Les,
Yeah, I am sure that I am the type of customer that "some" in customer service hate as I am the type of customer that doesn't like to be taken advantage of.
I don't always diagnose my own problems, but in this case the problem was obvious. For example, a tire center doesn't charge to diagnose a flat tire. Again, that's an obvious problem. A mechanical, driver activated switch that has gone bad and that you can FEEL has gone bad (the part within the switch that allowed the high beams to "click on" broke or wore out and wasn't doing its job...you could feel and hear that) is another "no duh!" problem to diagnose. I don't think I should pay $80 for the dealer to verify that which is already verified and can be re-verified by them with one or two pulls of a switch; especially since I told them the switch was bad.
Also, I didn't expect something for nothing. I was willing to pay
something, something that was reasonable I should add. Paying to diagnose an obviously broken/worn part that I told them was broken isn't reasonable. We can disagree about that, I guess, but I will go to my grave saying it wasn't reasonable. Paying full, gouged prices to fix something that shouldn't have broken, and if had broken two weeks earlier would be covered isn't extremely customer friendly....and therefore verges on the unreasonable.
Had they not tried to charge the diagnostics fee I might have let the other price gouging slide. But as others have said here, most shops waive the diag fee if they end up doing the work. To add insult to injury, this shop doesn't even do that.
Last but not least, I told the dealer that the switch had been acting up for some time, but that I waited until I needed my next oil change to bring in the car. I figured that would be okay since I had described the switch starting to go during earlier warranty work (which they failed to document, but remembered when I brought it up). They also stated that "if I had come in for more oil changes" that they "might be willing to give me a discount on the repair". I would have gone in for more oil changes IF they did a good job, at a fair price, and I didn't have to leave the car for a day. Again, holding a fair deal "ransom" is not very customer friendly.
My expectations were to:
a) Not be insulted.
b) Not be gouged.
c) To have some level of consideration for a part that IMHO shouldn't have worn so quickly, on a car that was literally weeks off of warranty; especially expecting that consideration since I purchased the car at said dealer and warned them of the part going bad several months prior.
They met none of my expectations.
The sales manager said, and I quote:
I'm sorry, but the car is off warranty and we can't give away parts and service. The fact that you bought the car here has no barring on our decision as the service dept runs on a different cost and profit center from sales.
Before you folks say that the above comments/reasons are acceptable, and that I simply don't know anything about running a business, let me say that... I have run my own business. I have stood behind my products. I have been in several positions to deliver direct customer service.
Most customers simply don't want to be made to feel like you don't care; that you don't see them as an individual and a special case, and that you aren't willing to work with them. I was made to feel all those things.
It's not right. My expectations are NOT wrong.
Case-in-point: My sons used car with 3 mo warranty, that started this thread. Without even asking or saying anything the service dept cut the total repair bill on the part that wasn't covered under warranty by 1/2. They didn't have to do that, but they did. I am a "satisfied" customer because of it.
TJR