Bad experience while getting my car service
 

After carefully breaking in my car. I decided to do an oil change. To my surprise I gotten a letter from Power/Autonation for complimentary first oil & filter change. It was a totally separate deal from the Scion maintenance program. Thinking that I just scored, I schedule myself an appointment. I was actually quite hesitant to take it to a dealership from watching the youtube vids and people posting negative experiences about having their car serviced. So as a safety precaution I cleared my trip A mileage reader to Zero to see how many miles they were going to put on the car. I marked an X on top of the oil filter. So that I know If the filter has been changed. I also told my adverser if they can put on the fumoto drain valve that I brought in.

Well, it pays to be paranoid sometimes. Especially with our beloved FR-S.

before
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4993/imag0119e.jpg

after
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/1096/imag0123vb.jpg

So I got a call 2 hours later that my car is done. When I arrived to pick up my car. My service adverser came to greet me and told me that there wasn't any problem with my new car. I ask him where they put the original drain plug. He told me that the service department wouldn't allowed any aftermarket product that wasn't purchased through them to be added on. OK, fine I was thinking in my head. Then this strange thought about if they even changed the oil?. Pop my hood and saw the same exact oil filter I marked. But covered up by a black marker. At this point I was pretty upset. Checked my trip mileage and there was 2.3 miles that been driven. Anyways, long story short I spoke to the manager. He told me that since the car is so new they didn't have the filter in stock. But that they did change the engine oil. I ask him why was there so many miles adding on for an oil change? He then told me that after every oil change they do a "Driving Test" to make sure everything is running fine. My BS radar is going off the hook at this point. If this place is going to lie about a simple oil change. What else is going on under closed door? I seriously felt raped, well my car did. But I felt it. :(.

Report to corporate if can.

I know how bad it feels to be lied to like that, i guess its time to try and diy. Im a tech and i know for a fact that no one threats your ca better than your self. I guess you now know that it migth be a better idea to find an idependent shop to take care of the ligth work.

flip the f out, u paid prolly 25k for it u should be able to get what u want done to it

Wonder if they even changed the oil or put in the right weight. As clayrush said, report to corporate.

I wonder why they didn't tell you beforehand that they didn't have the filter in stock?

Wow I feel for u.. a while back, one of my buds had his Corolla's oil changed at the Toyota dealership, and they forgot to put the oil cap back on. The underside of his hood & engine bay got totally drenched in oil.. the dealer cleaned it up of course, but still.. wut a comeplete lack of competence.

dang that sucks terence, now i am skeptical about taking my car there for the 5k oil change. but at least there wasnt any physical damage or anything right

If they didn't have the filter, it's their responsibility to contact you before work is started.

Why did they try to cover it up by using a black marker?

You have to go out of your way to do this.

Did you check the oil on the dip stick?

Was it really changed?

If this happens to me, I'd definitely report.
Sorry that it happened to you.

It sounds like they should be paying you for the joyride they got from your car.

They probably took the car for a drift around the parking lot. Just my speculations.

lesson learned, change your own oil! Takes 10-15min and is worth the peace of mind!

As most have said here... there's definitely an area for honest mistakes and then shady practice.

Assuming it would be no problem then not having the filter, is an honest mistakes IF they would have told you beforehand. At the very least tell you afterwards.

The whole bit of trying to cover up a deliberate marking with a black marker is definitely shady. I'd want an answer for that specific question, because there's no "good answer" to that.

As for the 2.3 miles, that's still a stretch for a "quality assurance" check. I can see maybe a little drive around the block totaling 1 mile at most. The rest seems excessive and would definitely not help their case with this huge black mark (no pun intended) against them.

Please report..... I won't ever be taking my car to Toyota for servicing but had this happened to me I would have flipped out.... I would edit ur first post and change the thread title to DO NOT GO TO ###### FOR ANY SERVICING.. The least u can do is name and shame

Quality assurance drive for oil and filter? That's a bunch of BS. They would never get anything done because all of their techs would be out driving. They didn't go for a drive they stole your freaken car for 2.5 miles. I wonder if the ECU has a black box that records RPMs id try to see if you could pull that. I would write the owner of the dealership and threaten to take them to court, file a police report, or talk to local news. Of course I would not follow through but that should get the dealerships attention.

OP-You're unhappy...you know what to do.

I think this is blown out of proportion... The oil change and oil filter was "FREE" anyways. Seriously, what did you expect?

that was sad. they have to tell you everything at the first place before doing anything. i call it BS!

Most Toyota dealers don't have oil filters for our cars yet, so that is legit. I'm still waiting on my case to come in after having ordered it 2-3 weeks ago.

As far as them scheduling you for something they couldn't perform AND driving the car over 2 mi... Thats very unprofessional/uncalled for.

He expected exactly what he should have gotten, the scheduled service performed correctly as advertised. It doesn't matter what it cost. What exactly is your point?

Exactly right. Free shouldn't equate to substandard service. Instead they should use this opportunity to impress you and try to win your business in the future.

I, for one, would never return.

