So, just got done washing and waxing both my new tC and my 05 xB, it never fails when I spend hours going over a car that I find something wrong.

I just found that during the fog light install done by the dealership where I bought the car, that someone put a 1" scratch on the bumper just in front of the left fog light. They then 'covered' it by glopping touch up paint over it in such a poor manner it looks like a child tried to glue it. They also left the fender spashguard untucked and somewhat jacked up on that side...

I have had problem after problem with this dealership. Add to it that it is over a hour away from me, and I am just saddened by this. I am planning to call them Monday to lay into someone about this, but it just feels like a waste of energy.

Honestly what would or could a dealership even do about this. I don't even know if it is worth my time, but damn I'm ____ed off.

 

If you do contact them dont just lay into them right away. Calmly explain to them the situation and go from their. Chances are they probably won't be able to do anything but you are more likely to get a response if you dont go straight into chewing them out.

 

I say trust the devil on your right shoulder. He gives good advice... That is until the police arrive... then its time to run.

P.S.- Don't take advice from me.

 

No one ever won a war without first showing up to the battlefield, GIVE EM HELL!

 

I was bothered that the mechanic left greasy hand prints all over my tC after it's first maintenance... but a scratch with globbed-on touch up paint would have really set me off.

XIEmperorIX has some good advice there.

 

I agree with Emperor. While ripping someone a new one often makes me feel better, it generally doesn't actually get me anything productive.

Start with the service manager, move to the store manager if need be, then go to corporate. It's a surprisingly effective way of at least getting someone to look at the dealership. Dealerships are very concerned about their ratings. Each service consultant at my dealer has their satisfaction rating in big bold letters by their name and one for the overall service dept.

I worked with some guys once who had a number of tongue-in-cheek rules. One of them was "be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one." It's a surprisingly effective rule. It doesn't matter if the dealership personnel like you, but you do want them respecting you.

Good luck!

 

My advice comes from personal experience. I am a front desk supervisor at the hotel I work for and believe me, if a guest comes up yelling and screaming bull____, I will do the bare minimum to help them (if anything)..if a guest comes up and is calm, collected, understanding and not ____ing ripping my head off for something I had nothing to do with I am much more attentive and will go a lot farther to make them happy.

 

damn dude, that is terrible. It's one thing for a 'technician' to mess up an install but to not even tell you? wtf, that is very poor conduct on their part.

I wouldn't expect anything less then a new bumper (extreme, i know) but for you to find it yourself having faith in the dealership? Come on.

If you don't get anywhere calmly let them know that you will be letting the Better Business Bureau know about your dissatisfaction with them.

 

My plan for tomorrow is to sit during one of the morning meetings and jot down every issue i've had thus far with the dealership, it's going to be a long list. I've already been dealing with the office manager and the director of finance for this dealership, and the director of sales has been told of my issues but has not as of yet contacted me.

So I'm going to be calling the previous 2 people and asking them to forward my issues to the director of sales again, and obtain his email and send my issues to him directly. Give them a day or so to address this, then start going up the chain.

 

ohh that does look pretty bad

 

Wow, that sucks, man. Looks like they tried to do just enough for you to get home without seeing it. I was proud of my salesman when he was very patient while I did my walk-around before signing for my car. Stuff like this just reinforces the necessity for such a practice.

Good luck.

 

I did a walk around with my salesman as well, but when I bought the car they did not have ANY of the accessories I wanted, even the Pioneer Radio. So I took the car without the parts and brought it back a week later for them to install the Radio, Fog Lights, Floormats/Cargo Mat, and wheel locks. That day took for-frikkin-ever to get the install done and it was a 'here's the keys bye' and out the door.

The cover up was good enough that just walking by you probably wouldn't see it, but like many people when you need to clean a WHITE car you need to get close to get all the dirt and waxing the front bumper is not a fast process. Now that I see the scratch...it's all I see.

Still waiting for any response to my email, if nothing by tomorrow.... phone calls. If nothing from that, driving up there...and I have to take a day off work to get someone to talk to me... they are going to wish the rapture DID happen.

 

24 hours+ in... no response from the dealership, emailed twice (being a level of polite and professional like you wouldn't believe) and called to verify that the General Sales Manager was at work, and left him a message... but to no avail as of yet.

Also hopped on Scion's "Chat" and one of the reps there gave me a number to call Scion. Really hope I don't need to go that far, but I'll be damned if they brush this off.

 

You need to drive up there.

 

Thankfully I've been able to get people on the phone.

Their offer/option is to have someone drive down to get my car and drive it back up to the dealership (hour+ with NO traffic, and there's always traffic), then 'repair' the scratch and return it.

I'm thinking...yeah, right... whoever drives my car up will probably shift the crap out of it, and their 'repair' job will end up looking like someone tried to do a bondo-fill on the car.

I should just give this up and accept that dealerships are crap.

 

why dont u just drive it down there (so u know it will be safe)...accept that u will waste about hour plus driving

have them fix it...make sure its right

have them reimburse u for gas

u can always bring a buddy to help kill time

or how about a lawsuit? haha not sure if u had a case...but IMO its understandable...but it just hurts to give up..makes me feel like they screwed up and still won.

 

Can't do that, pulling off the bumper and sanding/filling/repainting the area will take a good part of the day. That is going to cost me my time, which is valuable enough as it is.

Just a no-win no matter what. Planning to call Scion Corp. regardless.

 

So, here's where I am now.

Have an appt. next sat. to take my car to a reputable body shop in Lorton that works with the Toyota/Scion dealership near me, where I will get an estimate for the repair work.

I'll then be sending it to the dealership that damaged my car and see if they will cover it, or if I'll be screwed out of all of this.

OR maybe I can push them to avoid all this painful paperwork and just get me some accessory or something to compensate this.

SO!@! How badly do you think I'm going to get screwed in this? Brushed off by the dealer and forced to call Scion? Cheapshotted by the dealer and they will only cover say 40% of the repair bill?

AND guess what, whoever gets closest to what actually happens, I'll send you a free pair of white LED bulbs for the front map light of our tC. LOL!!

 

You might be creating more problems than you need. I know time is money but either way you want this fixed. Offer to drive it up instead and get this done ASAP and don't let it drag on.

Didn't they already offer to have it repaired? It seems like you'd rather take advantage of their mistake and "get something out of it". Why?

 

I do not trust this dealership at all. I've already had my trade-in jacked up by them not paying off the loan, my financing rerouted from Toyota Financial Services to some no-name bank, and now my car damaged by their employees....why would anyone trust a place like that to do anything but screw up further?