Local Honda Dealer tried to bend me over!

[Greg Z]

We do not have an Acura Dealer here and the closest one is 2 hrs. away, so I brought the 91 to the local Honda Dealer.
I brought my own oil(Mobil One full Synthetic) and oil filter, for an oil change.
Also I asked them to diagnose a jingy sound from the pass front wheel that I thought would be a brake shied or something.
Also my A/C system will not take any freon, it won't circulate even tho the compresser is kicking on.
They call me a lil later to tell me that in order to diagnose the A/C system they will have to convert it from R12 to 134a and the cost would be 200.00, I said no-way! If thats the case I'll go buy the maybe 35.00 kit and have it done somewhere else.
Then they tell me they can't duplicate the noise from the wheel, I'm like did you drive it!, cause if you did trust me you WILL hear it. They said they would drive it. Never heard back from them, so I just went down there and sure enough it was ready. I said what was wrong with it. He was like OH, well we couldn't duplicate the noise, I said go get the tech and we'll go for a ride.
Finally got a boss to go and 30sec down the road he said he heard it. I said Well why couldn't your tech's and with a lil arm twisting he finally admitted that they lied because they are not allowed to work on NSX's except oil changes He said they lied because they were trying to be nice, I said don't be nice be TRUTHFULL, That insulted my intelligence by insinuating that I was dreaming up the noises.
OK, now I go back and get my bill from the other guy and its for about 40 bucks. I look it over:
Oil change w/supplied material 9.45
Courtesy inspection 0.00
Check for brake noise 0.00
A/C not cooling
Need to convert to 134a freon
in order to find out why there
is no freon in system 28.95
28.95???????????????????????????/ WTF FOR?
To call me and tell me that you want to do a 200.00 job and me say No!
I confronted him on it and he instantly took it off, it just pisses me off that they tried and I'm sure get away with it everyday!
I'm sorry for the rant, just needed to vent.
BTW: They can only do oil changes but yet he was quick to try & get 200.00 for changing a coulpe of connections huh?

 

[Da Hapa]

Unfortunately, there are good dealers and bad dealers of every marque and it sounds like you ran into a real piece of work.

When I had my S2K's I was lucky enough to have several dealers within 20 miles of my house. But I drove to a dealership that was further than three others (including one that was less than a mile from my house) because it was the only dealership I trusted to not lie, screw with my car, or allow their tech's to take "check rides" that ended up lasting 10+ miles.

The irony is that my new house is now less than a mile from the dealership that I drove way out of my way to and we no longer own either of the S2K's.

 

[Tony Montoya]

Have they invited you to come back for future oil changes? I don't mean to question you but $9.45 represents about 5 minutes of labour. It takes a bit longer than that to do an oil change on an NSX. They lost money on your car.

 

[CL65 Captain]

My Mom went to pick up her Lexus last week and they put on two new windshield wiper blades on... $110. She blew a gasket! :tongue: She asked the service manager what he would say if his wife came home with a $110 bill from a dealer for $12 wipers? They took it off.

Two months ago we were sitting in the other Lexus dealers showroom with the sales manager (there are only two in St. Louis). My Mom buys a new lexus every three years and she is on her 5th from the same dealer. Slam dunk sale if they want to play fair... the head sales manager sits down with us. Her Rx300 was just in for service for the check engine light. Service dept gave her an estimate for $1200. Plus they said the rear seal on the engine was leaking. I told them it's not a Porsche.... a Lexus engine with 28k miles? Show me... it wasn't leaking! Not a drop of oil back there.

So they don't want to come off list price of a new Rx340 at all.... so we are negotiating the trade. The sales manager asked what the other Lexus dealer offered for trade... I asked why he thinks we went there first. He says that there are only two dealers in town, when one writes a trade they email it to the other. Sounds like "anti-trust" violation to me.

Their head sales manager tells us, "what's going to happen is that you take the car in for the $1200 to fix the car and once they have it apart they are going to call you and tell you it's $3000 to fix." So you are telling us that your dealership is unethical and actually extorts money out of their customers. Yep, he said... that's they way the game is played.

