How car dealerships rip you off with warranty repairs

[Jodyrides]

I bought a used car from a big multi brand dealership, , because my buddy had the exact same car, and I really liked his car. I asked the salesman, what’s the warranty on this car. He said 100% warranty for 30 days. So I’m sitting there with a pen in my hand ready to sign the contract and I said I don’t see that on here. He impatiently grabbed the contract and wrote across the top, 100% warranty parts and labor, 30 days, AL...
I signed the contract.
A couple days later, my friend that has the car that I really liked, is driving my car. He said this thing doesn’t shift right. He pointed out how it was not shifting correctly, and we drove his car and compared, he was right
So rather than go back to Al at the dealership. I called the dealership service department and asked if they fix transmissions. They said yes we do bring it in. The mechanic took the car for a drive and said there’s something going on in there we need to take a closer look. So I left the car at the dealership service department.
three hours later I get a call from the service department telling me that the valve body is bad, the torque converter is bad, it would be best just to plug-in a whole new rebuilt transmission because there was a lot of metal particles circulating around in the fluid. I said oh my gosh, well, I guess you better do it.
two days later I go to pick up the car. They presented me with a big bill. I pulled out my receipt for the car that said it’s under warranty parts and labor for 30 days. The cashier said wait a minute, she went and got the service manager, he went and got the mechanic, the service manager called the sales used car manager, he called Al the salesman, they got the whole dealership manager. They were having a huddle in the middle of the service department floor like you would see during a football game with the players on the field.
I was 22 years old at the the time..
The smooth talking general manager came over to me and politely said with a smile, why didn’t you tell us the car was here to be looked at under warranty. I said, why did you fix the transmission if there was nothing wrong with it? I didn’t tell you that the transmission was bad, you told me the transmission was bad.
At that point, while I was waiting, I saw my keys hanging on a wall Just behind the service desk/counter.I walked over and took my keys off the hook, and started walking towards the exit to get to my car which was outside/ done.., I turned around and waved to the guys in the huddle and yelled thank you, and I got in my car and drove away...

[JMS-hpgh]

I love the video. I worked as a service director at a high line dealership in Columbus, Ohio. Casey I am sure you know who it is. It is the only lamborghini dealer or Ferrari dealer in columbus. I got out of that industry after 18 years at different shops whether aftermarket or dealership because honest people get screwed over as employees in those places. Listening to your video is stuff I saw on a daily basis from other advisers and that dishonest behavior is not only not frowned upon but encouraged. It's a shame. I left the Ferrari dealer in Columbus over some very shady practices involving ACP O warranty on a Ferrari FF that was not processed through Ferrari and they customer put 8 miles on the car before he came back complaining of a noise and come to find now they wanted me to tell the customer it was going to be $20000 to replace the rear brake pads and rear brake rotors on a Ferrari FF. You and I both know A car kit not be CPO if certain standards aren't met and then once a customer pays money for the CPO warranty it has to be processed. I ended up writing a letter on behalf of the customer to Ferrari to get them involved because of the shady practices that went on and it ultimately cost me a job. Good riddance. I live in the Dublin area of Columbus and I have seen your Viper around and it looks good happy to see the videos doing well

[alfredritcher]

The reason dealers hate to warranty cars is they are paid a much lower hourly rate and the book times are much lower than customer book rates

[donp]

After a dealer behaves so dishonestly, how comfortable can you feel leaving a car there for service?

[CaseyPutsch]

Hope you all enjoy the stories and get a little helpful wisdom on dealing with dealerships and their service departments.

[stevendemoss]

Your absolutely right. My coworkers and I were discussing the same thing this morning. All I can say is integrity is all but gone these days. Everybody tryin to get rich ripping people off. I wish I could afford to start my own mechanic shop and bring back an important service simply by doing what's right and having integrity. Not overcharging people for work that's not needed or not done. It's pretty sad

[klardfarkus]

The extremely ridiculous thing is going to a dealer shop when it is out of warranty.

[cocogaminghighlights]

Everyone not just the automotive industry is ripping you off. Even my dentist trying to rip me off lol

[bigdaddymak]

People get so afraid when it comes to their vehicle warranty but what they don't realize that dealers and the manufacturers have to prove you abused the vehicle! They can't just arbitrarily accuse you of it!!

