Experiences with Repair Shops Attempting To Oversell You

[bmwman91]

OK r3v folks, what are your most egregious stories of going to a shop for [whatever] work and having them try to bamboozle you? As much as we are mostly DIY champions, we have all had to deal with a shop for one reason or another.

I really only have one that I have personally experienced, which came up when I was talking with my wife and getting a laugh at the time a Honda dealership tried to mark up some maintenance by about $2000.

We had a 2003 Civic with around 210k miles on the clock, and it had developed a pinhole leak in the head gasket. Initial symptoms were hard starting, running on 3 cylinders for a few moments, an overflowing expansion tank, and white exhaust puffs. It was due for a timing belt replacement and a valve adjustment at that point, and I was way too busy with work to DIY it. So, off to the dealer to have them run a quick test on the coolant system to check for exhaust gases.

Sure enough, the car tested positive for combustion byproducts in the coolant. No milkshake or signs of coolant in the oil. OK, so really it was no big deal since I was going to have them do the timing belt anyway, and I figured that pulling/reinstalling the head was going to be maybe 3-4 more hours of labor along with a couple of parts. I told the service advisor person that I wanted a quote for the HG replacement, head resurfacing, timing belt and associated stuff like the water pump, and a valve adjustment.

So I wait 20 minutes and they have a quote for me. It is $4000. Hmmm. The timing belt job for this car at a Honda dealer was (at the time, more than a decade ago) like $850. A valve adjustment was around $400. I could see up to $1000 in labor and parts for dealing with the head, but not almost $3000. So I ask about what exactly the line items on the quote are. Long story short, they had the normal service items on there with the associated hours, and the HG repair with all of the hours for just that job listed separately. lol.

So I ask about it. "The hours for the timing belt are entirely part of the head repair, right? As in, they shouldn't be line items?" And, since at this point I am willing to go elsewhere, I just lay it out. "Look, I know that most of the people who come in here don't know what a screwdriver is. I have rebuilt engines, and I am here because I am fine with paying for the convenience of not dealing with this myself. Can you check with your boss and take a second look at the labor fees?".

She goes off to ask her supervisor or whatever. Five minutes later she is back and, wouldn't you know it, the quote now totals $1800 plus the resurfacing fee since they contract that out and the final cost depends on the condition of the head. "The master technician took another look and yes, the hours for the HG job encompass those for the timing belt." I didn't ask where the other $1000 went that was somehow in there at first, but the price seemed fair for the scope of work. She wasn't clueless and seemed to know plenty about cars, so obviously she was in on the attempted swindle. Funny enough, maybe because they knew that they got caught, they included a rental car free of charge for the full week, even despite the Civic being well out of the warranty.

As if this story wasn't dragging on long enough, there was additional BS related to the head resurfacing work. A little SOHC head would have been $125-200 at any independent shop at the time if the work just included basic dis/reassembly and milling. I had asked about this at the initial quote time, and they had said that it could be $150-500, with a cracked head being at the $500 end. My instruction was to do nothing if the head was cracked and call me first since a clean used one was like $100. Welllll...I get a call. "OK, we got the head back, and the cost is $530 because it needed some extra work." I ask for them to get me a copy of the invoice from the 3rd party since a standard resurfacing was under $200, and they were supposed to ask me first if it was non-standard work. An hour later they call back. "Oh, yeah sorry, we got the invoice mixed up and the cost is $165." Motherfuckers.

Anyway that was that. The repair went fine, we drove it for a few more years, and then sold it for peanuts to a former coworker whose son had turned 16. As far as I know, it is still on the road, alive and well, in the PNW.

I do not know how typical this is for service departments, but I doubt that it is uncommon, and it's dirty. At the same time, it is sort of funny how reasonable they can be, at least in that case, if you are cool about it and just calmly ask them to check their bullshit without actually accusing them of anything. It is also the reason that I avoid shops like the plague, and got the full service manual for the 2016 Accord that replaced the Civic. I don't want to deal with those people unless absolutely necessary!

[82eye]

$475 for a re and re alternator changed out in 10 minutes. for a 2.0L vw jetta. was out of town when it went.

[E30 Wagen]

In 2005ish I knew next to nothing about cars so I brought my 325es to a shop because I was getting vibrations at speed. They sold me on the idea that it could be the driveshaft and it cost me around $1000 to replace. To this day I honestly can't believe I paid that being a broke 18 year old. On the invoice they also charged me $40 to diagnose and replace a missing power steering pump bracket bolt. Of course the vibration wasn't fixed, I'm pretty sure it was just a badly bent wheel but the shop just wanted to take advantage of me. Another thing that shop did was use an air hammer to loosen the fan clutch bolt, damaging the water pump bearing which exploded on the highway the next day. They ended up going out of business a few years later. God I cringe so hard at all the mistakes I made paying shops to work on easy stuff, wasting money on parts it didn't need, or paying outrageous prices for stuff from the dealer, like $50 for an OBC backlight bulb assembly when I could have soldered in a new one from Radioshack for $0.85.

