Hesser Toyota

I waited just over an hour today in the Janesville Hesser Toyota Service Department for my car's oil to be changed this morning. A day prior I phoned ahead and made this appointment for the oil change - scheduled for 10:30 AM September 4th, 2014. I questioned the phone attendant what does a prior made appointment afford me...his response - our technicians will service your car immediately with no excessive waiting. This apparently did not happen. While I waited another customer arrived after me, waited with me and then finished before me...15 minutes before me. My intent for this oil change was just that...IN AND OUT QUICK AND EASY OIL CHANGE. I asked for NOTHING ELSE - no points to be checked, no filters to be checked just a simple oil change! Very disappointed with the service. When leaving I asked if a one hour oil change is normal and the service rep had the nerve to say "YES". Are you kidding me?

Review: On 09/02/14 we brought our 2004 Toyota Sequoia into [redacted] Toyota to address a noise in the front end. After an inspection, the sales advisor from [redacted] called and told us that we needed a new wheel bearing and quoted me ([redacted]) over $800. My husband immediately thought that this quote was way too high so he called our long term and trusted dealer out of Illinois, Continental Toyota. Our technician from Continental Toyota researched the repair on our behalf and told us that [redacted] was high by 100%! Because of our relationship, our technician from Continental Toyota volunteered to call the advisor from [redacted] to question the quote. Continental questioned which labor guide [redacted] was using to quote our repair because he told them they were high by double. [redacted]'s advisor chuckled and said that she would have caught the error before I paid for the vehicle. Yeah right! She's saying she would have collected only $450 when she could have gotten $850 from an unsuspecting consumer?? That was the first indication that [redacted] Toyota's service department was incompetent but now that the quote was corrected we approved the repair. A day later [redacted] called to say the repair was complete and I ([redacted]) went to pay for and pick up the vehicle.

In the days after getting the vehicle home we felt the truck still didn't sound right so we wanted to go to someone we trusted to take another look. We drove the vehicle 2 hours south of our new home in Wisconsin to return to Continental Toyota in Hodgkins, IL. Upon inspection our tech at Continental told us that [redacted] Toyota had torn our CV boot while doing our repair which allowed all of the grease to drain from the brand new bearing that we just purchased from [redacted]. What's more, Continental told us that [redacted] left our Air Box completely disassembled. Continental Toyota documented all of this with notes and photos. We asked Continental Toyota to call [redacted] Toyota to work out reimbursement to repair the "repair" . Either [redacted] should reimburse us directly for the first repair and we would pay Continental to do it right or [redacted] should pay Continental to fix their mistake. After a couple of days of waiting for a response (and racking up a rental car charge) [redacted] refused to do either. Since we needed the repair and we trusted Continental, we asked them to go ahead and correct [redacted]'s mistake and get our truck fixed properly.

After paying Continental for the repair and the rental car, my husband Dr. [redacted] called Mr. [redacted] to recap what happened and get his response which included trying to fleece me with an inflated repair bill as well as the bad mechanical repair that actually left our truck worse off then when we brought it in. Mr. [redacted] never apologized for the botched repair job and the poor service we received from start to finish. Instead, he suggested #1) that because I signed for the vehicle at the time of pick up that I was accepting the work as complete and satisfactory. Let us get this straight…. Mr. [redacted] is suggesting that I should have asked the technician to put the truck back up on the lift, remove the wheel again and show me the repair??? Me? With absolutely no automotive repair training? This is the first insight to how inane Mr. [redacted] really is. He then accused Continental Toyota of sabotaging [redacted]'s repairs and fabricating the botched job. He refused to take ownership of his technicians mistake and instead tried to blame a very reputable dealership of being in collusion with us. He then suggested that if we would drive the truck back to him, they would take another look at it. At this point our truck was 3 hours away from [redacted] Toyota and Mr. [redacted] was suggesting that we drive the truck back to his dealership to see if the 3rd time would be the charm. Drive the vehicle with no grease int the bearing? Is he serious? That would not only put us, the occupants, in danger but it would also further damage the truck. But this is what Mr. [redacted] suggested in all his brilliance and wisdom. It quickly became clear that this dealership was incompetent from the top down. We had to challenge Mr. [redacted]'s wisdom several times before he finally decided that driving the truck would be a bad idea and agreed to flat bed our Sequoia at his expense 3 hours north to allow [redacted] a 3rd chance to make a good impression. After considering this offer, we decided that since the truck was already at Continental and because we completely trust Continental that we wanted them to do the repair. At this point we don't trust [redacted] from a technical standpoint nor an ethical one.

