Is it common for persons in the service department of a car dealership to make commission? Are they making commission on service, or are the salesmen sharing their loot?
the guy you talk to when you go in the door is a “service writer” their job is to interview you, and discuss why you are there with the auto.
they interact with you to try to get your car fixed.
they DO get paid salary + commission.
when the mechanics are slow, and have time left on the daily schedule they will try to up sell unneeded, sometimes ridiculous repairs, services. their loyalty is NOT to the customer, it is to the dealership, and their own pocket.
although others on this website may disagree, the service writers are the problem with dealership repair departments. the mechanics are usually well trained, and have a multitude of experience.
different mechanics have different aptitudes. so do the service writers at dealerships. to be fair, i guess there ARE good ones out there… i just have not found more than one or two in my 30 years driving/ auto repair experience.
The dealerships where I have worked as a service writer/adviser there was great pressure to “up sell” as much as you could. Part of the reason was we were paid on commission. I hated this part of my job. I felt that it wasn’t building good customer relationships when you were trying to take the customer for everything you could.
Almost every service writer I worked with had little or no knowledge of automotive repairs. Most were former car salesman, they couldn’t make it as a salesman so they tried the service department.
Agree this is not only a money problem, but the service writer, who is usually quite stupid about car problems, will not be able to translate your complaint correctly to the mechanic; as a result much unneeded diagnosis and actual work is performed.
This reached its zenith for me in Malaysia where I was given a company car (Toyota) which needed servce and some checks (struts, radiator with suspected small leak, etc.). When I got the car back, ALL the items I mentioned to check had been REPLACED! The total bill was around $3000. For instance, “pressure test the radiator” was taken as replace it, together with hoses, clamps, etc. The leak was actually a gasket at the water pump.
The advantage of patronizing your own mechanic is the ability to explain the problem directly to him, something the service wrtier will never let you do!
Half-wits. That seems to be what I am dealing with. To illustrate…
I took the car (a 2003 Outlander) to the dealer when it was under warranty to have an issue addressed relating to the blender (hot/cold dial, not milkshake machine) addressed. The dial was hard to turn, and felt spongy. At that time, they lubed the linkage and retimed the blend door.
Now the car is out of warranty and the same issue has come up again, except this time I find a TSB online that supercedes a bulletin issued 9 months PRIOR to my first visit to the dealer. After reading this bulletin I learn that when I took it in the first time they were suppose to replace the heater air blend link and level. They didn’t do that, they just lubricated it.
The service department manager/advisor tells me that they are suppose to make the least expensive repair possible if the vehicle is under warranty. I think this is his way of weaseling out of not completing the repair per the TSB when the vehicle was under warranty.
The long and short? It cost me $105 to get this issue fixed today. The result? I will not take my car back to the dealer under any circumstance whatsoever.
i think you were mislead.
the “least expensive” part is for regular warranty work.
a TSB is a different thing altogether. a TSB is NEVERENDING, warranty or not. go back there, and show them the TSB, and demand your $$ back
A TSB isn’t the same as a recall. You have to pay for the repair unless the part is still under warranty. However, since your car WAS under warranty when you first brought it in for the problem and they failed to perform the repair recommended by the manufacturer, you may be able to get Mitsubishi to pay for at least part of the $105. Gather your records, and contact Mitsubishi as outlined in your owner’s manual.
Since your car is out of warranty, there is no need to bring it back to a dealer (especially not THIS dealer) for anything except recalls.
Nope. If the part in question is out of warranty, you pay for the repair outlined in a TSB, unlike a recall.
it was repaired while under warranty to NON TSB standards, then it went in after warranty expired for the exact problem which was spelled out in a TSB (but NOT done properly). time to contact the regional manager, and raise #$%^&. thats what i woudl do, AND i would NEVER go there again.
Yep, that’s what I said in my prior reply. It’s the fact that the in-warranty repair wasn’t done correctly that gives the OP a shot at reimbursement.
since we both submitted within 8 seconds of each other, i didn’t see your response 'till after i posted.
do any of youse guys have problems with the “submit” button. it seems like sometimes you hit submit and… whoosh… it’s gone?!
A TBS is only a Technical Service Bulletin. It’s a conveyance for any type of communication to the service department, whether that be directions to perform a specific repair or even directions to order some unusual part. I have a TSB at home that simply provides a description of the protocol for replacing a VIN tag.
TSB does not automatically indicate that the cost will be covered, and they’re not related to safety defects except as a repair procedure. 99% of them are not. It is very different from a recall.
If I understand the OP correctly, the TSB instructed the dealerships that if the problem occurred they were supposed to replace the parts. If that’s true, then I think he has a case to take up with the regional rep.
Mountainbike–I agree with you, as I usually do. However, in this case, we are talking about a problem with a Mitsubishi–made by the company that has been in such dire financial straits over the past 5 or 6 years that they:
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Began disallowing warranty repairs that were justified, in order to save money. In Japan, where being honorable is one of the most important moral issues, the company essentially screwed themselves out of hundreds of thousands of future customers when their chicanery was revealed. The company was censured and fined by the Japanese government for their failure to honor warranties, but the public there is royally turned off on this brand.
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Began selling their cars to ANYONE in the US, no matter how poor their credit was. The result was that Mitsubishi became the premier ghetto car in the US for a few years–until a huge percentage of them were repossessed for non-payment. And, of course, those poorly maintained ghetto-Mitsubishis were then put on the market to unsuspecting used car buyers who were turned off by the large number of breakdowns of these vehicles and the poor (or non-existent) honoring of the warranty.
Mitsubishi virtually wrote the book on how to turn off customers, so unless they have totally turned the corner on customer service, I am not very confident that the OP will get any satisfaction from them–and that is unfortunate.
Correct. The TSB said to replace the parts. And I do understand the difference between a recall and a TSB. If I could find a Haynes or Chilton manual for this thing I would have bought the parts, dug out my pink-handled screwdrivers and done this myself!
Vermontcycle (sounds like icicle)
That happens when you makes multiple replies on this board. After the first reply, you are brought back to the posting and you will see a “#xxxxxx” (the x’s are numbers) added to the URL in the address bar. If you submit another reply in that same thread at that point, my experience is it vanishes into thin air. If I delete the “#xxxxxx” from the end of the URL and hit ENTER, reloading the page, I can then submit a reply and it works. But that process has to be repeated each time you post a reply in the same thread. Hope that makes sense. (I know it DOESN’T make sense, but not much on this bulletin board software does…)
Excellent point. I guess the best we can do is wish the OP luck and suggest he not get optimistic.
COMMISSION!!! I am the body shop manager at a dealership and when I sublet something to the service dept. they try to ream my dept. I tell them what I want and if they try to put on excess I remove it or have them remove it (really p’s them off).
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Some cannot even comprehend basic instructions. I told a writer to open the hood to see if there is a funny noise I cannot hear. Before I knew it the car was on a lift and hooked up. Tried to charge the customer $100. Since I thought this was a bunch of crap I credited them the money from there body repair.