I need some advice.
I have a car dilemma that I’m not sure how to deal with, and I figured I would ask you, my wise readers. You always have such great advice, so I’m hoping that you can help me with this one! (FYI – For all of you who are car illiterate like I am, they call the little clicky things that unlock your car doors “remotes.” I didn’t know that, and I’m assuming that some of you call them “clickers” like I do!)
I don’t think I’ve ever had a car repair done at a dealership. We have a local repair shop that we trust and whose prices are reasonable. But we just had to take our vehicle to a dealership to get a new key and remote made. (The previous owner only had one to give us when we bought it.) When they tried to make the new remote, they disabled the one that we already had. Then they told us that there was something wrong with the vehicle itself. They recommended running a diagnostic to figure out what was wrong.
We did the diagnostic…. no error codes. So they decided that just trying a new remote would be the best bet. WHAT? Why didn’t they do that in the first place and save us the cost of the diagnostic? That was my question for them. They said they did the diagnostic at my husband’s request. Hmm…. He made the request at their recommendation. I feel like I’m running in circles here!
We threw up our hands and told them to order the remotes. They tried to program the remotes and called us back to let us know that something in the car’s computer was only working intermittently and needed to be replaced in order to make the remotes work. We could sing that song to the tune of $269. Hmm…. Shouldn’t this have shown up on the diagnostic? My husband called another dealership and asked that question. The answer was that it should have shown up if they were looking for it.
Our dilemma is this…. This is the only dealership in our area for our type of car. If we take it elsewhere, we would have to start the process over and possibly pay more for another diagnostic only to get the same answer. But this place just seems shifty! (Did I mention that this same dealer tried to get my dad to replace the tie rods on their truck so they could align the front end last week? Did I mention that my dad took it elsewhere and three front end experts told him that there was nothing wrong with the tie rods?)
We’re choosing to have the part replaced and have the remotes made so that we can just be done with this whole ordeal. I’ve written a letter to Lincoln Mercury detailing the situation. But who knows if they’ll read it.
I feel like this dealership is very underhanded in their dealings with their customers. This is my first experience with them – or any Lincoln Mercury dealership – and it’s really soured me on their brand! I would love to hear any advice you have! Do you know if there’s anything else I can do?
Gosh that is tough!!!
That does seem very shifty and underhanded!!
I would check with the BBB and see if they have any complaints. I would also try to track down a customer service number for LM and call them and let them know what this particular dealer did. tell them both about your car issue and your dad’s tie-rods.
Before spending another dime…You might want to check with a local community college and see if they offer an ASE Mechanic prep program. Tennessee technology Center community college (I think that’s the right name) has sattelite campuses all over the middle tn area (for example) and the one in clarksville, tn offers such a program. You could always check with the instructor of the program and see if he or his students (Supervised by him) could look at your car and see what they think.
The instructors tend to be VERY knowledgeable. The one in Clarksville actually used to work for the largest dealership in Clarksville as an ASE certified mechanic and he is QUITE knowledgeable. You can pretty much TELL him your problem and he can diagnose it. That might give you an idea if anything shady is going on or not. i hope this helps you 🙂
Carol – I’ve never thought of that before. We have a local community college, but I don’t know if they teach this or not. Good idea!
I’m sorry you are having to deal with this and I wish you had a competitor in the area for a second opinion. Might you call a dealership at the next closest city, just for info? I don’t know a lot about remotes but we inquired about an additional one once and was told it would be $100, outrageous! No thanks, I’ll use a basic key. Did you contact Lincoln corporate or the local dealership. I’d head straight to corporate, and don’t be afraid to leave your BLOG info!
Karen – I wrote a letter with a little more detail than I wrote in the post. I’m sending it out today. I’m hoping that they’ll at least refund the unnecessary diagnostic charge. I know that the key/remote is expensive. I just like it for the times when Emma and I come out of the mall after dark. The only door with a key option is the driver’s side. I like to be able to get her to her door, buckler her in, and then get in.
