I've worked as a Sales Consultant and a Sales Manager at several dealerships throughout my career. I am always amazed at how many genuinely stupid people are out there driving cars.
CCN: we have only own Toyota vehicles since 1980, we have purchased and serviced our vehicle at the same dealership now for four decades and after these forty years we and everyone in parts, service and sales are just like family. It has never enter our minds to ever have anyone service our vehicles but the people who builds the Toyota, great testimonies!
These stories are awesome! I work in public safety... and my “customers” aren’t always right. In fact, most of them are lying. Right to my face. I could go on for hours with stories. Maybe one day I’ll write a book.
I'm a doctor and we get these at the hospitals too - way over in Malaysia. But your statement about having a good relationship is so true - service guys go out of their way to wrangle freebies your way if they like you. Just like doctors I guess...
Some examples of customers just being being fraudulent. However, not all dealerships are equal and some have earned the right to be called "stealerships". A dealership reflects leaderships attitude.
Working in the IT and printers field, people will ask you to do small things for them, getting you in deeper and deeper, as you keep telling them that this is out of my scope, yet they keep up asking, "Just look at this for me" ,and me wanting to take care of the customer, tries to help. But you get sucked in, wasting your time, and possibly get to the point where then, they eventually accuse you of causing the issue they initially asked you to look at. Now, in their mind, you are obligated to fix it. It is a tactic that has been used on me time and time again. You have to draw the line and learn to say NO sometimes.
I bought 3 Toyota’s with the same salesperson from the Toyota dealership I go too. Definitely agree to build a relationship with sales, parts and service.
I believe it takes two to tango. The dealership need to take care their customers just as the customer needs to be fair. I bought two cars from the same dealership and I always got a bad deal when I purchased them. The service rep is the only one who was fair with me and the only reason I bought my 3rd one couple months ago. If this guy leave this dealership I believe that will be the end of my connection to that dealership. What I’m saying is, treat your customers with fairness and some honesty then you will have loyalty built around it.
My wife bought a new Venza this week. The dealership in Gallatin TN made the experience excruciating for her. Now she wonders if the service department is as inept as the front end. The only fun moment was "Sorry ma'am but you don't qualify for credit." My wife, "Do you take a check?" The Venza is very impressive, and I'm a picky car guy.
I spent close to 20 years in the auto business as an manager and an owner. I could write a book about the crazy stuff that's been pulled by customers. I think a book like that would be a lot of fun to write. I'm subscribed and appreciate you sharing your knowledge........
I have a story: I purchased larger tires for my 2020 Tundra TRD PRO from dealership and had Toyota put them on. When done I got my truck back and the paint on the passenger door had a chip out of it so of course I alerted them and also told them about the scuffs on the drivers side door and the guy had put wrenches on the center console which put small nick in the plastic. This Tundra is my baby so I notice everything. They said that they would take care of it and scheduled me in for a paint repair. I further noticed that the BBS Forged TRD PRO rims(especially drivers rear) had chip out of the center hole on the outside. They did take care of all this for me but I do notice little things on the paint but it is thicker now so I'm leaving it alone. The particular Toyota techs that did my tires didn't like that I was getting new tires at 7-8K miles and had a bad attitude about doing it. How do I know this? I have Vantrue Dash Cam in my Tundra and heard their displeasure from their own mouths. Because of the dash cam I know how every damage was done except for the rim centers which I didn't see. I now feel very apprehensive when I have my scheduled services.
Wow, some folks are just unbelievable! Years ago, I worked a 2nd job at Pizza Hut (I'm an IT guy) and we were in charge of the telephone/computers for delivery service for around 8 Huts in town. The stories of unhappy customers is both hilarious and sad! (One lady even complained we had put too many pepperoni's on her medium pizzas!!) I always laughed at the ones who would eat the entire pizza then call and say the box says guaranteed or your money back and expect their money back....but, sir, YOU ATE IT!! hehehe Gotta love people! (Most were great folks, you have to stay positive!!)