We went to the other Lexus dealer and had a deal done in 15 minutes. Fair trade, and $1800 of list.

 

[John McCain Racing]

You think them charging you $28 to check your A/C System is bending you over? Considering you brought your own oil and only got charged $9.45 in labor total after an oil change and them checking over your NSX for a brake jingy who bent over who?

 

[Greg Z]

Have they invited you to come back for future oil changes? I don't mean to question you but $9.45 represents about 5 minutes of labour. It takes a bit longer than that to do an oil change on an NSX. They lost money on your car.

9.45 every 5 minutes. What are you smokin? Thats 119.40 an hour at a Honda Dealer! Oil changes can be done all across town for 23.95 that includes bulk oil and a average oil filter, including this particular Honda dealer. I've seen alot of cars with oil filters alot harder to get to than an NSX. Lets also remember oil changes are not charged by an hourly rate.
BTW: No, they did not invite me back! LOL

 

[Greg Z]

You think them charging you $28 to check your A/C System is bending you over? Considering you brought your own oil and only got charged $9.45 in labor total after an oil change and them checking over your NSX for a brake jingy who bent over who?

Boy, I must not have been clear enough!
First of all the point IS they did NOT check my A/C system, they popped the hood and saw R12 fittings and made a phone call to me to try and hustle 200.00
Secondly, Remember where I said they admitted to LYING TO ME about checking for the jingy sound because they were not allowed to work on Acura's?

 

[rasir_x]

same thing happend to me. My car kept dying on a cold start and wouldn't idle correctly also the car would "buck" in low gear. I went to the Superior acura dealer in Kansas and they said my electronic signal modifier was bad. replaced it for about 275 and when i got it back it did the same thing. Problem was never fixed. In fact i got it back with the rear panels torn up. So i drove it back and they checked it and told me i need to buy another comptech supercharger for 3,000 since mine was bad. I called up comptech and they told me to go to Jay Wolfe Acura in Missouri. I told them to check the Vacum bybass hose for leaks and cracks. they said it passed the smoke test w/ no leaks. They did a extensive cleaning of the throttle body and only charged me for 1hour of labor and shop towels. Ended up like a $100 fix. Not $3,000+$275 already spent for now reason. Plus, Superior always trash talks there customers in the showroom. I hear it all the time. Even about fellow Prime members. I even went in to talk to a sale's person about purchasing 2 05' TL's and he didn't even bother. So instead we purchased a TL and MDX from another dealer. There loss. I even talked 2 couples to buy from the other dealership on the showroom floor and they did.

 

[Tony Montoya]

The Acura dealer charges $109 an hour now. I remember it was $65 an hour sometime during my 12 years of ownership and those were 62 cent dollars. Now I know how people in SF feel.

The Honda dealer was wrong to charge you $28.95 for opening the hood. They should have stuck to policy and done an oil change only. An oil change at the Acura dealer is $34.95 for most Acuras. That includes oil,labour, and a filter but it's still a loss leader or the jr. tech does the work. The NSX techs do oil changes but they don't make enough on that type of job to do only oil changes all day.

 

[nsxxtreme]

I still dont think they bent you over. Someone took the car in and opended the hood. If you were expecting free service maybe you should have done it yourself.

Your whining over $32 just wait til you find out how much it costs to fix your AC. If you think its just a few connection try it yourself *sarcasm*. Although I would be surprised if the Honda dealer was capable of fixing your AC issue.

 

[zahntech]

Greg..you gotta get your butt over to GA and see this man http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/member.php?u=7461

Or find an Acura/Honda independant shop near you that you feal comfortible with.

Acura dealers are running low on NSX techs because the car came out 16 years ago and many guys that were working at and trained by Honda/Acura then, are gone. finding someone familiar with the car at a Honda dealer is going to be even more unlikely.

OH and A/C repairs on NSXs are rarely cheep:frown:

Good luck

 

[Greg Z]

I still dont think they bent you over. Someone took the car in and opended the hood. If you were expecting free service maybe you should have done it yourself.

