Possible Dealer Fraud?

[Guy in PHX]

A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail from GM. It announced enhancements to the MyGMLink page, now includes your warranty history. When I visited the site I found two accurate warranty issues the dealer performed and one that never happened. The dealer claimed they replaced my radio/CD unit, which they did not. I did complain about the awful signal to noise ratio that caused so much hissing, but they said that is how all the radios sounded. So, no work was done to the radio.Do you think the dealer scammed Pontiac for the costs of this service that was never performed? If so, should I call Pontiac to report the error?

[ragingfish]

I'd put money on it being a glitch.I saw quite a few things on mine that were not done, and I KNOW my dealer is not fraudulent.

[tnpartsguy]

More than likely, they had to use a warranty code of R&R Radio, because they did check your radio, more than likely actually removing it, and checking the antenna connections. To pay the technician, they used the code which best described what they did to pay the tech for his time.

[Stang2Vibe]

But shouldn't we make sure that these reports on our vehicles are accurate? If we go to trade in or sell our Vibe and it has all these things listed in its history, the potential buyer will probably think it has all kinds of problems. Granted, this is only the radio, but what if it were something else? I wouldn't want things like "motor replaced/rebuilt" or "fender replaced" on my vehicle history if no such thing ever happened and I was trying to sell it.

[pmh013]

Can you post a link to the MyGMLink page?I think I tried to sign up for that before, but it wasn't available to Canadians.

[joatmon]

https://www.mygmlink.com/

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »But shouldn't we make sure that these reports on our vehicles are accurate? If we go to trade in or sell our Vibe and it has all these things listed in its history, the potential buyer will probably think it has all kinds of problems. Granted, this is only the radio, but what if it were something else? I wouldn't want things like "motor replaced/rebuilt" or "fender replaced" on my vehicle history if no such thing ever happened and I was trying to sell it.If I were selling the car, I wouldn't use MGL to print reports...I'd go straight to the dealer and get the officially printed...That's just me though.

[Mavrik]

Quote »More than likely, they had to use a warranty code of R&R Radio, because they did check your radio, more than likely actually removing it, and checking the antenna connections. To pay the technician, they used the code which best described what they did to pay the tech for his time.Well from my experience at working in the service department, to come across what was done to your car happened to mine also.I left for a week and my car sat all week which I believe the battery can handle yet it was dead when I came home and loose in the battery tray. I believe my room mates tampered with it but just to make sure I was not having any problems, I took it to the dealership I worked at and told them I was having to boost it to start it.They found nothing wrong but on my copy of the paperwork it says they replaced the door jam switch... I asked why it said that when I KNOW as the service writer and the fact no door jam switch had been replaced on my Vibe was told by the guy who closes off the work orders that a "boosting situation where no unusual draw or anything is found, the battery is good and all that, there is no GM claim code for that for when he closes off the work order and sends GM the bill for the warranty time the tech spent on my car so he gets paid for it. The only way for the tech to get paid was to 'say' something was done."So now on my vehicle's warranty history I have a new driver's door jam switch that was "apparently sticking and causing my interior light to stay on and my battery died." Its a lot of bull... but perhaps in your situation the same thing occured. Perhaps the tech spent a lot of time looking over that concern of yours, found nothing but GM won't pay him for his time unless he did so... you got a new radio.And before someone says GM isn't like that? Yes they are, I worked under that "find something or don't get paid" from my area rep for over two years. And techs do not get paid to stand around so a job is a job, warranty or customer pay. They want to get paid.

[Stang2Vibe]

Sounds like GM needs to perform a major overhaul to their methods of repair tech compensation. Perhaps a base salary plus commission for the actual jobs performed. I'd say that GM isn't helping their own cause with their current compensation structure.Mike, wouldn't the warranty work that shows on the MGL site be essentially the same as a dealer printout? Also, I was never aware that you could just walk into a GM dealership with a VIN number and and ask for the service record for that vehicle. Wouldn't you have to be a GM employee or the vehicle's owner to access that info or can anyone just go in and get the info on my vehicle?

[Mavrik]

you can walk in with any VIN and request the history GM has on file through their GM Vehicle Information Site or GMVIS. All dealerships share this information. It shows in service date, all warranty claims with dates and miles/km it was brought in. Shows all recalls. Will also show if there is a warranty block due to the vehicle being writen off, rebuilt and resold (for all you used car buyers out there)

[Atomb]

Thanks for the info, Mav.I'm lovin' this new, improved "i'm no longer working for GM" Mavrik!Let the truth spill out....just let it go...

