I have taken my 97 del sol to the tysons honda dealer whenever i had a cel because it has the emissions extended warranty, i deal with a service advisor by the name of Pete who always took care of me.

Back in 12/09 i brought the car in because i was having starting problems and apparently Pete had left this dealership and i was dealing with Terry instead, i dropped the car off and before leaving i said i believe the problem was warranty related.

I received a call later, they stated it was the idle air control valve which would be around $600 and was NOT covered under the warranty, again i asked if they were sure and they said yes it was not. I paid the service fee and left.

I had the repair done from a mechanic i knew and used a used part. Just recently i was speaking with the arlington dealer and they told me it in fact was covered. I verified this by looking at a pdf service bulletin and it is in fact covered. To double check the dealer took my vin and verified specifically that the IACV is under warranty for my car.

I called the tysons dealer that charged me and spoke to the service manager. He agreed it should covered and was going to refund the service fee but would not compensate me for the repairs and parts i purchased.

Now i was hoping there would be some legal actions i could take, as well i am not sure but would hope the local news would be interested in something such as this.

Bare with me if i seem overzealous, but basically that dealer should pay for not honoring my warranty and making me pay out of pocket as well other customers should know about this dealer in particular that they try to scam you out of your warranty and make you pay out of pocket. I would appreciate finding our the proper course of action to take.

As far as documentation goes, i have the receipt which mentions i need the iacv and the charge. I will have the refund on my amex from the dealer, as well as the service bulletin in pdf format. I do not have the receipts for the junk yard part and repair as it was done by a personal mechanic.

Too make things worse, the arlington dealer said they could not replace the IACV with a new part since the code is no longer there.

I am not sure if this may be the right forum to post in. But i wasnt sure where else to go.

 

I would try a local news group, they usually have investigative reporters for the small business scams, or you could just take the dealership to small claims court.

 

how is your 97 still under warranty?

 

I had the same warranty on my 97 Civic. I had a service advisor up in NC where I'm from at Hendrick Honda who was really helpful (he was a friend's dad) but when I took it to a dealership down here in Miami they gave me the usual Miami treatment (screw you, no service basically). It seems if you modify anything on the car or have any aftermarket repairs, it's hard to get work done..

I think small claims court is your best bet.

 

I said it has the extended warranty Although its about to expire at the end of 2010
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resour...amerhonda.html

Small claims would require me to hire a lawyer,or pay some fees?

 

OP: Can you tell us exactly which dealership in what state this happend?


I'm not too sure what an IACV has to do with emissions, but I can kinda see why it would fall into that catagory.


.

 

Not only do I ditto that question, but to the OP: Holy ****, you're making a HUGE deal out of this, and yes, you are being way too overzealous.

It doesn't sound like they tried to "pull a fast one on you" - it seems like they just messed up. It also sounds like the service manager tried to make things right with you and you basically are just spitting in his face by trying to run behind his back to the media.

They acknowledged that they ****ed up and offered to make it right. Now go there and get your damn car fixed.

There's no legal action you can take because somebody screwed up, ESPECIALLY when that someone offers you your money back, refund, make it right, etc.

You're not paying out of pocket if they're refunding you your money, you're breaking even. Big difference. I'm not trying to be a dick but this definitely falls under the category of mental masturbation. Move on. I don't think it's as big of a scam as you're making it out to be. I'd hate to see what a real scam looks like to you...

 

but they didn't offer him a refund on something they should have paid for. they lied, messed up, whatever you want to call it. sounds like they should refund him.

 

dealerships love to find a reason not to do warranty work. and id bet they didn't mess up just hoped you wouldn't go in depth on it. its something they have to pay for with no payment to them except a returning customer if they're good and do it right.

personally just take your **** that they wanted to refund and don't go back.

 

I would agree if they did they work and refused to refund him the $600, but they didn't. They said they'd refund all he paid them (the service fee), which is fair.

If his case is true, what keeps him from saying the mechanic charged 1500 dollars to put in a new IACV and the Honda dealership should pay it. Yes, I agree that it's screwed up that somebody missed that (not quite sure how you could possibly miss a 13 year old car not having a warranty), but 'tis is life. If the OP was as proactive then as he is now he would have done his homework on the part before going to the other mechanic for installation, but he didn't.

EDIT:
Also, if he opted to pay the $600 for the Honda dealer to do it, then when he did realize that BOTH him and the dealership missed the fact that it was under warranty, he'd get all his money back.

 

I get what you're saying. fair enough. Sounds like a crappy situation, nevertheless.

 

Live with the deal they are making, learn more about your car and do a little research. You don't need a new or different IACV, you can fix your old one to make it work like new.

Also, weren't you on fatwallet.com?

 

 

Well if you took the time to look. I posted a link right after he did. Obviously i would not post in this forum if my car was not under warranty. So either take my word or take the facts from the link.

They did not offer to make it right, were you on the phone listening? Ill just say no. I told them i got the part from the junk yard which was $40 and the labor was another $60, but they would not compensate me for that. So Syndacate is that making it right by refusing to compensate me a measly hundred bucks which is nothing to them?

