So I take my car in today to get a few warranty things done to it (seat cover, door trim piece replaced, hatch struts, pull to the right, sunroof deflector recall). The service writer explains that it is going to have to stay overnight. I say fine, where do I pick up my rental? Which to he replies, you dont have rental coverage for your vehicle. After 20 minutes of explaining to him that I bought the extended warranty with rental coverage, and after he makes two phone calls, he finally breaks down and gives me a voucher for enterprise. I then proceed to walk next door to enterprise and check out a 2006 Chevy Aveo POS rental car. While the rental girl and I were doing a walk around of the rental car in the parking lot I hear another car come flying out of the dealership parking lot and onto the road RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. The driver roasts the tires through first, chirps second, hammers third, and then attempts to grab fourth gear...except that he misses fourth gear and throws it back into 2nd gear while already at about 6000 rpm. The noise that came from the car was atrocious! The rev limiter kicked in immediately but he still revved the motor to what I would imagine was almost 8-9000 rpm's. The sound startled the girl doing the walk around and she looks at me and says "what was that?" To which I replied MY CAR!

AT THIS POINT I AM ____ED OFF!!! I get into the rental car, drive back over to the dealership and walk right up to the service writer and explained to him what I had just witnessed. He assured me that that was not my car but probably some punk kid in another tC and told me my car was around back in the service parking lot. What a load of BS! I got back into the rental, made two laps around their service yard and my car was nowhere to be found. I parked right in front of their drive in service dept bay, jumped out, and demanded to speak with the service manager. I go into this guys office and tell him what has been going on...the porter hammering the poop out of my car, the service writer LYING to cover up for him, and now I half to deal with this service manager who knows that I was right the whole time and had first handedly witnessed one of their employees abusing my vehicle.

The service manager took straight to kissing my ___ right off the get go. He admitted that the service writer had come into his office while I was driving around their service lot and explained what had happened to his manager. Evidently, the manager had already called the porter on his cell phone and told him to get back to the dealership immediately. I then called him on trying to cover up what he knew had taken place and he was pretty much speechless. He gave me free one free oil change and tire rotation (like i care?) to try and diffuse the situation. He assured me that he would personally be the only one driving my vehicle while it was being serviced (the porter was driving it to the upholstery shop to have the new seat cover installed), and he must have appologized fifty times. Since I was still pretty PO'd I decided I would leave before the porter came back with my car and I had to beat his a$$.

While driving in my rental car back home I explained the situation to my father and he told me to call the dealership back and demand that they put the situation in writing so that if anything were to mechanically happen to my car in the future, the dealership could not blame the failure on me beating the hell out of my car. So I called him back and he reluctanlty agreed to have the paper waiting for me when I pick up my car tomorrow.

After talking with my uncle, a Toyota Master Tech, about the situation he instructed me to demand that I get a leak down test performed by the dealership before I take possesion of the vehicle again. Evidently 9000 rpm can be detremental to an engine designed for under 6300 rpm.

So that is it. I am pretty much coming on here to share my experience (yes I know this prob should be in the dealer experience forum but not everybody knows it exists) and to vent to my friends of the scionlife community. Any comments and/ or suggestions on how I should handle this situation tomorrow when I go back to pick up my car would be very appriciated. I just couldn't believe that a Dealership, would allow something like this to happen and then tryi to cover it up by lying to me! Bad form Toyota of San Luis Obispo! :no: :no: :no:

OMG!!...I read the whole thing!

J/P
That was a good story man, for real,

I'd feel so F'ing violated. Someone else redlining my car, my veins would be boiling.

But cant you tell immediately if a car was yours, you sound'ed like you were doubting yourself for a min, I woulda been ____ed off to man, i feel ya.

I got the Extended warranty, i dont know what all was included, but that extra $1000 will come in handy even if i just have to replace one thing.

I hope everything is well with your car. Probly some punk prick kid they told to bring it to the shop.

I just say, good job on pointing it out right to there face. Some people dont have the balls to go back and forth to the Service Manager.

