Free paintchips & attitude w/ your tail lights
 

Sorry in advance for the venting guys. I’m in need of some advice.


This Friday was probably the worst snow day that my region has had all season (15cm of snow), so of course it was also the day that I had booked off work to get my tail lights replaced (4th tail light, 3rd visit). Confident in my abilities and in my snow tires, I decide to drive to the Toyota dealership to have my tails fixed. This dealership is in the next town over, so the drive in a lightweight, RWD, low cog coupe was quite brutal.

As soon as I arrive at my dealership I am greeted with applause from the sales staff for my bravery in the snow J. I speak to the service advisers and I am told that the shop is really slow due to the severe weather and that the service manager is also off for the same reason. I ask the adviser if I can speak with the tech that is to be working on the car as I have another concern that I would like to discuss as well (sometimes when it’s cold, the shifter will get stuck between neutral and a gear and I’ll hear grinding despite the fact that the clutch is all the way down).

After the car is brought in, the adviser brings me into the shop to speak with my tech and leaves us to it. Said tech completely ignores my presence for 2 minutes but I figure he’s busy reading the TSB (or the newspaper, whatever) so I decide to just check out my car until he’s ready to talk. I ask him to get into the car so that we can try to replicate the issue but as I am explaining the problem the previously silent tech blurts out “You shouldn’t have even fucking came in today bud… these cars weren’t made for this kind of fucking weather”. I was stunned, I wasn’t sure how to respond so I chalked it up to the dude having a rough day and I try to explain my situation. A previous service adviser would not allow me to book the tail light replacement for the weekend because the new TSB was super complex, and he would not allow me to book it for a weekday evening because they wanted the service manager to be present for the installation (lol, the service manager couldn’t be present anyways), and that I had booked this day off work just so I could get the tails fixed (In total I have sacrificed 3 vacation days to get my tails replaced.) My explanation falls on deaf ears as the tech is still giving me attitude and being a complete ass.

As I walk back to the waiting room I contemplate complaining about the tech and requesting a new tech to work on my car. But as a white collar worker in a blue collar industry, I understand that not all service techs are going to be saints, I understand that everyone has their grumpy days and as long as the work is done properly I’d prefer to avoid having anyone get into trouble, so I let the incident slide (BIG MISTAKE!). 45 minutes goes by and a service adviser gives me my car keys and lets me go, he says they’ll mail me my invoice later “it’s all free warranty work anyways, no worries”, I figured sweet, lets gtfo of here. I do my usual post-servicing inspection and that’s when I see it! At first I thought it was grease, or ink or dirt but the closer I looked the more I realized that some punk had scratched my car!!! (Pics below) It looked like some idiot took a flat head screw driver, wedged it between the light and the bumper and pried the thing out! (Pics below!!!). I was furious! I walked back explained the situation and demanded to know who my tech was. I show the damage to the assistant service manager and he calls over his detailer to have a look, they ask if I can wait a little bit so that they can use a paint pen on it (lol) and I agree. Inside, I recognize the tech that did the work. I ask him if he noticed the paint chip and he plays dumb. I ask him again and he says that the way the tail lights sits causes it to rub back and forth which causes that damage over time. I ask him to clarify and he says that the previous tech must have done it and that it was like that when he got it. Then he says that the TSB recommends putting a paint pen on it but since the paint wouldn’t stick to a damp car, he didn’t bother do it…. Or tell anyone….

In the detailing bay I take some pictures (see below!) and a video (I haven’t uploaded it as I don’t want the dealership identified). 15 minutes in and I’m told that they don’t have any paint pens, which in hindsight, I am grateful for. I believe something better than a paint pen is in order. The assistant service manager takes some pictures and gives me his card, he says I should call Monday morning and speak with the service manager. I shake his hand and thank him and I am on my way (he was very nice and understanding).

As I am driving away I realize that I have absolutely no proof that I had the work done that day. I have always had to sign paper work for warranty work and that day I wasn’t asked to. WTF?!?! Were they aware? Were they trying to get me out of there quietly? I did a super doriiifto u-turn and headed back. I asked why I wasn’t given any paper work and I was told that it was because the service manager wasn’t here to sign off on it (weird… because the last 2 times I had my tails replaced, the service manager was not in and I absolutely had to sign the paper work). The adviser tells me that perhaps the assistant manager can sign off on it and pages the assistant manager. Assistant manager comes back and says he’ll do it and asks if I can give him 3 minutes. He takes a little more like 10 minutes – I assume he gave the service manager a call at home. Assistant manager comes back and before I can ask, he shows me the little note that he has added to it “THERE WAS A MARK ON RIGHT REAR BUMPER UNDER TAIL LIGHT AFTER WE INSTALLED TAIL LIGH”, lol… “mark” I wish it was just a mark. By now I’m tired and angry and I just want to go home, I take the paper work and leave.
I don’t want to identify the dealership as I have yet to speak to the service manager. Are there any service techs or detailers or experts out there that can offer their advice? What is a reasonable response from the dealership?

