Volvo of Orange County

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by Pat Durkin, Feb 22, 2005.

  1. Pat Durkin

    Pat Durkin Guest

    I left my 2001 S80 at this dealership to have them check why the driver's
    seat will move before I start the car but won't move after I've inserted the
    key and kicked over the engine. I also asked them to perform the fix for
    the faulty AM radio antenna design. At mid-morning the guy on the write-up
    desk called me and told me it would cost me $387.00 to have them correct
    Volvo's unfortunate antenna design! I was dumbfounded. True, the warranty
    had expired, but this was clearly a flaw that needed correction. I had
    expected it to be handled on a no-charge basis - or at the very least on a
    time and material basis (which I'm certain wouldn't exceed 2 hours labor and
    perhaps $10.00 in materials). But they decided to seize the opportunity to
    maximize their profitability.

    But that wasn't the worst.

    The worst came when he told me I needed a new controller for the driver's
    seat and that would cost me another $743.00!

    Hmmmm. Lemme see, $743.00 plus $387.00 equals $1,130.00. Damn! That's a
    lot of money, dude. On the other end of the phone line he said "So, can we
    start on your repairs?"

    NO! I said.

    "What? Well, we've got the car right here and can start on it right away"
    he said.

    No you can't, I said.

    "Well, I've got to tell you then that if you won't let us perform these
    repairs I'm going to charge you $100.00 for diagnosis" he said.

    DIAGNOSIS? Hell, you knew what the problem was when I dropped off the car,
    I said.

    "Yeah, well, we gotta make a buck" he said.

    Okay, pal. Enjoy your hundred dollars, but understand this...it's the last
    nickel you'll ever get out of me or my family, sez I.

    So I went and picked up my car - unrepaired - and gave them their C-note.

    Be advised - this dealership has underperformed for me since I bought the
    car new in '01. I regret ever having dealt with these clowns from the
    get-go. Particularly so, when compared to the great service a competing
    dealership (other brand) has done over the years with my other car.

    No more Volvos for me, and I hope none of you is dumb enough to do business
    with these scum.

    Pat
     
    Pat Durkin, Feb 22, 2005
    #1
  2. You should have been given a diagnostic estimate when you signed the repair
    order, in this case, $100. If you weren't, they are in violation of the
    laws enforced (vigorously, I might add) of the Bureau of Automotive Repair.

    So, the diagnostic charge "shouldn't" have been a surprise.

    Richard
     
    Richard Van Hoose, Feb 22, 2005
    #2
  3. Pat Durkin

    jg Guest

    Do you know what the parts cost? e.g. I got a Bosch price for an new
    alternator $1800AUS (but an electrician fixed it for $180). They might
    indeed be shonky but it's often a long way from something doesn't work to
    what's wrong with it, and what do you normally charge for your time? I have
    no reason to defend but I have to make a living in my own business - you've
    only told half the story.
     
    jg, Feb 23, 2005
    #3
  4. Pat Durkin

    Hal Whelply Guest

    Hmmm. I wonder if the service writer gave you the standard line about the
    survey you'll receive from Volvo, and how they (OC Volvo) find nothing less
    than "10s" acceptable, and want you to tell them where they fell short.

    I confess to having spent many hundreds of dollars there for maintenance and
    repair, but have not so far felt "ripped off"--just a "victim" of high Volvo
    repair prices. I will say the OC Volvo people have been consistently
    courteous.

    More than with any other car I've owned, our relationship with our Volvo is
    a love/hate thing. Very solid, substantial car, that's never stranded us so
    far. But for the money they cost, I don't understand why they can't achieve
    quality and reliability at least equal to Honda and Toyota. In some ways
    they seem surprisingly fragile. For example, why should front strut tower
    caps need replacement twice in 10K miles? I've NEVER had that happen, even
    once, on any other car. Why should an engine mount rubber bushing fall apart
    after about 50K miles? Again, never before happened in my experience. And
    the power driver's seat problem you had just shouldn't happen.
    (Incidentally, if you want to see something scary, just look at the stuff
    packed in under that seat sometime.)

