New stealership hustle - AC Fluid Change

Girlfriend brought her '19 Highlander with 70k to Toyota dealer for routine service.  She has been going to this dealership exclusivley for over a decade and used to know most of them by name.  She was a big Tundra Club member and has bought 4-5 trucks, couple of highlanders and a Camry from them over the last decade.

 She trusts the service advisor and was taken for $500 for an AC System Fluid change.  No issues with AC, purely was sold that the AC fluid needs to be changed at this age and mileage to make sure the system doesn't break.  $300 for fluids, $200 for labor.

Anyone heard of this one before?  

Nope.  Never heard of this but there is oil in the system.  Should it be changed as a preventitive thing? I really have no clue.  The price they are charging for the fluids is a bit crazy.  Are the dealers getting 200 per hour?

I would be calling the Toyota bitch line.  A loyal customer like her (actually anybody) should not be getting reamed out.   And the fluids are not $300 (unless they have gone to some newer more expensive DuPont refrigerant).    

A lot of the newer vehicles do use the new/much more expensive r1234-yf, but I haven't heard of preventatively changing it as a result of that switch.

Any Toyota newer than 2016 uses the r1234yf refrigerant and it is stoopid money. That said, I've been doing this for seven years and VERY few places use their AC harder than we do in south Utah. I've never heard of it. Toyota has a recommended HVAC mildew/stink treatment, but not for that price at all. Sorry to say, but they seem to have pulled a fast one. 

Even worse, they did it without pre-authorization and stuck her with it when she picked it up.  Dropped it off to get a nail patch in tire and oil change.  They replaced the tire, nail was in dead center of tread, new tire and completely repairable.  Came out with a $1,000 bill for oil change, coolant top off, AC fluid replacement and tire.  

She is going back tomorrow.  Head of service is a long time friend and was out yesterday, will be back tomorrow.  Unsure if it was just a service tech trying to push up numbers or if the dealership has changed how they operate.  Will find out.

This is in Phoenix, we use our AC pretty well also.

former520 said:

Even worse, they did it without pre-authorization and stuck her with it when she picked it up. 

Any work done without authorization is going to be on the dealer's dime.

That's a new one to me. Without a pre authorization that would be a "I am not paying" situation. 

stuart in mn said:

former520 said:

Even worse, they did it without pre-authorization and stuck her with it when she picked it up. 

Any work done without authorization is going to be on the dealer's dime.

Exactly this. I'd also be raising hell about how disappointed I was at the scam they're running around the entire AC Fluid thing.

I would be livid.

I would ask that they replace the AC fluid that they stole from me.

In reply to former520 :

The answer is probably in calling the service writer and asking them how they would like the review you leave to read.  If it's anything like the Ford and Chevy dealerships I've dealt with they always send an email along the lines of "if you can't leave a 5 star rating for your recent service please call..."  Those reviews are taken very seriously by the manufacturers, they won't want a bad one.  Heck, you could share the story with your local TV station's consumer reporter.  I bet they'd love to dig into it.

Changing system refrigerant on a mileage basis is complete bullE36 M3 by the way.  It's supposed to be a closed system / permanent unless it leaks out or is contaminated by moisture or a component failure (compressor grenading).  They should be ashamed of themselves and owe your GF a refund in my opinion.

No authorization = No pay. 

former520 said:

Even worse, they did it without pre-authorization and stuck her with it when she picked it up.  Dropped it off to get a nail patch in tire and oil change.  They replaced the tire, nail was in dead center of tread, new tire and completely repairable.  Came out with a $1,000 bill for oil change, coolant top off, AC fluid replacement and tire.  

She is going back tomorrow.  Head of service is a long time friend and was out yesterday, will be back tomorrow.  Unsure if it was just a service tech trying to push up numbers or if the dealership has changed how they operate.  Will find out.

This is in Phoenix, we use our AC pretty well also.

Hopefully her long time friend will make this right. I'd be pissed about both the fluid and the tire!

Keep us updated 

I would also ask if that is a Toyota published service. We know the answer. Like the fuel system cleaner, etc. 

....they probably just re-installed the $250/lb gaseous gold that they took out, too.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

....they probably just re-installed the $250/lb gaseous gold that they took out, too.

Or at least mostly, unless their machine leaks less than ours, or any other I've heard of. 

In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :

We have the CPS piece of...  it is amazing in how much it leaks and how finicky the scale is.  Very much not a set and forget machine.

ToManyProjects said:

I would be livid.

I would be 50, 1, 5, 1, 500 because roman numerals are more funner. 

So she got screwed over with the tire replacement too!!  Time to find another dealer.  

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

....they probably just re-installed the $250/lb gaseous gold that they took out, too.

Or at least mostly, unless their machine leaks less than ours, or any other I've heard of. 

My cynical assumption is that they charged for fluid/gas replacement but other than writing it up they changed nothing.  I'll bet it arrived with a fine working AC and left with a fine working AC.  And, that AC system had no changes to its fluid/gas.    These kinds of stories make me hate the world!  

And, there's still the whole tire replacement vs repair debacle!  They must have only had one tire in stock.  Otherwise, i surely would have expected them to say something to the affect of, "it will be unsafe to replace just one so you'll need 4 tires."  

In reply to John Welsh :

I am of the same opinion regarding AC.  I have been pressing her to take a pic of the AC ports to see if they looked touched.  Same with the tire.

She got in touch with her friend there.  He was the general manager of the service dept for years and now has some larger position.  They have asked her to come in person Friday and he and the store general manager are going to make it right personally and in person.  I am guessing they didn't realize the writer and tech where doing these things.

If she wasn't an active member of a Toyota Tundra club with a lot of members buying the latest and greatest every other year, and from this dealer,  and friends with this guy, I wonder what they would have done.  

former520 said:

In reply to John Welsh :

I am guessing they didn't realize the writer and tech where doing these things.

 

Then shame on them for that. 

it would be interesting to do a Data search  on all the work orders and see how many times they have pulled this BS before , 

She needs to say something about that after they fix her issues , 

Good Luck