Your whining over $32 just wait til you find out how much it costs to fix your AC. If you think its just a few connection try it yourself *sarcasm*. Although I would be surprised if the Honda dealer was capable of fixing your AC issue.

Nobodys whining about the actual money here. Its about the ethics of the business, sheesh.

 

[goldNSX]

Common... it's all about money, no? The feeling of getting ripped of is bad I know. My former garage thought I was a cow, always melking (? ) money out of my pocket and they did even some mistakes. They even scatched rims, completely missaligned her and so on. I paid 1.5 times more than in the actual garage.
Did you take your opportunity costs into account? If you mess around with oil change and R134 conversion and kind like this you spend some time on it you'd better invest in sth else. I love to pay my garage if I can earn MORE in the same time by doing my own business, not to mention the frustration if you've done sth wrong to her.
Please have as look in the parts list and let us know how low your jaw fell.

 

[dyee]

Crisco, Astroglide, KY, or vaseline?

Danny RED SR 71
REPEAL V.C.22351
:wink:

 

[Alan C.]

You have to admit it's like taking you own steak to a restaurant and asking them to prepare it for you.

There is more to it than a mere ten minutes for the tech's time on the oil change. Somebody has to foot all of the other overhead in a business. If someone looked at your AC, noted the need of 134, went to the service writer, advised the service writer and the service writer advised you of same then there was time involved. Most shops I deal with are at a 0.5 hour minimum. Then you insulted the dealership by telling them 'no way I'll buy my own $35 kit'.

Ethics:

1. Yes they did not do the right thing by telling you they did not hear the sound. Wrong

2. They didn't charge you for the evaluation. Fair

3. A manager took a free ride to see if there was an issue. Fair

4. They took off a charge for $28.95 on something they had put time into. More than fair.

5. You thought $9.95 was reasonable for their time. Unconscionable

I'd go with number 5 as the most glaring issue. If it were my business we'd be booked solid the next time you called.

 

[Greg Z]

You have to admit it's like taking you own steak to a restaurant and asking them to prepare it for you.

There is more to it than a mere ten minutes for the tech's time on the oil change. Somebody has to foot all of the other overhead in a business. If someone looked at your AC, noted the need of 134, went to the service writer, advised the service writer and the service writer advised you of same then there was time involved. Most shops I deal with are at a 0.5 hour minimum. Then you insulted the dealership by telling them 'no way I'll buy my own $35 kit'.

Ethics:

1. Yes they did not do the right thing by telling you they did not hear the sound. Wrong

2. They didn't charge you for the evaluation. Fair

3. A manager took a free ride to see if there was an issue. Fair

4. They took off a charge for $28.95 on something they had put time into. More than fair.

5. You thought $9.95 was reasonable for their time. Unconscionable

I'd go with number 5 as the most glaring issue. If it were my business we'd be booked solid the next time you called.

Ya know, now I'm starting to understand why these dealers do what they do, because there are people out there like you who are niave enough to pay the bill.
First: You say its like taking your own steak to a Resturant! I called an inquired first if they had or could get the correct Honda oil filter and they directed me to the Acura dealer where I bought it and had it UPS'sd. Then when I brought the car in I asked them if they had full synthetic oil and they said no and THEY directed me to go and purchase it and bring it back to them!
Secondly, I'm sure you're joking when you say that its worth 28.95 for the guy to pop the hood and then walk accross the bay to the service writer and inform them that the 91 has R12, so I'll leave that one alone!
Third, you say,
"5. You thought $9.95 was reasonable for their time. Unconscionable"
I did not tell them how much to charge me! That is there pre-set rate for a customer material supplied oil job, Why are you blaming that on me?
Forth, don't lecture me on "overhead". I own multiple businesses, I understand overhead.

 

[mackash]

You think thats bad go to the dealer in Memphis... they don't use any lube! Rips you a new one!!

 

[Alan C.]

Forth, don't lecture me on "overhead". I own multiple businesses, I understand overhead.

I don't know what type of business you run but I doubt you have people spending the time the dealership wasted for you at that price point. If you do good luck.