S. O. P. for servicewriter error?
I've been taking my truck to 5 Star for the past two and a half years for all warranty work and service. Oil changes, rotations etc. have been covered under a service agreement since it was new. So I call my usual servicewriter to find out what needs to be done, but he no longer works there, I get a new guy who tells me it's time for oil change and tire rotation. Fine with me, I ask him if this is covered by the service agreement (because 5 Star puts their own reminder sticker on the windshield for every 3 months or 5000 miles, but Ford specifies 6 months/7500 miles) so I want to make sure its the one that's paid for. New guy confirms it is and I make an appointment the next day.
Take the truck in at 8 AM. New guy calls me at 10 and tells me its ready to go. He calls back at 11:30 and says there's a problem. My service agreement apparently expired 6 months ago. :confused:This was news to me, cause I thought it was for the full 3/36 term. So he says that's what is holding it up. "so it's not done?" I asked.
"No, the paperwork came through and held it up". I reminded him that he called earlier and said it was done. He comes back and says, "sorry, they already did the work". So I reminded him that the time to inform me the service agreement had expired would have been yesterday, or even that morning when I brought the truck in, but not now after the work was done. He said something about eating this one and I figured by that he meant the service department.
When I picked up the truck, the cashier gave me a receipt, with the payment information highlighted in yellow showing the servicewriter's name and paid by Discover.
It would appear that he really did "eat this one". Is this a common practice with dealerships where the employees are personally liable for their mistakes? What if it was $500 or $1000? (this one was over $100)
I didn't mean for this guy to pay out of his pocket, even though it was his error, and when the dealership did their friendly followup call to make sure I was satisfied, I had to bite my lip to keep from saying anything that might create a problem for him. I figure $100 is alot of money to him, to Sam Pack its a couple of cigars. Seems chicken$hit to me.
