend the first hour of diagnosis just trying to fix what the guy has screwed up. Bottom line is not every tech at a dealership is an "expert", you are kidding yourself if you think that. Try a different dealership, or request that the shop foreman look at your vehicle, ask questions prior to actually leaving your vehicle at the shop. Ask them what happens if they can't fix your problem. If you don't want to do that, then you only have yourself to blame for wasting your money.