Interesting story and I would be pretty pissed off myself:

http://ctwatchdog.com/2011/10/09/hof...out-permission

 

So the dealership made a small miscommunication error (which is really just nitpicking) and made by for it by giving her free perks worth several thousand dollars? Sounds like a dealership that I would do business with in a heartbeat.

 

I'd be pretty upset too, but I have to agree with Och on this one. In reading the article it seems the dealership stood up and basically said we didn't handle this correctly, it will not happen again to anyone, and we are sorry & would like you to have gestures of good will.

 

I gotta say this is common practice for a service writer to take the customers car home over night albeit they tell them at our Automall (5 dealers). Techs only do road tests

 

I would let the dealer "joyride" my car for all those perks lol

 

Hold on, it took the technician over 150 miles to diagnose an A/C problem? I think the dealer got caught and has no choice but to own up.

BTW, that $200 worth of detailing is probably a crappy wax job, and the warranty is probably dealer's own, not the Lexus Platinum. The $300 in gift certificate is really only worth at most $100 of dealer's cost, since it'll have to be spent at the dealership. You know how high those dealer mark up is.

Sounds like typical "stealership."

 

Sounds like typical crooked mechanics. When I took my car to a mechanic to get my power steering pump replaced, it had a full tank of gas. When I got it back it had a lot less fuel in it. When my buddy took his Firebird to a different mechanic to have a new engine put in, he had a full tank of fuel(previous engine had blown up just after leaving a gas station). When he got the car back, not only was his bill $200 more than the quote, his tank was empty.

 

I have no idea how some members here can actually support this dealership. I agree that the dealership tried to compensate for their mistake, but +150 miles?! That is just ridiculous; 150 miles is a lot. There is no way any kind of road test should take that many miles. It was obvious that the tech took her car for personal use.

Its like if i spit in your food and then gave you gum to compensate. Would you really come back to my restaurant?

 

THe issue was communication. I thought there is a 50 mile limit before you have to be notified? Sometimes the issue doesn't pop up right away and it is possible they drove it home to see if they could replicate the issue. 150 miles sounds like a lot but in Atlanta, that might be a days worth or driving, a couple of days. If you live 30 miles away that is 60 miles in a day for example.

The dealer clearly stepped up and accepted responsibility and tried to make amends. Some other luxury brands and even some other Lexus dealerships would laugh at her.

 

At least they owned up to it and tried to apologize, but 150 miles? what the hell?

 

It's believable. One of my service advisors lives about 70 miles one way from the dealer. Most of the time if a vehicle needs to be taken home overnight he'll let one of the other advisors take it instead, but otherwise those that request he do it personally understand that their vehicle will have 200 miles on it by the time the repair is finished.

 

The issue is what is considered a test drive? I don't mine at all a technician taking my car out on test drives while diagnosing my car for work. What I don't agree with is anyone taking my car home for the night to their personal house. Diagnose my car during business hours at and around the dealership. Heck, I might not even mind them taking my car to pick up lunch for the rest of the techs during lunch hour. However, my car is not to be taken to your personal house without my permission.

Put it this way. If my car were to be stolen while at the dealership who is responsible? If a tech took my car home for the night and it was stolen from his driveway who is responsible then? Somehow I get the feeling the dealership would try to claim the tech took the car home without their permission and fire him and leave him to deal with problem. I don't care if you drive the car, I just worry how far the dealerships liability goes when it comes to customers cars taken home to private homes overnight.

 

Well although the dealership did do right and admit fault, and offered more than what other dealers likely would have done... why was the car taken out for that many miles period?. Since when are technicians allowed to drive your car home overnight? I can't think of an issue that would take 150 miles to diagnose. The last thing i want is my car being taken home by a technician. Drive it around during business hours to diagnose the issue. Like CLK6Speed said, i bet if my car was stolen off a tech's driveway, or a tech crashed the car after hours, there's gonna be a massive finger pointing game while i'm waiting for it to play out without a car.

 

I disagree with doing business with a dealership like this! To each is own though.