Recall, Make Sure You Are Not The First One.

[rickers]

HI;

I have just come back from my local dealership LODERS/ Yeovil, where i went in reply to the recall letter received.

Booked the car in on monday, so they were aware of iit, and could order any parts needed. As it turned out all was needed was a download from Toyota and some grease.

Now you could be mistaken that they would be clever enough to do so before any customer arrives, but no i was wrong there, they do it after the customer arrives.

It took 1 hour before the car made it into the garage.

+ 2 hours for the work, nice and late, and as it rained there was nowhere to go.

And the best thing after 2 hours they come up to me waiting in the 'very' attractve lobbey, saying that the doewnload don't work, and i will have to come back

What a total waste of my afternoon, just becuase off a recall, which the dealers get paid for by toyota, so in effect i am a paying customer, just the bill gets settled by Toyota.

And then they have the cheek to ask me to pick the car up from my place of work somewhere next week (35 mile roundtrip) crap roads, and they only have two Prius's booked in so they cant be two familiar to the controls of the car. No thanks, i dont want the car to potentialy end up like the Lotus Exige in Exeter earlier this month.

(total loss in case anybody wonders.

So the only thing i can say make sure that the doenload is done before you drop your car off. otherwise it might not happen.

I'm NOT impressed. They have to do better then that, or at least throw in a few worth wile goodies.

And its not the first time that this dealership has let me down.

- test drive in a Corolla for my wife. found thet the car was on the forecourt with the oil beraly reaching the dipstick.

- when we were looking at the Prius, for my dad, who's car it is, and the fact he only had a limited timescale to look at it, as he had come over for a few days from Holland. As it turned out the car whch was shared between 3 dealerships at the time had bene taken by ione of the salesmen who was going on holiday. It just stood idel at the airport car park. Needless to say they lost the sale.

I'll speak to the delaler principle on Monday and then well see. they said the petrol will be replenished when they do pick it up. well see

any body else had the same trouble?

rickers

[Braindead]

Let you know on Monday evening.... :(

[SilverT4]

The recall coincided with my 30k service so had them both done together.

Left the car with them most of the day so don't know how long the re-programming took, but the letter did say two and a half hours.

Got the usual bottle of champagne, plus complete inside and outside valet, plus £10 petrol - all courtesy of Toyota!

[rickers]

Silver;

Who is you dealer?

On the Friday they said they will pick up the car and drop it off, and replenish the petrol, but as it is a 30ish mile roundtrip to work, i'm not sure if i want to take the risk.

No further soother as yet.

Will email the dealer principal later.

is upsets me as i could have spend the time looking for a solliceter (sp) for my dad's and mine combined house buy, which was more important, but the friday was the only day i could make it.

rickers

[Braindead]

Just picked my Prius up after the ECU re-programming.

No Champagne

No fuel top-up

It was valeted though some half-wit fastened all the seat belts. Is this the automotive equivalent of folding toilet paper to a nice point, hotel style? Need not have bothered - I just had to go round undoing them all! I guess they also find it funny to change the temperature control to 18c and move the seat so I could hardly get in.

Not impressed but, sadly, nor am I surprised.

Work carried out at:

Inchcape Derby. Oh joy

Needless to say, email sent

[SilverT4]

Silver;

Who is you dealer?

←

RRG - Bury.

I did have a slight 'disagreement' with them on my last service, so I think they were going out of their way to keep me happy.

[Braindead]

It was valeted though some half-wit fastened all the seat belts. Is this the automotive equivalent  of folding toilet paper to a nice point, hotel style? Needless to say, email sent 

←

I got a reply.

The seatbelts are joined up so the Customer can see that this particular 'Visual Safety Report' safety aspect/point has been carried out. I am sorry but amazed you find this amusing............................................When you start posting comments on the Toyota Owner's club site calling our Toyota Prius Technician a 'Half wit' you make a personal attack. He was simply carrying out his work as he is trained by Toyota GB.

I apologise to the individual concerned - he was just following orders it seems. That implies that someone somewhere has written a procedure that states the belts should be left like that. Yes, someone actually thought "Shall we do all the belts up?".

Maybe ticking the box on the visual safety report labelled "Seatbelts" would be a good indication of whether the check was done. But that box wasn't ticked....easier to fasten all the belts I guess.

Strange that this didn't happen when they did a Visual Safety Check when the car had it's 30K service a few weeks ago? Maybe this is a recent inovation? Progress!

[ecodoc]

Got my recall letter last week. Rang bateman`s Toyota(Grange-over-Sands Cumbria) and arranged to bring it in today at 1.30pm.

Also mentioned to them about the brake light switch recall and they said they would check before I brought the car in.

Asked for a loan car,they asked me if I had bought the car from them(NO) and said they would see what they could do.

Turned up today at 1.30, arrived at the service desk.Polite and helpful chap booked the car in and said that they neede to do the brakelight switch as well.

Given a Yaris (hey ho!) and asked to return at 4.30pm.

Back on time,works completed along with visual safety check(but no still buckled belts!).

Tank topped up and a bottle of champagne! :D

All in all one of the best car dealership experiences I`ve had.

Lets hope it`s repeated in the New Year when I need a service!!

[anmida]

:D I have just had the recall done on my PRIUS by T.N.S. ST Ives, it took a morning to do,I they gave me a courtesy car cleaned my car inside and out and left a bottle of Champagne on the seat and put ten pounds of petrol in the tank. Polite, hassle free service. Well done T.N.S. and Toyota!

[jane-b]

I keep my seat belts done up in the rear to stop any items coming through the back seats in any emergency deceleration.

My other half seen it on one of the car programmes and it makes sense to me.

It’s hardly the crime of the century for the garage to do up the seat belts.

[rickers]

got in touch with the dealer principal, on tuesday, and explained why i wasn't happy. also linked this thread, as it probablty expressed better how i thought at the time, and to make them aware that we do keep each other informed.

went in for the retry today. dealer principal, got the group MD involved, so ended up having a constructive chat with him. he wasn't happy with some of the words used, and i had let myself go there, so i promised to edit them which is done.

got a courtesy car as requested. thought they were a bit cheeky to request fuel top-up on this car, as they offered to drive 40 miles roundtrip to pick the car up and replenish fuel. i did them a favour to bring it in, as they didn't have to send someone on the road for a 2x 1,5 hour roundtrip.

anyway they did the deed, and allseems well niow, funny thing was when i picked the car up the Battery was nearly empty, i never had it that low. did this happen to the others?

perks:

£10 fuel, yes, no top up though as i had three bars left when i brough it in.

wash, yes

champangne, yes

courtesy car, yes, Corolla diesel, nice drive, bit of a clunky clutch, but 50mpg and a five door as requested

comparing it with what has been offerd above, it seems pretty average to me, despite the fact they wanted to make it a better experience.

verdict, they tried.

Rickers

[Braindead]

I keep my seat belts done up in the rear to stop any items coming through the back seats in any emergency deceleration.

My other half seen it on one of the car programmes and it makes sense to me.

It’s hardly the crime of the century for the garage to do up the seat belts.

←

You are, of course, right...not crime of the century. It's just the straw that broke the camel's back. Lots of small anoyances.

Still no champagne or fuel top up. They said I should have asked for it. I guess they missed the point.

[ecodoc]

More +ve feedback for Batemans Toyota.

They dropped a `new` Prius Manual through my letter box with a compliments slip and a very appologetic letter from Toyota UK re-the need for mods.

Keep up the good work