Free 10,000 mile service? Stealer quotes $99.95

When I bought my JSW part of the sales pitch was "Free maintenance for 3yrs/36,000 miles."

A friend has a 10 JSW a couple of months newer than mine (we bought from the same dealer). He made an appointment for the 10,000 mile oil change and the dealer quoted him $99.95 for the service, claiming costs for oil recycling and other items used for the service. He is OK with it, but I told him free maintenance should be totally free.

Has anyone else experience this? Do other dealer service departments perform the service free as advertised?

Comments, please.

My apologies if this is in the wrong discussion area.

I have had my free maintenance done at 10k and at 20k miles and the total charge for both was ZERO dollars. It is time to find another VW dealer for your service needs (or learn to change your own fluids and filters). This dealer is ripping off you, Volkswagen, or both. BEWARE!

Have Fun!

Don

TDIAllen said:

When I bought my JSW part of the sales pitch was "Free maintenance for 3yrs/36,000 miles."
A friend has a 10 JSW a couple of months newer than mine (we bought from the same dealer). He made an appointment for the 10,000 mile oil change and the dealer quoted him $99.95 for the service, claiming costs for oil recycling and other items used for the service. He is OK with it, but I told him free maintenance should be totally free.
Has anyone else experience this? Do other dealer service departments perform the service free as advertised?
Comments, please.
My apologies if this is in the wrong discussion area.

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This dealer should be reported to VWOA and the Better Business Bureau. Crook.

JSWTDI09 said:

I have had my free maintenance done at 10k and at 20k miles and the total charge for both was ZERO dollars. It is time to find another VW dealer for your service needs (or learn to change your own fluids and filters). This dealer is ripping off you, Volkswagen, or both. BEWARE!

Have Fun!

Don

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Thanks, my friend will pay for it if he wants, but I will be looking for another dealer. My JSW is coming up on 6k so it will be a little while for me.

BTW, this was Dick Hannah VW in Vancouver, WA.

dont let your friend pay, dealer will just think he can get away with it and will try to push onto other people.
it should be 100% free,
my 10K cost me nothing.
good luck

That's unbeleivable! Even if you were required to pay for the enviornmental fees they are usually $1 or $2 for the oil disposal and about a dollar per tire for disposal when you get new tires. $100 for enviornmental fees is unheard of.

Maybe the "other items used" is a nice bottle of champagne to toast the fleecing of their loyal customers.

The way it works is the dealer is being paid for the 10,20&30k by VWOA. Attempting to charge your friend as well is double-billing and completely shady. Dependant on local statutes it may also be unlawful.

If your friend won't do it, you should call for quote yourself then report them to the BBB and VWOA.

The company is on a major image rehabilitation program as they try to increase their US market share. Crap like this will actually be dealt with.

If people don't protect themselves from fraud, there's nobody to blame.

P.

just when you thought you had heard it all...is there no limit to the nerve of some dealerships? Does your local TV news have a "consumer protection" reporter? I bet they would LOVE to do a story about this place.

Oh PLEASE call VW on this one. This would make the free maintenance deal an act of fraud.

The Volkswagen-specified service, the stuff that the people that designed and built the car said it needs, IS free to the owner. That is charged back to Volkswagen. Anything extra the dealer wants to charge is not, and can be anything from Scotchguarding the interior to hanging an air freshener on the mirror to rubbing the paint with newborn squirrel hides by naked cheerleaders.... doesn't matter. Dealer can charge whatever they want for whatever they want so long as someone gullible enough is willing to pay for it.

Yes it is dishonest. Yes, it is unnecessary. Yes, it happens. No, I do not agree with it.

But VOLKSWAGEN is only going to reimburse the dealer for an oil change and a tire rotation on a 10k service, that is IT.

This is why so many dealers, especially the big ones with multiple brands and chains, print out their own "maintenance schedule booklet" with the dealer name on it, and give it to the new owners. Heck, some even REMOVE the actual manufacturer's PM schedule from the manual contents. And if you look through these dealer schedules, there will be LOADS of extra unnecessary crap included in there.

At Lexus, our dealer was replacing air filters twice as often as needed, changing diff fluid every 30k miles (and most models had NO specified interval at all from Toyota) and changing ATF every 15k miles. Plus, we poured some bottle of snake-oil crap in the fuel tank every 15k miles, despite the owner's manual clearly stating Toyota does not endorse nor recommend ANY additives in the fuel, oil, or anywhere else. But people paid for it, it was a cash-cow, and it got milked. I hated working there.

I would get it in writing or a printed page of what the 10k free service is from this dealer and then call VWOA and see if you can fax it to them. If in fact is just a oil change and tire rotation and that is it they are completely in the wrong and need to get ****ed.

Report it to VWoA directly; the dealer is 'double dipping' (the dealer is reimbursed by VWoA for the service). My 10k service was 'free' as advertised, that was for tire rotation (no balancing) and oil/filter change.

I bought a Jetta Sportwagen in the States, and even though I live in Canada, I still got the 20K mile FREE service (at a US dealer in Buffalo area) and plan on returning (to the US) for the 30k mile FREE service. I am with the others who say, "Friends don't let friends pay $100 for FREE service". Sounds like a rip-off artist to me too!
PS The dealer in Buffalo wanted to add in a few extras, not needed, to make a few bucks. I turned down the offer.

Just saying, but maybe the dealer quoted him the price of having the standard service that's preformed ever 10K, not knowing how many miles are on the car and his fell under the 3/36K carefree service, proably not, but just an thought.

