Do You Know Who Your Service Rep Is? / You Need A Oil Pan

I arrived on Monday at Desert Toyota for a 5K mile service of oil change and tire rotation.  I did not set up an appointment in advance.  This is one of two Toyota dealers in Tucson.  I have been to both, and this one was a bit cheaper in the past.

My first step is to check in.  I parked the car in the service entrance and went inside.  I looked around to make eye contact.  At my regular dealership in Massachusetts I am greeted and checked in without getting out of the car.

After standing a bit looking helpless, I made eye contact with a guy behind a service podium.  I say hi and he asks me who my service rep is.  I say I don’t have one.  Have you been here before?  Yes. But it’s been a year.  He then tells me to get service I need to know who my service rep is.  I’m told to go to a help desk with two woman.

I went to the help desk and I was asked again who my rep is.  I don’t know.  Who made your appointment.  I answer that I’m a walk-in.  Have you been here before?  I answer yes about a year ago.  After some looking they found me in their system, not by name but by my cell number.  That information gave them my service rep as Katrina.  I’m told she had yet to arrive at work.  They called her on the phone and told me she would be in in a bit.  I was told to see Dennis.

So I go see Dennis, who was the guy who sent me to the two woman.  I gave him the story and info about Katrina..  he then directs me to the service manager to be checked in.

I go meet the manager and explained my situation that Katrina is my service rep but she is on her way and I was told you would check me in.  He said he would and did check me in. It took all of a couple minutes.

I’m thinking that this is a very convoluted process to put a customer through!

I was told it would be a couple of hours for my requested service.  So I waited in the waiting room above.

About an hour waiting the service manager came to talk.  He said that the oil plug is stripped out and it can’t be fixed.  He can get another oil pan delivered overnight so I should look for a place to stay the night.  

I explained that my home dealer had told me there was a problem with the oil pan but he fixed it and said it would be ok.  The service manager said what they did was put an oversized oil plug in and the threads in the oil pan they put in came out with the oversized oil plug and shows me the plug with threads stuck to it.

Above is a picture of a V6 Tacoma oil pan from an internet search.

Now I’m in a turmoil.  My camper is my home itellhim and Katrina.  I can’t stay on property with it the manager says as Katrina thought I might be able to..  The Gem show is in town and there are no affordable rooms.  

Above is a search on Travelocity for a room in Tucson for the night.

It was only 9:00 AM and the service manager says to me; “If you don’t mind not having a Toyota oil pan I can get an after market one from a place in Phoenix.”

I said do it!

It took until 4:15 PM to get the part delivered from Phoenix.  My Tacoma was all prepped for assembly when the part came in.  They needed 45 minutes to have the sealant cure.  I was out of the dealership with a $659.59 payment on my VISA about 5:15 PM.




I was given a feedback card but was perplexed about my experience.  There front end customer/service rep thing was terrible.  Their ability to think outside the box to get me going the same day was great.

But, what if?  What if I couldn’t have had my camper fixed the same day and I couldn’t stay with it?  What if there were no rooms in a hotel?  What would I have done?

I had a plan all worked out with contingencies.  You will hear about how I would handle that situation in another blog post.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com