who here dislikes dealerships?

highrollintj

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2005
Location
Rolesville
i just want to see who else here has had bad experiences at or with the dealership and what they did to make you "dislike" them.

i just put my jeep in the shop for some warranty work, but they find every loop hole around the problem as to why it isnt covered under the warranty. and the service manager at the dealership i went to used to work at a different dealership and he told me one thing, but now says that he didnt tell me that, so it is my word against his.

an o ring went out in my t-case but the ring isnt covered by my extended warranty, which really doesnt botter me cus i can replace it myself and if you had heard how much they wanted to charge to replace it you might have fainted.

the next issue was the front drive shaft u joint which i had no idea was bad, but apparently it is messed up. they want cover it under the warranty because of my lift. but when i asked how the lift could have effected the part he changed subject to how much mud was under my jeep and how that had some effect. however there was no mud on the part. they want to charge $65 for a new u joint which is outrageous and then on top of that like $90 for installation. my was not a concern the last two times my transmission had to be fixed or when my rear pinion seal went out and they had to replace my entire rear end.

to make a long story short i am now installing a new u joint, which i am purchasing from carquest for $12.95, and also installing the new o-ring which is located on the speed sensor on the output shaft.
 
well I will admit that most dealerships are a PITA, but I think anyne here would ahve told you the day you lifted it you had pretty much tore the warranty up. You may get an OK service managr or just a DA who doesnt know what he is doing or doesnt like confrontation, but most times you will get what you got.

As to the front Ujoint it is entirley possible that an improperly designed or installed lift kit could have caused premature failure due to bind angles etc.

I would count my stars that the tranny work got done!

BTW for what its worth I got a run around from Ford when my '04 250 6.0 went out with 4200 miles on the odometer because of a cat back exhaust system.
They replaced it and then reworked the top end again later, but i had to get a regional rep involved both times...

Then they later admitted the early 6.0 was a turd......after I sold my super duty
 
Yeah, you're lucky with the tranny work.

Dealerships don't make squat on warranty work and most good mechanics avoid it at all cost. So you've got a mechanic working on your vehicle that isn't making anything, but yet people continue to buy new vehicles for the security of the warranty. Non-warranty work is so expensive so that they recover their loss on the warranty work.

It's all a scam. I just do what I can on my own and seek friends when it goes beyond that.:smokin:
 
So let me get this right... you brought the dealer a muddy / dirty, modified vehicle, and you're mad because they wouldn't cover a u-joint (a part which is affected by mud and dirt, just like seals are)? Doesn't matter one bit if that particular part had mud on it currently.. it could have in the past.

$65 for an OEM u-joint is right in the ballpark, and so is $90 for the install. Time yourself doing it and let us know if it takes you less than 1.5 hours (and that's a cheap dealer rate) from the time you walk up to the vehicle, to the time you crawl out from underneath with your last wrench ,to replace that u-joint.

That $12.95 special is not of the same quality, but on a front shaft, it'll probably never be needed.

Basic rule of thumb - if the aftermarket part touches the component that broke, you are your own warranty station.

Sorry it's not what you want to hear.
 
Dealership = Stealership. They will look for any and every reason not to repair your vechicle under warranty.

Gmachine hit the nail on the head. Most techs will run & hide from a warranty job waiting at the 'Lack (Laugh?) of Service Desk" for them. Sad to say I have saw this too many times first hand. My old man was a Ford tech for 30 years at a stealership, over 90% of the techs there were like that. On the other hand if there were a job waiting that paid over 2 hours by the book and they knew they could finish the job in around 1 hour they would and will be all over it.


<><Fish
 
Yeah it sucks, but a suspension lift does void the warrranty on much of the drivetrain and suspension. It sucks, but I understand why. Your warranty is supposed to cover your vehicle in stock condition.

Another thing that sucks..... They are much less likely to haggle you on warranty work if you let them service you vehicle, but damn their prices are outrageous..... North Point Chrysler/Jeep wanted $350 to "service" my Tranny, transer case, and diffs. "Service" meaning to do nothing more than change the damn gear oil....... I don't even think they pull the diff covers, they have a machine to suck the gear oil out.