Before I retired, I worked in a city fleet as an auto electrician. Most of the people that came to the shop were good, some not so good, and there's no money involved! Like you, I was there to do the best job I could do, and return the vehicle in a safe operating condition. Sometimes I listened to the driver's family problems. Sometimes it was questions about his or her own vehicle. It's the nature of the business. Thanks for this video.
Had a mechanic told me, "I just don't fix cars, I have to fix people too" lol. Gotta remember, 90% of folks out there only think putting gas in a car is all it needs.
like you said, some dealers are good and some are bad. I didn't close my gas cap properly on my 2-year-old Avalon. And that threw a CEL. The dealership told me it's going to cost $250 to replace the charcoal canister. Not knowing better, I paid the dealership. Now that I know better, it probably took them two minutes to tighten the gas cap and clear the CEL. The same dealer told me I need to replace a 3-month-old engine air filter. So now I longer blindly do whatever the dealership told me I need. I would double-check with an independent mechanic shop. Usually, I end up with that shop doing the repair since the price is usually cheaper.
I feel your pain. People don't consider that their actions cause other people to become hardened rather than trying to work with people. It is difficult in this world to maintain one's integrity in the face of this type of treatment. Keep up the good work. All that matters is that we work to please the one that matters!
It's good to hear the other side's version of the story. I believe you and thank you for sharing the stories. We should all keep in mind that there are people out there that are just as you describe, on either side of the argument. Thanks for another great video.
Really enjoyed your video For 40 years I have been a service tech for Sub Zero, Wolf, and Speed Queen. I have experienced all of the things you mentioned in your video. For the same period of time I have driven Toyota Tacoma trucks as my service rig and I have always dealt with Wills Toyota in Twin Falls Idaho They have always been great in my dealings with them Yes there are great Toyota dealerships out there like Wills Toyota You just have to find the right dealership. This is where word of mouth is important Keep up the video's they are great!!!
I started watching because of your 4Runner and Tundra guide. But this was by far the most entertaining. You win my subscription. I can't wait for more tales from the dealership!! This was awesome!!
Hi love your channel. I use to work for dealerships. And we as mechanic had to sell services vehicle didn’t need. And if you didn’t they would 🔥 you. And also warranty work did pay much so you had to find something to sell to the customer. So I can see why customer don’t trust dealership, all the care about is 💰.
Unfortunately some dealerships will push the technicians to upsell work like that. I regularly talk to customers at work because of test drives and showing them what needs to be done when they come into the shop to look at the car but this varies by dealership
Great Testimony! Coming from California and being an automotive professional - I can give you many multitudes of examples where a dealership is a legitimate 'parts replacer" completely taking advantage of unsuspecting customers! But love your channel and your views - I can tell that you're an honest guy and would recommend you any day!!
With my Camry hybrid-- I have the oil change contract when bought the Camry from a Toyota dealership. Always change oil at the same Toyota dealership in Cerritos, California. My wife took that in and the advisor was saying need a new oil pan because the bolt was "stripped". We told them you are the only dealership we changed motor oil. They, after some investigation, said then. you do not need it. So being female could get ripped off anywhere.
Thanks. You are working in a very good dealership. Good people and bad people are everywhere. You are right about stick to the dealership/mechanic you trust.
I once asked the dealership about a concern I had in my 2020 Camry. The ever so popular JBL rear deck lid rattle. the dealer looked at it and said it was normal. So I ended up asking on Facebook in dedicated Camry groups on how to fix it diy
I've been watching your videos for a long time, you even gave me some advices before, so I believe you are an honest person. But unfortunately there a ton of dealerships trying to steal from customers. Always trying to sell more than people need. GOOD VIDEO
Thank you for watching my videos! I totally agree that some dealerships are horrible and dishonest. That’s why I always recommend if you find one you’re comfortable with that do good honest work stick with them
Samething to me. I'm doing a brake job and broke one of the wheel stud and the guy yelling cussing with me and my supervisor. After I done the job the guy asked me to the parking lot and said son I've never seen a young man so calm and polite like you. Here a small 50$ tip for you and from now on all my friends and family only want you to work on our cars. Sometimes bad thing can turn into good thing.
