Holden Servicing rip-offs

[Umai Naa!!]

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.

 

[mmrdb]

'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.' and 'As for your tyre rotation and balance, once again, some service departments have policies on this too.'
You've got to be kidding me!!! My local holden dealer always gives me a call to ask me whether I want these sort of things done. Why should I 'the customer' advise the dealership of what I 'dont' want done??? If my dealership did what you consider is OK, I'd be going straight to head office with an official complaint!

 

[Dayvo]

I took my commodore to the dealer that i bought it from for a service . At about midday i got a call from them telling me that the diff seal was leaking and that the rear universal needed replacing and the power steering pump was leaking ,which i though was strange but gave the ok to fix it .When i went to pick it up they gave me the bill to which i told them i was only going to pay for the service but not the other work .When they asked why i told them that i have had the car back here twice under warranty for the diff seal leak to be fixed and that i could feel a vibration in the drive line at speeds over 60 kays and twice i was told they diff had been fixed , which had only been wiped with a rag because it leaked the next day ,and that they couldn't feel any vibration .
Ended up having screaming match with them but in the end only had to pay for the service.

 

[pablo]

HA HA HA, great reading all this woeful stuff, HA HA,..Makes me realise what fun I have been missing out on all those past years by ALLWAYS doing my own servicing and repairs.
Believe me, there is nothing hard about dropping the oil, spinning a filter on, slipping a new wiper blade in, diff pinion seal, uni joint, what ever. All first year apprentice stuff, surely all you petrol heads have a little interest in the workings of the car that you thrash and hoon around in.
Motoring, as an interest, is more than slamming the foot flat to the boards and spinning the tyres.
Saw a monkey in the circus drive a car once, though, I don't think he could change the oil either!!

 

[Flat_White]

Why do you guys seem to be defending holden? ACEmonkey makes a good point.

 

[Umai Naa!!]

I love these threads...

 

[pablo]

I love these threads...

LOL, you get my 'drift?

Pablo

 

[Flat_White]

same here.

 

[Ado]

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.

 

[Dannyxv]

I had my vx serviced with a Holden dealer a couple of months ago, and it will be the last time. They will rip you off to no end if you let them. They rotated 2 bad tyres, put them on the front? I mean who does that. I took it to Bob Jane and showed them and they were horrified. They tried to tell me I need new this and that when I knew there was nothing wrong with them. I'll be taking it to the local mechanic from now on. At least I know that way he will not try and rip me off and actually do all the work that is needed. They only good thing I can say about Holden is they do a good wash, that's about it.