Is Your Toyota Dealer Friendly?

[timberwolf]

I don't think my local dealer is friendly. The wouldn't order a little bottle of touch up paint for me unless I paid up in full in advance - this unfriendly service was provided by Snows Toyota at Hedge End, Southampton.

[Jan&tone]

talk to Kingo - he seems a nice friendly sort of geezer

[Parts-King]

You can talk to me and pay in full ....no problem :D:

[Heidfirst]

Western Toyota@ Sighthill, Edinburgh are.

Shields Toyota @Darnley, Glasgow were but are now shut.

Can't speak for any others.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I don't think my local dealer is friendly. The wouldn't order a little bottle of touch up paint for me unless I paid up in full in advance - this unfriendly service was provided by Snows Toyota at Hedge End, Southampton.

Do you get your car serviced here? If so, then they sound grumpy. If you don't then I can't blame 'em.

But didn't you get a bottle of touch up paint free when you bought the car? I got all sorts of stuff like that.

[Chris Dance]

Both Toyota dealers I have dealt with have been very helpful. I got free touch up paint on purchase of all three toyota cars I own or have owned. The first service is coming up on my Gen 3 I hope it will be no hassle especially on the "correct oil" issue.

[Jamesbelfast]

Oh my local Toyota is friendly enough but they were prosecuted in court and fined £2000 for failing to change filters during a service.

[timberwolf]

I don't think my local dealer is friendly. The wouldn't order a little bottle of touch up paint for me unless I paid up in full in advance - this unfriendly service was provided by Snows Toyota at Hedge End, Southampton.

Do you get your car serviced here? If so, then they sound grumpy. If you don't then I can't blame 'em.

But didn't you get a bottle of touch up paint free when you bought the car? I got all sorts of stuff like that.

I bought the car from them. I used them for the first service, but their attitude, the service itself and the deceit of one of their employees surprised me for a main dealer. I did wonder if I'd been too hasty and not to judge a company by one employee, but I have to say I wasn't impressed by their parts policy on requiring the money up front before ordering the touch-up paint. Perhaps, I was just unfortunate again when I to collect my part their customer service was very poor , it hadn't changed in my limited experience.

I'm now of the opinion that the customer care is something the company just doesn't give a damn about, and from now on I'll spend my money elsewhere. I don't recommend them at all, but I guess other people are happy with them and they will tell you a different story.

No, I didn't get any free gifts with the car. I wasn't really expecting any, I guess my bargaining skills weren't up to much anyway because I didn't get any discount on the car mats either.

James, I take your point, unfortunately, I think Snows were bad at both their service and attitude although I hope not crooked. I doubt many dealers do all the maintenance that they should do e.g. all the service items that are visual inspections, do the mechanics have time, do they care, what do they miss?

[Chris Dance]

Timberwolf, Your dealer expierences are not good. I got full tank of fuel, free car mats and other goodies when I got my Gen 3. Why not write to the service manager with your complaints?

[johalareewi]

Whenever I have servicing or parts from Snows (nee Kings) Hedge End, Toyota have sent a customer satisfaction survey for me to fill in. Surprised you didn't get one.

I also got a small free tin of touch up paint with my new gen3 but had to buy the mats (didn't realise they weren't standard) but did get 10% discount and didn't have to pay up front. But I have noticed they are a bit more money conscious lately.

[Red diesel]

In my experience our local Toyota dealers (both at home and at college) are okay, but just that - okay.

But if your spending lots of money on a car then service should be of the highest order, there are few things more

off putting then someone who isn't in the humour to deal with a customer.

Rang an importer of a particular car brand in Ireland (not Toyota) with a query relating to one of their models - and the guy on the phone gave

the impression he didn't want to be dealing with querys. Result - i now can't be bothered dealing with buying anything that means

putting money in said manufacturers pocket.

Personally on a general level - i don't rate main dealers overly highly - salesmen are normally good (in fact sometimes too good lol). But the back up for the customer can be crap. Hence in future am looking at running two older cheap cars instead of 1 new one.

I mean something like a high mileage Citroen Berlingo van alongside something like a 2003 Volvo S60 - on the basis that yes

the 2 old yokes are more likely in theory to break then a 6 month old Toyota.

But hopefully the chances of both the Volvo and Citroen breaking at the exact same time would be slim, i could probably have both bought for

around 4 500 euros. Rather then 25 000 euros for a new Avensis

Red diesel

[timberwolf]

Whenever I have servicing or parts from Snows (nee Kings) Hedge End, Toyota have sent a customer satisfaction survey for me to fill in. Surprised you didn't get one.

I also got a small free tin of touch up paint with my new gen3 but had to buy the mats (didn't realise they weren't standard) but did get 10% discount and didn't have to pay up front. But I have noticed they are a bit more money conscious lately.

I got a survey form when the car was new, maybe they don't send them if they know you're likely to give them bad feedback? ;)

You've reminded me, the explanation that I got at the time was to do with the value of the part, if it had been an expensive part, like mats then the dealer would be able to return them, but for cheaper parts the dealer would be stuck with the cost if I didn't come back and I hadn't paid in advance.

Red Diesel:

Doesn't running two cars mean paying twice as much to keep them on the road, i.e. maintenance, Tax, MOT and insurance? In my own case, finding somewhere to park another car would be a problem as well.