So yes they did refund me the service fee, but make it right. Apparently making it right means differed things to you and i. If you dont have anything productive to say, dont say anything.

I Quoted myself just for you

 

The distributor is covered as well among other things. I dont really care, im just happy things are covered.

Its in Vienna Virginia

 

Live with staying out of topics that you have constructive comments for. There is no deal. Had i not found out about this, they would have kept my money. Only because i confronted them they agreed for the refund, but did not agree to replace the IACV.

Telling me i do or dont need something is not helpful. Its already been replaced, your advice is too late. I do no i can clean it with brake cleaner. But a used part wasnt much so i went and got it. Again i am not asking for technical advice

 

I agree, had i not had the warranty i would never go to a dealer. I am glad i found the service bulletin which lists everything that is covered.

 

Again we covered this earlier that you do not read before responding. Try that it might help you in the future. I didnt want to quote myself again this time. But i had specifically mentioned to them would this be covered under the emissions warranty extensions and they said no. IN MY RECORDS with the previous service advisor it would say that i had warranty work done on my car.

So when i called in and said i am bring my car in for a warranty claim because my cel is on and they thats fine you will not be charged unless its not warranty related. Then again i mention it when i come in. Ya how in the world could they miss that?

Sorry for all the posts its late, and i just realized i could have multi quoted

 

If you had receipts from where the part was purchased and replaced, you'd have a better chance.

They refunded what money they took from you. I bet if you read your warranty, you'll see where they won't reimburse you for repairs not done by or authorized by them.

 

Jesus H., man. Put the old part back on. Drive to Honda Dealer. "Look CEL." "Fix Please, for free."

Drama over. Honestly.

Your fault for not getting receipts. Junkyard should have a 30-day return policy - any honest yard should mark their item with those funny pens that remind me of white-out, to show that it was theirs. If not, then there's eBay. So, it's a $60 mistake - which you got back as the service fee, so you're even. Chalk experience up to "lesson learned", and move on.

 

Authorized work? Wow, it was supposed to be done by them. They said no, so i went elsewhere. So was there another alternative that i am not finding. You know *******,i dont care about the money it was only $80.The fact is these companies think they can get away with anything since i am the little guy and wont pursue it.

But they are wrong i will pursue it. So again ******* its not my fault for not getting receipts, its your fault for posting incorrect information.

You seem to be the type of guy that is easily screwed over. Oh well they gave me the wrong kidney ill be dead in a wk oh well ill just chalk it up to experience.

 

No, no. No need to make it personal. For example, I fought a $15 parking ticket on principle - court dates, meeting with the Crown Attorney, hours of prep work, and all. Way more than $15 of my time. I won. So I don't need to be lectured about rolling over. Also, I don't confuse a kidney transplant with car repairs, and nor should you.

If you had got receipts, then you would have been in a better position to negotiate for compensation from the dealer due to their mistake. This is not "incorrect information."

Regardless, then, if it's this feeling of getting screwed over that you're trying to shake, then my suggestion above is the course of action you should take, because you do get a new part out of it, and they actually have to do the work. This is as close as you are going to get to retribution on your own.

It has all the hallmarks of an 'honest mistake'. If your sense is that this is common practice, then you need to find other customers of that dealer who have had the same or similar experience to show a pattern of deceit. This would definitely strengthen your case. "You can blow out a candle, but you can't blow out a fire."

 

I can understand both sides of the argument, being a business owner myself. Now for arguments sake, take a step back for a second and look at it from this poiint of view.
If I sold you a home audio receiver, with warranty on specific electronic pieces. You brought it in for diagnosis and one of my service tech's misread the warranty coverage and charged you for the service call, because you opted to take the equipment elsewhere for repairs. The guy you took it to relaced the faulty part with a used(no warranty) part. And now the receiver functions with no problems.

You came to me with your concerns about the item not being under warranty, and I found that it should have been covered. I, and any sensible business, would only refund what I charged you, for the work performed under my business name and license. Why should I be responsible for work that you paid some other person, licensed or not, to perform? Had you paid for the repairs at my shop, I would understand the argument and would be happy to reimburse you for the charges. But since you paid somebody else to replace faulty parts with used parts, you really don't have a leg to stand on.

They reimbursed you the money they took from you. Not what you spent out of pocket to have somebody else repair the vehicle.

Your choices are, remove the junk yard part, put the old part back on and take it in and have them fix it under warranty, which they might not now that you have had somebody tamper with the faulty part.
Or take the money they are offering and move on with your life.

It sucks, but that's the reality of the situation.

Is it fair, depends on how you look at it.

 

plus think would you put your name on something someone else threw in but you have no idea how well they did it? just cuz it works doesn't mean it'll always last. then when it goes wrong again itd give you the ability to complain to them about it which wasn't their fault to begin with.

it does suck but it happens.

 

heeeey i lived right next to tysons! :D

now im in NC though it kind of sounds like the stereotypical northern virginia attitude... everyone tries to take advantage of everyone else.