[McGyver]

I just took my f30 into BMW of the Main Line, just outside of Philly, for a windshield replacement. I have a Heads Up Display and Rain Sensor, so I didn't want to deal with cheap aftermarket glass or sensors not being calibrated properly. I knew I would have to pay more out of pocket, but that was worth it to have the car fixed correctly and not deal with any shit.

Of course they quoted me plugs and coils based on the mileage (113k). I declined because I had just done them at 190k. I asked about an oil change because it was due and they tried to sell me a 3 year plan for $250, which seemed decent, but I wanted them to put Ceratec in it because I'm slightly worried about my rod bearings. They didn't have Ceratec, but offered to put in some other additive, which wasn't really the point. So I just changed my own oil.

The thing that really got me was that the tech noticed my wiper linkage was loose and so he quoted me $233 to "re-torque" it. I declined because I could do it. When I finally did, I noticed that several trim pieces weren't installed correctly, some clips were missing, one trim panel was broken. Then I realized that the windshield replacement REQUIRED the tech to remove the trim covering the linkage. So they tried to charge me $233 to tighten an exposed 10mm bolt, right after they used a 10mm socket wrench to remove the trim panel. What the fuck?!?

On top of that, the car was several days late because they ordered the wrong trim piece. Then it took 30 min for them to get my car from the lot. And they didn't even clean up all of the mess from replacing the windshield. I ended up getting $250 back (10% of the total cost), but I'm still not very happy about it.

[bmwman91]

Oh man, the stories of busted up trim pieces that shops cause are pretty bad. It is a real shame how poor the quality of the workmanship can be, especially at a place like a BMW dealer where you are paying upwards of $200/hour. Buying new trim pieces is the worst thing since they seem like the most heavily marked-up parts...they don't cost that much to make, but if you are buying them they know that you are probably a little OCD!

[MrBurgundy]

I own a German auto shop and I can say without any doubt, car enthusiasts are the worst customers for a multitude of reasons haha

My GF took her Mercedes in to warranty the cylinder head at only 10k miles. I performed the oil change here at the shop and we only use factory approved oils. So the dealer starts asking her what oil was used on the car... Right when they asked her that I was like here we go.. Anyways, they see that 5W40 was used and they come back to her saying that the car actually uses 5W30 oil.

If you're not familiar with Mercedes and how they categorize their oils, they use a number, for example 229.52, which is a category of oil that can be a variety of weights, but for the most part will only encompass the adjacent weight. In her case, the engine uses a 229.52 which can be 5W30 or 40

I contact the dealer and link them to the MB North America site, where all the approved oils are listed and they still didn't want to warranty it.

She took it to a different dealership. They ended up just replacing the head on her car, which is a known problem on that particular engine model.

We get the paperwork back and of course, listed under the work order is the oil they used

......5W40.....

Dealerships are the worst place to take your car. If it's not under warranty, there is no reason to take it there.

[4tDX]

My mom had brought her Mercury Milan to a Ford dealer, out of warranty, because an ignition coil went quits which also kills the ECM too (a common and known issue with that generation of motor). They gave my mom an outrageous quote, so she asked me for a 2nd opinion.

After talking with them the dealer for a bit I told them not to do any more work and I would come tow the car - they weren't rude, but they weren't budging on parts or billing hours.
After that, they suddenly became a lot more accommodating and cutting deals with me; matching online prices for ignition coils, discounting the hourly rate, and agreeing to install a repaired ECM I provided. My Mom decided to accept the new quote. I can't recall the exact figures, but cut the total cost by more than 50% and $1000.

I find it's not just cars/dealerships, but most things seem to be set up to take advantage of potential customers.

[varg]

There are some bad ones in here. I've had almost no mechanic's work done by shops, mostly small fabrication/welding jobs and machine work. I had an exhaust shop weld my downpipe to my exhaust back when I first turbocharged my old Volvo, which cost me something like $150 and resulted in me buying a cheap harbor freight MIG and some fluxcore wire, that's really the only unreasonable job I ever had done; 2 welds and a bent piece of pipe out of their scraps for $150 in ~2009... I did save my mother from one of these though a few years back though. She took her Fit to Braman Honda in Palm Beach for some maintenance and they told her she needed new struts and that a couple of them were leaking, I think it was a $1400 quote, she called me and I told her not to let them do that job and that I'd verify if it was necessary. When I took the wheels off there weren't even handprints in the dirt coating the dust covers, they hadn't even been lifted to inspect the struts. I looked for leaks and found nothing. They lost a customer because of that, her next new car was purchased somewhere else.

[Northern]

Dealerships are the worst place to take your car. If it's not under warranty, there is no reason to take it there.

Basically this. I've never tried for service, but I've seen some crazy parts quotes for the e30 at my local dealer. Seems to have actually improved in recent years though.

The MINI groups seem to be full of people that love taking their 10+ year old car to the dealer, spend $4k on a valve cover gasket and an oil change, then post asking if they overpaid.
I have no idea how these people even exist.

My only experience with an absurd quote was when I was getting my 325iX inspected for the first time.
Brakes were soft and had some other issues, but the number of things they called up were absurd.
Can't remember the quote to fix, but it was a "go away" dollar figure.

