Holden Service issue - Is this a bit of a scam?

[hakhawk]

whats to say the fuel system clean was not needed.

However, the recommendation of a fuel system cleaning would not come under that banner(unless they had taken samples of fuel to test and/or had found injector supply was sluggish etc)

are they expected to know that the car had sluggish injectors as soon as it comes in? how can they test the fuel the minute he drops the car off? now, if there was a problem with the injectors, and the customer wasnt informed until they picked it up, this would require booking in the car for another day, further inconveniencing them, and generally ****ing them off.

if i was to fit an alarm system to a customers car, and their central locking wasnt working, but was an easy fix, i can just about guarantee theyd sook because i couldve done it that day, not a week later when we have a spot free to fix it.

now, id call them, ask if they want it fixed, if not, no skin off my back, finish car, get on with next one. if so, fix it, customers happy, customer tells friends, we get more business, win win for us.

 

[commsirac]

whats to say the fuel system clean was not needed.



are they expected to know that the car had sluggish injectors as soon as it comes in? how can they test the fuel the minute he drops the car off? now, if there was a problem with the injectors, and the customer wasnt informed until they picked it up, this would require booking in the car for another day, further inconveniencing them, and generally ****ing them off.

if i was to fit an alarm system to a customers car, and their central locking wasnt working, but was an easy fix, i can just about guarantee theyd sook because i couldve done it that day, not a week later when we have a spot free to fix it.

now, id call them, ask if they want it fixed, if not, no skin off my back, finish car, get on with next one. if so, fix it, customers happy, customer tells friends, we get more business, win win for us.

If you go back to the original post, I think you'll see that there was not even a hint of any tests that were done or any problems that were found. Just a push of a "fuel clean/service".

Why are so many people intent on defending the undefendable.

 

[Shounak]

Why are so many people intent on defending the undefendable.

I was thinking the same.

 

[hakhawk]

If you go back to the original post, I think you'll see that there was not even a hint of any tests that were done or any problems that were found. Just a push of a "fuel clean/service".

Why are so many people intent on defending the undefendable.

he didnt type it, doesnt mean it didnt happen. he was also "busy", couldve not heard it.

we werent there, so cant be sure, but just shows you cant jump to conclusions about things like this.


people seem to jump at things being a scam, or a ripoff all too easily these days.

sure every business is out to make money, otherwise why be in business to begin with. doing things like this is called "upselling", or an "addon" sale. it may not be specifically needed, but may benefit the customer.

ie, you come in to buy a bottle of oil for your car. you forget/dont think you need a filter. i ask you if you need a filter. this is the addon sale. you have a choice of 2 options, 1. "no thanks, dont need one" 2. "oh yeh, i forgot about that, ill grab one" or "should i change the filter aswell? yes? ok, ill get one" no pressure.

i may be making extra money for the shop, but im not just selling you crap you dont need, nor am i pushing it onto you, you dont HAVE to buy it.



im not so much trying to defend the dealership, maybe they were just trying to screw him out of a dollar, but im trying to show that not every shop is out to screw you. as others have said, ask questions and such before just saying yes, its that simple. unless they are literally forcing you to do something, you can always say no.

just because they catch you at a bad time, doesnt mean theyre doing it on purpose. they dont have spies at your current position waiting to get you at your weakest moment.


anyway, thats enough from me.

 

[commsirac]

sure every business is out to make money, otherwise why be in business to begin with. doing things like this is called "upselling", or an "addon" sale. it may not be specifically needed, but may benefit the customer.

ie, you come in to buy a bottle of oil for your car. you forget/dont think you need a filter. i ask you if you need a filter. this is the addon sale. you have a choice of 2 options, 1. "no thanks, dont need one" 2. "oh yeh, i forgot about that, ill grab one" or "should i change the filter aswell? yes? ok, ill get one" no pressure.

No, it is not the same thing as "would you like fries with that"?

