Tire tech/service writer up selling at TireKingdom

[Mr Nice]

I took my wife's 2006 Honda Accord to Tire Kingdom to have Yokohama tires mounted / balanced I bought from DTD black Friday sale .

After 5 minutes the car was pulled into the bay, another tire tech (has no car to work on) enters the waiting room and motions me over to show me my car. The hood is open and he tells me that the Accord needs spark plugs, air filter, alignment due to the 130K mileage....etc, etc....

At this point I'm about to explode on this son of a **** and I just politey say no thanks. I ask the guy why are you looking under the hood if the work order says: Mount & Balance 2 rear tires ???
I get the complimentary 120 point service check and that old drive belts can be very hazardous (lol). The guy was annoyed from his facial expression when I closed the hood and said I'm not paying for that.....

Anybody else deal with idiots trying to constantly up sell services and parts ?

 

[Andy636]

Yup...but for me is the other way around...I tell them that I need to change a part and they tell me that's not necessary.

Last time I took my dad's car back to the Fiat dealership with a clunking rusted strut bearing that was clearly missing the cage. Tech guy told me he sprayed some lube and that all should be fine now and changing it was not necessary.

Too bad for him I was not in a polite mood that day and I gave him a piece of my mind. That dealership went under in less than a year.

 

[Chris142]

i took my jeep in for warranty work. they called me 3x that day to try to sell me overpriced injector cleaning and axle drain and fill's. they wanted $160 per axle too!

 

[Tdbo]

Consider yourself lucky all you got was the mean mug.
I got my vacuum line disconnected and a plug wire pulled for refusing their account of my car's needs after my personal mechanic went over it the month before to the tune of $1456.
All I needed (and wanted) was a oil change.
Yes, it was at Tire Kingdom.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
I took my wife's 2006 Honda Accord to Tire Kingdom to have Yokohama tires mounted / balanced I bought from DTD black Friday sale .

After 5 minutes the car was pulled into the bay, another tire tech (has no car to work on) enters the waiting room and motions me over to show me my car. The hood is open and he tells me that the Accord needs spark plugs, air filter, alignment due to the 130K mileage....etc, etc....

At this point I'm about to explode on this son of a **** and I just politey say no thanks. I ask the guy why are you looking under the hood if the work order says: Mount & Balance 2 rear tires ???
I get the complimentary 120 point service check and that old drive belts can be very hazardous (lol). The guy was annoyed from his facial expression when I closed the hood and said I'm not paying for that.....

Anybody else deal with idiots trying to constantly up sell services and parts ?


I`m right there with you on this one! I bet you wanted to knock that loser out when he gave you that attitude! I got a set of times from an NTB a few years back. I get home and the oil dipstick is sitting on top of the engine! [censored] were those [censored] clowns doing tinkering under the hood when all I was doing was getting tires installed?? Took all my self control for me not to drive back up there and kick that clowns [censored]!

 

[Wolf359]

All shops have to do that. It's how they stay in business. It's just real annoying for us who know what's going on, but I guess they do take advantage of those that don't know any better. But I think they probably catch some problems from people that are clueless and if they didn't point it out, they'd probably end up crashing down the road. I go to Goodyear to get alignments and tire work, I don't have they do other work there, but they're always recommending wheel bearings, tie rods, control arms, etc., but if it really needs those, I just take it to my own mechanic who does it for 1/2 to 1/3 of what they charge. They did tell me once I need wheel bearings, but I just replaced the inner tie rods and went back to get an alignment and then no mention of the wheel bearings even though I hadn't touched them. Been back a few other times and no mention of them.

 

[lubedude13]

I work at a Goodyear shop and every vehicle that comes in gets a 30 point check over which includes topping off all fluids at no charge.

There are 2 reasons why we do this:
1) to sell services that are needed. We do not sell things that aren't needed. Usually if you come in with a car and it has 60k miles for example we pull up factory recommended services to recommend that to the customer. Of course we do this to help make sure everything stays in good working order but to also make a profit. EVERY business has to make a profit.

2) if you bring your car in for a couple of tires and we don't tell you that your brakes are worn out then you leave and a couple days later your brakes give out......saves us from the customer coming back and saying why didn't you tell me I needed brakes?

At my shop we tell you and show you why we are recommending whatever we are recommending.
If you decide to let us do it great!!! If not we done our job. If you can do it yourself....save money and do that. If you can get it cheaper that's fine too but at least we've done our job.

 

[Cutehumor]

I need 4 tires soon. Gonna go to Walmart or Costco to avoid some of the upsell

 

[dlundblad]

The OP makes it sound like the car wasn't in the garage for 5 mins before the "tech" came to him to sell some services.

Its one thing to warn somebody about worn brakes, low diff fluid, etc.. It is another to knowingly sell unnecessary services. I am sure it happens all the time.

I personally would not go back.

 

[antiqueshell]

Originally Posted By: Tdbo
Consider yourself lucky all you got was the mean mug.
I got my vacuum line disconnected and a plug wire pulled for refusing their account of my car's needs after my personal mechanic went over it the month before to the tune of $1456.
All I needed (and wanted) was a oil change.
Yes, it was at Tire Kingdom.


This stuff happens ALL the time even though many folks here on BITOG want to claim it is a conspiracy theory. LOL

Fact is that retaliatory behavior on the part of mechanics happens all too often. It is in fact criminal vandalism. If it were me I would contact the police and let them at least have a report. It will scare the [censored] out of dishonest businesses and make them think twice before victimizing the next person.

