People wonder why customers mostly don't want to deal with dealerships. You can get crappy work anywhere for sure. But to give your keys to a dealer to give to as low as they can possible pay technician who in most situations doesn't care? Why risk it?

Pay your techs a little more so they care a little more and that desired service revenue (that has huge margin) would probably be easier to get.

OP is lucky to have spotted it right away otherwise it would have been even harder to get it fixed. And I am on board...new rims. They were perfect coming in and all 4 matched. It needs returned in same condition with warranty.

 

It is also a reflection of the service manager. The service manager needs to be telling the techs, that this is not a discount tire shop and they need to take extra care not to damage wheels or scratch vehicles. It is a premium brand. And take out the torque wrench and torque the wheels correctly. If techs are rewarded for being careful then the quality level of service increases.

 

Better yet, sneak into the dealership one night and jack one of their BBS wheels and trade it with yours. Those wheel locks are all the same. If they make a fuss it'll prove you were right.

 

A friend had a BBS wheel replaced, he had some bad dings and dents from road debris or something, had a mobile guy come out who, IMO did a pretty amazing job, it was a guy all the Lexus dealerships use. He is more OCD than me and just decided to replace it in the end. Luckily, the service guy knew how delicate these rims were and had a senior tech do the swap and actually put cloth around the impact driver to prevent any scuffs and it came out perfect.

I think a good rule of thumb is to always warn the service advisor about your BBS wheels and how easily they scratch, at least then you may have some preventative action.

I hope Htx keeps us updated on the situation, I'm very interested to hear the progress and outcome.

 

You guys keep mentioning impact wrenches Nobody uses an impact wrench on my LC. You do it by hand or you don't touch my wheels

Lou

 

Its a systemic and economic problem in my opinion. Most techs do or did take a lot of pride in their work and they for the most part work on cars because they like cars and have some level of passion for them. Unfortunately they are treated like dog ****** in recent years and have zero drive to do right by the customer or dealership anymore. I can't blame them, if they look out for the customer at the sacrifice to cost or dealership time they will be penalized. Unfortunately as everyone continues to get squeezed we end up with situations where special care and attention to detail are given a back seat.

I'm a huge advocate of learning how to work on your car if at all possible and teaching people that want to learn if you have the skills already. Above all else advocate for right to repair any chance you can so we don't lose the option to work on our own cars in the future.

 

Dealer damages my wheel every season. I don’t have a set of dedicated winters. After the first season, I decided a few years down the road I’ll have them powder coated. These dealers suck and can’t basically change a tire without ****ing my rims up. Good luck getting replacements.

 

I feel for the OP. This kind of crap is expected with a Hyundai dealer when servicing your $90,000 Genesis, not a Lexus dealer. I know the service manager as he’s our neighbor down the street at our local BMW dealer and we’ve gotten nothing but excellent service from them throughout the years. When I get my IS500, I’ll be very tempted just to do my own oil changes. Just need to keep receipts and make a video 😂

 

Went up the chain at the dealer and also with Lexus. At the end of the day, Lexus is offering $1k toward the purchase of two new front wheels (1,500 each), or dealer is offering to repaint the wheels. The dealer came up with every excuse in the book to avoid replacement. The thing that worked against me was that I did not notice it right away (although have picture proof of the damage the day of taking it to the dealer). I also did not purchase the car from that dealer, and they brought that up as some type of strike against me, even though I contacted them first but the is500 waitlist was very long. I get that dealers need to make money, but explaining to the GM that they'll lose all of my business over a $2k set of front wheels was like arguing with a wall. Especially when you consider the is500 requires 5k service intervals.

Lesson learned is to look over every inch of your car before / after a service. I did not expect to be in this situation, as Lexus is known for their dealer experience. I guess I need to go in acting like it's a Nissan or Kia dealer from now on.

 

Sorry to hear this but I'm not surprised at all. Don't use the dealership service ever again. Other than warranty work, there is simply no point. As I've said since day 1, they are a complete joke. The only time I drop by the dealership now is when I'm driving through the area and I'm thirsty or hungry and want to raid their snack area for a free bag of chips or soda.

 

Sorry to hear about your lacking solution. Customer service is a dying art. Lots of companies pride themselves over STATING it (pamphlets, brochures other such media) but when the rubber hits the road it seems to have been forgotten.

This thread will be viewed by quite a few people, probably less that Lexus or manufactures care as it doesnt impact the numbers, but some will be taught; dealers are not the way to go. Will it impact Lexus..not enough to notice most likely and thats what Lexus is counting on. Like Ford, GM, blah blah blah. Until the number swings the needle they simply dont care. *shrug*

 

That's one thing I liked about my BMW/Mini dealer, they would inspect every inch of your vehicle and wheels upon drop off, document any imperfections or damage and give you a copy. It came in handy when I picked up my Mini one time and discovered a dent on the hood. They had nothing to counter because it wasn't there before and not documented. They fixed it using paintless dent repair and all was good. It's a good way to protect the customer and the dealer.

 

I agree, the dealer I have been interacting with is supposedly known for their "customer service", but my experiences have left a lot to be desired. Luckily I am based in Houston, so there are other dealers available. Sterling McCall actually takes pictures upon each car's arrival and I will move my business over to them despite being much farther from my home.

 

Sorry to hear the dealership is trying to be hardball about it.

For comparison, the Volvo dealership I used to work with runs every car coming in through special photo rig - it looks like a touchless carwash. It photographs and scans every part of the car as it comes in. They said they can see dents as small as a couple millimeters on it.

 

Every part of this story sucks...

But suppose they offered to repaint all 4 wheels to match? Would that be a better option for you? Personally, I would be very careful with regards to who repaints the wheels as I had some good some bad experiences around that. I would be far happier with an allowance for the work and then do the shopping myself.