A long time ago the year after i bought the car I got into a really bad collision (0% my fault). Despite the fact that the dealership was far away from home i took the car to them for the repairs because i knew that later if some kind of an issue happened i would get the classic "sir your car has been repaired before but they fixed X incorrectly and that caused the failure that you have right now. Therefore we apologize but this is not covered by your warranty".
The things you deal with day in day out makes you wonder why we even try, but yet we still love the great customer base we have built up over our life time of auto repair. I have a wonderful story. I had a customer that we lost the key to their car the whole staff searched for the key as the customer lived several hours from the dealership and was just here vistiing his parents and we did not have a key in stock to replace the lost one. So I told him the dealership would put them in a free rental and we would deliver the car to him in 2 days. Customer states that is way to inconvenient we need to correct this now as he must take the car with him now. I explain it would be impossible to do this with no smart key he states OH my wife has the extra key at my parents house but I don't want to use that one. WOW! it is about 6:30 pm on a Friday . we have several employees in the parking lot along with several sales staff when someone speaks up and said didn't we just appraise this for trade in???? Why yes and who was the sales person Mike well where is Mike we locate Mike he said yes I picked it up from customer this morning for service. Yes you guessed it Mike had the key all the time and life goes on but no more Mike at this dealership.
I enjoyed these stories! Dealing with people is not a fun thing professionals have to do sometimes. And sometimes, as people, dealing with professionals (or so called) can be just as challenging. When will people start showing respect to other's in whatever they are doing? It would make for a better world!
I get a kick when I go to the Toyota dealership to buy some oem parts, and walk thru the car lot and all the car salesman approach me like flies, did i step on shit or something lol! and tell them I still have my 85 Toyota.
bahahahaha, LOVE these stories, keep them coming. I'm a hospital operator, maybe I'll start a channel. Caller doesn't say hello, first and only words they say are "I need to talk to a patient", I give the caller a couple seconds to finish their sentence, tell me a name, but nope, that is all they say, so I say "Any particular patient or should I pick one".
Yes sir. I'm a dealership master tech as well. Some people walk in the door looking to pick a fight. Sorry your life sucks so bad that you resort to throwing tantrums. A guy slammed us on a survey once because we did not have (free) chewy granola bars, we only had crunchy ones. When Covid started the customers kept stealing our complimentary jugs of hand sanitizer. We see it all.
SET THE TOE AND LET IT GO ! My favorite ones are when customers do their own front end work and bring it in for alignment , I had one not long ago when they had the left and right tie rods mixed up and it was hitting the rim on full lock.
Oh, boy! That sort of thing is why, after forty years in dealership service, I escaped the business and went to work in an industrial business and "decompressed" for four years and then retired. I need to take a blood pressure pill after watching that video!
Purchased a 23 Highlander platinum, went to the dealer after work to have rubber plugs placed on the car, that were not installed during the PDI… when I got there 15 mins B4 they closed was advised “we are closing soon we can’t help you” .. called the dealership manager next day who sent a service manager to my home to put on the rubber gaskets..
Worked at an acura dealership for a while. We had a car towed in that was just sitting in the lot in the am, i recognized it as being sold brand new no more than a week earlier.. Still clean and waxed, but oil and trans fluid allllll over the parking lot. We call the person asking why it's here and the customer said it stopped driving and needs to be fixed under warranty. We take a look and saw the transmission case ripped open, the oil pan busted up, and subframe scraped and dented in front of the trans. Looked exactly like the car flew off the road and the engine and trans landed right on a rock to stop the vehicle, but no body damage at all. We said you have to call insurance, this is crash damage. The customer wasn't buying it and i thought he was up to no good, because how can you just say "the car just shut off while driving" and deny at least a bump... so he came in and saw the destruction... Turns out he bought the car for his daughter (a little acura rsx) and she crashed it, but lied to him. He apologized and had it towed away. I also had a story of having to bring a car back and forth to a customer no lie 4 times, because she upgraded to gold badges and we put a TINY nick in the paint putting them on (looked like a cut through masking tape). We kept having the suv's hatch redone and she kept denying it over defects. Must have been her first new car, i'd accept the tiny nick it originally had over 3 repaints and the 3 40 mile one way trips i had to put on it back and forth to her work to pick it up and (try to) give it back. That was weird, i don't remember what happened but i think 18year old me said i'm honestly not sure it can get any better than this, there's always going to be some sort of defect in paint when you are looking for it, especially with a repaint... and she just accepted it. We both were friendly to each other, i was just a lot guy, i had nothing in it, i actually liked driving her car, i remember saying i drove it more than she did!