My Nissan pickup has a small leak at the top of the transmission at the shifter linkage. This is a common factory defect on my model, but it didn't start until the factory warranty was voided. A relative has the exact same truck (bought ours less than a month apart), he goes to Modern Nissan to get it fixed. They told him it would cost $350 or so because the Tranny had to be pulled or something and it would be about 3 hours. 45 minutes later it was ready to go. The techs pulled the carpet back, moved the shifter boot and linkage to get to it. Their pricing book says its a 3 hour job (because you're supposed to have to move the tranny), so you get charged this no matter what.... Anyway he wound up paying the $350 but he'll never go back to Modern Nissan. They also wanted $1200 to replace the timing chain assy. They'll used the same factory plastic guides that wear out quick. Most other mechanics want around $600 change it.

They normally use "genuine factory parts". Normally you would think these are the best parts availible for your vehicle, but sometimes that isn't the case.

Sorry, I could bitch about this all day....
 
Ok, now switch places. Your a tech at the dealer and some yahoo brings in a modified, lifted, or customized vehicle for service. The customer is whining and complaining wanting warranty to cover something that he has tore up not that was a factory deffect. Which is probably only going to pay just a bit over 1/2 of what the Mitchell book calls for. Hey, been there and done that. I work at Chevy dealer and one of the crooked service managers we had wouldn't "good will" warranty an engine for a customer that had bought several vehicles from the comapany and just ran out of warranty by mileage. But then turns around to fully cover a transmission in a '90 K5 with 10" lift and Boggers. And the kicker was the kid didn't even live here, he just went to school down the road and actually lived in MD.

I say quit your Bitchin' and buy yourself some tools...
 
BUCKETOBOLTS said:
I say quit your Bitchin' and buy yourself some tools...
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everything after market i have installed myself so i dont even want to here that. it just pisses me off when you go to one dealership and they tell you one thing and then another tells you something different. if one dealership will warranty the work then why wont the other.

the guy at the dealership who worked on my jeep is someone that i know and he ended up replacing the o-ring and changed the fluid and even installed my new speedo gear in the tranny for no more then the cost of the o-ring.

the engine was over 500 worth of work but it was covered under warranty and the u-joint is somethin that i can replace in 30 minutes at my buddies shop.

and to skyhik5 there was nothing "improperly" done about my lift kit. i have installed 5 lift kits now on 5 different vehicles, 3 of which were tjs, and nothing is wrong with them. i am getting ready to swap my axles out with waggy 44's, a clayton's hard arm upgrade kit, changing out the steering box, installing a high flow steering pump, hooking up my hydraulic winch and probably running either 37" or 38" tires. and i plan on doing all of this myself with the exception of the welding that will need to be done which i have a friend who is gonna help me with that.
 
Let me add a little something here....... This is one case it pays to patronize your local 4x4 shop as much as you can. The reason is that the 4x4 shop probably has a good relationship with most of the dealers, at least they should. I know I lift trucks for our Jeep, GMC, and Ford dealers regularly, working on Dodge, and Chev right on, but anyway, what I am getting at is they still warranty these trucks, and if I know one of my customers has a warranty issue, I dont hesitate to make a call for him, and it usally helps. Just my thoughts..
 
all the jeep dealerships in the raleigh area do their on lift kits, where they try to rip the customer off by charging them $2000 or more for procomp's 2" lift; that price includes install. i knew of a shop that did some lift kits for one of the toyota dealerships but they went out of business. the dealerships try to say that you cant go more than 2" and they always say that it says this somewhere in the warranty but i have yet to find it or have a dealer show it to me, and i know the only reason they do this is so that you will have your lift kit bought and installed at the dealership.

when you think about it, it isnt the lift kit that messes things up, it is usually the environment which you are four wheeling in.
 
Chris man, I told you dealerships suck a while ago . . . hurry up and buy all the stuff you need for the swap and we'll get it all done man.

