it would be really cool if you guys would do brief recaps of the videos you post. im at work (hahah i know...so productive) and can't watch movies but i really wanna see what happened...

I had a Chevrolet dealer (Bill Heard Chevrolet in Sugar Land, TX) try to screw me similarly.

I went in to have my air conditioner compressor replaced (it was under warranty, as they had put in a new one less than 9 months prior). Even though it was experiencing the exact same problems it did when they replaced it the first time, they claimed it was a completely different problem altogether.

THEN, my car was slow to start for them, which caused them to diagnose a failing fuel pump. Do you know what the real problem was? I WAS LOW ON GAS.

These fuckers tried to charge me $1,200 to fix two (nonexistent) problems, so I took it somewhere else for a second opinion, but not before they held my car hostage for a $70 diagnosis fee.

The mechanic I took it to said I had a minor leak in freon (from the compressor that the dealership, because of the warranty, should have serviced for FREE) and needed a new battery. I was fixed up for less than $100. LESS THAN $100! And the problems that the Chevrolet dealer dreamed up still wouldn't have done anything constructive, $1,200 later.

I chewed out the service manager and got my $70 diagnosis fee back, plus an apology. I'm currently in the process of shopping for a new car and I've avoided them like the plague.

I can only agree; went in to the dealership twice for two different cars. One was for a buick owned by my dad, it had transponder keys. At the dealership they wanted 90 dollars for the key blank and 40 dollars to 'program it'.

Solution: Went to a roaming locksmith who sort of screwed me on the wait so he went down to 35 per key I wanted versus charging me $50 dollars that he originally wanted. I got 2 keys made for $70 dollars. He didn't charge me for programming since all it was was putting the key in this machine that beeped after a second. He then tried the keys and since they worked; we each went our separate ways.

My brother had a pontiac grand am gt and the shifter cable had lost its nut and washer. The hardware was pretty hard to jury rig since any nut and washer he tried to get in there would fall out after a while; so he decided he might buy the nut and washer until he heard the price. It would have cost 400 dollars to order the parts; they wouldn't just order the nut and washer that were needed. We left and he sold the car; pretty much the mechanic who bought it went to a junkyard and bought the pieces for like less than 10 bucks; most of that is because junkyards here have to charge for an environmental fee or some such; this could of course be some scam but whatever. This is sort of a weak case but trying to force him to buy 400 dollars worth of parts in order to get a special nut and washer just seemed dumb.

I've worked (and am currently working) in the automotive service industry, both for independents and a dealership. The unscrupulous dealers will have issues like this where they get techs that don't want to be bothered to diagnose properly and tricky service writers that will (up)sell the excessive or unnecessary repairs that result. What does surprise me a little is the rate the man paid for his pebble to be removed from the moonroof. A minimum of 2 hours charge is a bit steep with a shop rate that's around the $70 per hour seen here. I doubt it took 2 hours to fix, and in the name of honest service and good will a really great shop would charge 1 hour at most or even do it free.
The shop I work in now has done as much, because it's right. You'll be paid well for such negligible 'free' work, with repeat customers and an excellent reputation.

There's a joke that goes:

A man took his car into a repair shop because his engine was making a funny grating noise. The repairman opened the hood and looked around with a flashlight. Then he grabbed a rubber mallet and banged on the engine a few times. He told the car's owner to go ahead and start the engine, and lo and behold! No more funny grating noise!

When the satisfied car owner went to the cashier to pay, he was astonished to see his bill. $143.00!! He went over to the repairman, and demanded, "Hey, what the hell? All you did was hammer on the engine!"

The repairman calmly replied, "Yes, that's true. Here, let me itemize this for you." Taking the bill from the customer's hand, he explained, "I charged you $3 for pounding on the engine with the rubber mallet... and $140 for knowing where to pound, how hard to pound, and when to stop pounding."

What I really appreciated about this particular "caught in the act" video is that even though the customer was "as livid as he can be" (as he said in the video), he was relatively calm and quite professional about confronting the service department with this ridiculous charge. No screaming or unnecessary accusations whatsoever, which is such a rarity these types of confrontations, and he still managed to make the dealership look like total morons. Kudos!

I learned my lesson about dealerships last year, when I paid $150 for diagnostics on my BMW, only to have them tell me I needed over $4000 worth of repairs. After I told them I was taking the car to another shop for a second opinion, they ceased to further discuss anything in detail, and refused to print up a copy of the diagnostics results for me. I got it fixed for half the cost of the dealership's estimate at an independent shop down the street. No dealerships ever again!

While I am not a fan of the dealer (I am an independent shop manager) I see this situation like this:

The Tech works on the same model vehicle day in and day out and has seen this problem 49 times all with the same result after diagnosis (ie: moonroof pooched). The 50th time he sees it he shortens his diagnostic routine, hearing the motor trying to move the roof to no avail and assumes the same result as all the other 49 moonroof problems. These things can happen. And let's say that when the Tech does go in to do the work and see the rock, he simply removes it and finds that was the entire problem.
Mercedes' philososphy is when there is problem with any system in their vehicles, replace the system completely, regardless of condition of the rest of the components. For Example: Front brake pads are worn, replace pads, calipers, rotors, hoses, seals etc. They do this because their customer drives a Mercedes, the perfect car in their opinion, and Mercedes will not let a vehicle of their's be subpar.

All I hear on the video is Mercedes on broadway, why didn't he promote the other guy who saved him all this money? Typical complainer..... never help the guy who did you right.

Morale of the story to the tech: never assume, always diagnose as exact as possible.

Not unexpected, actually.

It happens more often then you think.

I have always kept my cars serviced at the exact same Broadway service location until up to recently. You have to book them weeks in advance because they are just so damn busy.

And in all that frenzy, the service guys just don't take the time and investigate the problems in depth. They always advise to replace the whole subsystem.

One time, I had the entire radiator replaced for 5 billion dollars (it seemed like it at the time). When the problem didn't go away, it was only then they discovered the problem was just a hose to the windshield fluid reservoir (a minor repair). They were apologetic and offered to fix the problem minus the labour cost. But still, I ended up paying for a whole new radiator which was unneeded. And that was not the only time this kinda thing happened to me at the same dealership.

So now, I take my business to independent mechnical shops that specialize in Europian makes. And to this date, I still haven't found one that I feel comfortable with. They are all overpriced for their level of competency, in my opinion.

I have a chevy. I just bought it and the moonroof completely stopped working. I's clicking, so I assume there's power going to it but I'm hoping it was something this simple because I pent every last penny on this car and all of my paycheck is going to insurance. If it's costly or anything more complex than a pebble then I'm S-O-L. Gotta love a chevy... Oh, and did I mention that the passenger door won't open from the inside and the CD Player skips?