Great video. Retail can be exasperating. 95+% of the people are very nice and reasonable. There is that small percentage that can be impossible to accommodate.
I owned a small appliance service company with three employees. As owner, I dealt with the disgruntled customers. Some of theses customers think once we touch their appliance, the ownership is transferred to me. I had to justify for them why an appliance failed and when not satisfied went into academy award winning acts, in an attempt to get something for free. Calling the manufacturer, threatening civil action, etc. Very difficult part of the job.
Worked for Suzuki UK for many years,we "Waved" (Gave for free) a wiper blade for a customer once,he was a nice bloke.One strange experience was after a service,a customer returns and mentions "Why was i charged for a screen wash top up,my screen wash bottle is always full" told him it was part of the service and the manager gave him a concentrated sachet of screen wash,told him that's all we can do.The guy wasn't trying to scam us,was just a querry/concern.hewent away ok,no issues...Oh yeah! heres another one, another customer got their car in for something,can't remember what for,came in with ZERO fuel/petrol in the tank,mechanic said i can't test drive it as it'll break down...i had to put £5...roughly a gallon of petrol in it,fuel station was just over the road....but i put £3 in it instead of £5 lol I found out after getting fuel,the customer said to staff that i'm not wasting my money and petrol for your road test....the lady customer didn't ran out fuel when i watched her driving over the road. Some customers are strange.
Dealing with unknowledgeable customers is the worse. I'm sure it happens all the time everywhere. I remember selling a piece of gold jewelry once, the customer returned to say that the gold piece was fake. Asking why she thought this, she said that the piece was stamped 14kp...thinking the "p" means plated. She threatened to call the police, talk with the mall manager, report us to the BBB, etc. Actually, it means plumb. Plumb guarantees that the piece will assay at least 14k and nothing below that. All this hassle for no reason.
Everyone has their favorite automotive nightmare story involving some sort of repair problem but seldom do we get to hear the nightmare stories from automotive service professionals and customer service reps. "Behind the scenes" glimpses dealing with out of control customers or solving diagnostic mysteries that would stump Sherlock Holmes are fascinating and entertaining. They are a great addition to your channel.
Thanks AMD, I know you did a right things. But, I had real bad experience with particular dealership when fixing my 10y old cars for the campaign, replacing dashboards but they do not tight all the steering wheel parts properly. I told them but they denied, so I just spent 40 minutes fixing it instead of arguing and waste my money. It is very dangerous because the wheel is wobbling but most people won't know it.
Entertaining, I am a BIG fan of yours but (with great respect for you) I think that the more accurate statement would be. "If the dealership knows you, they are more likely to take care of you... but there is ALSO a similar chance that MANY (NOT ALL) of them may try to leverage their perceived built trust with you to their advantage". In other words, be polite and respectful to the dealership and employees, but (at the same time) ALWAYS remain fair & vigilant about how they are REALLY & TRUELY treating you. As with ANY type of business, there are good and bad "apples" as they say. Also, I have been checking my email daily for the last 12-ish days for your reply & am very sad to not find any reply from you as of yet.
As an alignment tech, I have gone through this alot. Customers seem to know everything. You need a good foundation. Brakes, Bushings Steering linkage . Ball joints and all other pivot points. Steering gear and so on. Good tires also influence the outcome. After that, the alignment should be sound. FYI Collision damage should be revealed. Shout out to AMD.
Great video. I think there should be something in the communication between the dealer and the customer that records all the conversations that take place between them. And there should be video recordings that prove what happened to the customer's car. This way there will be no misunderstanding between the dealer and the customer.
