Dealer labor rate question.

Anthony

Anthony

Club Member
Dropped off truck, has 48k miles on it, was missing bad above 4k rpm. That was my "complaint". Also had a noise from under the hood when first started then goes away after 10-20 sec. Like something wasn't disengaging. Not the starter.

Bought extended warranty from the dealer.

Pick truck up. Charged $520.

100 for the warranty co pay or whatever it's called.

So it's at $420 now, warrantied the air pump I think it was.

Charged $52 for plugs and


$337 labor to r&it plugs @ 4.5 hours!

So I got to calling a few friends who work at other dealers, large repair chain etc. all 3 use the same "labor book" that is from what I understand, the same the dealer uses. All 3 said 1.4 hours labor that would be rounded to 1.5 Hours.

Am I missing something?

Other measures were taken to drop the bill, but it came out of someone's pocket it should not have had to.

I'm looking for answers to the labor issue and at under 50k can plugs be warrantied? They claim they are 100k platinum iridium unobtainum spark plugs.

I understand plugs are a wear item, but the same place warrantied leaking struts, another wear item.

Any ideas? Am I just totally wrong?

One of the guys I called said, that job is $200 parts and labor plus tax. Hidsight 20/20 but I'm past that now.

Did the tech just really need to pay off a bill? Or did he charge all the labor to that and zero to the air pump problem?
 
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A tech can charge what ever he wants if its a customer pay job & the customer ok's it. In some cases the tech will try n blow the customer out of the water so can get out of a job he doesn't like doing.
 
svtserpent said:
A tech can charge what ever he wants if its a customer pay job & the customer ok's it. In some cases the tech will try n blow the customer out of the water so can get out of a job he doesn't like doing.
Click to expand...

Yeah. And if I recall correctly, when I was a tech; ESP is a whole nother animal compared to a factory warranty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I've never seen plugs covered past 3yr/36k bumper to bumper warranty. ESP's are a little weird in the fact that most will cover struts (wear item), but most will not cover shocks (same basic thing). As for the amount of labor charge, they probably have tune-ups as a menu item where the labor amount is set. I say that because at 4.5hrs, you'd pay a fair deal more than 337.00.
 
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When I bought the warranty it was supposed to be an extension of the factory ford warranty. I bought the truck with 14k miles on it. From the ford dealer.

I never ok'ed it really. Slight miscommunication with service writer and salesman. I was told it was covered.

I'm not pointing fingers. The salesman stood up big time, but I believe the Charges are inflated or totally incorrect or should have been covered. To where the salesman should of not have had to pay out of pocket or call in a favor or make a special deal. It made my pocket better in the end, but I still beleive it's wrong on the service part
 
Anthony said:
When I bought the warranty it was supposed to be an extension of the factory ford warranty. I bought the truck with 14k miles on it. From the ford dealer.

I never ok'ed it really. Slight miscommunication with service writer and salesman. I was told it was covered.

I'm not pointing fingers. The salesman stood up big time, but I believe the Charges are inflated or totally incorrect or should have been covered. To where the salesman should of not have had to pay out of pocket or call in a favor or make a special deal. It made my pocket better in the end, but I still beleive it's wrong on the service part
Click to expand...

PremiumCare, if that's your ESP, is the best coverage you can get on your Ford, past the 3yr/36K warranty. That being said, while many salespeople tout it as 'an extension to your bumper to bumper warranty' and 'it covers everything', is just simply not true. Like I said, it is the best ESP you can buy, but it does not cover things like spark plugs, brake rotors, shocks, most trim items, window seals, and other misc things. If the salesman told you that 'it covers everything', than IMO, he deserves to pay for it, as that is simply not the case. There are a lot of people like you out there though that think that ESP is like factory warranty, some do not even realize that most policies have a deductible. Then the service dept looks like the bad guy trying to pull one over on you.
 
Oh, and also if the Advisor did not get your approval for the repairs, I wouldn't feel bad in the least about them having to adjust/eat part of the bill. Without your approval, they could technically be liable for all the bill except what you signed for on the original repair order when they wrote you up. Just sayin.
 
I will tell you that my girl had the same exact thing happen with her GM CPO.

She bought an extended warranty. She just called GM and complained. They gave her a claim number and everything was taken care of without any out of pocket expense to her.
 
Was there a charge for sized/broken plugs? I swear Ford has the most retarded spark plug engineering department ever, like seriously, how fucking hard is it?
As stated they need your approval to do that work if it's not covered, so what likely happened is the salesman and advisor went to the service manager, he went to the tech, they made some kind of deal for all the fucking up that led to the charges. Really I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, but I also wouldn't go back there for service if you don't have to.
 
In this case IF you stomp your feet enough I think they will take care of you. They have money put aside for issues like this.
 
I think a few people really hit the nail on the head but here is the course of action I would take and have seen taken in many dealerships I have worked in....

First, did you AUTHORIZE any repairs? The dealer is required to present you with a price for parts/labor and must stay within 10% of the estimated quote or they have to get another customer approval.

Second, you signed your ESP and I know its in the fine print but I would call your salesperson and inquire then talk to the finance officer (the one you sit down with do sign the paperwork, the same one who upsells warranties and extra crap, ask them too)

Third, if you make no ground, call the General Manager and explain what is going on, tell them you feel like youve been taken advantage of and youre taking your business elsewhere.

Fourth, call Fords customer service line and explain what is going on. If you are in the right, they will back you but it will take time.

Do these in this order because you are laying the groundwork in the correct order to avoid a clusterfuck. Ask them why and tell them how you price shopped and see what they say
 
This is 100% my fault. There was a miscommunication between the advisor and myself. He said the truck needed plugs, I said "OK", he perceived that Anthony saying "OK" because I'm normally the go between for my customers and the service dept. I contacted Anthony letting him know it needed plugs and to find out if there were any special instructions. At this point he asked if they were covered, I didn't know (now I do, plugs are considered a wear item and they are not covered under any warranty even emissions) said I would get with the advisor. He asked about other item that might need to addressed, my assumption(again 100% my fault) was that the advisor would be contact Anthony about the plugs and the other issues. Again the advisor knowing I always get involved when my customers are in service figured we had spoken.

Once the truck was done Mike (the service advisor) called Anthony to let him know it was done. Anthony came in yesterday got the bill and came to my desk to question the cost. Again still thinking they had talked I called Mike (the service advisor) up to my desk, I told him that I would pay half the bill. I wasn't until I saw this last night did I realize that they hadn't. I told Mike to call Anthony to explain the situation, I don't know if they spoke because I had a customer late and Mike was gone by the time I left. So all in all Anthony paid for half of the bill plus his $100 deductible for the warranty items covered under his extended warranty.

The labor came straight from our Reynolds & Reynolds system, it's calls for 3.5hrs on R&R of the spark plugs plus the 1.0hr diag. We charge $100 an hour for labor, but Mike discounted it to $75.00 because it was Anthony.

Again this was 100% my fault, but the labor charged was not out of order, it was standard labor charges for the work performed.


From now I will be there is no miscommunication between the service dept, the customer and myself, I will still be the go between because I believe a good salesman provides service after the sale. I can say this is the first time I've had a problem like this in the last 15yrs of selling cars. There was no "price gouging" or "running a bill up" it was a simple mistake on my part.
 
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