Also some hilarious misdiagnosis
"Steering rack is worn, causing play" -> Actually a sloppy steering u-joint.
"Brakes worn" -> Actually a bleed issue.

[bmwman91]

I have heard stories from coworkers that put some independent shops on-par with the experience I (could have) had at the Honda dealer lol. However, I would generally expect a dealer to be worse about price gouging, doubly so if it is a BMW / luxury brand.

I have been to a BMW dealer once in the last 5ish years, and it was to get a radio code for a CM5908 that I was refurbishing. It was Stevens Creek BMW in the CA Bay Area. The service tech was actually sort of stoked to see an E30 in there, and I shot the shit with him a little about all of the work that I had done and the plans that I had for it. He got me the code for free with no questions asked.

Maybe it is the various minimum wage customer service jobs that I worked in high school and college, but I typically find that I have positive experiences with customer service people if I just treat them the way that I wish a lot of people would have treated me way back in the day. Patience, no accusations, no demands (or at least indirect demands), and an understanding that many of the people that they deal with are crazy. Of course, there are some absolute pieces of shit working customer service jobs who are belligerent thieves, and in those cases I just walk away.

[MR E30 325is]

Interesting timing for this thread.

I never take my vehicles to dealerships, or indy shops. I do it all, except for welding, which I outsource to a friend, and I am there with him the entire time.

I developed a leak in my ac condenser in my Tacoma while out exploring Kofa wilderness area.

I ordered a new condenser and installed it myself. All of the refrigerant leaked out (unfortunately, sorry Earth) so the replacement was really straightforward.

Now it needed recharged, and the truck is very new, so I wanted it done right. I realized I could do it, but it would cost about ~250 dollars, as I have none of the necessary equipment. I called a local dealership and the service manager quoted me $269.99 right off of the top of his head. Three hours, in and out.

I subconsciously knew I shouldn't do it, but with the tiny difference in price I just decided to let them do it. I am about to hit the road anyways, and I can't bring these types of tools with me, so I made it make sense in my mind.

Needless to say, the service was subpar, by a lot, and the service manager straight up lied to me. The appointment only took 2 hours, which was nice (and about as fast as you can properly do this type of service anyways), but my final bill was up to $404 dollars. When asked about it he rambled on about the freon the vehicle needs (R1234yf) being overly pricy compared to R134.

I realized right then that this wouldn't be the guy to complain to, so I paid and left and got on the phone with the dealerships GM.

Unfortunately for these folks they didn't realize that everything inside and outside of my truck, front and rear, is recorded via two microphones and two cameras. To top it off they only worked on my truck for 53 minutes, well below the 3 hours I paid for (I know they charge by the job, and I'd have no problem paying that as that is the technically correct way to recharge an ac system) but they didn't even use that time. I also caught two employees severely trash talking one of their managers, even talking about wanting to kill him. Classy.

So I had proof of being lied to, and proof that my truck wasn't worked on nearly long enough for the service that I paid for to be conducted per industry standards. Currently waiting to see what the GM offers as a solution as I file a formal complaint with Toyota Corporate.

In the end, there is now no job that I will not undertake myself. Screw that shit.

[bmwman91]

Based and surveillancepilled

Hopefully they refund you every dollar.

[E30 Wagen]

Truck story reminds me of my dad who's had similar experiences getting his 2014 3/4 ton GMC truck, that he bought new, maintained at the dealer. For 8 years he took it to the local dealer for all basic maintenance and for 8 years they neglected to change the air filter even though they told him they had. He's definitely more of a carpenter than a mechanic but he's not an idiot, just literally hasn't had time to spare. Eventually he noticed that in order to access the air filter there's a brace that has to be removed which is secured with bolts, and the bolts had clearly never been broken loose. So he checked the air filter himself and sure it enough it was the original one, dirty and dated 2014. He was mad.

[McGyver]

... it was to get a radio code for a CM5908 that I was refurbishing...

More fun with Main Line BMW. I have a handful of CM5908 radios that I've gathered over the years. I have no idea which radio came from which car.

I call the dealership to ask them to help me with the code, and they wanted me to come in to verify my VIN against my registration and license. Their reasoning is that they were trying to prevent theft. The also said they would have no way of knowing the code without seeing the radio. I told them that the radio was sitting in front of me and they just had to look up the serial number in their system. They wouldn't budge. I explained that I'm not driving 30 minutes each way to show them a 30 year old car with no way of knowing if the radio was original to the car. The person put me on hold and the next person to pick up just looked up the code.

What a shit show!

Which reminds me, after I noticed that several retainers were missing from my windshield job, I drove back to the dealership to show the service writer. We went to the parts counter to grab some clips, and the guy said they didn't have any on site. None. I told him that I was shocked and couldn't believe it. That when I was a tech, we stocked the little stuff so it could be replaced when broken or missing. He insisted that EVERYTHING comes from offsite and that they don't have any spare parts containers in their mechanic shop. What a load of bullshit. I finally left them a review.