New Century Ford ripped off a 77 year old woman who is hard of hearing and recently widowed, by selling her service she didn't need Ripoff San Gabriel California

Mary, wow, this is sleaze at it's best (worst?). Intentionally ripping off the elderly - have they no scruples? (Excuse me for asking a DUMB question....)

OK, you have some homework to do. You need to investigate whether the State of California mandates that a repair facility MUST contact the owner of a vehicle if repairs exceed a certain amount. Where I live, if you take your car in for servicing, if the repair bill is a certain amount over the estimate, they are legally bound to call you to get permission to do the repairs. They can't just run up the bill. So, you must find out if a similar law exists in your state.

Now, suppose CA has such a law, and the dealership didn't abide by it. Armed with this information, I would suggest that you go back and talk to the GM again. Advise him that it appears to you that they BROKE THE LAW. Be vocal about it. Threaten to get an attorney to right the wrong. Remember though, they appear to be sleazeballs, so they might counter that they DID tell your mother about the extra charges, and, well, being elderly, maybe she agreed without understanding. Or she may have been intimidated into agreeing.

In any event, I would go back to the dealership - don't go alone, bring some of your brothers/sisters -- and raise a BIG stink no matter what went down originally. Taking advantage of the elderly is just plain LOW. No wonder car dealers have the reputations that they do.

Good luck.

Actually California has some of strongest laws regarding auto repair, and yes they do need your authorization before any additional work is done that exceeds the original estimated price.

I don't know all of the details but it does appear that they did the additional work without an oral or written authorization from your mother. This is actually very common at the dealership, as most people will not speak up at a dealership, but will at an independent shop. So most of the time they get away with it, I guess they figure why not try!

Unfortunately I am sure that your mother signed a repair order when she picked up her car. Although it is required that you authorize the repairs before work is done, almost every shop will make you sign the final bill before picking up the vehicle. So in that case, it is hard to prove that additional repairs were done without her approval since she signed her authorization on the final bill. She should have spoken up then, but I do understand why she didn't since she was caught off gaurd.

Did she happen to get a written estimate for the oil change only? Before they added anything else? If she has that paperwork it is much easier to prove. In that case, they must note on the final bill how she authorized additional repairs and what they were.

Either way you can file a complaint against the shop. The States website is smogcheck.ca.gov and you can find a complaint form. While you are there you can read about the laws and regulations the BAR has for auto repair in California so you can be better prepared when you speak to the manager, and in the future. If it is possible to fax me any invoices you have I can look them over,(805 three four three six eight nine eight, I don't want it to stand out to everyone just scanning the page sorry) I have the BAR book sitting at my desk and could try to help you in anyway.

I am really against any shop doing additional work without the customers authorization, and really understanding what they are getting and why they need it. Selling additional check ups is very common at the dealership. In the future I would recommend dealing with an independent shop. People think that because they go to a dealership (Toyota in this case) that they are less likely to have any problems, and that if they do the company will take care of it. The truth is that Toyota is going to stand behind the dealership and you have a much harder time getting through to them than an independent business which depends on customer referrals and satisfaction.
Anyhow if you can prove they broke the law you can help your mother and many others, because like I said, this is common practice at dealerships.

At your mother's age, she isn't as able to learn new things, so someone is going to have to tactfully do the dealing for her. All sorts of Cretins will be coming out of the woodwork and have her sign binding contracts, so maybe some responsible party needs to take responsibility for her, as in being a co-signer on her checking account. Someone at that dealership needs a punch in the mouth.

I used to work in a car dealership and this is not the norm, especially in such cases with senior citizens. California have very strict laws, especially for the elders in situations like these. It can usually be resolved by bringing the attention to the service manager and/or general mgr of the store.

Either way, this is not right...

01.) Inspection DON'T cost in excess of $300+
02.) Fluid changes does NOT add up to $300+

This is predatory and needs to be resolved at once! If not, bring the attention to bbb.org, there are many ways, but this needs to be dealt with asap!

We took New Century Ford to small claims court and no one showed up from the dealership and we won. we got all our money back plus the court fees.

but did you actually collect the money from them?

If not, there are things you can do. You can ask the court for an enforcement order to:

levy their bank account.
lien against real property.
lien against private property, car, boat, rv, etc.
garnish wages.