• WashedOver@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I can see the malicious angle. They would pressure me a bunch to convince me to service my work vehicles at the dealer.

    I only did early on as the salesman would give my ex-wife his car for the day when she would bring it in when needed. They were fantastic senior sales guys. Real gentlemen. I think they were at war with the service department though.

    Usually their service department couldn’t handle more than a oil change. One time my ex asked them to change out a hard to reach headlight bulb when I was out of town on a business trip.

    The service department said it would cost $700 to replace the whole headlight assembly on our new car bought at their dealership as it had aftermarket remaned headlights. They said the car must of been in a accident and we were sold a repo.

    When I got home from my trip it took me 2 minutes to change the bulb myself and I tore a strip off the Service Manager for not only for their gall to claim a brand new car with 5 kms they sold me was not new and their Bullshit scam preying on women.

    They didn’t seem to care. I never bought another car from them again. I had bought 3 in a row from them at that stage for work. God damn crooks and I feel bad for those that don’t know any better. My ex-wife ended up driving around with 1 headlight in winter for a few days as a dealership was trying to scam her. They *must get some people on this BS to even be so bold.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      That sounds awful, and unfortunately that’s what I expect going in to a dealership or independent garage.

      Fortunately, the dealers we use near us seem to actually be good. I don’t think I’ve ever been sold some fix that I didn’t already know was a problem. Sure I’ve turned down some minor things, like not replacing the brake pads early on a low mileage car, or deciding to pop in a new air filter myself instead of paying them $99 to do it. And sometimes I’ve said fuck it, go ahead and do it and I’ll pay for the convenience.

      One big factor, though, is that I think they are not hurting for business. They’re well located in the middle of sprawling suburbia and always busy.

      Their techs seem good too. That helps!