Holden Servicing rip-offs

[Longman]

Very interesting thread to say the least. There are always 2 sides to every story. I was advised during a minor service by a holden dealer that my brakes desperately needed doing and that I shouldn't be driving the car at all! They quoted a ridiculous price to replace them. As usual I declined the offer and took it to my usual brake place - they refused to do them, stating it would be ripping me off, I'd get at least another 50,000 out of them! My brake place got the job and changed them 2 years later than holden wanted to!!

The other side though is the business thing. I used to work as a service technician at a non-dealer chain in W.A a long time ago. Being dodgy was expected and I was trained to do so and threatened with my job if I didn't. Brakes and gearboxes were the most common thing as most people could not check them as they didn't know how (used to just clean the brakes up and slap a coat of blue paint on a gearbox to make it look recon). We very rarely replaced spark plugs, just ran them under the wire brush then invoiced a new set. The biggest thing though was women by themselves, the culture was attrocious, and ranged from replacement engines (though not actually replaced or needed) to emptying the coin tray when giving a courtesy vacuum. It was appalling and I only lasted 1 month before I quit in disgust. No surprise they aren't operating any more. Keep in mind this was 20 years ago and I was a naiive teenager, but I still knew it was wrong.

I guess what I'm saying is that the culture has definitely changed for the better but there will always be bad apples in any sector. The simplest thing is if you are not happy, take your car somewhere else or get a second opinion before committing.

Oh, and I always love the rounding up dealers do to the nearest $10 and invoice for "ancilliaries". He he. I believe that should cover your bulbs and wiper blades.

here endeth the rant.

 

[WestieZBRSV]

whenever I have taken my car to holden for a service, I find, generally, they complete the work i wanted done or they said they have done. Yes I do sometimes feel my car doesnt run quite how I expected it would, but I am a perfectionist and not a mechanic, but the simple fact is, the car runs. So im neither here nor there with Holden dealer service. However......everytime I have taken a car to a local mechanic or some jonny nobody mechanic, i've been ripped off hard. Similar to the first story, I had recently replaced items and the ******** charged me for it anyway.....so theres my lesson.....don't go to the little guys unless you know them.
At the end of the day, my car is now out of its warranty period, so i shall be carrying out all the minor services on my own.

cheers,

 

[Steery]

i would never go to holden, ever. ever.

and when i have the money to buy a recent model car, it will not be a holden because of their appaling service. it will be a toyota or a ford.

 

[Nanos]

I think everyone has a tale about holden dealers.

I took a VS wagon i woned several years back to a holden dealer for servicing. ( this was due to be warranty).

The car had been lowered only about 2 weeks prior with new shocks all the way around. Told the dealer i had heard some clunks from the rear and hoped they could locate it and get back to me.

When i went to pick up the wagon the service manager told me it was a shocker. I informe him it could not be a shock as they had only done about 1000k's. after a few words later i got him to put it on the hoist and show me. When he went to show me the shocker fault he noticed it was actually the Pan hard rod (adjustable type) that had come loose at the adjuster.

the look on his face when i told him that iwas not paying for the new shocks he had fitted was priceless. He could not give me a good reason to why this was not noticed by whoever was working on the car. Never went back to that holden dealer again

I have to agree though with others. Mechanics are paid **** all. For the work they do i think they should get paid more. I mean i pay $185 for a minor service. mechanic doing the work gets paid $15 per hour. takes him half hour to drain oil change filter and give car quick look over. tell me who is at fault here. the dealer or the mechanic. because for $15 a hour i would not care for my work either.

 

[Dayvo]

I'm a service advisor at a Holden dealer and im quite shocked to hear of some of the issues which have taken place at different dealers, like replacement of wipers without authorisation from the customer, service costs and repairs etc etc. I cant speak for any other dealer but at the end of the day i'd never give approval to any of the techs to proceed with extra work if the customers unreachable. However there are exceptions as far as i see things. Such as.. customer's history do they bring the car to us for servicing all the time.. yes right if so, we find the car has a couple of blown globes and wipers need changing. If i know the history of this customer im confident enough to make a decision based on necessity im not gonna allow the customer to pick the car up and say oh found both ur no. plate globes and ur RHF headlight globe blown didnt do them today as we couldnt get hold of you, customer gets ****ty which would be fair enuf customer brings their car to Holden and lives 50k's away.
So at times i can justify doing extra work within reason of course. In your case ACE thats somewhat different. Just one more thing i must ask Dayvo u had issues with the car whilst still under warranty then were charged for it. Your first mistake.. How does the advisor you've been dealing with know ur not paying for it or know that the complaints have been issues in the past. if they need to do extra work under warranty they dont ring you, as they dont need approval full stop, unless of course they need the car for longer period of time. You should have clarified then that there should be no cost in regards to the vib at 60k's or woteva and the pinion seal leaking, what about the power steering pump leak, Who pays for that? Holden? Why? Cmon man.

My gripe was that i had the car back twice to be repaired under warranty and got no satisfaction on both occasions ,Then when i booked it in for a service and they rang me to tell me that it needed aditional work done to it thats when i thought it was strange that they rang me because it was still covered under warranty and my understanding was that i shouldn't be charged for it

 

[Holdens Rule]

To Umai Naa!! Seeing as you are at the other side of the counter please enlighten us to some stories of shonky stuff that has happened towards customers, please don't tell us otherwise. I'm not saying all dealers are bad because I have been to some really good ones as well as some down right pathetic ones.

My last trip to a dealer resulted in my front mag looking very second hand. I check my car well before droping it off everytime and one of the things i check is my wheels which were repainted 6 months prior (and were not scratched before being dropped off). To cut a long story short they denied doing it and told me they rotated my wheels, funny thing is I had bald tyres on the rear and they were still on the rear when i picked it up!