TDIAllen said:

A friend has a 10 JSW a couple of months newer than mine (we bought from the same dealer). He made an appointment for the 10,000 mile oil change and the dealer quoted him $99.95 for the service, claiming costs for oil recycling and other items used for the service.

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Did he get his "Free" service prematurely, as do some misinformed individuals (often at the behest of the dealership)?

If he used his 10K free service at 5K, then he would have to pay for the more frequent service intervals.

This is another ploy used by "VSS Stealership Incompetence" to increase service revenues.

Dealer to avoid

As soon as I saw the OP's location, my first thought was, "Dick Hannah VW in Vancouver."

One thing I have consistently advised since I joined this forum is to avoid all Vancouver, WA dealer service departments. Since there is only one, it kinda narrows it down as to who I mean. I bought my Jetta SW there, which was fine, but I soon learned to stay the 7734 away from their service department. In my case, 100 miles away, since that is how far the Olympia dealer is from there.

For safe and reasonably priced service, call Fixum Haus on Lombard. Marcel will take care of you.

Don

"BTW, this was Dick Hannah VW in Vancouver, WA."

740GLE said:

Just saying, but maybe the dealer quoted him the price of having the standard service that's preformed ever 10K, not knowing how many miles are on the car and his fell under the 3/36K carefree service, proably not, but just an thought.

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I found out his appointment is in mid December, enough time to figure out what they are wanting to charge for sure. You may be correct in that they just quoted a charge for the service without knowing that the car was new and under warranty. But the service advisor did not voluntarily explain that the service was free for 3yrs/36k either. In any case I will post an update to this tread when I find out more.

BTW, I will check into Fix'em Haus.

I paid $74.95 for a 5K mile oil/filter change at the dealer where I purchased the car. The 10K mile tire rotate and oil/filter change was free, including removing a nail from one of the tires (I did not know the nail was present) and plugging the hole in the tire. This was at Mt. Prospect VW Autobarn near Chicago.

TDIFred said:

I bought a Jetta Sportwagen in the States, and even though I live in Canada, I still got the 20K mile FREE service (at a US dealer in Buffalo area) and plan on returning (to the US) for the 30k mile FREE service. I am with the others who say, "Friends don't let friends pay $100 for FREE service". Sounds like a rip-off artist to me too!
PS The dealer in Buffalo wanted to add in a few extras, not needed, to make a few bucks. I turned down the offer.

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Are you referring to Northtown?

LostArk said:

Are you referring to Northtown?

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that be the one alright, was thinking Orchard Park next time, but Northtown is near a big Wegman's with a lovely beer section...

oilhammer said:

At Lexus, our dealer was replacing air filters twice as often as needed, changing diff fluid every 30k miles (and most models had NO specified interval at all from Toyota) and changing ATF every 15k miles. Plus, we poured some bottle of snake-oil crap in the fuel tank every 15k miles, despite the owner's manual clearly stating Toyota does not endorse nor recommend ANY additives in the fuel, oil, or anywhere else. But people paid for it, it was a cash-cow, and it got milked. I hated working there.

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This solves the mystery of Lexus reliability, otherwise, slugde may build up everywhere.

How do you think they got the name Stealership?

My VW dealership here in TX tried to bill me for a rear brakes replacement with the sensor for an added $95 on my 2002 Jetta TDI, I told him that's the price you quoted me for the front brakes when I was in here 2 months ago.
The sensor is only on one brake assembly and it's on the front, not the rear.
The same "Service Agent" tried charging me $100 for 1 glow plug installed, they were charging $50 for the GP...they go for $25 and an hour labor to install it - it takes a 1/2 hour at most...it's not rocket science.

In my book "Free Maintenance" means FREE, no added fee's, charges, disposal costs, taxes, etc.

You have to watch what they do, they may grin and beam with customer service glee...but check what they do, ask questions if needed and verify.

I will be bringing my own oil for the 10/20/30K maintenance regardless, and after
that I'll be going to my VW gurus (an independent shop) who have loads of TDI experience and mechanics that have been doing it for decades - they do great work.

Buy maintenance stuff (air/fuel/cabin filters) at some of the known internet sellers like IDparts.com and Dieselgeek.com.

I'd also look through the Trusted TDI Mechanics - By State section on the Forum.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=130044

Ingenious way to get you in...

...my dealer sent me a letter telling me according to their records my car was due for its 10,000 mile service and included a coupon for my free service which "expires on 12/31/10". The only problem is the car is only 6 months old and I only have 6500 miles on the car. I guess they figure people will use the coupon before the 10K miles is up each time and they will be able to start charging for service at around 20K instead of 40K like VW intended.

Today I got an email reminder so I replied and asked them how could my car be due for a 10,000 mile service when it doesn't even have 7000 miles on it yet?

I didn't mention I have decided not to let them do any service on it unless it is a warranty repair - I am just curious to see how they respond.

Update on Hannah VW

As it turns out Dick Hannah VW did the oil change free of charge. They had quoted my friend the cost for post warranty service. I just want to set the record straight.

Just to be clear, this is a US only promotion right? I was just quoted close to $300 for my 15,000 km service by my dealership. I guess this brings me to a second question (sorry for the slight thread highjack), is this a "normal" price? I understand that they do a little more than a simple oil change?

free means free...

phillypino215 said:

free means free...

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true, but I'm not sure if our neighbors north of us got the free maintenance program promotion like we did.

oilhammer said:

... Anything extra the dealer wants to charge is not, and can be anything from Scotchguarding the interior to hanging an air freshener on the mirror to rubbing the paint with newborn squirrel hides by naked cheerleaders....

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It's too bad most shops won't let the customer watch. This could actually be worth $99.

-dan