Genuine TOYOTA Service - Not so genuine

[toolman1974]

Have seen this before and nothing will ever change.
Look at doing yourself or get any qualified mechanic as long as they use genuine parts they are allowed to servive your vehicle without effecting your warranty. Only downside to this is if something happens just outside warranty sometime because it is dealer serviced they may look after.
oh what a feeling Ripped off.

Time to trawl through PP and DIY servicing.

[MUMSRIG]

And I suppose they are the only Toyo Dealer for miles around to...

Bugger...

**EDIT** By the time I'd read through, Tim had already posted LOL

[timmay5.7]

I think the problem here is, being in Carnarvon, most people would just accept it, seeing how its several 100k's to the next toyota dealer..

[ursos]

Hi Dan,

Did you pay? Sometimes, withholding payment is the only way that sub-standard service will be addressed. You should not be expected to pay for a "service" that was not provided. This is especially useful if you're not intending to go back there anyway (much more problematic if this is your local service centre)

[baddna]

A lesson for TOYOTA owners in this - beware your TOYOTA dealer.....

I just had the 40,000k service of my 150 Prado done by the TOYOTA dealer in Carnarvon WA (Carnarvon Motor Group) .

The TOYOTA dealer :-
1. failed to rotate the tyres (I had marked them before the service)
2. failed to balance the front wheels
3. failed to detect a blown parker light on inspection.
All items were listed as done on the dealer’s job sheet.

After raising these problems directly (and courteously) with the Service Manager (Travis Jackson) at 9:32am today 16Aug2011, here are his responses…
1. RE: tyres not rotated. He couldn't explain why the tyres weren't rotated and didn't offer to remedy the error.
2. RE: front wheels not balanced.
Mr Jackson said that most dealerships don't have wheel balancers and wouldn't do this - despite it spec'd in the TOYOTA Service Book and charged for. "We don't own a balancer" Mr Jackson said. "It's not a mandatory tool" he said. I suggested that they should have the tyre shop across the road do the balance if they don’t have the gear. He didn’t think that was practical and felt it was fine to simply not do it.
3. RE: blown light not noted or fixed.
We noticed it was blown but we forgot to list it on the job sheet.

All up, Mr Jackson (their “Service Manager”) made no attempt to remedy any of the service faults I raised. Instead, he finally said "go whinge to some other prick" and stormed off into a staff-only area out the back - leaving me at the counter. I remained there for a while, immediately making notes on what had just happened. Writing down the exact words Mr Jackson had used.
As I departed, I started taking photos of things. Several things looked like Workplace, Health & Safety issues to me. I quietly snapped away. The dealership owner quickly arrived on the scene and tried unsuccessfully to escort me away from other customers - into his office. I remained in the public area. After explaining what had just happened, he told me to "put it in writing". He too made no offer to remedy the faulty service. He was however quite keen to kick the poor service mechanic kid who had fixed something (simple) free of charge. I knew I was getting nowhere fast and left - the peace maintained throughout.

I then called the TOYOTA Customer Experience Centre to enquire how to proceed. In essence, they told me that each dealer is privately owned and they can basically do what they like. TOYOTA has no influence over TOYOTA dealers nor are dealers accountable for any sub-standard servicing done. They assured me that the Manufacturer's Service should be followed, but TOYOTA had no way to ensure that their dealers follow it.

For me, the customer, I'm simply looking for a standard service. But I appear to have no assurance that it will be done correctly and TOYOTA itself has no influence to make it happen. It certainly opens up a bag of down-stream issues if a faulty service causes other more serious faults.

If anyone else has had a similar experience or has any helpful advice on this, I'd love to hear from you.

Kind Regards
Dan