They treat us Scion Owners as "Kids". Well, they made a car targeted strait towards us, now they need to deal with it!! And not treat us like ish every time we pull up the the Service Department Garage.!!

File with the BBB

This happened to a friend of mine with another dealership (but it was a Subaru) and they gave him a $500.00 ATM card kinda deal that was basically cash in hand. Anytime something like that happens just go straight to the BBB and you'll be surprised how quickly any company crumbles and does anything you demand.

what dealer is this again???

thisis why i dont trust anybody else with my car lol

-taek

omg that really sucks.. that really scares the hell out of me to get my car serviced... sorry to hear that man i hope u get reimbursed for what happened.

Yea that does suck.
Which dealer was this?

But cant you tell immediately if a car was yours, you sound'ed like you were doubting yourself for a min, I woulda been ____ed off to man, i feel ya.


Yes I could tell it was my car, that is what made me look at it pulling out. With my Injen intake and AW header my car sounds a lot different than most tC's in my area. I was just in disbelief that that was really MY car being treated like that.


Yea that does suck.
Which dealer was this?

Toyota/Scion of San Luis Obispo, CA

I am going to push the issue of them performing a complete leak down and compression check tomorrow before I pick up the car. I am still so ____ed you have no idea. My mother heard about it and called me and told me to get a statement from the girl at the rental place too, just in case it ever becomes a really big issue down the line.

Reason number one I never leave my car anywhere with anyone, if they can't do it right then I tell them I will come back when they can.

Good advice in some of these posts already. :)

DO get a written statement from the gal at the rental office. DO get a written statement from the dealership, from at least the Service manager's level, if not higher. DO have them do the testing before you accept the vehicle. DO contact the BBB, and include copies of the two letters if the BBB wants them. DO contact Scion Corporate, explain the problem, and offer up copies of the letters to them, too.

This is unacceptable behavior from ANY dealer, and needs to make them uncomfortable enough that they DON'T want it to happen again.

(Yeah, this probably should be in 'dealer experience' but for right now it needs to be out here where it can be discussed.)

I don't know about that dealership, but if it were me I'd consider getting togetner with the dealership general manager or owner after I got everything in writing, and asking if this is accepted treatment of the customer's property. Ask what they plan to do to prevent the same thing happening to others who bring their cars in for service?

After all, it ws only dumb luck that the owner of that car was still close by when the PFY took off like that in the car.

Don't believe "that's never happened before." Yeah, sure...

It is HIGHLY unlikely that he just happened to get caught the very first time he ever did that...

Good Luck!

It would be in your interest to stand next to your car as they do the leak down and compression test. The obviously abused the car, tried to cover it up and when they realized they couldn't kissed yer ___. So, treat it like someone who has a hidden agenda, and watch them the whole way through. And be damn sure never to take it back there unless that person has been fired.

I seriously have to commend you for not seriously kicking someones ___ i know that would be the irrational thing to do but om my god if someone did that to my car i would be on the verge of crying and shooting somone.

wow. speechless.

That is just horrible, please keep us posted on what happens with this.

I had a similar experience, but, with valet parking. They abused the hell out of my mustang. Didn't really know what to do in that situation.

That really sucks. I would take your master tech relative while the leak down was performed.

Also inform the BBB and also write a "letter to the editor" to your local paper. Once that is published I can guarantee you that this service center will LOSE business which is the only thing that will get their attention.

Kevin

I'd forget dealing with the Service Mgr. Have the new car mgr. or the owner meet you when you go to pick up your car and DEMAND that all parties involved have a 'Come to Jesus' meeting.

In my selfish way, I'd have already asked for at least 2 firings. The service writer and the service mgr.! The punk kid is easily replaceable and what he did was very wrong, but the other 2 lied to you and were very ready to cover for each other. That is worse that what the kid did.