I always try to be businesslike and polite to the help even if I don't want their up sell usually explaining that I can't afford it even if I wanted to.

But in any case it pays not to be unnecessarily rude or mean to the techs...it's a lot like when you visit a
restaurant. Don't get too [censored] with the help they will spit in your food.

@lubedude13:

You top off fluids at no charge...
do you have the required fluids to do that for vehicles that do not accept
aftermarket fluids and require specific products only? I bet not. That is how REALLY expensive damage is done!

I'm glad you let me know this because I ALWAYS tell any shop to ONLY do what I specifically ask for and NOTHING more.

 

[Vikas]

When you go to a place where you had no prior relationship, walk in and tell them exactly what you need to be done and explicitly tell them not to touch anything else.

For example, if I go for free recall work to the dealer, I tell them upfront that is all I want and NOT INSPECTION.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Many time my local shop mechanic say no to replace parts I think needed, example, I asked him to replace the original PCV valve for the LS400 at about 220-230k miles, he said no need as long as the car didn't consume more oil than normal.

 

[Mr Nice]

It took 5 minutes from the time my Accord was driven from the parking lot to the guy motioning me to the service bay.

I told them I was only paying for the 2 tires and anything else I needed an estimate which I did get ($800). The guy also informed me that if I couldn't afford the repairs I could sign up for the Tire Kingdom credit card with 0% for the first 12 months.

 

[JHZR2]

Which of those things had been recently done, and which really did need to be considered for a 130k car?

It's easy to state the obvious that these guys are out for an upsell, I have no doubt. But there may well have been some things that needed to be done. How they would tell so soon for things like alignments and plugs is beyond me.

I probably would have picked one of the items and claimed, even if a lie, that I had done x just a few weeks back, and so how could it be due. Put them on guard.

 

[01rangerxl]

A lot of these guys are forced to upsell by management, but don't really want to. I know, I played the game for a while. I despised talking to customers and would frequently tell the manager to sell it himself if he wanted it so bad. I wasn't going to see it on my check anyway. In fact, my favorite customers were the ones who knew their vehicles well and just wanted any honest feedback I had without gimmicks. The customers who sought me out and asked for me specifically had 500K mile Astros, F-150s, full size vans and the like.

Interestingly, when I have had shops do work on my vehicles, I have almost never had an attempted upsell. A lot of it is just your attitude (not mean, just knowing your vehicle if you actually do, and letting them know that at the counter), and the shop you go to.

The only one I remember was a Firestone store telling me I needed the brake fluid changed on my truck when I went in for a free rotation on tires I had bought from them. The service advisor kind of hung his head and wouldn't look at me when he made the suggestion, I could tell he didn't want to do it. I wasn't mean about it and just said maybe next time. I knew he had to try to sell something and didn't really want to do it. And honestly, it wasn't a bad suggestion, at the miles the truck had a brake fluid change would be kind of reasonable, but not urgent by any means. Other than that, I have never had a shop try to upsell me on something.

 

[lubedude13]

That is fine. That's your right as a customer. However we are very particular about what we use. For example if a Honda comes in that uses a dw1 trans fluid.....we use a fluid that meets that spec. I'm not saying that 100% of the time we use the correct fluid and I bet even dealerships don't always use the right fluid.
I've been to a toyota dealer that uses regular power steering fluid instead of the dexron 3 it calls for.
We've been in business since 1944 and we haven't had a problem using a "wrong" fluid yet.

Also I do understand about it being 5 minutes since they brought car in. There is no way they could've checked it that quick. At my shop it's usually 15-20 minutes later AND they actually do check stuff

 

[Vikas]

Quote:
Interestingly, when I have had shops do work on my vehicles, I have almost never had an attempted upsell. A lot of it is just your attitude (not mean, just knowing your vehicle if you actually do, and letting them know that at the counter), and the shop you go to.
This usually works. But this approach still failed for OP as I have no doubt that he knows his vehicle and the shop knew that as well but still tried to treat it him as a poor old grandma.

 

[Amkeer]

This is how I see this scenario.

You brought a vehicle in to replace two tires not four. Red flag.

Generally, the consensus is to replace all four tires. This would alert the technician that there is a possibility that the customer has neglected certain aspects of maintenance. Why is customer only replacing two tires?

Lastly it is the shops duty to make sure they cover at least minimal safety aspects since it is in their shop. Since it appears you didn't deny the 120 point inspection they are obligated to perform it. Also, it is good business to promote "add on sales", as it increases the businesses bottom line.

 

[Amkeer]

Just throwing out the observation as one would see it from the other side. I agree it does get a little annoying.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette

At this point I'm about to explode on this son of a **** and I just politey say no thanks. I ask the guy why are you looking under the hood if the work order says: Mount & Balance 2 rear tires ???


If you take your vehicle to one of the chain shops where a "multi-point inspection" is performed, then you can expect the upsell. It's why the multi-point inspection is done. You don't need to "explode", just a simple "no thanks, I perform my own maintenance" says all that needs to be said.

Increasing business is a part of every retail business model. Grocery stores retail stores and even retail websites are all designed to get you to purchase more than you had originally planned. If it upsets you to the point that you feel like exploding then you should have another family member take the vehicle to have tire service done, grocery shopping, etc.