Dealer Service Rant

HadEnough wrote:
I can relate to these problems. Anytime I take anything in to be fixed by someone else they break something else. Or they do a half assed job. It’s just not worth it to take it in anymore. Nobody can take any pride in their work.

I had taken my truck in to get a misdiagnosed leaky rear seal fixed. My transmission never worked right for a year after that. It was like the synchros didn't work. The whole time I had been thinking of random problems it could have been, because the mechanic actually mentioned that I have very expensive transmission fluid and they were going to buy a bottle of that to top it off. And I give them my blessing. As it turns out, they charged me for the expensive transmission fluid but put something else in. Some unknown substance. Because I finally drained out that transmission after not finding any other problems, replaced with the proper synchromesh fluid, and low and behold About 300 miles later, my transmission is fixed. My fluid is a clear substance. A murky brown substance like motor oil is what came out when I drained it. They filled it with some random fluid.

With my Dodge ram 2500, I had been taking it in to get things done in the interest of saving time. As it turns out, every single time I had to fix something they broke or didn’t correctly do. So it save me no time at all. It’s just wasted my money. And the mark up on the parts is unbelievable. 300% of retail and you know they are buying at a huge discount from retail.

It’s the same with everything right now. The less and less people know how to fix their own things, the more these people can charge. And the less pressure there is for them to do a good job.

I, for one am finished with all mechanics. No one is fixing my truck except me. That’s why you will have found me in the corner of an AutoZone parking lot last weekend doing my front brakes. And guess what? No squeaking, no pulling, smooth perfect braking I know I can trust.