A free oil change and tire rotation are an insult. Ask the owner if he will let you go test drive a brand new car the same way yours was driven. I'm betting he will decline.
Friend, you are OWED! Lighting up the tires does more than just burn off a 64th of the tire, who knows what damage to the driveline was done? Let's not even go into what missed shifts and banging off the rev limiter will do, not can do.
This entire saga is unacceptable! And the BBB, Toyota Corprate,the 6 o'clock news and everyone in three counties needs to be aware of it.

Thanks for clueing us in on it. And thanks mods for leaving it in the main forum for a while.

There is a reason why Toyota dealers are ranked NEAR THE BOTTOM in terms of satisfaction. I love Toyota Motor Co., but unfortunately existing company policies make it difficult to control dealers.

It's so bad, that I refuse to buy Toyota cars so that I don't have to deal with the dealers (no haggle with Scion makes it worth it). Lexus dealers are great too. . . but Toyota sucks (and sorry to those few RESPECTABLE dealers). This also reminds me that the service department is PART of Toyota, and that I'm kinda shot in the foot there. :-/

I would put as much publicity on this as possible. Personally, I wouldn't let up until I got a new car (which would probably never happen). Driving like a monkey is bad enough, but mis-shifting and over-revving. . . they might as well have made bowel movements on your seat. Sure, they could clean it, but you wouldn't want to sit in the same seat again. . . unless you did it. And I know that's gross, but it's a very similar analogy.

Wow! I thought I had it bad... sorry to hear that man.

Screw the tests I'd just demand a new ride. Tests won't tell you what what will happen in the long term and there WILL be long term damage.

Good job on handling it the right way. With your car and the dealer in the balance that is how you should do it.... now if I caught a valet doing that as mentioned above, he WOULD get dragged out the car and beat like a red-headed step child!

Make sure they take care of this no matter what! The lack of any knowledge or skill by many of the dealer techs today coupled with nonsense like this is why no one wants to take thier car to the dealer. The guy driving your car SHOULD lose his job immediately, and I can tell you if he worked for me he would already be job hunting. The service writer would be right beside him simply for lying to a customer... but I believe in being honest with the customer, so dont expect that out of many dealerships. I know they arent all bad... but start reading some Motors books or talk to any number of customers or thier private mechanics who now have thier business and you see how bad the situation is.

Sorry for this happening!

you should find out what car the porter drives and make yourself feel happy....

bad story...sorry to hear.


i agree that this is not a dealer related story, but a service story...(granted the service was at a dealer...)
but the only thing this has to do with a tC is it was your car...could have been any car...

moved to regional, leaving a shadow.

best story ever..and yeah that sux.

that's F-ing nuts.. i usually jot down the mileage quickly before dropping my car off. unless its something they need to drive the car to figure out the problem, then they have no business driving it. i'd just love to catch some idiot thrashing my car.. i'd probably be going straight to the BBB, the local news stations, you name it! wreck 'em.

So what Happened? Any action as of yet?

damn dude..i hate leavin my car in someone elses hands

that is extremely sad. i would be ____ed as well. if it makes you feel better, there is pretty much no way your car would have gotten to 9000 rpm. the rev limiter won't let you, as far as i understand. it will just bounce at the rev limit. i think anyways. anywho, as the first (i think) dealership to respond to this thread, let me say i am sorry that happened. not trying to, in any way, make what happened any less then what it was. good luck with all that.

Yeh I left my tC at the dealer for a day it came back with a golf ball sized dent, I will never take my car to the dealer unless i really really have to even at that I will sit in a lawn chair and watch them the whole time...

...there is pretty much no way your car would have gotten to 9000 rpm.

Except in this case it appears the car was already at high RPM and the lot boy driving missed an upshift and stuffed it into a lower gear and let the clutch out. The rev limiter can't do a thing about something like that, and the engine RPMs shoot right through the roof... At least that's what I read in the original description.

(The reason I suggested waiting until after he has the signed letter from the service manager before meeting with the general manager/owner, was to make sure that he doesn't lose the opportunity to get that signed document by having the GM or owner overrule the SM doing that...)

