Took my car for oil change and my factory warranty expires
In about 3 weeks. expires due to time not miles.
Dealer says we’re going to put you in a loaner and we’re going to
Look over your car. Give us 4 days to a week they say.
5 days later I pick up my car and pay for my oil change and was then handed 5 pages of work notes like this.
Customer says oil leaking repaired blah blah blah $3000
Customer stays brakes blah blah blah $1750
Seven lines of this stuff with a total work done over $7000 all
Under warranty.
What just happened here? Did they do me a favor by fixing
Stuff known to fail?
Did they do anything at all and just bill manufacturer for work not done?
This car has had zero issues since day one.
Just wondering what just happened ?
That was a sighting of the very elusive Great Customer Service. Not found many places so when it happens we don’t know what to do. Take a second write them a great review without giving up all the details.
Doesn’t sound like great customer service, more like milking the warranty before it expires. Didn’t it seem strange they needed your car for 5 days for an oil change?
Normally customers come in right before their warranty is up to get a “final check-in” as we call it. Basically dealers write up a bunch of stuff that probably could go wrong outside of warranty and replace it if it’s worn or anywhere near failure. They make money and you get new parts. It’s a win win.
Such initiative isn’t valued by the one who is actually paying the bill.
My INFINITI service advisor told me that they get pushback from the mother ship on some INFINITI-branded extended warranty claims unless the problem description begins with, “Customer states…”.
Probably works the same way for factory warranty claims.
Also note that comp packages for the technician and service advisor can be tied to finding and fixing problems the customer didn’t report when the car was dropped off (though not sure if this is true for warranty work).
This sounds completely shady to me. I wouldn’t patronize a dealer that does this, because if they’re willing to screw the manufacturer, they’ll be willing to screw you.
Caveat emptor.
[fwiw, I took my INFINITI in right before the factory warranty expired for the same reason, and they found nothing.]
Your lease is due soon? Want to offer it up for sale to anyone here for a good price? New maintenance just performed!
Now imagine if the dealer didn’t do the work and merely claimed they did and billed the manufacturer! How would anyone find out unless closely inspecting the vehicle?
Sounds like my kind of dealer, I would definitely patronize this dealer. Good on them, dealers get screwed by the manufacture too. Be it not paying enough for warranty claims or not covering defects and pretending there’s no issue. Maybe it was a slow month, I’m surprised anyone actually cares, I call it a win! Free miles!
The real fail here is by the service writer on selling it, it should have went like this, “oh hey Mr customer, I noticed your vehicle is almost out of warranty, there’s a few things that are known to fail on these things, blinker fluid etc, since it’s still under warranty will go ahead and take care of those items and let you drive this fart car, take it on a road trip, oh and don’t forget a free donut on the way out, we might need to order some parts so it could take a few days”
How about just calling them and asking why the work was performed? They may be able to substantiate why they did it as in documenting wear or near failure of the parts. I don’t think this is automatically shady. Now if they really can’t explain why they put a new “Johnson Rod” on your car then maybe there is something suspect.
Oh they definitely did you a solid, German over engineering is expensive, and breaks right after the warranty expires. Without a doubt some of the crap they "fixed"would have broke. But regardless, something else will break, don’t blame them though
Recently had a $93k x50i whose warranty was about to expire. My SA found and repaired common and known issues (the were symptoms) without me asking. And thank goodness because I wouldn’t have known until after the warranty period expired and would’ve been left with a $7k repair bill.
