A License to Steal:
The dealership service department seems to think that if you are female, you are "ripe for the picking." In May, 2010 I brought the vehicle in for a routine oil change and inspection. They tried to tell me my brakes were bad, I needed a complete overhaul of hoses, and the CV boots were bad, among other things for a total of nearly $2,000 in upsell against a $40 oil change.
I returned in July because the door locks on the drivers side were not working properly. During the first part of the visit, we established that the above mentioned items from the May visit were not valid. We also agreed that a 90 K service would be in order, although they did not have all of the parts needed to complete the list of items to be worked. (This was to have necessitated a future visit once the ordered parts came in.)
Upon completion of the door lock repair and service, I noted several things: The air conditioner filter was not installed - even though it was listed as a to do item; the tires were not rotated per my request and listed on the work order; and the bumper clips were not installed.
The final straw was their idea of "disabling" my alarm system to run diagnostics for an elelctrical problem. Their idea of "disabling" was to yank the alarm system out completely (with no hope of putting it back), and then telling me I had to live with it.
After a lengthy conversation with the service writer and the manager, they admitted that they should have been more clear that the plan was to take the alarm system out of the vehicle. When I asked for something in writing to document their offer to give me a future credit against work done there or to have a new alarm system put in, the best the service manager would do was to credit my bill for about a third of the cost..
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