Do let us know how this goes...

The one and only time I took my car to the dealer (to get one of my free oil changes) I drove it into the service garage, stood and watched the oil change being done, and watched the car being moved back out of the service bay and into a parking spot. I'll do the same if I ever bring it to the dealer again. If it's a major enough maintenance to require leaving the car for a while, I'll take it to the private mechanic I've been using for years, because I know I can trust him. I don't trust the guys at the dealership as far as I can throw the whole damn building.

If I ever need a warranty repair, I'm going to have a hell of a dilemma on my hands...

Please do keep us posted on what happens. We're all pulling for you.

--mark

Wow that just ____es me off reading it. Take that chevy aveo and drive right up his a$$.

Lucky for him this was not the old west, he would of had a bullet in his head. In the old days you mess with a man's horse (ride) you die! Sorry to here that. I would of biotch slapped the shiot head.


John

man what a load, ope they fix anything they may have damaged, i am really starting to hate dealers, since i have had a few bad experience myself

I used to work at a Toyota dealership, and there was a porter there that would do the same thing. He would rod on all of the sales dept's used cars, and yes even cars that came into service.One time I realized MY keys were missing from my desk, and found out that he had taken my All-Trac Turbo Celica for a little "spin".

So unfortunately I imagine that incidents like yours are not too uncommon.

Im with that other person, if it were me I would be fighting for a new ride otherwise they would have enough bad press that they'll lose more than it would cost to give me a new car and take this one their employee trashed.

I personally have a 0 tolerance for lack of respect for other peoples things, them lying to me would have no compassion at all for them. JUST DON"T SIGN ANYTHING until you're fully satisified with the way they are going to resolve it for you.

Unacceptable. :nope:

===> Get the letter from the service manager admitting their employee did this before taking it to the GM or owner (or local news outlets - many TV stations do 'consumer' items, and they just might like one like this that confirms people's suspicions of what happens to their cars while they aren't around). <===

Once you have that letter, you have something solid you can point to. Without that letter it's your word against theirs (except for maybe the rental car person).

===> Get that letter. <===

That's BS. Get the punk fired and get everything in writing.

That sucks but good you caught it. Be sure to tell them that you are now hesitant to bring your car back there for anything not only because of what happened but also for the way it was handled. This means all your business will be taken elsewhere if this isn't resolved to YOUR satisfaction. Also, tell them when you are in this unsatisfied state, you can't stop talking about it with LOTS of people and the first question everyone asks is "What dealership was this?" Would they rather the story had a happy ending or one that makes people think that they should just avoid that dealership altogether. I like to try and make the point that something like this could cost them much more than just one person's business....

Good Luck

So here's the updated story.

I go in today to pick up my car, advise the service manager that I want a leak down test performed before I retake delivery of the vehicle, and ask to see the letter he had waiting for me. Long story short, he personally had checked for any codes possibly thrown, there were none, and test drove my car himself, both to and from the uphostery shop ( I know this because I actually saw him drive my car from the shop). He assured me that he had chewed some serious butt over the issue...bla bla bla, and if I had any other worries do not hesitate to call him.

He said that if I have any problems with the engine in the future, to bring it back and he will personally see that I am taken care of properly. From now on if I HAVE to go back to that particular dealer, I am only dealing with the service manager and all the lying sack of sh-- service writers can go screw themselves (I don't like being lied to!). I aproached the girl at the rental place about getting a statement and she agreed if need be.

As of now I am still extremely ____ed at the porter and service writer but the service manager has really tried to make sure I am happy in the end. I will never take my car back to that dealership again, so the free oil changes and tire rotation are pretty much worthless to me, and I am sure everybody I run into who owns a toyota will here of this.

Here is a copy of the letter he gave me:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/PolyFM_TC/Misc/3b99a269.jpg
At least I have some proof if I ever need it in the future.
Thanks everybody for all the advice and support!

-Jason

I doubt it really did any damage but it's good to be covered and also to try to keep it from happening to others.

