I'm so damn tired of taking my car in for warranty work. Why is it every f***ing time I take my car in to have it serviced, those worthless f**ks ding or scratch my car? Why? Not every other time, but every single time. I shouldn't dread taking my car in for warranty repairs, but I do. The system is lousy, and I'm just so angry right now I have zero respect for the service departments at dealerships. Does anyone fess up to their mistakes anymore? Or is it all about screwing someone over? Some info:

First incident:
1. Patching a flat tire
- Tire gets patched, dealership dings my door in the process
2. Install a spoiler
- Scratch the trunk
3. Rotate tires
- Scratched all my rims up

And the most recent episode:

Body shop is repairing my car because some dickhead hit it in the parking lot and fled. The body shop floods my car. The car is towed away to the nearest dealership. The dealership and body shop point fingers at each other, but in the end the body shop paid to have the car unflooded because they attempted to unflood it themselves. Whatever, I don't care, as long as I didn't pay. But, they broke the housing around my battery. So I complain, and they offer to replace it under warranty. The only reason I even cared about the housing is resale value. I don't want whoever buys my car off of me to think I don't take care of it. But they scratched the driver side front fender. I can see handprints where they tried to wipe the scratch away. What kind of trash do they hire at these places??????

Am I missing something here? It seems if I was working on someone else's property, especially if it were valuable, I'd see to it that I didn't further damage the damn thing. How hard is it to throw some clothes over the fender if there's a possibility of scratching them up? The rims I can understand. They scratched the area right around the lugnuts, nice circular scratches. I don't know how to work around that. But to ding my door, scratch the trunk and scratch the fender? That's just f***ing pathetic.

So, you keep taking it back to the same dealership because... or is that the only one around??

No, after the first door ding, I took it to a different dealership. Same results.

I just needed to vent. I'm still so angry.

Limecat does not look pleased.

Sorry to hear that. I am nervous when I bring my car in too. I dread taking it back to switch my tires back......not sure but I think my scrape came from the winter tires being installed but it was so cold(4 below) I did not check thoroughly enough. I will next time. Heard they made good on another scrape on an RX8 so I hope they continue to fess up. Most deny. I am amzed if they don't scratch when doing the tires stuff......it such a difficult process(I watched). Keep cool but I hear ya...I'd be upset, too.

Oh he's definitely not pleased. But I'm not limecat, so it's not relevant. I am just a disciple.

I -HATE- dealerships. Slimey bastards.

Limecat looks pissed. I know I'd be equaly as pissed if a dealership did anything to my 8. If you can believe it, I took my 8 to a dealership on Thursday to get an oil change, after calling on Wednesday morning, when they said "Oh yea, just an oil change? No problem. Just be sure to get here before 8:00, and we'll get you in and out in no time". I had actualy planned this, to get it in there right at 3k miles, (this dealership is 45 miles from home). When I pulled up at the service door, the odo turned to 3002. Perfect!:) (Time was 7:50), I run in, talk to the service manager who says, "There's no way we can do an oil change, can you come back next week?"
I know one dealership I'm not going back to... this one is a different one than the one I usually use. So, after driving back home, (3083 miles), I ended up having to do it myself. I was really counting on having a dealership do it, as I would like to be able to use that as a resale selling point.
Maybe I'm just being too anal about this... :) Of course, I'm going to have an oil analysis done, just like this thread (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15112&highlight=oil+analysis)
All hail Limecat!!!!

I feel sorry for you man. I'm worried everytime I bring my car in for service. Luckily, my dealer is rather small and there are only a couple mechanics (really know how to take care of a worried customer like me) that are allowed to work on RX-8s.


Originally posted by Winning_BlueRX8
3. Rotate tires
- Scratched all my rims up


I haven't driven anything as exotic as the RX-8 before (Yes, I consider the RX-8 exotic so laugh if you want :D ) and I would really like to make the rims last. However, my prior experiences with tire changes are that damage to the rim is inivetible and end up with gouges around the rim and such. :mad: Does anyone here (Know-It-Alls...*cough*GORDON*cough* ;) ) know if there are machines out there that don't scratch up the rims or is it because of the person using it?

I think it's both, but a good tire repair place knows to be careful. I had aluminum rims on one 8 and they gouged one. When they mounted my OE tires on new chrome rims for the new one, I explained what happened the first time, and I wasn't about to accept a scuffed $800 rim. No scuffs this time. However, it looked like the single CD player was pried out with a screwdiriver when they installed the changer, and replacing the surround involved a complete new dashboard. The box it came in was the size of a casket. Well, things weren't quite put back together correctly. I know they'll take care of it, but it's inconvenient. A "fix" of the emergency brake piece under the handle which was sticking involved snipping off the plastic and leaving a snipped off part sticking out through the hole. The poor service advisor looked so disgusted when I showed him. It wasn't his fault, but he's left to take the heat. No sheet metal damage, however. That would really take the cake.