As has been pointed out earlier, this extra service should have been asked for at the point of sale or drop off, the during the middle of the day is a tactic to catch those who are busy at work.....(probably typical of someone who owns a commodore that takes it to a service centre)

just because they catch you at a bad time, doesnt mean theyre doing it on purpose. they dont have spies at your current position waiting to get you at your weakest moment.
.

Give just one good reason why this extra service wasnt suggested at the point of booking or when the customer had their chat with the service manager?.......and if the fuel service was so crucial, wouldnt they have been negligent in forgetting to suggest it in the 1st place?

 

[hakhawk]

lets see, they cant check the fuel at the time of book in, upon doing the service, find its a bit sluggish, or possibly tech2 says injectors arent up to par(unsure what tech2 can actually display in regards to that), and then they recommend the fuel system flush.

suggesting it at book in or drop off, might be pointless, as it seems like a waste of money, but if they find its needed, or recommended to improve the car, then they would call.

unless he talked to them about fuel problems upon booking in/dropping the car off, it wouldnt be known if the flush was crucial until the service was being done.

IF they specifically recommended it as purely an extra, then yes, it couldve been recommended at an earlier time, and could be considered a tactic. but we dont know for sure if it was. only way to find that out would be to ask the person who did the service, and called him.


not everything in/on a car can be diagnosed/decided upon with a single glance at the car or a phone call. if he knew it needed a flush before taking it in, he could have grabbed a $15 bottle of fuel injector cleaner and tried that out first.

 

[commsirac]

Why write all that hyperbole ^ when you could have gone back and read the original post again?:bang:

In retrospect, I am a little irritated at being contacted in this way for a non-essential item. I think that it was a sales pitch - not a need for a service related item - the service hand book does not call for it

There was no report of anything wrong being found with the fuel system....The reference to a non-essential item for me spells out that there was no report of any trouble with the fuel system......but if you want to go on defending the ridiculous, dont let me waste your time.

 

[Plainwhitevy]

Holden feed back from fuel service - impressed!!!

My asking the forum about this seems to have raised a bit of a hornets nest. I thought that I should let you good folks know the feedback that I got back from the Holden service manager yesterday.

Service manager emailed me ,explained that no discussion of fuel system service at hand over as I had not offered any symptoms of poor fuel consumption/rough idling etc. Phone call was during service as this was when they could see that the system appeared dirty visually and mechanic felt that a clean would be beneficial.

Apologised that I felt unhappy about the call - and offered me a full refund of the cost!!!!!!

I must say that I am fairly impressed with this. It has also made me far more inclined to take my car back again. Maybe the fact that I am a regular customer had a lot to do with it. They were clearly going to lose me the way I felt.

Who knows, but the bottom line for me is that the customer was not happy - perhaps with some reasonable cause (their communication issue), and they are prepared to make it good. I really can't complain about this at all, and thought that having got this response from Holden, it was only fair to share it as soon as possible - rather than let a single side of the story sit there too long.

By the way - I now understand clearly why the work was done and do not intend to take them up on their kind offer. Now happy that work was done for a defensible reason and I have no problem paying for it.

Cheers

 

[Sabbath']

Well i guess that puts this issue to bed.




And Commisrac. One good reason why it wasnt offered when the car was dropped off? Because like i stated earlier. From what i've witnessed, service advisors dont upsell products at vehicle dropoff. If the customer asks for it, it will be done. If they dont, but something is found during the service, it gets reported on. Like brakes, globes etc. Things that wont be seen until the car is checked over.

Comprehend?

 

[commsirac]

Phone call was during service as this was when they could see that the system appeared dirty visually and mechanic felt that a clean would be beneficial.

Good that you got a refund........based on what you say, Im sensing you've caught them out and they are trying to cover themselves.

The fuel system appeared visually dirty(what sort of lame description/cop out is that?), did they give any details on what that meant? The system appeared visually dirty.....from the outside? mechanic looked under the bonnet and saw gunk on the outside of the injectors?

The only thing that could justify a service for ("visually dirty") would have been to take samples from the fuel tank or injectors, but im guessing that's not what they did.