Drove the Miata home tonight and the timing belt transplant surgery seems a success. They had me worried for a minute there too. When I called at 3:30 to see if it was ready, I got a “Let me call you back.” When I didn’t get a call back in about 45 minutes, I called back again. This time I got a “I’ll check with the technician, hold on.” When the service advisor returned she said, it’ll be ready before the end of the day (their day or 6:00 PM.) We got there at 5:30 and the paperwork was just arriving at the cashier as we were.
This is the Master’s Miata Club sponsoring dealer so club members get 20% off on parts. I had not mentioned this when I dropped the car off for service for fear that they would jack up the list price of the parts on the invoice and then “give” me 20% off. I know, very cynical.
The cashier hands me the invoice it says $652.80, I slap my forehead and say, “I forgot to mention I’m in the Miata Club and I should get 20% off the parts.” No problem the invoice goes through the window into the parts area for recalculation. Now the invoice says $584.56, which is still higher than expected. Then I notice that the labor charge is $432, not the $360 is was quoted on the phone last week. A call is put into Kellie the service advisor. She arrives and I tell her that the price is higher than I was quoted. She says, “Let me check” and wanders off. Comes back a few minutes later and says that they must have charged me for an extra hour labor by mistake, the charge should be $360. Invoice is adjusted again and this time it comes to $514.58, which I pay.
Now the cynical side of me is wondering was the extra hour really a mistake. Or is it routinely added on to bills in that price range hoping that the customer won’t notice and just pay it?
Purchased Today: $514.58
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1663.17
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 229