    Even more amazing is the tendency of the faithful to make excuses for EVERY
    Volvo fault. And with straight faces! The argument generally comes down to
    this: "Japanese cars are made of thin sheet metal, and break down like any
    other car. You have a Volvo, and it may save your life." End of discussion.

    It's been an interesting ownership experience. We're not ready to dump our
    '01 S60 yet, but I'm not sure there will be a second Volvo in our car
    history, even given a generally good dealership experience. (If you want to
    know how it can be, just walk across the street to the VW dealership, where
    my son has had poor experiences with his car bought there, and the one time
    I walked in to look, in the market to buy, I was ignored.)

    HW
     
    Hal Whelply, Feb 23, 2005
    #4
  5. I've had 8 Volvos and have hated every one of them.

    Wouldn't drive anything else.
     
    Robert Lutwak, Feb 23, 2005
    #5
  6. contact the ca dept of automotive affairs, get the paper work for an
    appeal, and notify the
    dealer...tell them you want a FULL refund of ALL the $ you spent, or
    you will file an appeal...also, cc volvo of north americs outlining
    your beef and demmand...kick back a week or two and i would put $ on it
    you get your $ back...you can mung the dealers service dept record (ot
    threten to do so) and they will do anything to stop it...of course, i
    wouldn't take my car back to them///there are pleanty of good ind volvo
    shops in so cali...look around, talk to friends, join the local chapter
    of the volvo club of n america and find a honest shop...good luck !!
     
    ~^ beancounter ~^, Feb 23, 2005
    #6
  7. Pat Durkin

    Pat Durkin Guest

    I've signed a lot of repair orders over the years and they all had some sort
    of "estimate" amount at the bottom of the sheet - this one included - and in
    fact is WAS a round $100.00.

    So I leave, thinking that the seat and the antenna repairs which I have
    clearly delineated to the guy and he has no further need to "diagnose"
    because he and I both already KNOW what needs to be done - are going to cost
    me around $100.00 plus or minus.

    So, when he later calls and says $387.00 for the antenna and $743.00 for the
    seat, I was surprised and disappointed.

    Then after I declined his offer to repair them for the above price, and he
    said he'd have to charge me $100.00 anyway I guess I was a little taken
    aback. I asked him straight out - "So let me get this straight, Mike, are
    you telling me you're charging me $100.00 to tell me you want to overcharge
    me to fix these items?"

    He said "Yes".

    But let's not kid each other. There was no "diagnosis" involved. He knew
    full well when I left the dealership after agreeing to the $100.00 that he
    wasn't going to fix my car for $100.00. And he certainly didn't take the
    time to explain to me that the $100.00 was NOT the repair cost, but only an
    agreement on my part to pay him to call me later and let him tell me the
    REAL repair cost was going to be more than 11 times the cost on the estimate
    sheet. No - he didn't define it that way!

    So yes - I was and continue to be miffed.

    And I have no further patience for this dealer, who has more than once
    attempted to use predatory pricing policies on me, and, frankly - not always
    been entirely honest with me either (desite whether or not they were
    "courteous").

    For example: On one of my first trips in for normal servicing a couple of
    years ago when the car was still pretty new, I got a phone call about
    mid-morning from the service writer who stated "Mr Durkin our service
    technician has reported to me that your right front tire has a nail in the
    sidewall and we recommend you change that tire right now to avoid
    unnecessary risk to yourself and others. Do you want us to change the tire
    for you?" I asked how much. "$390.00" he replied.

    $390.00? I said. Are you kidding me? No. Absolutely not. Fill it with
    air and I'll be careful getting it home and I'll go buy a tire on my own.

    "We don't recommend that you do that sir. You may have a blowout on the way
    home."

    I'll worry about that, thank you very much.

