In that case I would strongly suspect the guy was playing games with the BBB records.
Believe it or not there really are some reputable dealers around. If you decide to try one I recommend checking out DealerRater.com first.
I had a frustrating incident with a Nissan dealer who ripped me off when I had a warranteed transmission seal fail while on vacation in Maine. To add insult to injury they assembled the transmission incorrectly which resulted in a damaged axle a couple of days later. I called and emailed the whole situtation to the service manager several times with nothing but a tough-luck kind of response.
My local Connecticut dealer was great and the service manager did everything he could to try to get a hold of the SM in Maine to get the situation resolved. He called me regularly with updates of his endeavors, I tried using Nissan’s main customer service (which was a joke), and finally we decided that my writing a letter to a key Nissan official (whose name I got on this website) would be the best thing.
I was taking a break from writing a scathing letter when I stumbled upon DealerRater.com so I copied my story onto their website as a service complaint. The NEXT DAY the SM from Maine called me back claiming that he came across my complaint and that “it brought to light some details of which [he] wasn’t aware” (yeah, right! Someone higher up reamed him out). Anyhow, within a week I got a check for the cost of my rental, my transmission and the replaced axle.
It seems someone in the auto industry takes the website complaints on Dealerrater pretty seriously so I would think it would be a good source for finding out more.
As noted in a different post, dealerships have both good and bad mechanics, and both good and questionable dealers have both good and bad mechanics. It’s unfortunate, but that’s life. If you shop around, and there are a few around you, you can almost always find someone reliable, and honest. The trick is to find them.
On average, my feeling is that, the local mechanic wants your business (and referrals!). The only way to do that is to provide a good service from the start, and listen to the customer. Having said that, don’t forget that there are customers that will never be happy, no matter what you do to appease them.
Just a side thought: One of the things dealers may do is search for recalls and campaigns - which is less likely to happen with a local mechanic. A dealer will be able to handle those, where a local mechanic will not (at least not for free!)
I look at the BBB the same way as CarFax…
If a bad report shows up…then good chance there’s a problem…But lack of a bad report doesn’t mean it’s good.
Stan:
“Dealer” and “goodwill” are two words that should never coexist in the same sentence… just like “brilliant” and “supermodel” shouldn’t exist in the same sentence. It only raises one’s expectations to believe that such things exist, and that should be the goal one strives for.