LOL

Here is what happened when I bought a Mazda 626ES form Casey Imports in Newport News. Now this is the first experience I had with this dealership. The crap never ended as I put up with shit like this for almost nine years until their ineptitude resulted in me forcing VW to repurchase my 2002 Passat W8 because it was in the shop 14 times with 32 job orders and out of service 60 days in the 13 months I owned it. most of those jobs were due to me having to take it in numerous times for the same problem and the dealerships failure to fix it right the first time....

But this was by far the funniest because it cost the dealership over a thousand dollars to fix it, read on....

In my post above I had problems from the get go three days after I bought a '95 Mazda 626ES from Casey Imports. I had as a condition of purchase, an in-dash CD player installed. Now here is how this farce plays out......

I bring the car in to have them install the player.

Five hours later...

Player is installed, but hey wait a minute! It looked like the "tech" used a dull screwdriver to "pry" out the pocket under the HU inorder to install the CD player. I mean this thing had gnarly gouges and chunks ripped out around the entire periphery of the CD player. This thing is screwed in from behind the trim panel. Now on the '95 626 this trim panel is essentialy the whole dash, it runs from the door, over the steering wheel then runs down to the center tunnel. All switches, stereo, vents and HVAC switches are mounted to this one trim piece. $900 dollars to replace + labor!

I get the service writer and drag him outside to look at it. Dave tells me to have a seat in the waiting area. I then see Dave and then what looks to be an 18 year old punk of a tech, baggy pants, pimply face and hat on backwards are going out to the car to take a look. Dave is chewing this guy out royaly. They then retun to the garage.

Five minutes later.......

The general manager and Dave with the tech in tow go out to look at the car. The manager is chewing out both Dave and the tech. Now this is getting interesting! They said they will handle it and will replace the trim and to bring the car back tomorrow as they will have one overnighted.

No wait this isn't over yet.

Day two...

I bring in the car and they change the trim piece. I check out the car and WTF the trim is floating about 1/4inch off the face of the dash. Again I show Dave.

Two hours later...

They reinstall the trim and now the radio works and the CD player does not...

Another 30 minutes later...

They check and find out the CD player was not hooked up. They hook up the player and now the HU is now displaying "SAFE"

Another 30 minutes later the job is now complete, everything is now working properly,

End of this charade!

Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!

I just dropped my car off at the dealership today..

Thanks for making me paranoid now.

All hail guy321's rx8!

Originally posted by guy321
I just dropped my car off at the dealership today..

Thanks for making me paranoid now.

All hail guy321's rx8!

Misery loves company. I got $5 that says they will scratch or ding your car somewhere. You may not see it right away, but you'll catch it as you get out of your car in your driveway. By then, it's too late.

*sigh* and it's my turn for the recall work day after tomorrow morning. I know my ass is watching the process through.

Yup i just got my letters today. Two recall notices in one envelope. I'm going to have a little talk with the service manager (she's really hot, too) and explain to them my past misfortune. I want to know what the hell they're going to do to keep it from happening again, even if it means I sit there and watch for 2 hours.

i took my miata in for a simple oil change...then i get a call about 3 hours later, saying that it was backed into by a Grand Cherokee. and it was done by one of the service techs. so the miata was gone for a week...and every time i bring in the 8 for service, it is babied now...and every car gets washed too. hopefully they do the same for you Winning Blue!

good luck

santino

Originally posted by moRotorMotor
Does anyone here (Know-It-Alls...*cough*GORDON*cough* ;) ) know if there are machines out there that don't scratch up the rims or is it because of the person using it?

There are machines that use a steel band that hooks around the rim surface where the machine WOULD touch to protect the rims. I know they have them for most rim sizes but I am not sure about the 18"+ ones.

Stuff like this happens at dealerships. At my local dealership they prefer customers to drive it out of the service bay so they're not liable if someone gets hit in the parking lot. i think you just have bad luck.

What really ticks me off is that some dealers refuse to let people in the garage to inspect, and say that the insurance don't cover customers injured in the service area, blah, blah, blah.


Thanks for the reply Katchoo.

You could do what I did - drop the car off with an inch of dust over everything. You will very easily spot any mishandling. :D
They have been doing road construction in front of my office for about 3 months now. I didn't wash the car last weekend, and it has collected a massive layer of gravel-dust.

Hmmmm kimosabe. Me no like idea. Gravel dust is very small gravel on the paint. Me no like idea.

Axle grease? :)