Dealership Service Department

[shortstraw8]

When you take your car into the dealer for service, do you expect the car to stay at the dealer, or for the service employee to take the car to their house overnight?

Wife got an alert that our car was moving after hours when it was expected to be at the dealer, we drove to dealer to look for our car, then the 20 miles to the house. They said it was to "Calibrate the sensors" shouldn't that be done on the clock when it will be covered by dealer insurance?

I was going to call the cops but assumed it had to be an employee and not stolen. I was kind of a dick to the GM over the phone and was going to be the same service guy, but he was old so I was nicer.

 

[Johnny Quest]

Not cool

 

[N-Smooth]

Yeah I’m not cool with that. If they have to drive it around during the day to test stuff or watch for codes, that’s fine. After hours, nope. Imagine if your car got stolen or damaged. I bet that changes the insurance dynamic with the dealer.

 

[STAG]

Sounds like a free repair to me, to compensate you for driving around late at night looking for your vehicle.

If that is ‘normal’ to be needed to be done, they should have been upfront with you and told you when you dropped off the vehicle. Or at least called and said “hey we’re doing this and this is why”

 

[J Kimmel]

Occasionally a tech will take one home if he needs to test something like cold start and mileage, sometimes they need a few miles in them and that’s the easiest way. Those rare circumstances require customer approval, no one just “takes a customer car home”

 

[Kiel]

When I ran a small dealership I always called and asked the owner if I could test drive it home if we had a hard to duplicate problem. No issues ever doing that. Had an old friend see his new mustang driving around town and picking up dog food with the tech. That was an interesting day for Larry h Miller truck land

 

[shortstraw8]

Yeah my thoughts are around insurance, on the way to the house last night we passed 20head of deer and had to stop for a doe and fawn in the road. When we got to the house, it was pulled in the driveway between a tree and a second car with the bumper hanging over the sidewalk, kinda fueled the fire. It would have been different if they called caused I would have said no it can be done during hours, and may have been different if the service tech was also the business owner cause insurance would follow that and be harder to push off.

It is under warranty so free anyway, and I calmed down after he showed he was actually getting logs for calibrating the sensors. I have been in that service department many times and the scheduling guy is a dick and was an ass to my wife and pushed her off for almost a month now since they didn't have a loaner, I show up on and its scheduled 3days later. If it was him or one of the younger kids that I always see screwing off back there there they would be feeling it today, but this guy honestly seemed like he was diagnosing it, and now knows that is done on the clock and if not it is parked in a shop bay.

Just wanted to make sure I was not being a karen about it. It was late, I am sick and supposed to be ice fishing, getting woken up to that after the week I have had was just the cherry on top I guess.

 

[Hickey]

Yeah my thoughts are around insurance, on the way to the house last night we passed 20head of deer and had to stop for a doe and fawn in the road. When we got to the house, it was pulled in the driveway between a tree and a second car with the bumper hanging over the sidewalk, kinda fueled the fire. It would have been different if they called caused I would have said no it can be done during hours, and may have been different if the service tech was also the business owner cause insurance would follow that and be harder to push off.

It is under warranty so free anyway, and I calmed down after he showed he was actually getting logs for calibrating the sensors. I have been in that service department many times and the scheduling guy is a dick and was an ass to my wife and pushed her off for almost a month now since they didn't have a loaner, I show up on and its scheduled 3days later. If it was him or one of the younger kids that I always see screwing off back there there they would be feeling it today, but this guy honestly seemed like he was diagnosing it, and now knows that is done on the clock and if not it is parked in a shop bay.

Just wanted to make sure I was not being a karen about it. It was late, I am sick and supposed to be ice fishing, getting woken up to that after the week I have had was just the cherry on top I guess.

I’d be pissed about it too. It isn’t their property and they should have some small respect for that.

 

[TurboMinivan]

no one just “takes a customer car home”

^^ THIS.

When you bring your vehicle in for service--even if you're going to sit and wait for the repair to be completed--you sign a paper authorizing us to make said repair. Included in that small print, you also authorize us to drive your vehicle for testing, diagnosing, and other purposes. Depending on the exact repair, this is part of the process... and our insurance will cover us while our authorized employee is driving a customer vehicle with an open repair order.

Over the years, I've seen service employees drive many, many customer vehicles overnight--this happens in my Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep store, in Subaru, and in Kia. In other words, it's pretty universal. If it helps put your mind at ease, only select employees will be authorized to do this. In my almost 25 years at Doug Smith, I've never seen a technician drive a vehicle home overnight. It is usually only the service department manager or one of the senior service advisors who is authorized to do this.

HTH

 

[shortstraw8]

I get there may be cases where a tech might want to take a car home, though I would expect a call asking for permission. I really see no reason it was needed in this case as the sensor calibration can be done easily in town around the dealership with easy access to i15. No need to sit in a driveway were potential damage can be done accidentally, he did not seem to care too much and stated he had a truck that needed to be driven to clear codes that he would take when we asked if he needed a ride home. Our 16' outback was serviced for the backup camera randomly staying on and not allowing screen to function car stayed in shop for a few days and never taken home.
Good to know it is universal, if I need to have it with a dealer overnight at any point in the future I will state clearly it does not go to an employees house.

