All,

Having my 10k service done and mentioned to the service tech that I would like to have my tires rotated since the book recommends at 7.5k. I get free service on my vehicle and I know tire rotation is not part of the deal. The tech apparently also knew this because he was very upfront and said they would have to charge $45 bucks for the tires. I don't have time to do it myself so I say whatever, certainly won't argue this point even though I know many on this board had tires rotated for free out of simple courtesy. Anyway the guy calls me back within a couple hours and boldly says my car is ready and that he will not charge me the tire fee if a give him a good score on his satisfaction survey? Anybody else have this happen to them. Is this "trading favors" common. I feel slighted because rotating the tires is such a minor issue and it's like the guy is trying to do me favor, when I'm probably doing him one. What would you do?

-BV

Why would you NOT take that deal?

a/ The dealership IS giving you good service...

b/ FREE service is obviously the VERY best kind.....

c/ Do you LIKE paying for things you don't have to?

Maybe I am missing some subtle point....
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doc

why not? everyone leaves happy in the end...you get free service and he gets free pat on the back and maybe a raise sometime down the line...if you don't, you pay MAZDA not him, he gets poor scores...who's happy then?

besides this, if the tech feels that by hooking ppl up he'll get better satisfaction reports, then he'll do it for more ppl...in the end everyone will be happy...you gotta do it for the kids man, the kids!

Not arguing with you. Your points are quite valid.

It just seems in the past I had to ride these guys to make sure they took care of business. I had the "rotor clicking" issue which I had to show the tech before he would fix it (I had to make two seperate trips to the dealer to finally get it done). I had to make sure the oilpan was exchaged out. I always specifiy that they use 5-20 oil and I always receive a blank look in response (different techs). After reviewing my paperwork the weight of oil is never specified anywhere on the sheet, so you are kind of left wondering if they did it correctly or not. Past service has not been stellar. Maybe they are finally noticing I'm paying attention to what they are doing and they are giving my car the proper attention it should normally get anyway. So I have some internal reasons why I somewhat hesitate at "give me a good score" and I'll hook you up deal.

My main reason for posting this thread was whether this is common practice and get information from others who have been presented with the same circumstance.

That sounds like an ethical delimma, to me..ugh. Perhaps I'm just too honest, but I wouldn't take a bribe like that.

Brothervoodoo,

I understand your concern. Is like when you were buying the car and regardless of how the sales experience was, they ask you to give them an excellent score on the performance survey.

Also, now that the tech made this offer to you, how can you say no. If you do, the quality of any future repairs/maintenance would be questionable. If you take the deal, you might be encouraging intolerable service beheavior.

Originally posted by Elara
That sounds like an ethical delimma, to me..ugh. Perhaps I'm just too honest, but I wouldn't take a bribe like that.

wow, so you would pay the $45? that's quite a bit of pocket change for me...i know that in reality, i don't even have to take this satisfaction survey even if he did give me free service...or worse, for trying to bribe me, i'd give him low marks...still i'd rather hook up for getting hooked up, that's the way life works