Took my 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross for a safety inspection - Theo
Took my 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross for a safety inspection as I moved back to Ontario from out of province so needed to get a safety. I also took a Chevy Malibu for a safety at the same time for convenience. When I called to get the price of the safety, I was told $60 each. When I arrived at the dealer, they had me sign the work order and the price was $112 for each vehicle. I asked why the cost was so much. I was told that was the cost of the safety. When I paid for the safety, the total was $180.74. I asked about the original price of $112 that was written down on the form I signed, and I was told “that must have been a typo.” We left our vehicles there while they did the safety inspections and walked to a coffee shop. As we were walking back, I get a phone call from the service department saying that the Malibu needed new rotors in order to pass the safety inspection. She said that they were very rusty. The cost for this would have been over $400. I told the staff member that we were on our way back from the coffee shop and to not do anything to the vehicle until we get there and discuss with the technician. We arrived back at the dealer, the technician took us back to the Malibu, where it was up on the hoist. He indicated that the rotors were very rusty. While we were looking at the vehicle, my husband asked to look at one of the outboard shoes, which the technician had removed and was on the bench. The shoe had no glazing, no cracks, had plenty of material, way past the legal limit and no major grooving. My husband then removed the inboard shoe from the vehicle with his fingers which came out easily (not stuck). The vehicle recently had a brake service. The technician paused, my husband explained that the brakes would pass safety easily. The technician said “oh, do you want me to clean them up?” My husband said no, that the vehicle did not require a brake service.
We asked the technician if the vehicle would pass safety like this, he said that it would, he just wanted to bring it to our attention. When we said that we didn’t want to proceed to get new rotors, the technician offered to do a brake service (at a cost of approximately $150) We said no to this.
We went back out to the service counter. The person that called me was chit chatting for several minutes with one of the other staff members, totally ignoring us as we were standing there waiting to be seen to. This was the same staff member that told us we needed to pay over $400 for new rotors to pass safety.
I will make the drive to a different Toyota dealer as I do not trust the service staff at this dealership. They tried to rip us off, lied to us about the rotors needing to be replaced in order to get the safety and then changed the price of the safety when it was time to pay.
Very unprofessional and disappointing experience.
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