Rip-off?

[Brock94]

I agree with that... as we do not charge a diagnostic fee if we can't/don't find a problem. About not charging diagnosis, that would create a problem of do-it-yourselfers coming in for a free diagnosis and then not doing the repair.

As for DIYers, I would think any dealer would catch on pretty quickly if someone kept coming back and never got the repairs done there. I just think it's more of a customer relations issue. If dealers didn't add a $90 door charge, they'd probably get more customers-- at least they'd make existing customers more comfortable.

If someone were to come to our place requesting us to replace head gaskets, we would also recommend diagnosing the vehicle ourselves, or leave the customer on the hook for the price of the repair even if it did not fix the original problem.
But, you get what you pay for.

Fair enough, but they would not give me that option. I might actually go to the dealer more often if I did have that option.

I want to say I absolutely agree that it is "fair" for a dealer or any other mechanic to charge for a reasonable amount of time diagnosing a problem. I just think the business "policy" in this area is one of the several things that make people apprehensive about going to a dealer for service and it would be better business practice to give people the option of walking away-- like when you get a "free estimate" from a contractor to do a construction job on your house.

 

[Eneurb]

It's well within your rights as a customer to request the headgasket repair to be done. The amount of equipment that we have compared to most other garages is night and day... The machine that we use to diagnose driveability concerns cost over 70K... our vibration analyzer cost 15K... even our wheel balancer was 20K... those machines are mainly used for diagnosis, and the money to purchase them has to come from somewhere...

 

[Glacier991]

Having briefly, in another life, worked for a FORD dealersip, I will repeat what I have said before....they have some of the best trained guys in the business... I will offer that for whatever reason, transmission stuff was not their strongest suit....(but pulease not Aamco instead)!

The FORD mechanics online here who give their time and expertise (that specifcally includes you Eneurb, as well as others) are a huge resource! I salute you guys.

 

[aldive]

The problems I see with dealerships is not the mechanics ( as said above, they know their stuff ), it is usually the management and their policies.

 

[Explo01]

...If there are multiple concerns on the work order and some are covered while others are not you will still be responsible for check out on the non-covered items, and seperatley be responsible for any deductible on the covered items.

the only thing covered in that deductible was a quick tightening of the tension pulley... That's my fault. I got suckered. So it turned out that the clicking noise as I mentioned earlier was a loose spark plug. They wanted to charge me $100+!!! I declined. and of course I went in there myself and did it. That saves me a hundred!

 

[TSTONE]

the only thing covered in that deductible was a quick tightening of the tension pulley... That's my fault. I got suckered.

If you took the vehicle in complaining about that issue (noise or whatever) and tightening the pulley took care of it - how did you got suckered?

You asked for help & you knew you would have to pay for that help.
If the help they gave you corrected the problem then you got what you asked and paid for.

In case anyone here isn't aware - most, if not all dealership tech's work on a job rate basis (commision) and receive no hourly pay.

 

[bcjim]

I dont see how they can charge a deductible if the warranty did not pay for anything??? That makes no sense. As for the $83, typical, for better or worse.

 

[Explo01]

the pulley was just another totally separate thing that they could find to make the deductible valid. what was making the noise was a loose spark plug (#1) and after finding that out, I declined to any work and just did it myself.

the fact of the matter is that with a certain insurance plan comes a certain deductible (whether it be $50, $100, or $200) and they'll cover as many things that are going wrong at no extra cost, as long as it's covered under the warranty.

as far as the $83 for the diagnosis, that's just a way of making money for their time, but I honestly think it's overpriced in my case: 1 loose spark plug, 5 days at the dealership