    Fortunately I have a friend in the tire biz and I called him immediately and
    told him I needed a 225/50R17 Michelin MXM4, and did he have one in stock?
    He didn't but told me he'd have one for me in the morning, so the next
    morning I dropped the car by his shop and watched while his guys jacked my
    car up, removed the wheel and tire, broke the tire off the wheel and mounted
    the brand new tire. In the meantime, after the "old" tire came off, we
    looked at it closely and the nail was NOT in the sidewall at all, but rather
    on the flat part of the tread carcass and could have been repaired if need
    be --- but lo and behold --- it didn't even go through! It could have been
    pulled out and no air would have leaked! I now have that unmounted tire
    with 85% of its original tread left in my storage shed at home. It could
    have safely been remounted and re-used, but I didn't want to "stick" my
    friend with a single oddball tire to stick in his inventory because of this
    unexpected outcome. A testimony to a service tech who wanted a commission
    for selling a tire.

    And BOY! What a MARKUP Volvo of Orange County had in that $390.00 price!
    I admit, I am pretty friendly with the dealer who sold me the replacement,
    but he showed me his invoice from the tire warehouse he got it from and I
    just paid him what he paid. I saved $185.00. I'm sure Volvo of OC could
    buy the tire from the same wholesaler that my friend did, and I'm sure
    they'd get the same price he got, and they marked it up 90%!

    Geez. Everybody's got to make money. There's nothing wrong with that. I
    do it myself and I'm not ashamed of a modest margin. But NINETY PERCENT!?
    On a tire that didn't need replacing in the FIRST place?

    Uh, maybe not.

    But Volvo of OC probably gets by with that kind of thing with most of its
    customers. In this particular situation I happened to have resources and
    discovered what they were doing. I wound up spending $205.00 that I didn't
    need to spend - but at least I had the satisfaction of knowing none of it
    went into their pocket.

    So why did I go back on this antenna thing?

    Well, because I knew it was a common problem and that Volvo Corporate issued
    a Service Bulletin to its dealers quite a while ago outlining the simple
    cure for the problem --- essentially an admission by Volvo that it had a
    problematic design. I naively assumed that since it was such a simple fix
    that shouldn't take more than a couple of hours - tops - that even if it
    wasn't paid for under warranty or on a policy basis, at least I could get it
    done inexpensively. $387.00? That's predatory.

    $743.00 for the seat controller? That's predatory.

    These guys are scum.

    Pat
     
    Pat Durkin, Feb 24, 2005
    #7
  8. the volvo dealers are always trying to cover their high overhead....i
    used to, but now i hardly ever
    go to a dealer for anything....except to test drive the latest "R" mdl
    of course....they have to pay
    for the shop somehow.....but...find a good independent...i used to live
    is so cali and i thought there
    were some good shops around costa mesa.....anyway...good luck
    !!!...shop the net for volvo parts
    and the dealers will someday get the mssg.......as their parts sales
    drop off.....

    richard
    colorado
     
    ~^ beancounter ~^, Feb 24, 2005
    #8
  9. Pat Durkin

    Pat Durkin Guest

    I don't think so. If that were true, it would have happened long ago.

    I'm being careful not to include ALL Volvo dealers in a blanket
    condemnation. I'm sure there are some that are awful but I'm equally sure
    there are some that do a better overall job with farer pricing policies than
    Volvo of OC. I just think V of OC has had its business model in place long
    enough to know what they can get away with the majority of the time, and
    they are quite prepared to accept the loss of a few more descriminating
    service customers, as long as they can continue to get away with hosing the
    majority of them.

    And all the while, they are "courteous".

    But let's not confuse that with being honest.

    Pat

    PS - Just so that none of the dyed-in-the-wool Volvo loyalists feel the need
    to defend the marque - don't. I'm not attacking Volvo. My S80 is adequate.
    It's not a terrible car even if I AM bit disappointed in certain things now
    that I've had it three years.

    ps/ps --- I also own a '98 Mercedes C230 sedan that we bought new at Calibre
    Motors --- up the 55 Freeway a few miles from Volvo of OC. In the 8 years
    I've owned that car I have had a few mostly small problems too - nothing's
    perfect - but my satisfaction levelwith THAT dealer is 100% higher overall
    than it is with Volvo of OC. Hell, among other things, Calibre Motors will
    even WASH MY CAR EVERYDAY FOR FREE! No questions asked.
     
    Pat Durkin, Feb 24, 2005
    #9
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