Dealer Damage To Vehicle At 1st Service Interval

[VincentD]

I had my ES-350 "picked-up" for it's first service interval by a Springfield Mass. dealer. Upon returning the vehicle, I notice nearly a dozen "chip marks" concentrated on the front hood and side. I called to inquire what the heck happen? The "assitant" service manager told me that the service manger would call me the next day. He did not. I contacted Lexus corporate who did contact the service manager. Even after Lexus corporate's contact, the service manger never returned my call. I realize that I can't prove that the damage was done by the dealer's driver (who I feel took little care in how the vehicle was driven) but the dealer could have at least contacted me. Upshoot - beward when asked if you'd like your vehcile picked-up for service - it anything happens - the dealer and Lexus corporate with avoid any responsibility (as they did in my case). I'm now faced with having to live with the chip marks, or have the entire front end repainted.....on my nickle. You would think that after spending this kind of money, someone would have at least offered to send me "touch up paint"........ BMW here I come!

[SW03ES]

To be fair, Lexus corporate cannot be responsible for mistakes their dealers make. All the dealerships are independently owned. I would however stay on the service manager and general manager of the dealership. I have had my car damaged by a Lexus dealer on two occasions, I was restituted each time. The second time they were much less friendly about it than the first (giving off the aura that I was being unreasonable expecting that when paying for $100 an hour for service they could manage not to run the car into things when moving it around the lot). I simply changed dealers and cannot be happier.

All the dealers are different, unfortunately as with all independent dealer networks some are good and some are bad. I would take the car and ask the general and service managers to inspect it themselves. They will make you whole, its much cheaper for them to do that then to deal with a lawsuit.

I think this goes back to common sense. Yes its cool to have the dealer pickup and dropoff the car. However, I don't know why it surprises you that a porter making $9 an hour didn't treat your vehicle the way you treat it. BMW offers pickup and dropoff too on the 7 series, no reason they would be any different.

Just drop it off yourself next time. The thought of some kid driving my Lexus on public roads is too scary for me to even consider pickup and dropoff. If the porter at the first dealership couldn't park it without ramming it into something, imagine him driving it on the road. Scary.

[VincentD]

Thanks for the advise...but....the dealer is not responding to my phone inquires, and consideing that they are approx. an hour away, I don't feel like just stopping by. I agree with you with respect to $9/hr porters. In this case, the porter was a service tech. (approx. 50 yrs old) that seemed like a person who would respect someone else's property. Live and learn. Any ideas as to the best way to "touch up" the chip marks will greatly be appreciated.

[SW03ES]

When you call what do they say?

An hour away? Man, I definately wouldn't let somebody else drive my car for an hour on the highway.

Can you post some pictures of the chips?

[05IS300]

I would definitely call back and if the Service Mgr is unavailable ask for the General Sales Mgr.I am a Parts Mgr for Lexus and hate to hear stories like this because it not only gives that Dealership a bad reputation but also my Dealership because we are considered the same Company(Lexus).I see no excuse for the lack of a return call.I think someone at the Dealership should have called you back the same day.I personally have my cell phone on 24/7,except when I'm in Church,with my cell number on my business card.I have actually taken calls from Lexus Customer Satisfaction at my Daughters soccer game and returned a customers call at 7:30 pm.I of course had the customers permission to call that late as they wanted an answer asap.I am not saying they are responsible for taking care of the chips but they need to address the issue at hand and come up with a solution even if you guys "agree to disagree".

[VincentD]

When you call what do they say?

An hour away? Man, I definately wouldn't let somebody else drive my car for an hour on the highway.

Can you post some pictures of the chips?

I'm having troble adding an attachment (zip file) of the chip damage pics. These are the same ones that I sent to corporate. As I tried to say when first attaching the pics., this is the second new Lexus that I purchased. My previous dealer had no issues when picking up my vehicle (approx. half hour away). Needless to say, I'll never take advantage of this option from any dealer in the future. I guess I only have myself to blame and will try and learn from this experience.