I was willing to pay for the key/remote. I just didn’t realize that it would come with all this extra work! Hadn’t thought to mention the blog. Maybe I need to revise my letter!! 🙂
my husband is a salesman at Ford Lincoln Mercury Mazda in our town. I forwarded him this at work, lets see if he has any advice.
THANK YOU!!! Please let me know what he says. If it’s legitimate, I’m willing to pay for the work. It just doesn’t feel right for some reason.
We have bought used vehicles and we wanted extra remotes, so my husband bought a remote from ebay and it came with directions on how to program it. I think it cost less than $20. We have bought several over the past few years and they have all worked perfectly.
OHHH…. I’m a HUGE eBay shopper, but I had NO idea that they sold remotes! I will talk with my husband about this when he gets home tonight. Maybe we’ll just cancel that work order after all!
My husband is a mechanic and not for a dealer thankfully. They are the worst, most expensive, and shadiest people! I do know you can have a diagnostic run for free at Advance Auto, so you should never pay for a diagnostic anywhere! You should also be able to get a copy of the report if you choose to go elsewhere. Unfortunately, on something like a remote where you can only deal with the dealerships, they have you by the cojones and they know it. I wish writing to the top would help, but they’re the ones that set these crazy rip off rules to begin with!
I would write more letters, send e-mails and phone Lincoln-Mercury until I received some answers. The dealerships are usually owned by someone, not Lincoln-Mercury and they usually want to hear if bad things are happening at one of their dealerships. They could get a lot of bad publicity on this. I live near Houston and they also have some problem solver people on the local news. If you have something like this, I would report it to them too. Remember-as my Mom always said-the squeaky wheel gets the oil!
Next time buy a Hyundai. They bend over backwards with their service and sales (their commission is based on your satisfaction survey). This is my second Hyundai and I love that it never needs repairs and oil changes are usually on sale. The service is so great that it is almost sickening sweet.
1) NEVER let any repairs be done without first having what they intend to do in writing with the cost
2) If they are affiliated with the car maker, report them to the corporate office
3) report them to the BBB
Best wishes in getting this resolved in your favor.
They disabled your current remote and they want you to pay for diagnostics and repairs for something they broke. They must think they’ve got suckers on the line. Are you sure you really want them to touch your car again?
My dad is Ford retiree and all I’ve ever owed is Ford’s so I’ve dealt with them a lot. Please don’t sour on the brand. The first time we replaced a key at our local dealership it cost $78 – about $18 for the key and $60 to “program” the key. It annoyed me because what good is the key without being programmed? So the next time I needed a key, I found out the dealership described above didn’t have what I needed so I drove about 15 miles to another dealership and they only charged me $20 and that was for the key and to program it so the lesson I learned was all dealerships are NOT the same. As far as repairs, we’ve found a shop that will send us away without charging us anything because they just can’t find the problem we’re describing. So, we really don’t take our car anywhere except there. Here’s a case in point. This shop doesn’t do tires so we went to Belle Tire to get four new tires. They told me we needed $600 worth of work done, tie rods, breaks, etc. We told them to just do the tires, took the car back to our favorite shop and they checked the car over and said only one thing needed to be fixed for about $100. The bottom line for us is, if the car is driveable, we’ll take it back to the shop we know and love and do ANYTHING they tell us that has to be done. It brings great peace of mind.
Have you demanded to speak to the general manager? If you’re uncomfortable doing it while standing at the dealership, phone him/her (most likely a man)& express your displeasure & ask for help in getting at least a partial refund. Tell him you will contact the dealership owner as well as the corporate office if he cannot get you some satisfaction on this (no need to tell him you already sent that letter or he will figure the damage is done, no need to help). We have done this b4 at a Ford dealership whose repair dept did unnecessary work w/o our authorization & we had no choice but to pay it if we wanted our vehicle back. When we called & plead our case w/him, he refunded our payment. As other writers stated, not all dealerships are the same, but if you have a general mgr who sees the value of satisfying a customer, you have a chance of getting some of your money back.