Isn't that what you're supposed to do in Customer's cars!

I didn't think so either.

Good case, great witnesses, poss stressed motor.

Too bad he didn't include his offer of taking care of any future problems - when he leaves his position at the dealership there you lose that, since the dealership is not obligated in any way.

Now, perhaps it is time to speak to the general manager or owner about not only the behavior of the lot boy, but being lied to by the service writer. The dealership as a whole needs to step up and back taking care of any problems potentially caused by the mis-handling of a customer's property by one of their employees. (I also note that there is no mention of the multiple lies told to you by the service writer - per his letter the SM only spoke to the driver...Does that mean he just lied, to?)

(Where's your next-nearest dealership? Are they within reasonable distance for at least the oil changes?)

If you ever go there for warranty service (or ANY service) keep in mind that even if you deal only with the service manager, your car will likely go to that same service writer's team...I would object to that since you KNOW he will lie directly to you (and no telling what sort of service his team would give...).

Sorry to hear this happened to you, but believe me, Big Brother has already seen this and you know what rolls down hill.

What was wrong with your seat cover? I have the extended warranty but I didn't know seat cover were covered. Mine are starting to rip a bit near the headrest.

Terrible :nails:

yes I know this prob should be in the dealer experience forum but not everybody knows it exists
Uh...where is the dealer experience forum?????

Terrible :nails:

yes I know this prob should be in the dealer experience forum but not everybody knows it exists
Uh...where is the dealer experience forum?????

http://tijil.org/experiences.jpg

If it were me, I'd be letting the heads roll and the witch hunt begin. There is no reason at least a few asses should be in slings and fired without question. I'd do a lot of what Tomas suggested, as you seem to have already done. I'd also be finding your dealership's owner and having a 'come to jesus' talk as was suggested (i like the phrase, btw). Next, to boot, I might, just might, shotgun sue the whole damm place and see who coughs up the kind of guarentees and paperwork to assure that you'll never have to worry about this car. Ever. period. At the end of the day, people understand you mean business when you make a dent in their wallet. Sometimes thats the only way. I might even set the place a blaze just to drive the point home.

but in reality, IMHO, if there are not a few heads hanging from the garage walls in the service dept, the lesson has not been learned.

After reading the 'letter', It doesn't state anything to help you out. It's all your word against theirs. I would deffinitely get the statement from the girl at the rental place AND talk to the owner/general manager whoever is at the top! The person should have been fired, the writer should be reprimanded, the dealership should do more to assure you there are no problems with the car. If you decide to take your business elsewhere, you said you would lose out on the tire rotation and oil changes....Well, they should lose out on the sale commissions for the sale. Dealers get awards for meeting quotas and other 'goodies' for GOOD jobs done within the dealership from Toyota itself! Why should YOU be the only one to lose out because you feel this dealer did you wrong? Take this to the TOP! Do everything you can to show, not only TOYOTA, but other customers that this has happened and it is UNACCEPTABLE!
Good luck with it!

same thing happened to my rsx. i was getting a maitenance check and was outside talking on my cellphone. all of a sudden i see this white rsx zooming, obviously redlining. i went back and complained got lots of apologies and thats about it.

You know something?? Maggard Toyota/Scion has a pretty nice ring to it.....



And I like the sound of Steve Manier, lot boy.
I'd also be sure your salesman, and his mgr saw this thread. With this, they will know the story is out and you aren't one to be pushed around. Because right now, the story is all over this huge country of ours.

Seriously, that letter they gave you is just a dirty diaper, Something to cover their butt and full of sh*y. Go looking for the GM. I thought you said that the SM also lied to cover the SW for covering for the porter.... Or did I mis-read?

I would try to find someway to talk to or email someone at scion HQ. Because scion is all about the whole deal from the sale to the repairs of the car. Deff try to get the word to the heads over at scion.

Welcome to 99.5% of dealerships WORLDWIDE. That's what happens at car dealerships ALL the time... you just happen to witness it.