I would definitely call back and if the Service Mgr is unavailable ask for the General Sales Mgr.I am a Parts Mgr for Lexus and hate to hear stories like this because it not only gives that Dealership a bad reputation but also my Dealership because we are considered the same Company(Lexus).I see no excuse for the lack of a return call.I think someone at the Dealership should have called you back the same day.I personally have my cell phone on 24/7,except when I'm in Church,with my cell number on my business card.I have actually taken calls from Lexus Customer Satisfaction at my Daughters soccer game and returned a customers call at 7:30 pm.I of course had the customers permission to call that late as they wanted an answer asap.I am not saying they are responsible for taking care of the chips but they need to address the issue at hand and come up with a solution even if you guys "agree to disagree".

Thanks for the insight and opinion. If I lived in Ohio, you'd be getting a call after the first of the year when my wife plans on upgrading her SUV (considering an RX). You are most likely what Lexus expects from their dealerships. I share the same philosophy as you with respect to customer service (I own a software company based in Albany, NY). I should follow your advice and continue to pursue both managers, but to be honest, it's not worth my time. I plan on getting a local body shop to simply touch up the chips at this point. As I said in a previous post....live and learn. There won't be a next time regarding this type of issue.

[mkaresh]

I conduct vehicle reliability research, and have been surprised how often cars get damaged while in the dealer's care.

As a result, when I revised the survey form recently ( http://www.truedelta.com/survey.php ) I included "Damaged by shop during a repair trip" among the choices for a question about the source of the problem. I also ask who paid for the repair, with one choice being "Dealer or shop (usually because they caused the problem)."

In all of the cases I've heard about so far the dealer readily accepted responsibility and covered the cost of the repair, but they were all obviously the dealer's fault. Sounds like the dealer in your case is making full use of plausible deniability.

[Sickwitit]

Hello to all,

Oh my god this just happened to me in Nj, I took my car (2007 Es350 Royal Ruby UL with 410 miles) in to have some service issues corrected as well as to have my wing installed at $211.00, after waiting for nearly 2 1/2 hrs my car was brought to the service line (completed work line) it was raining that day so after talking with my consultant and paying the chasier I went to the car to check it over, (I alway's check my car's before and after service for any body damages) Oh sh-it even though the car was wet I could see this 2 inch scracth and some small surface spider scars on the trunk in front of the wing, I ran back inside and got my consultant and show him the damaged area he remained calm and said no problem I'll have my detail guy buff it out but the only thing was that it was the day before the holiday and he would'nt be back until that Friday, I waited until the next morning when the rain had stoped and I wiped off the damaged area so as to get a good ideal of the damages and I could not believe my eye's this scracth was white (You know what that means),

you can't buff this out so I called and talked to the consultant again and explained my concerns and or worries and his reply was if this can't be buffed out they would send it to their body shop, now here's my concern when or if I decide to sell my car and some inspector type guy's looks the car over and say's to me this car has been painted (Trunk) so I'll have to reduce my apprassal amount, so as you can see my concern is the car's value being effected by this repair (If painted) so I as you guy's what are my options do I have the repair done by their bodyshop or do I ask them to have a factory painted trunk ship to the states for install is that even an option? O0r lastly if any do I have any recourse's besides what's being presented to me by the dealer?

What do you guy's think inquiring minds :cries: :cries: :chairshot:.

Ps.> Sorry to have hijacked your thread best of luck with your issues.

[SW03ES]

I wouldn't let the dealer's shop do it. I would get referrals from friends that you know are anal about their cars and make the dealer pay for it.

How has the dealer been treating you through this?

[Sickwitit]

I wouldn't let the dealer's shop do it. I would get referrals from friends that you know are anal about their cars and make the dealer pay for it.

How has the dealer been treating you through this?

Hi and sorry for the delay in my response, I thought the same thing the car car go's in Monday and I demanded that only the GM of the service dept handle this situation, He'll inspect the effected area with me and we'll go from there, but as far as their behavior I've only delt with the one consultant and he's been on board with my concerns, I'll post back after Monday in regards to their offer and or solution, question should I ask for compensation if any and if so what (I live and or work more than 20 mile from the dealership)?

They charged me $99.00 dollars per Hr and they claim it requires 2 Hr's to install the wing total over $213.00 for just installation of said part.

Thanks again for your response and concerns.

Regards Rob