Some service reps are better than...
A word of caution for anyone going to this dealership for service to avoid Chris (Assistant service manager, sits in the middle). Having been to this dealership on numerous occasions within the last 2 years for all sorts of service and have sat around their waiting area waiting for my car to be ready. Some waits were 30 minutes, some were upwards of 3-4 hours depending on work. During these wait times I have heard Chris try to always up-sell customers on various services they were not requesting or requiring. He uses a lot of sales scare tactics without knowing the facts if it is even applicable to the car you have. Some examples have been (From personal conversations with him and those I have overheard):
1) "You must have a transmission flush, if you have issues with your transmission down the line and they see you've never done a transmission flush, it will void your warranty" - True for some VW models but not all, but he will tell you this as if it were fact...
A word of caution for anyone going to this dealership for service to avoid Chris (Assistant service manager, sits in the middle). Having been to this dealership on numerous occasions within the last 2 years for all sorts of service and have sat around their waiting area waiting for my car to be ready. Some waits were 30 minutes, some were upwards of 3-4 hours depending on work. During these wait times I have heard Chris try to always up-sell customers on various services they were not requesting or requiring. He uses a lot of sales scare tactics without knowing the facts if it is even applicable to the car you have. Some examples have been (From personal conversations with him and those I have overheard):
1) "You must have a transmission flush, if you have issues with your transmission down the line and they see you've never done a transmission flush, it will void your warranty" - True for some VW models but not all, but he will tell you this as if it were fact without even checking what you are bringing.
2) "You must have an alignment done because simple driving over something like railroad crossing will throw your car out of alignment and compromises safety" - A statement I heard him say to a 50 something year old lady who was there for an oil change.
3) "We provided service for you today at a discount" - A customer who got a full synthetic oil change done on her car (same make and model as mine and same oil change service that I get). The oil change normally costs ~$120. Customer was asking for a discount and Chris lied to her saying that that is the discount rate at normally their shop rate is $119/hr and on top of it you have to pay for the oil. The lady believed his lies.
4) He will not go through the proper protocol steps to check your customer file. He automatically started arguing with me about me not having extended warranty (which I do). When I asked him to look into it because it is there, he simply told me that I would have to call my original dealership to sort it out. I called my original dealership who said it's in the system. I spoke with another service rep named Tom (who is amazing) who told me all Chris had to do was take one extra step and look in another window for the info which showed my warranty status.
Basically Chris will lie to you and is more concerned with chatting with the younger females that work there than doing his job properly. Overall, after a few visits you get the "Sleezy Used Car Sales Guy" vibe from Chris.
If you must use this dealership, please please do yourselves a favour and deal with Tom (sits closest to the door). Always honest, does not push extra services on you, will tell you if something should be done because it is simply recommended but is not mandatory, will not try scare tactics on you. Amazing employee and I will ONLY ask to speak with him when getting service done.
Comments
That is so true, Chris is the worst service adviser I have seen. He will make you replace parts that your car doesn't need replaced and overcharge you on the labor hours. He is doing a great job at destroying VW Oakville image. I do not want to think he is doing all that up-selling in order to respond to a sales directive from his managers.
Reading about this Chris/Tom comparison I can't refrain to bringing my contribution to the matter: the Service department management knows very well about Chris lying to you about work you need done to your car and over-charging you on labor hours, it is their policy.
Firstly, have you noticed that if you get lucky to deal with Tom when you drop your car, he advises you that Chris will take care of you further on? Why? - of course because he will try to squeeze more money from you any way he can and that is something Tom cannot do out of honesty. You will later in the day get a call from Chris advising that you need more done to your car and they will go as far as replacing a good part of your car only to increase their sales. They will even tamper with your old part in order to make it look bad if you require to check it out, it happened to me. Secondly, Chris's sales behavior is well known but what has management done about it? - exactly nothing because it is in their interest. Be sure that every time you walk into Oakville VW dealership you will be lied and over-billed, this is the their business model and it happens in many dealerships, it is an quasi-generalized anomaly, while customers are working hard and honest and need their cars to commute to work businesses like this one will leach on their back.