On Tuesday, I realized that my trunk was not opening. It seems that lock was jammed. I tired opening it with the remote and then with the lever inside the car. That did not work either. I tried opening the trunk from the inside of the trunk in hope that whatever was not working would click back int place. It did not, and a spring that was about 1 inch ling fell out. I called Curry Honda and spoke with Andy. I told him my story and asked him how much he thought it would be to put the spring back on. He said about $75.00 USD!! I asked if that was just for placing the spring back on. He said well it depends; the car could have been in an accident. I let him know that the car was not in an accident. So I proceeded to bring my car in.
When I arrived at the shop they said they were going to take a look at the lock and asked me for my keys. They did not tell me that if they look at the car and I decide not to have work done they will bill me for the time to look at the car. They simply told me that if work needed to be done, I would receive an estimate and then approve work to be done. Andy told me that the lock was broken and brought the estimate over to me and it said $53.00 for labor and $79.00 for the part. I asked him why $53.00? he said that was for a half hour labor and it should only take 20 minutes. I asked if he would lower that for me if they only take 20 minutes, he said he will try to lower it for me. Less than 20 minutes he came back with a bill quoting $51.00 in labor.
When I asked him if he would lower it he said he could not. Wow, a lot changed in less than 20 minutes. I asked him what would have happened if chose not to have work done; he said he would have changed me to put my broken lock back on!!! I proceeded to pay th invoice and left. The more I thought about it, the more it upset me. If they are going to charge just to look at it, shouldn't I be made aware of that before thy take my car? I called on Tuesday and did not get a call back. I called Honda Corporate on Wednesday and filed my complaint. I got a call back the next day from Mike Elsworth. When I asked him if he believes that consumers have the right to be informed they they will be charged for having someone look at their car. He said no. I asked him if consumer have the right to choose if they have the money to pay for someone to look at their car.
He said if someone is walking into a dealer, they should know that if someone looks at their car they will be charged. I asked him how consumers would know that if they have never been to a dealership. He said they should know and am I asking them to work for free. I let him know that when mechanics look at my car to see what it might need they don't charge me if I decide not to have the work done. He said dealerships are different. I guess I learned my lesson. I will never take my car to the dealership for repair. P.S. I called Honda Customer Service and they cannot do anything because dealerships are individually owned. To me this means that dealerships can do whatever they want and no one can stop them.
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