But yea I agree with you I have no simpathy whatsoever for dealership mechanics not wanting to do work, thats what there paid for and if they don't like it they can go find another job, end of story.

I work as a Mechanic in the Service Depo of Wher-Rena Boat Sales In Cornelius, and the owner is My cousin so I know how this works first hand cause he has told me. To the Dealership owner themselfs they love to accept warranty work because they don't have to pay squat it comes from the warranty bill, so there is no out of pocket cost to the owner. However the Mechanics shy away from it some times becuase they may not be able to make as much $$ off it than they would a non warranty job.

As far as the person bringing in a Dirty Vehicle yea that does make it annoying to a mechanic since some (like me) like to keep my bay clean and I always serive the Company Vehicles (We have 5 of em so there is almost always one or another thing wrong with one of em) but I mean to be honest I get over it and they can too I mean when Im at home everything I work on is grease and mud caked so I'm used to it anyway.

However a mechanic trying to say thats what caused a sertain part to fail is them just whining they have no way of telling the mud itself caused the failure they can just make an educated guess.

I don't know, I mean on this subject I feel for both sides, but mostly for the customer. Personally I don't bring Jack to dealerships to do work and tell everyone I know to stay away from the dealership because of the absolutly rediculous prices that they charge.

Plus a good friend of mine works for the Ford Dealership close by and I've been there several times and talked to the various mechanics and knew more stuff then they did, and I never went to school for any of this stuff, just learned it myself.
 
yeah see thats the whole thing, the service manager said that the hole bottom of my jeep was covered, i dont know what he was talkin about cus i keep it pretty clean, and if there was mud then it is on the tub; not on the actual moving parts of the vehicle
 
and the only time i go through mud is up at uwharrie... wait there is no mud just dirty water, and hell if dirty water causes stuff to mess up then oh well, its all over the roads down here in the south
 
But yea I agree with you I have no simpathy whatsoever for dealership mechanics not wanting to do work, thats what there paid for and if they don't like it they can go find another job, end of story.
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It's not like they get paid by the hour. If they were they wouldn't care what kind of junk you brought in the door. They get paid by the job. And if they charge $60 an hour the tech only gets about $20. It's not an easy live to be made.

I'll bite my tongue before I flame anyone...
 
Bring your Jeep down to Hendrick Chrysler/Jeep in Fayetteville tell them you want me to work on it and I look the other way on most stuff, just give me a heads up on when you want it fixed. One wheeling Jeeper to another, I'm a DC cerified master tech and ASE master tech.
 
BUCKETOBOLTS said:
It's not like they get paid by the hour. If they were they wouldn't care what kind of junk you brought in the door. They get paid by the job. And if they charge $60 an hour the tech only gets about $20. It's not an easy live to be made.
I'll bite my tongue before I flame anyone...
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We dealership techs get paid crap the money the dealership charges goes in the owners pocket not ours, we are paid by the job, and most times lose out rears like the damn E05 recall I did on a guys TJ had to replace the cam, lifters, oil pump, oil pump drive gear on the cam sensor, the recall paid 9.6 hours took about 16 hours to do it properly thats a loss of 6.40 hours. I've been a dealership tech for about 13 years, every year they lower our times that we get paid. Or you could have a service advisor like I do who gives almost everything away for about 1/2 of what she should charge for it.
 