I have worked in a retail setting and have had many unreasonable customers come in and cause a scene. Most customers are good but you have to be a good communicator to avoid misunderstandings. I would like you to continue with more of these stories as I thoroughly like to hear them. Thank you.
I’ll give you a good dealership story . I was working as a helper at the time this was like 2006 and a tech across from us was working on a brand new CLS with a special ordered color . He was working on a recall and turned the airbag module upside down while the car was awake . 💥 💥 💥
Having been on both sides of the counter I can sympathise with GENUINE dealership issues, but also one particular case, my own, goes the other way. My then roughly 5 year old Rav4 2lt auto has a bit of a knocking noise from the front. I have checked the main bushes, swivels etc, and replaced both front shocks, as knew they were going, and the dealership had mentioned it the previous visit with the same problem. When it is in I was contacted via a voicemail... which by happenstance I did not check until the day I go in to collect the car. After collecting the car. Oh, Mr x we tried to contact you, you need 2 new shock absorbers, and a rear gearbox mounting. I just changed the shock absorbers. Sucking of teeth... were they Toyota shock absorbers... No, Oh well, if its not OEM then they can fail. They were fine, I only fitted them 6 weeks ago. We go off to the workshop, having been told one was leaking and the other had play from side to side. The front of my car up on stands, and no shock absorbers... I am directed over to the bench where they have been dissasembled. Where's the leak I ask, wiping my finger round the rod... Oh it was wiped with a shop towel.. Where's the play, oh pull it "THIS way " no play. Put it back together please... from me. When I check the voice mail, you need these parts, and the shock absorbers are not in stock.... Why the hell would you strip it down WITHOUT AUTHORISATION, when you KNOW you do not have the parts in stock... Could it be they would have bought the same RYOBI shock absorbers from the same parts store just down the road that I did, and charge me Toyota prices? The clincher is, a local mechanic diagnosed issues with the Rack, this being it's second, as I had the first replaced under warrentee, but this one was knocking loudly, so as supposedly a none serviceable item, the mechanic takes it off, sends it off to the machine shop where they replace the brass bushes with teflon, and so far so good.
I would say our local toyota dealership is a stealership. They did all kinds of things to try to con me to buy a new Tacoma for full sticker pice and that the transmission was broken on the car I drove in that i might have traded so they could offen less for it. Even tried to say they couldn't find the keys to my car after they were driving it when I asked to have them so I could leave too. Didn't work. Months later I did buy a Tacoma from another dealer in another town got a great deal and sold my old vehicle that was still diving fine for way more than the stealer offered. I will never go back to my local toyota dealership. I will always use the one the next town away.
Oh man! This was such an excellent segment AMD! It would be my privilege to have you work on my Ram 1500 beauty lol. More segments like this one! 👍🙏 (Some pics of your adventures would be great for your next segments) 👍👍
I appreciate some of the situations you’ve described, but ... one of my biggest complaints with dealerships is the standard comment on a work order that reads, “the technician cannot replicate the customer’s complaint”. I’ve owned a dozen new Toyota’s in the past 25 years ... one of the most egregious complaints I had was the popping sound on the rear driver side electric door with the 2011 Sienna. Even after walking the Service Manager out to the van and showing her the problem ... which she acknowledged ... they refused to do anything about it. The vehicle was still within the three year warranty period, but the fix at the time was pretty expensive. I eventually got rid of the Sienna, but that experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I now use a third party family owned repair facility to have my service work down. My next Toyota purchase will be a Hybrid. Fortunately there are four dealerships in my area so I’ll definitely review customer reviews more carefully. Up till this incident 95% of my vehicle serive was done at a Toyota dealership.
Thank you for your comment. Some dealerships have a way of leaving a bad taste by not caring. And it comes down to the individual employees. Some care about what they do some don’t.
I have been having all of my Toyota cars/truck serviced at the same Toyota dealership since 1998. Never has any problems with them and they have never ripped me off. I will always take my Toyota cars to the dealership
