Picked up my 06' IS250 after being in the shop for more than a week (took in for first service and was informed that one of the coolant hoses failed). I asked the tech to have the driver sport pedal installed (would pay for labor) - part was part of Lexus sport pedal package. I also asked the tech to disable the DRL. They said no problem.

When I picked up the car, the pedal was not installed, the DRL's were still on and I noticed that my key fob had oil inside of it (the latter was noticed after I left the dealership). I asked the tech why it was not done and was told:

Pedal - to install the pedal would render the car unsafe due to the clearance between the pedal and the side wall housing. I inquired further explaining that the sport pedal is OEM and that the identical car with that installed is not any different from mine. He still said he could not do it.

DRL - said that my car did not have this feature avail. We went out to the car and he attached the scanner and showed me the settings. I then showed him the info that I found on the site (full listing menu on how to turn off the DRL) and he still said that he could not do it. Damn tech kept pulling up the "Customizable" features option on his hand held scanner.

I called back the SA and explained to her that my key fob was dipped in oil. It is no real difference to me; however it wasn't like that when I gave it to them and I do not want it to fail later down the road and I have to pay for it. I am going to take it back in later today about my key fob and ask to speak to the shop foreman.

Kinda feels like I took my car into a Ford or chevy dealership...

 

but not the AWD. The AWD had a campaign to carve clearance for the early production IS250 AWD.s gas pedals so the tech is probably reacting to that. It is relatively new that DRL's can be disabled and the information is not in the tech manual. It requires an open mind and this tech was either not able to find it on his scan tool or he had an older software version. The oily key fob is just another example of a quality issue with this tech. Call the Service Manager, Customer Satisfaction manager or try another dealership service dept. Sorry that this happened to you.

Rock

 

What good is this post to others when you don't name the dealership in question?

In my opinion, dealers that go out of their way to take good care of their clients, hire experienced techs, and provides exceptional service should be publically lauded. And for those that don't, a factual account of what went wrong, followed by what they did to make it right would be incredibly useful to reader trying to decide where to purchase and service their cars.

Lexus spends lots of money surveying and calling owners to collect this kind of data, but unfortunately they don't share the results.

 

Isn't the sales and service departments two different entities?

I'm not exactly sure what happened to you at the dealership and I understand your frustration; I always think about how I would react if it were my car in my situation or if a customer asked me to do something in my current job under similar a situation.

Under the current circumstances, I'm not sure how relevant your experiences are. Honestly it sounds like you asked them to do something they really weren't comfortable with doing or were unwilling to do. I don't see how that has any bearing whatsoever on their expertise or knowledge to accomplish their assigned and approved everyday work for the average customer.

 

Let it be publicly known the dealership name and who you dealt with. Lexus corp needs this information and they're very careful about how dealerships treat their customers.

I had brought my car in four times for what I thought was an alignment issue (it later ended up being the tires). I had a bad experience the first two visits. The first time, they didn't even do any service to my car and kept it for 5 hours. The second visit, it took them another 4 hours and they came to the conclusion that I needed new bushings. Oh...my car was full of swirl marks even though I told them NOT to wash my car.

That's when I contacted the dealership's customer service manager and the service manager about how disappointed I was. They quickly made sure I was taken care from that point on. They did everything from send me chocolates to buff the swirl markes out to send their top diagnostics guy and service manager to my office and test drive the car with me. Even the general manager of Kuni called me to make sure things were going in the right direction.

The latest: they ordered me a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires (which aren't cheap) and will put them on later this week.

I guess my point is: be polite, but be vocal and let people with influence at the dealership know how you're treated. They're not a Kia dealership so they actually care about customer service. Sometimes you do get jerks servicing you, but the big wigs at Lexus dealerships will make sure that you're happy at the end of the day. So let it be known.

 

as far as i know, in order for them to disable the DRL they would have to select the GS430 i belive as the vehicle to get to the disable menu on the scanner tool. correct me if im wrong.

 

Of course they are, which is why I value learning about customer sales experiences too. Some examples from recent threads: I'd be happy to patronize the salesman/dealer who put his customer in a loaner RX330 until his ordered car came in, since the guy was without transportation. I'd likely avoid the salesman/dealer who took a special order (and probably a deposit) back in January, but failed to actually order the car.

I think his experiences are very relavant. I get annoyed by techs that spill (and then don't clean up) oil where you can't see it, I can only imagine how I'd feel if the key was dripping with oil.

I feel a bit less strongly about the other two items, except to say that if I were into modding my car, I'd like to know which dealers were "mod friendly". Along those lines, I have to compliment the service department at Ray Catena Oakhurst, who just installed the LMS cold air intake on an IS350 for a colleague of mine.

 

The service advisor at Superstition Springs Lexus didn't know anything about the radar cruise control and whether or not my car had it, didn't know anything about how the bluetooth works with my razr phone and was generally incompetent. It took a month for them to get me in for my window tint that was promised at the point of sale.

And the biggest f-up is when I went in for my 5k service they rotated my tires back to front. I didn't notice it for about a week and when I switched them back there were pieces of rubber on my control arm where the tire had been rubbing. FYI, 255s won't fit on the front I guess.

 

It was at Lindsay Lexus of Alexandria, VA. I purchased my IS300, IS250 and my fiance purchased her RX330. For sales, they made each transaction painless.

As for service, they have been quite accomodating. Each time I brought my car in for service they took care of me.

I understand that you can't always get a Frozen Blizzard with hardening shell chocloate from DQ perfect all of the time, but it is damn good to try...

 

My salesman told me to clean the NAV screen with Windex

Luckily before I did that I read the manual which says not to use any cleaning products or ammonia. Use eyeglass cleaner cloths or anything that you would use on your computer screen. I called to let him know about that!

 

The key fob should be placed in a plastic bag (could be small) because it used RFID and their isn't any reason for it to be out.

 

I took the key in today and took a look at it. The apolgized and took the key fob apart and cleaned out the oil (like WD-40). It was in the vinyl cover, but the keys are exposed; hence letting oil in...

 

Damnit..they probably use ammonia based stuff to clean windows when it's serviced too which is bad for tint.

 

goes without saying, these new remotes are NOT waterproof.. but just wondering how water resistant are they? You think owners should start shrink-wrapping these keys?

 

Mine never comes out of my pocket, so it stays drier than I do on rainy days. Unless you plan on dropping it into the toilet (in which case I'd want a new one anyway ), going swimming with it, etc., it should be fine. A few drops on the case, as would happen if you were to take it out and press a few buttons in the rain, is unlikely to cause problems.