As I said there are good mechs and bad mechs so I hate it when people attack others for airing their gripes, and as for complaining about wages please if you don't like the pay then do something else! I work in a factory and don't earn huge bucks but I don't whinge about it cause i choose to accept it. Just cause you earn less than you want doesn't give you the right to screw over others.

 

[ACEMonkey]

From the other side of the counter...

Customer roars in, and screaches to a halt. Abandons his car right in the middle of the workshop. Gets out and yells "I've just driven all the way from Cooma (A fair distance from us), and my car has been running like **** the whole time, and I want it fixed now!!"

Me: Um, have you been here for work, previously?

Him: NO! As I said, I'm from f**king Cooma!

Me: Ok. So did you ring ahead and arrange an appointment with our service advisors?

Him: No, because I want my car fixed now, and I'm not leaving until it is!



This is the bull**** we have to deal with from drop-kick customers all the time. We are one of the most under-paid trades in the country, yet we're still supposed to be at everyones beg and call. If you don't like the service, go elsewhere.

As for your wiper blades, if you didn't want them replaced, you should have said so when you dropped it off. Some service departments have policies whereby wiper blades are replaced at every service.

As for your tyre rotation and balance, once again, some service departments have policies on this too.

Perhaps you were blinded by paranoia, and the work was actually carried out, as stated.

Yes, some dealerships do have managerial, and organisational issues, but I highly doubt they are going out of their way to blatantly rip people off.

TT and ACA have a lot to answer for.

- Offended Holden Service Technician.

Your example of an aggravated customer has nothing to do with the issue of dealer service blatantly ripping off customers like myself. It seems to me your service department has managerial issues, not being able to contact the dealer the customer had been to and find out what work had been done or supposed to have been done to their car. Your attitude calling this customer a "drop-kick" already highlights to us, the level of service you're prepared to give to other customers - very poor. It does not shine well for the company you work for does it?

Perhaps you can tell us which Holden Service and where you work for, so customers like myself looking for a good service can avoid giving you a bad day.

 

[ACEMonkey]

My point of raising this thread has nothing to do with a mechanic's reputation, pay and conditions etc. If you feel you're being underpaid, then feel free to look for a better paid job elsewhere. There is nothing that says you are enslaved to work for one company for the rest of your life whether you like it or not. But it certainly does not give you or anybody an excuse to rip or help the company rip other people off.

The point of this thread is to raise awareness and help us all sort out the bad eggs from the basket. I've already raised the issue here with 2 Holden Service departments that I have been to and not happy with. Trust me, I will never go back to them for my next service.

To date, I have not found a Holden Service that has done servicing that is to my satisfaction...ie. to the service log book and at a reasonable price.

Please, if you have been to a Holden Service that you have experienced problems with, name them here so we all know about it.

On the same token, I am sure there is still good service out there, somewhere but we need to know about them. So if you have been to one that you would recommend to others like myself, name them and their location here.

As customers, we have a right to take our business to good companies and punish those that aren't doing the right thing by not giving our business to them.

 

[s_ikari2015]

Here's a warning to those people who want to take their cars to non-dealership service centers. If the car is still under warranty, and the service doesn't use genuine parts, you may find it extremely expensive to have your car repaired if those parts fault and cause damage. Genuine parts are guaranteed by the manufacturer to not void their warranty.

The mechanic may very well be one of the worst paid people at a dealership. The other costs are what need to be considered. You're also paying for part of the wages of the service counter personell, the parts interpreters who have to supply the parts for the service, the storage and removal of waste materials such as oil etc, and part of the wages of any courtesy driver that the dealership may employ for service customers. Drop your car off at Automasters, have them use genuine parts and get them to drive you to work and pick you up again when your car is ready. I'm sure they'll be pleased to do that for you at the cheap-cheap price. XD

HAVING SAID THAT!!! Yes, you get what you pay for, so why not expect more from a dealership where you are paying more? Has anyone asked for a better deal from their dealership service center? You barter with the salesman when you buy the car, so why not do it with the service rep?

 

[Ado]

Fact of the matter is, what the majority of you all are complaining about is pricing and poor workmanship. No two Holden dealerships are the same they comprise of different mechanics some with a higher ratio of apprentices some with more multicultural mechanics who are qualified from over seas that dont quite grasp the new stuff etc etc this i know as ive worked at two dealerships and currently still working at one. Just amazes me you only ever hear of bad experiences 'Holden charged me this Holden charged me that', we're a massive company with massive overheads yes we charge $108 an hr. If u had a plumber come out to ur house and look at a leak ur charged over hundred bucks just for bein there for 5 minutes, if if you dont like it u have the option to take it to old mate Fred down the road, which mind u won't have a clue with some of the later model stuff even if they do hav a scan tool, they can't perform half the tasks and obtain information required to diagnose generally most faults. I suppose im gettin off track here point im tryin to make is on a scale only takes about 5% of people to be unhappy then it makes the whole dealership (in this threads case) Holden around Australia look bad. For e.g we have a system in which we call SSS cut a long story short we randomly send out surveys to customers in which we recieve feedback about a variety of things, and im tellin u now the majority of ppl who fill this out, usually fill it out because they're unhappy not the happy and content ones. Sorry to babble on but i just wanted to say we at Sunbury Holden have an exceptionally high SSS rating and a **** load of happy customers we dont rip off, and we certainly dont replace parts that dont need replacing. Theres poor work conduct somewhere along the line at EVERY workshop whether it be intentional or a simple mistake. Cheers.