 

[Tonkaman]

When I was a teenager working part time at a dealership, we used to ‘borrow’ cars all the time. We would take sports cars out racing for the night, trucks out wheeling in the mountains, or just go rally the shit out of minivans! 😂 We even ripped the front axle off of a superduty while having a distance jump competition! 😂

Granted I never actually had permission, just access to keys and management that was clueless.

 

[shortstraw8]

When I was a teenager working part time at a dealership, we used to ‘borrow’ cars all the time. We would take sports cars out racing for the night, trucks out wheeling for n the mountains, or just go rally the shit out of minivans! 😂 We even ripped the front axle off of a superduty while having a distance jump competition! 😂

Granted I never actually had permission, just access to keys and management that was clueless.

This was my first thought. I had a buddy who worked a service tech, I remember going to a party in a brand new cummins and winning a lot of pulling comps. He was fired shortly after cause the customer wondered why the tread was less when he picked it up. Happy this wasn't the case, and on the plus side it is now calibrated and home.

 

[UNSTUCK]

Just make sure you didn’t authorize it in the small print if it bothers you. In my own customer agreement I have a section where the customer gives permission for me to drive their vehicle around for outsourced portions of a build, or for testing and whatnot. They agree to keep insurance on the car for these reasons. I have driven them home at night. I pulled my wife’s car out of the garage and put their vehicle in. Take better care of it than my own while I have it.

Reporting yours stolen and then pressing charges would have been a great way to have them amend their policy, even if you gave permission in the small print.

 

[glockman]

Because of stories like this, I only take my vehicles to two places Coco's for alignments/tires and I have taken the new Subaru to the dealership for an oil change. That's the first time someone else has changed my oil in 20 years. I have trust issues and an Irish temper so I just avoid all that and do it myself. It's a big hurdle for me buying a new car since I am forced to have the dealer work on it and that really drives me crazy. Glad it all worked out in the end.

 

[shortstraw8]

The police was a thought but I really didn't want anyone to loose their job over it and why I contacted the GM. When we picked it up the GM was nice and explained it is something they do, and apparently this tech takes a customers car home every night but the GM said they may need to look at the policy and make some changes, which probably just means actually call the customer if they have GPS enabled.
I too am used to doing it all myself and have had bad luck lately with their service department and another mechanic I will not go to again. And now that I know it is common place I will make sure they know I don't care about the policy and will take my business elsewhere if they can't do it at the shop.
We did get a detail, wash and half tank of gas out of it, though they used a that diagnosing the issue.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I personally wouldn’t be upset if a tech drove my vehicle home or otherwise in search of a problem I’m asking them to solve. It’s insured on their end & insured on my end. If I trust them to work under the hood or under the car, I trust them to drive it.

I certainly wouldn’t report them to the police and/or press charges in the event you gave them permission via the repair order. Dealerships are usually pretty locked down on that stuff and as Dempsey pointed out, I‘ve known it to happen often in the process of repair.

 

[jeeper]

I left a truck at a dealer over night. When I came back in the morning it had greasy footprints all over the carpets on driver and passenger side, Mcdonalds wrappers in the cupholders, and a cracked drivers mirror. They claimed it came in that way. It wasn't until the cops escorted me off the property that I stopped yelling.


My current Colorado went in for a warranty issue. When it came out there was a little door-ding type dent above the rear wheel. Saw it immediately, had never seen it before, and now see it every time I walk to the truck. Can't PROVE they did it.. but they did.
It now needs more warranty work.. but is it worth it?? I Don't know.

 

[rholbrook]

I left a truck at a dealer over night. When I came back in the morning it had greasy footprints all over the carpets on driver and passenger side, Mcdonalds wrappers in the cupholders, and a cracked drivers mirror. They claimed it came in that way. It wasn't until the cops escorted me off the property that I stopped yelling.


My current Colorado went in for a warranty issue. When it came out there was a little door-ding type dent above the rear wheel. Saw it immediately, had never seen it before, and now see it every time I walk to the truck. Can't PROVE they did it.. but they did.
It now needs more warranty work.. but is it worth it?? I Don't know.

I know a guy that can rub that out. You should have seen what he was able to do to my truck when the hail storm go it a couple of years ago. They stopped counting at 400 dings. The got every last one of them and you couldn't tell. I have had a dealer's tech take one of my trucks home over night but they did call and ask. I had a wheel bearing in the front end that only squealed when it was cold, kind of like @jeeper . At least that is what a friend told me.

 

[lbryson]

I know our dealership only allows techs to drive a vehicle home for the night if it’s a cold start or long distance issue with the vehicle.

 

[Brad]

Wife got an alert that our car was moving after hours

Curious as to what you're using for monitoring your vehicle's location? I'm using AirTags with disabled speakers in my vehicles, but would be open to a better (GPS + LTE) option if the cost was reasonable.