"Servicing at the dealership is stupid and unnecessary"

[equipped2ripp]

^ I don't trust anyone with giving them my oil to use. They would just keep it for themself and use the oil from the barrel they have. I have 2 gallons of Amsoil 15W40 synthetic just sitting there because I don't trust giving it to them to use in my vehicle. Next service I would ask them if I can change the oil on my own and not let them do it for me...

[pugboy]

how come some people does get courtest vehicle and others not ?

[pete]

At LSM they have courtesy vehicles at an additional cost I think.

[MG Man]

happened to me today:
mE: yeah ah lose de key for mih wheel lock, but here, look one ah de wheel locks.....check de pattern an sell mih one nah

Them: yeah yuh go hadda bring een de car eh

Me: nah gyul, de car in south and it on race tyres, jus check de nut nah

She: nah, yuh hadda bring een de car for dem tuh measure an ting

Me holding wheel lock in her face: when ah bring de car, ent is THIS they gonna check????? How is this checking this different to checking it on the car??????

SHe: they NEED you to bring the car so they can check it

Me; OK one more time, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHECKING THE WHEEL LOCK ON THE WHEEL AND CHECKING THIS ONE IN MIH HAND??????

sHE: ok HOL ON...*GRABS PHONE* talks to tech........yeah yuh MUST bring een de car

Me: Did you tell him I have the wheel lock in me hand?????

She: Hol on..........*grabs phone* *hands me phone* yeah fella...........woi mark is you *LOL*

Tech comes up front with a nice box of wheel lock keys, trial fits them then says 'yeah you need to order a #13' Cheers bro

I look at the woman and ask her if I should still bring in the car, just in case

She: well de proper ting is to bring een de car *rolls eyes*

[Stephon.]

All these N&M stories got me worried for my cousin. He knows eff all about cars and just recently bought a Jetta from them that he's been driving for under a month now .

[Stephon.]

Sorry to hear about your experiences ABA - that's really disappointing for a brand new vehicle, makes you lose hope in the brand all together. I sometimes drive an ASX from there which belongs to my gf and every time it has to go service, my father insists on taking it In, same goes for my mother whenever her vehicle is due for service.

[Chimera]

So why don't people give their experience at outside mechanics???

at my outside mechanic..i know for one my vehicle eh disappear and anyone went to run errands with it when I come to collect it



that ever happen to anyone else @ their outside mechanic?

[Chimera]

btw to reply to the thread title

Servicing at the dealship is stupid but its necessary.for warranty.

[RBphoto]

She: well de proper ting is to bring een de car *rolls eyes*

Bhai, de oman telling yuh in code to bring in yuh car, she have a nice place for you to park it.... but prolly for the best, she would have been dissapointed to learn that you have a mini.

[crazychinee]

Had similar experience @ TOY.....

Was billed for wheel alignment/balancing...only to realize that their machine was down.

When I asked.. all they said was "oops".

It's not only dealerships do this, but almost any business place that figure that can' make a fast buck off a customer.

I had an experience yesterday by a well known air conditioning company. I had the blower changed less than 3 months ago, and now it's giving trouble. This time someone else took in the car, and they're trying to sell them a new blower...AGAIN.

Customer service and ethics dont exist; you have to move like a certain "mr alleged" and hunt them down.

[bluespeed]

I remembered when I purchased my 3.0 Dmax, the first service they said they changed filter & oil drained the transmission and diff....something told me to go by a ramp and see wtf they really do under the van?

Not one sheit was done.... I had the van rust guard and it was on the filter drain plugs and everything else..

Pointed it out to some big fat Muslim man in the service department and he couldn't facking one sheit!

Monday morning they got a letter from my lawyers and they took back the vehicle.......long and short of the story, Friday of that week I got a new dmax because they voided their own warranty!...my receipt,cc payment, and me driving out of the compound was the proof.

[wagonrunner]

at my outside mechanic..i know for one my vehicle eh disappear and anyone went to run errands with it when I come to collect it

that ever happen to anyone else @ their outside mechanic?

nope. can't say that it has. they will faster use their vehicle for a parts run, or tell another customer to carry the currently disabled one for whatever they need.

yeah tell.
in our garage there's the understanding that the faster a car gets finished, the faster yours comes in. and the regulars have no problem mingling.

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

She: well de proper ting is to bring een de car *rolls eyes*

Bhai, de oman telling yuh in code to bring in yuh car, she have a nice place for you to park it.... but prolly for the best, she would have been dissapointed to learn that you have a mini.

Hahahahahahahahaha

[silent_riot]

Allyuh, wuh champagnay does taste like?

[equipped2ripp]

Bubbly

[MG Man]

She: well de proper ting is to bring een de car *rolls eyes*

Bhai, de oman telling yuh in code to bring in yuh car, she have a nice place for you to park it.... but prolly for the best, she would have been dissapointed to learn that you have a mini.

yeah I startin to think 'hey babe I drives ah MINI' isn't possibly the best pickup line

[nervewrecker]

on uwi I just tell them I know pioneer, try that.