[redacted] Toyota does not want to compensate us because they said they offered to flat bed and fix the car (or at least look at it).Desired Settlement: We want 100% of the cost of the repair that [redacted] did (didn't do) reimbursed $451.34. We also want reimbursement for all of the gas that we used going to and from both dealerships. We made 4 trips to and from [redacted] Toyota (the Sequoia plus our chaser car) which is 31 miles each way for a total of 124 miles. This represents 7.29 gallons or $24.72. We also want reimbursement for the gas spent going to and from Continental Toyota to get the truck properly repaired. That trip is 102 miles each way for a total of 408 miles (Sequoia plus chaser car) which comes to $106.08. In addition I want reimbursement for two days of rental car while our Truck was being correctly repaired by Continental and while Continental waited to see if [redacted] was going to pay them directly for the repair. In summary, we want reimbursement for every dollar that we had to spend because we decided to walk through [redacted] Toyota's doors on October 2nd. [redacted] Toyota not only did not fix our vehicle, but they cost us a lot of time, gas and aggravation in the process as well as the costs of having [redacted]'s damage repaired at Continental Toyota. Although we are entitled to it, we are no requesting reimbursement for our time which includes 4 trips to and from [redacted] and four trips between Continental Toyota and Lake Geneva plus the time on the phone with Mr. [redacted], multiple phone calls to Toyota Corporate and al the time it has taken me to file this complaint here and with other agencies and websites.

Business

Response:

I have previously spoken to [redacted]. It was a one way conversation with Mr. [redacted] screaming at me on the phone for an extended time. It made communication very difficult.

I offered to inspect his vehicle and repair it at our expense if the problem was caused by something we did. In order to appease Mr. [redacted] I offered to transport the vehicle at our expense from Continental Toyota.

Everything I said was turned around and Mr. [redacted] accused me of saying things I did not say. It was an extremely difficult conversation.

We offered to verify and address this complaint at our expense. The customer has refused to allow us to do this. Because of this I can do nothing to help them.

I contacted Hesser Toyota after receiving a quote for a 2016 Highlander at another dealership. They said they could match the offer I had gotten. Great, we basically walked and and gave them the easiest sale ever. Worked with a guy named Ron who seemed very honest and sincere. After finally waiting a while I called Ron and asked if he had the purchase agreement yet. He told me he would get it over to me later in the afternoon but we discussed the final numbers over the phone. I noticed immediately that we were over our quoted price, which again, they said they would match from a previous dealer. I mentioned this to Ron and he chalked it up to extra taxes and that he "forgot" to add in the license plate transfer fee. Mind you, we were quoted at an out the door price, which should have included all taxes, fees, etc. I brushed it off and got home later that night, after him failing to get the purchase agreement to the bank more than 4 hours after I asked for it, and realized he was completely lying about matching the price. The purchase price and taxes alone were already over our out the door quote. I emailed Ron and laid out what the costs should look like (have to help him with his job) and he wrote back that he had talked to his general manager and that the changes would be made and Jeff the GM would get the new agreement over to the bank. Never happened. So I call again, explain to Jeff what is going on, that I have written proof that the updated agreement was supposed to be to the bank. Jeff proceeds to tell me that they never authorized Ron to go to that price he quoted me and that he was never going to be sending an updated agreement. Despite me having this in writing, Jeff writes "Must have been some miscommunication. We never said we would do $34,700. I will put the Highlander back on lot. Sorry for the miscommunication. Thanks, Jeff" Umm...miscommunication? It is clear as day what was supposed to happen as IT'S IN WRITING! I proceeded to now have to try and help the GENERAL MANAGER do his job by telling him what a good business person would do is say my guy messed up, I can't budge on price but I can give you a $250 gas card to make up the difference from what you were quoted. Ever so professional Jeff responds "Vehicle is not here yet and yes we will offer it for sale" as in they are putting it on the lot for sale once it arrives. DO NOT waste your time with this dealership. Their slogan is "no games, no gimmicks, no kidding" except all you get is games and gimmicks, and I am really not kidding.