[BladedAngel]

Back when I lived in Rural Indiana, dealers did great work! Probably because if they pissed off the few customers they had, they wouldn't have any customers!
Then I came down a big city like Atlanta, and wow...I finally learned why, "Stealership" is a thing. 3 Visits too many, if you ask me, I should've known they were snakes after the first one! Good news is, I've learned to maintain my car myself since!

[SocietalMisfit]

I have experienced similar issues with dealerships. Now to divulge a bit about myself. I am a former mechanic of many years, had to give it up due to a major back injury. Anyway I have worked for various dealerships over the year as well as independent shops.

Now to let you know there are good mechanics and bad ones. I consider myself one of the good ones in that I never tried to up sell any customer and I certainly would never rip them off. Every time I would get a vehicle for repair, no matter the reason I would always look the car over for anything that needed repair or replacement and would inform the customer just for their benefit specifically things, that if taken care of at the time, would save them money down the road.

As for warranty, damn I had my share of that kind of work, however I always treated it the same as I would a non-warranty job even though in most cases it paid a lot less in hours for me, and I gave that customer the same quality work as a non-warranty job.

The people you really have to watch for in dealerships, for the most part, are the Service Writers, who rarely know shit about cars, and Service Managers, who also rarely know shit about cars, reason I say this is because I actually had more than a few experiences of my own where I would tell the SW's or SM what type or repair the car needed at that time and I caught them on the phone with that customer telling them that "my mechanic said that you need this, and this, and this, and this, etc... when I actually told the SW or SM that it only needed just this. Umm yea, with one I actually yanked the phone out of his hand and told the customer the truth and when done with the customer I turned to the SW and told him that if I ever caught or even heard of him lying like that to a customer again I would kick the ever loving shit out of him. Yes I also told one SM, after an argument over me leaving an hour early because the shop was dead, that I would mop the shop floor with his face if he didn't shut his mouth, needless to say he had never had a mechanic stand up to him like that and yes he got real quiet real fast. LOL

Anyway, good video, good information and I know this comment was a bit long winded but I wanted to let you and others know that there are good and bad dealerships and good and bad mechanics. As always it is a good thing to contact a car manufacturer rep before you take you car in for service or when you cannot get anything resolved with the service dept of a given dealership.

[TonyBuysCars]

I'm a service advisor at a dealership. The factory warranty I work with is fairly inclusive for everything that isn't outside influence (IE a rock going through a radiator). The manufacturer sets the terms for warranty coverage and pays for the work, not the dealership itself. Everyone seems to think it's the dealer paying for the work when that's not the case at all. Every dealer should have a competent warranty administrator to handle claims, not burden the service staff itself.

[thomasmagda]

Probably charging AND submitting to warranty. Double dipping.

[treeguyable]

Worked as a dealer tech for 7 yrs, couldn't stand when they just constantly tried to gouge people, when there was so much real work, that could have been done reasonable. I eeked out a living, but it was not great money.

[ItsBabaEro]

I work as a cashier for a Ford service department and I see crazy fees for dumb things like $155 for inspecting a bad light.

[SystemHacker]

Keep sharing the wisdom! Love what your channel and program is about. I would really recommend making a podcast and sharing more experiences and possibly interviewing more interesting people.

[Lowkey_ID]

Waranty work is paid by the manufacturer at a lower hourly rate than what a dealership is used to charging, they also have a set time to do it, it it takes them longer they only get paid for the specified hours assigned to that fix. This is the reason they hate doing warranty. Sometimes we get warranty parts back from the dealer for root cause analysis and they'll throw in parts from other vehicles into the ticket trying to get paid for them by the supplier. Dealers are shady for sure.

[SendItMediaCo]

I thoroughly enjoyed this video, I had a similar experience happen with me at Lexus where my service advisor didn’t want to replace a headlight because the car had been in a previous accident. Did some research found a TSB for the exact issue for condensation in the headlight. Brought it to the service manager and he gladly fixed it!

[SpecRB]

Dealerships should be owned by the Company, privately owned = over priced cars over MSRP, BS Service, shady tactics

[marlafar]

"Cheap Chicago scare tactics..." - as a Chicagoan, I can relate to this.