[gt4tified]

Sometimes the dealers aren't as expensive as you think. Last year I had to change my sway bar bushings, thought "nah, LSM gonna be too expensive lemme just check the guy out the road to do that for me" his price was $300. Called LSM after I made arrangements with him and found out it was $250 to change them. Only thing is I'd have to make an appointment and I wanted them done before a dex event so I just went to the guy. Since then I've decided to call them first to see how much to do work on the car if I can't do it myself.

Like pete did above, most times we only take into consideration the labour cost of one vs. the other when making such comparisons, but do we also take into account:

Distance between the village mechanic and driving to the firm? In my case there’s a mechanic across the road from me so I could literally push my vehicle there, as opposed to driving to LSM in Barataria, which is a 1/2 hr drive and will prolly cost about $20 in gas, round trip.

Then factor in you either have to make alternative arrangements when dropping off your vehicle at the dealership (unless you plan to wait, in which case make sure your cell fully charged or you walk with sumn to read), as opposed to you walk back home with the guy “dong de road”.

How about when you get hungry waiting on your vehicle? The mechanic dong de road always have a pot bubbling (if not, change said mechanic) and there is no charge for a plate of food. You go to the firm, you either have to walk with something to eat or call KFC/Japs (see previous point about keeping a fully charged phone).

Final point (only cuz it late and I tired).....credit. Me ent know about who large-up to drop cheque in dealership next day/week/mth.end but I sure know its not a lot of ppl. You drop your car by yuh mechanic paddna, and is “ah go handle yuh later/mth. end/when the cows come home” scene.

[wagonrunner]

^^
true talk there yes.

[Chimera]

my outside mechanic is a relative who works at speedys garage in bamboo. with him i know that if parts suppose to be changed he will change them. he always give me back my old parts anyway even tho i trust him 100% and he always organises "i calling from speedy garage" price for whatever parts i need

cost of cradle arms for my b15 last year at n&m = $1800 each i think

cost of cradle arms at m&n (i calling from speedy garage price) $2500 or $2800 for pair

[Stephon.]

Posted this in another thread but may get a quicker response in here

Anyone knows if you get your warranty voided at Southern Sales if you cross the 1000 km mark? Right now I'm currently at 760 and my first appointment date is set at March 1st. I gotta call them on Monday morning to get my date moved up, but what if it isn't moved up in time and I go over by about 500km?

I worded myself wrong, the first service is at 1000km, then every other 5000km.

[Chimera]

honestly...when you carry it into service at say 1200/1300 km they wont say anything because they want yuh money

but if 2 years down d line you develop some kinda problems and you expect them to remedy it under warranty, they could just bring up that you came in late for first service and thats what firetruck u up.


even if a service rep tell you over the phone that "its okay to bring it in around 1300 km", 2 years from now that not gonna help u because after years of stealing your parts and charging you for work they eh do, they gonna tell u warranty void.

i've decided that after going to the stealership for a service, i will carry the car by my outside mechanic to confirm whats suppose to be done, has been done.

[equipped2ripp]

The 1000km service is complimentary, meaning you don't pay.

Just tell them to move up your date because you want to do it before 1500kms, that's all. If service dept. giving trouble, let your salesman make the appt. for you to service.

[nareshseep]

There is no problem I see with dealer maintained ... except if was me I would like to be present for anything being done on my vehicle

[Val]

Always had pretty good service from DM. However I have noticed that with any service centre (even KFC) in Trinidad, their friends always get better service than pleb customers. You always have to have a contact to get anything done properly.

TTTL's service left a lot to be desired, and I have stopped servicing by them a long time ago with absolutely no issues with outside service centre quality.

In my view, if your maintenance is spot on (treat the vehicle as it should be treated, it's a machine and it is a maintainable asset), then the warranty should not matter too much unless the manufacturing process is known to be unreliable/poor QA. Why pay more for the same or lesser quality service just to uphold a warranty you are trying to never have to use.
Thus far this philosophy has paid off for me.

[shaneelal]

There is no problem I see with dealer maintained ... except if was me I would like to be present for anything being done on my vehicle

Do dealers allow this?

[gt4tified]

There is no problem I see with dealer maintained ... except if was me I would like to be present for anything being done on my vehicle

Do dealers allow this?

I would certainly have a problem if they didn’t. Is kinda like a restaurant refusing a customer to see the kitchen after he spends a boatload on a meal.

[brudab]

First time I got a blown headlight on a Tucson, didn't know crap about anything with cars.. called the dealer for a replacement.. They said it would cost me $450 to replace the bulb.

Good thing I told a padna, cause I swore they were the experts and the cost was justified.
Padna carried me by Laughlin, bought the same bulb for $35 and showed me the replacement takes 2 mins with no tools.

[streetbeastINC.]

we marked the belts/brake pads bushings on our companies xtrail when we had it sent it for sevicing, they charged us of r all of the above...... and...guess what.... tehy put the same ink mark on all the new belts and brake pads.....isnt that service......... i took this idea from someone who did the exact same thing ...he approached them and they never got back to him

[Chimera]

There is no problem I see with dealer maintained ... except if was me I would like to be present for anything being done on my vehicle

Do dealers allow this?

classic/diamond has a "only staff allowed in service bay" policy.

not sure how strict it is though.