[Stang2Vibe]

I don't think these are any kind of major trade secrets or anything.So will this work with any vehicle that's been serviced at a GM dealer, or only for GM vehicles? Like if someone took a Matrix to a Pontiac dealer and got it serviced (non-warrranty obviously). Would that Matrix's VIN come up in a search?I would imagine also that other manufacturers other than GM use a system like this. Anybody know for sure if others like Ford, Toyota, etc. use a record system like this?

[Mavrik]

GMVIS only works on registered GM products both canadian and US. It excludes vehicles older then 93 unless there is a recall on a certain model then it will appear but with the basic of information.If you were to have your VIN run at a dealership on GMVIS it would come up with information like the milage when it came off the truck, the in service date, the out of service date, the recalls if any, all the options would be listed, the day the car was made. Mine was a monday...

[Kari]

Hmm...I'd like to find out exactly what date mine was built on. I suspect it may be by birthday or very, very close. But it would be cool if it *was* my birthday.

[Kari]

Mine just gives the month/year, not the actual day...

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by Kari »Mine just gives the month/year, not the actual day...Same.08/02 for me.

[tnpartsguy]

Yeah, most of the manufacters are the same IMHO. I have worked for dealerships for Toyota, Mistubishi, and now GM, and I can tell you that NONE of them will be hardly anything to just inspect, in fact most would prefer the dealer eat that expense. Try telling a tech who just spent an hour on a car trying to make sure there isn't a problem that he (or she) isn't going to get paid for that hour.....

[Mavrik]

Quote, originally posted by tnpartsguy »Yeah, most of the manufacters are the same IMHO. I have worked for dealerships for Toyota, Mistubishi, and now GM, and I can tell you that NONE of them will be hardly anything to just inspect, in fact most would prefer the dealer eat that expense. Try telling a tech who just spent an hour on a car trying to make sure there isn't a problem that he (or she) isn't going to get paid for that hour.....That results in a lot of unhappy techs, who complain about everything and spend LITTLE time then looking for anything in the future they won't get paid on. Which completes the big picture of service advisors then having to tell you the owner "nothing wrong was found" which in turn causes you to post your complaints about how your dealership SUCKS and your service advisor is an a$$ and so forth... Sure some dealerships suck but not all of them. A lot of them are forced by the company they work for to be that limited in their help... The sad picture is a lot of customers misplace their anger on the ones that have their hands tied behind their back.When I worked for the dealership, this is what I noticed. CSI (Customer Satisfaction Information) IS number 1 priority. CSI reports are generated by those little letters you get after warranty work is done. GM wants to see as many of them as possible and of course all COMPLETELY SATISIFIED (Do your dealership a favor, if you get one and are happy with the repair, take the 2 mins to fill it out and send it in. And if you were satisfied, why not completely?)GM tells the dealerships they do not want to see a lot of warranty work however and to turn away work that comes to their dealership by telling the customer to take the car back to where they bought it (In a lot of cases) District GM reps visit dealerships once a month or so, look over work orders and pull ones of interest. "An hour looking for a rattle and found nothing? How is that warranty? No more submissions of rattles when nothing is found." "Bent wiper arm in winter? Obviously turned on when frozen, no warranty" and so forth usually leaving the service manager with the following "Your shop's warranty work is to high, try and reduce it. Oh and your CSI reports are low and not many were turned in..."Ok so don't do warranty work... but get lots of CSI reports and good ones? Ok lets all get confused now shall we?You the customer... buy your Vibe at Joe Smith Pontiac but want service at John Weaver Pontiac. ol John got told his warranty work was to high and needs to reduce it... his service advisors tell you politely to return to Joe Smith Pontiac to get the work done, so you do. Joe just wants to raise some trouble while keeping his warranty work down also and says ""we're booked up for the next week but you can get it done anywhere... doesn't have to be us." So you call GM and complain that your getting the run around and GM agrees with what Joe said just to keep YOU happy. "Yes take it to any GM dealership, they can not turn you away."GM tells the dealership NOT to do warranty work and find ways to make it CP (customer pay) you turned on your wipers when they were frozen. oh that control arm bushing is torn due to your driving habits. Tires vibrating? you did that. A rattle? what road conditions and how fast? Hmmm worn out tie rod or damaged?I took a lot of angry customers who take out their frustations at the system on who they can see... me. So what do I suggest in the end? Well dealerships are not trying to rip you off. Just know what your getting into and don't sign anything without knowing what your signing. If that means letting someone else take the car in to the dealership because they have a better understanding... it can save you money. BE quoted what it will cost before work is done and remember what you were quoted. You can hold them to that quote. Build a relationship with your dealership, they have more pull on GM to make your experiences there a lot better. I'm kinda looking forward to taking my Vibe in to the dealerships up here in Alaska and seeing how it goes since I have always been on the others ide of the counter.

[zionzr2]

Well nothing came up for service history on my vibe or my Cav. and both have made visits to the service dealer for minor stuff.