The attempt to blackout the mark on the oil filter is bordering on criminal. The joyride (which is what that mileage equates to) is also not far off.

They done themselves more harm than good and will lose business as a consequence.

The way it should have gone is that they call to inform you that they are unable to change to oil filter due to unavailability and ask if you want to just change the oil or leave it until stock has arrived. Apologise for inconvenience etc...

Some businesses just want to fail.....

Thanks for your sympathy guys. To answer some of the questions. This happened at Power Cerritos. My service advisor never mention beforehand that they didn't have the filter in stock. I wasn't even told about the filter not being changed till I caught it myself. I'm not even sure if they did the oil change since they decline to add the new drain plug I requested.

I'm getting my first oil change next week. Thanks for posting this so I can do the same with the mark and trip odometer. I've had good experience with this dealer so far so hopefully they impress me and win me for life.

I usually do my own servicing on my current car as an oil change is not that hard and even ECU diagnostics is not that difficult. However, given that it is a new car in warranty, I will almost certainly take it to the dealer for my capped price servicing or another mob (if better).

Sweet, this is a GREAT way to tell if the dealer is being shady with the oil changes... I'm going to do the filter mark EVERY time since it is so easy to do. Considering that this will be my first change coming up I'm going to be pissed if they leave the original filter since it was catching anything that was circulating during my break-in period! I wasn't too pleased when I took the car in to try and fix some rattles so if my dealer screws this up then it is on like donkey kong!

At least this will serve as a cautionary tale for all those who will be taking their car in for service:

1) Always reset the trip to zero AND make note of how many miles you have on the car when you drop it off and pick it back up based on the odometer.

2) I always mark the oil filter with a permanent marker and a numeric code to see if it has been changed (you can catch much more bs service when the filter is down below).

3) Before I get too far away from a service provider I pop the hood to check the caps/condition of the engine bay and oil level, and check all the lugs quickly to make sure they are affixed. This takes less than a few minutes and can save you big headaches.

***I have had techs/mechanics forget to tighten oil caps (which can lead to a big mess), put in WAY too much oil, forget to install a lug on one of my wheels, and forget to torque down ALL the lugs on one wheel...and I discovered this as the wheel was vibrating like crazy on the freeway (imagine what could have happened).

*Before anyone says you should just do all your work yourself...that is what I prefer, but there are times when that is not feasible, or not possible (like warranty work).

Call local media, only way to get through to these douchebags is public embarassment



start here, their 2 stars should give you an idea of how shitty they are to everyone, so its not much consolation but they suck regardless of what you drive
http://www.yelp.com/biz/power-toyota-cerritos-cerritos

Check your owners manual and also the dealership.

You may have voided your warrenty because the filter was not changed.

Read the first post. He decided to change his oil after the break-in period. This service (or lack thereof, really) has done zilch to his warranty. All it did was expose a shady dealer to which the OP should never, ever return.

In my experience, the attitudes of a franchise or branch location tend to cascade down from the corporate hierarchy. So it is unlikely that a corporate parent will correct a franchisee or branch that has done something like you experienced. Once in a while, a well-run firm will have a "rogue" bad agent, and they do take steps to correct the problem. But that is infrequent.

The fact is, a well-run organization will have internal controls that prevent the kind of crap that you experienced. Unless you get a really strong response from corporate that includes not just their response to you, but their efforts to correct the franchise or branch location, I suggest you avoid the company and its agents entirely.

A corporate culture that is flawed and tends to cheat or mislead the customer is very hard to turn around. They may make efforts to placate you by offering you a refund or coupons, because in the long run that is the cheapest way to deal with you, but that won't change the culture.

Dam dude, thats a Horrible experience. I work at a Toyota Dealership, Service Department. I don't know how other dealerships work, but we've always made our work clean. What you get, is what you pay for, and if anything were to Happen to it while at a dealership, they're 100% liable for it. Personally, I would always take it to the dealership. They know more about the fr-s than any other shop.

Ummm, no.

Name of dealer?

It sucks, I have learned everytime you hand over the key you potentially given someone a free test drive, I had dropped off my car at a body shop for a scratch repair before and they drove it because it was warm when I got it back!

But it could be that since they didn't remove the filter and wanted a short drive to proper temp (2 miles) and check the oil level to ensure they put in proper amount of oil. I have free 60k service on my other vehicle and they sometimes they do road test it to make sure it is going straight, tire rotated properly, nothing falls off etc.

give me the number of this dealer, i will make a call tomorow.

Very sorry to hear about this.
This could be as bad (service wise) as Premier Parking Spot in Florida

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/01/p...aught-on-film/

Equip your car with a GPS device before the next oil change...

Since they did such a poor job at masking your cross, they might as well get busted for joyriding it next time, and that would involve serious legal consequences

For people who wanted info about the dealership. Here's the copy of my invoice.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/3664/img001ld.jpg

I'd expect to be given what was advertised/promised. Not holding them to that, is seriously bending over and handing them the lube. (although in this case, they may not use it but will tell you they are!!) lol