Toyota Customer Service...

[ArmyofOne]

My wife's car has had a problem with the AC draining into the pass. side floorboard. Today she took it to the local toyota dealership, (the only one we have in watertown NY) and they told her because the car was involved in an accident on the pass. side, the factory warranty is void. and they would have to charger her $650 to rip the car apart and find the source, let it dry and put it back together.

HOLD ON...Warranty Void aver an accident? I have never heard of this, this car has 20,000 miles on it, still under the factory bumper to bumper. something as small as an AC drain hose, there should be no issue fixing. the accident was all cosmetic anyway, though extensively damaged ($5,750 in damage, both doors, front bumper cover, rear bumper cover, rear fender, front fender, R/F wheel and R/S rocker panel.)

The repairs were done at an Authorized Toyota Body Repair Center, with OEM toyota parts...so tell me again why the warranty is void?

is there a way i can resolve this situation from Iraq. I think the whole reason they are doing this is because my wife went in there by herself, in a predominately military town, and i would like to chew someones !Removed! over this.

any suggestions?

[denslexusgx470]

Ok Josh, I don't want to put your hopes down, but I've got some questions. First of all, this question may sound really stupid, but when the body shop and insurance had the Matrix repaired, are you sure the insurance approved the "right" repair, or the quick cheap repair? I don't know how to explain this but I'll give you an example I had....

Back in 2002, our RX300 got rear ended. The insurance was a real PITA... It wasnt our fault, yet our insurance still gave us a hard time. Now there was one issue that the body shop and my insurance had a dispute about, and it was the muffler system. My insurance wanted to straighten the thing out, body shop recommended replacement. Now since my insurance will be re-imbursed in the end by the other guy's insurance, I'm wondering why they wouldn't approve of the replacement? My body shop mentions that it WILL VOID the Lexus warranty on the exhaust and that the only way to keep the warranty in effect was to replace the thing. Insurance, being a real a$$, insisted on straightening out the thing, and then replace it. Ok we'll see.. My body shop was literally on my side, and what we decided was to do what they wanted and w/o a doubt have the technician DISAPPROVE the repair, then that's when the insurance budged in...

So in other words, I'm hoping that the insurance and body shop did all the correct repairs, that WOULDNT void your warranty, like in our situation with our RX. I know you mentioned that's the only Toyota dealer in town, but I'm guessing you should go try another dealership to see what they'll say.

[Rx330driver]

perhaps since they are saying it was basically repaired incorrectly, was missed a repair from your accident, you should go back to the place that you got the car fixed at (from the car accident) and have them fix it correctly this time.

[branshew]

Sounds like BS to me unless the tube was affected by the accident and didn't get put back inthe right place when the repair was done - in that case - have the body shop fix it for free. Most of them have lifetime warranties on their repair work anyway. If it was something that wasn't associated w/ the accident then nail them to the wall until they fix it.

[SW03ES]

Toyota customer service is no better than what you get from any other midmarket car company, Ford, Chrysler, Nissan, etc. Nothing like Lexus...

[ArmyofOne]

Toyota customer service is no better than what you get from any other midmarket car company, Ford, Chrysler, Nissan, etc. Nothing like Lexus...

im sorry i forgot to update you guys...

actually, you will be presently suprised and pleased to know that:

We took care of it. Meghan drove to Syracuse and spoke to the Service manager at the Syracuse dealer, then she spoke to the regional manager for toyota. Not only did she get the problem fixed in Syracuse, but the regional manager said he would (and i quote) "Go to Toyota of Watertown and personally take care of the problem, rest assured you wont have to deal with that treatment or that individual anymore, this isnt the first complaint i have had about him."

He then wrote her a dealer check for the tank of gas she used to get there, gave her the 30,000 mile service for free and told her that if we come back to one of his dealers for our next car, he will hook us up. He also included a 25% coupon off the timing belt change coming up at 90,000 miles, valid at any toyota dealer/service center in the country. way to go toyota!