2001 Buick Century Limited, 45K miles


GM sent me a coupon for a free oil change, I used it at a Buick dealer in Baytown. They noticed my inspection was almost due and asked if I wanted one. (Was that the hook?) 30 minutes later, she came in with a clip board and sat down next to me like a doctor, about to tell me the sad news. She told me it would be about $800 dollars, she said I needed new tires, $70 each, mine were dry rotted, new brakes, $200 and some, (wouldn''t I have know that), a front end alignment, (wouldn''t I have known that also) and wipers. I said, "let''s go into the office and talk about this". Another 30 minutes later of her and I going back and forth, she had me convinced I needed all these things and said her driver would take me home. I said, "wait, I would like to have a bill, or something!" She said, we don''t give bills till the job is done, and ushered me out to her driver.


I won''t even go into how many times I called her back to get her to explain the prices she quoted and how it added up to near $800.00, if she would have given me some kind of bill with prices on it, I wouldn''t have had to go through that.


I then drove to Florida from Texas and a neighbor noticed a noise coming from the wheel area, it was something you couldn''t hear with the windows up. I called Casa Pontiac GMC Buickto see if they could get me a free look see at Central Pontiac,Winter Haven and they said I would have to contact them. Which I did, they said they would charge me $90.00 to look at the wheel.


My friend told me to take it to his mechanic and he would look at it for free. He listened to it, removed the bolts, put them back on and said it wasn''t tight, the noise was gone, but I was worried that it could have damaged the wheel, I call Casa Pontiac back and asked them again if they couldn''t a free look see at the dealership here and they told me to have them call him. I then contacted GM and told them the situation to see if there was anything they could do, they made some phone calls and told me to go in on Thursday.


When I got there, they again told me it would cost $90.00 to look at the wheel, I told them the dealership in Baytown might pay for it, if they called them, but he wouldn''t, and he laughed at me in front of people at the thought that the wheel could have been loose and me
not knowing it.


I now have a bearing going out ($300.00) and I do believe it is possible for the wheel to be a little loose from front to back without me knowing it and I do believe it is possible that it is related to a bearing going out now.


I try to do the right thing and take my car to the dealership to get things fixed, I bought this car from my father''s estate and want to take care of it like he did. Everytime I tell people that I take my car to the dealer to get things fixed, they laugh at me, but I don''t care, I believed they would fix things right.


What do you think about this?

 

I feel your pain. I recently went through an ordeal with my 2006 Impala at the CHEVY dealership. My stuff is all warranty work, but the power steering hose failed at 15,000 miles, and they gave me the run around. We picked it up after it was supposedly "fixed" only to hear the pump whining and the wheel shuddering again! Is it too much to ask for a dealership to fix it right the first time. I know when I worked at the Honda dealership, we either fixed it right the first time or you had to answer for it!