Gmachine said:
Dealerships don't make squat on warranty work
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Not true, they make damn good money (GM dealership I was at made was paid $70hr BY GM for warranty repairs, and will be adamant that they are there for warranty repairs before anything else), The problem for the tech lies in the TIME ALOTTED for any given repair.
for example, Mitchell labor guide allows approx 2.5 hours to replace power steering pump on a 2001 Chevy van (this would be customer pay), GM WARRANTY allows 1.5 hrs, for the same repair AND requires documented diagnostics in the same time frame. under RECALL, GM ALLOWS .9 hours (yes that is 9 tenths of an hour or 54 minutes for the same DIAG and repair). THIS is what the tech gets paid no matter if he can do the repair in .8hr or 3 hours. anyone ever replaced a power steering pump in a Chevy G-Van ? unless you have the tools ($$$) and know the tricks ( and thats the key) you loose your ass.
and most good mechanics avoid it at all cost.
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see above
So you've got a mechanic working on your vehicle that isn't making anything, but yet people continue to buy new vehicles for the security of the warranty.
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This is false security, in most cases if the issue cannot be figured out quickly it is bullshitted to get it out of the bay and "some" time clocked, it'll come back for another try in a few weeks (hopefully to a different tech) or go somewhere else, ESPECIALLY electrical issues. unless it is something that can be documented and verified to cover the time spent THEN the tech can recoup his time on warranty with the approval of the factory Rep. No, it's not right, but this is what happens, or you loose your ass.
Non-warranty work is so expensive so that they recover their loss on the warranty work.
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Non warranty work is so expensive because of GREED and PROFIT, nothing more, nothing less. They jack up the labor rate to increase the profits and make the numbers look good, when the reality is another part of the business isn't holding it's own and door counts are down. Many people will pay it because they need their junk running.
The sad part is they are pricing themselves out of help. FEW techs want to deal with a loosing game ( and it is a game ) and the dealership, hell shops in general are having a hell of a time finding qualified techs. let alone someone who actually shows up day to day.
 
:stupid:
The dealer was probably more like $85-$90/hr. body shops are around 50-60.

I wanna see that u-joint changed in 30 minutes. Pull it in, Pull it out.
 
highrollintj said:
and to skyhik5 there was nothing "improperly" done about my lift kit. i have installed 5 lift kits now on 5 different vehicles, 3 of which were tjs, and nothing is wrong with them. i am getting ready to swap my axles out with waggy 44's, a clayton's hard arm upgrade kit, changing out the steering box, installing a high flow steering pump, hooking up my hydraulic winch and probably running either 37" or 38" tires. and i plan on doing all of this myself with the exception of the welding that will need to be done which i have a friend who is gonna help me with that.
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Easy there, killer.
I wasn't implying that you did not know what you were doing.I said either an improperly designed or installed...

I am sure you are fully capable or designing and building a geometrically perfect 4-link like everyon els on the web.....

Point being when the vehicle was lifted did either you or the kit provide any provisions for altering the pinion angle? If not then the lift absolutely created extra stress on the ujoint by increasing the driveline angle.

As to the comment that thre was only "muddy water" and not mud on the components, this may actually be worse. In a muddy "slurry" the particles of grit and abrasives are more dispersed and also have a medium (the water) to get them into places that a glob of mud couldnt go...Then when the water runs out you have grit wearing on joints,bearings, etc.

Finally I think many people on here would benefit from learning the definiton of flat rate pay, it appears many dont fully understand how the vast majority of mechanics are compensated...
 
highrollintj said:
and the only time i go through mud is up at uwharrie... wait there is no mud just dirty water, and hell if dirty water causes stuff to mess up then oh well, its all over the roads down here in the south
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Ummm, no mud at Uwharrie? Wow, that's like saying there's no salt in the ocean.
 
Stankoma said:
Ummm, no mud at Uwharrie? Wow, that's like saying there's no salt in the ocean.
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If you think Uwharrie is muddy then you aint seen mud, lol

While rockkrawlin is fun Muddin is still my favorite thing to do so I've seen my fair share of mud and there is not a single partially challanging muddy spot at uwharrie unless your tryin to drive up a hill during a thunderstorm with AT's :flipoff2:

It's actually kinda dissapointing . . . :(
 
I'm not putting down the mechanics at all, I was just stating what the current conditions are at most garages and what the mechanics are forced to deal with to stay afloat. It's sad, but the manufacturers have tried to cut every expense possible and this is one of them.

I'm just saying it's best to do your own work as much as possible and only rely on dealerships for special tool work.

A friend just bought a '03 Explorer and had the front seal go out over the holiday on his way to West Virgina. He had to have it towed home because there is not dipstick tube to add fluid to! It has to be serviced at the dealership with special fittings!! I guess I wont be buying one of those any time soon.
 
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