Thanks for reading guys,
Aznek

UPDATED: 2013-Feb-12
So I spoke with the service manager today. He wants to take a look at it himself personally and make sure it's fixed. He also said that he'd have another tech re-do the tail light installation to make sure it is installed correctly.
I'll be leaving my car with him and I'll be getting a loaner vehicle. He was apologetic and sincere, which is all I could ask for. I'm pretty satisfied with the response so far.

http://i.imgur.com/YrVUa4e.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/nDcZMCs.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IqzsVpt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/G1oj64A.jpg

They need to repaint the rear bumper. Speak to the GM, if he doesn't do it them give SOA a call they will reply in a few hours. At least that's what had happened in my case. I bought the car and when they were prepping it for me they scratched it. GM was giving me the run around. Sales manager told me I should have pointed it out before I signed the papers (scratch was covered when I saw the car) So i gave SOA a call and 4 hours later they had me choosing a dealership and a shop.

Soa always sends out surveys so give them a nasty review. Talk to SOA as soon as possible seeing as the longer you wait the more questions they will have. I feel like they were given the chance already to fix the problem. They even added the mark bs to your paperwork so they are ready to argue it.

The most important thing now is to find a new dealership to get your warranty work done at.

I would disagree if u r saying they should repaint the entire bumper. Looks the damage is all above the body line/ lip there. A guy that knows what he's doing could fill in that scratch and blend it a lil side to side and make it look like new. If u trust this dealerships "detailer" to do that is up to u.

I agree that repainting the entire bumper would cause more problems than it would fix, the risk of the bumper not matching the rest of the car would be too great for such a small (although deep) gouge.

Repairing the area around until it looks brand new would be the best solution imo but the scratch is right on the edge... rebuilding that edge will take quite a bit of skill and my confidence in this dealership is not as high was it once was.

I agree with @muffinman. To repaint the entire bumper just because of that is like you tear down the entire house to fix your sink. Not to mention painting the entire bumper you would have to leave your car with the shop for days. The size of that scratch and the location makes it a relatively easy job to fill in a couple of hours.

that buffs right out!

looks like a "paint pen" should take care of it,IF carefully applied. as mentioned,and i agree,to paint the whole bumper is over kill,and may create more problems with the paint not matching. when they touch it up,make sure it is done correctly,and it should be ok.

Do you guys really need to quote the entire wall of text with all the pics? Pretty annoying...

OP...I would agree that having the entire bumper repainted is probably not the best course of action. I'd just have it touched up and be done with it...it probably won't be the last scratch you'll get...:happy0180:

There are far more challenging things in life. Touch it up with a paint pen and move on.

The only thing the dealer did wrong is having mechanic with a potty mouth to customers.

If you think this is a federal case just wait until something really goes wrong.

I'd report the tech for being disrespectful. If I ever talked to one of my customers like that my boss wouldn't hesitate to correct the attitude.

As for the scratch, I'd call SOA like mentioned above and get your bumper taken care of.

I agree that this isn't a "federal case", I never meant to to be. I just wanted advice on what a reasonable response from the dealership would be.

People mess up, I get that, and if they're nice and honest about it I probably wouldn't have posted this. But since there's this additional drama, I figured I'd share my story. This tech has no business working in a Toyota service department if he thinks it's acceptable to mouth off to customers, to be dishonest, and to use a flat head screw driver to pry out a tail light with the paint acting as a leverage point. I shudder to think about how many other cars he has gone the lazy route on.

From reading the responses here, I'm thinking a localized repair of the gouge until it is unnoticeable will do. Depending on the service manager's response and the quality of the touch up, I will not identify the dealership. But as long as that tech works at that dealership, I don't think I would ever bring my car back there again or recommend them to anyone.

Yup on the paint pen/touchup and blend, if necc'y. You know its there, that is the worst damage. The respray of pearl whiteout will likely fade at a different rate and well, you know...

Report the well-versed, knuckle-dragger of a tech to service rep and dealership manager/owner. Perhaps forward complaint to Scion as well. This job should be done with temp tape around the sharp edges of the taillights and to prevent the obvious. Its what I do when replacing many of the modern tails that require light prying against paint finishes or pop in flush with body lines (e.g. 350Z, Outback)

Eric G

LOL, theres 2 Scion dealerships in town. Its a 50/50 chance we know who it is :D. If its the one where u work, I'm not at all surprised with the experience. If its the other one, then I would be surprised, as I thought the other one is better.