I buy my parts, cars and have all my service done at teh same dealer I've been going to since I was 16. The owner is a friend of the family.
Over the years, I've become more or less friends with several of the staff, techs and other people at this dealer.
On occasion, I've been asked questions about trannies here, and I've always been glad to help, and doing this I've been in the garage (no customers allowed, insurance rules) many times, no problem, glad to help out.

Last year, I bought $12,000 worth of parts, a $38,000 car and had all my service on 3 cars done her, they get plenty of my money.

On Friday, I had an oil change, and a friend of mine at Windsor told me where to look for a prt to mount an oil temp gauge, so I asked the tech to show me where this port was. He was glad to show me, took me out to the garage and showed me the prt, while I was there I showed him where the tranny port was for a pressure gauge on his truck, still, glad to do it.

The Office manager, of all people, comes out and rips the tech and me for being under the truck, get out of the garage etc... I though it was pretty rude, am I out of line here?

I can get my parts at any dealer, I would think with 4 A plans a year that I use, and 4 x plans to give away (used 3 at this dealer last year) not to mention being the biggest parts customer they have, they could at least be polite about it. I may just buy my parts somewhere else now.

G

 

Is the manager a new guy? Does he know who you are? That is rude, but obviously he is trying to protect the company from any lawsuits, if anything were to happen to you. That sucks because you've been going there for so long. You should talk to the top dog there, and let him/her know what happened, and if it happens again, you'll just take your business else where.

 

She knows who I am, we've had "issues" before.
I forgot to sign a check once, she called and told me, I told her I'd stop on my way to work. When i got there, she was at lunch, so I told them I'd stop in the next day. Next day at 8:00 AM (I work until 4:00 AM and I'm pretry sure she knows that, too) she calls and kinda rips me for not waiting for her. It was an $900 check, but hey, I was on my way to work, told her what time I was coming etc... she should have left it out for the cashier, I thought.

Dealer reloceted a few years back from a pretty small place to an Automall, I've been thinking they were getting kinda uppity, myself.

G

 

No - you weren't wrong. You're being human. She's following a rule, acting like a computer and probably was having a power trip without considering the outcome.

Spike
Remember, the customer is always right

 

I don't think your out of line. It sounds like the other person was out of line. Why would he say something like that?

BTW, the check goes in the mail tommorrow.

 

I do understand her wanting the rules to be followed, but i say if you know anyone higher up then her, get to one up her. This is obviously not a real problem with the people there are the dealership, just one lady who probably is such a stressed up freak it doesn't even matter. Why not get your friend who owns the dealership to sign you on as a tech reference or something along those lines, someone the techs can count on if they have different types of questions. If this is something that happens somewhat frequently ( you in the garage that is) i dont see how much of a problem it would be for the dealership to take advantage of your knowledge in some way like that, and hell, i'd give you a parts discount just for the advice as long as i knew you knew what you were talking about

~Toast

 

Factory_Tech,

Are they not at Kings Automall? I've heard nothing but bad stuff about all of the dealers there, and I won't even go there to look (at their big selection). It always seems like it is one person that screws everything up, no matter what you are doing! I'd talk to the owner if I were you (since you know him), I'm sure he'd hate to lose your business, and not to mention the knowledge that you pass on. Maybe he'd give you permission to enter the garage any time you want. I also know my local dealer and he's even let me (along with his son) use the garage after hours to work on our cars many times. We've done everything from oil changes, radio and CD changer installs, strobe installs (we are FF/EMT's), and engine work.

Later,
Roger

 

Factory Tech:

It's happened to me before too. She's an autotron. Chalk it up the her being a fool.

Do you have any extra X-plans?

 

Factory_Tech - your not in the wrong at all. Why don't you pull her aside for a little while and just talk to her, try to become friends with her, you know that talking thing that women like. It may not work but the worse that happens is you waste some of your time.

 

I would think a conversation with with the general manager about what happened would be in order. I can't imagine a delearship would allow a good customer like you to leave because of a pissy office manager.

 

No you weren't wrong. She is an a$$whole on a power trip. She could have, and should have, been more diplomatic.

 

I was venting, after some reflection I'm not nearly as upset by it. I wouldn't really consider taking my business anywhere else, for the most part thy're pretty cool, (and very mod friendly, I might add)

G

 

I spend My money where I get good service. Plain and simple! Your paying their bills, they sould appreciate that, not to mention all the FREE help.