$1,000 truck repair bill that did not fix the problem

[jollystomper]

It cannot hurt to put this in writing and send a letter to the dealer (find the owner of the dealership, not the service manager) as well as GM Corporate customer service. Written complaints tend to get more attention than verbal ones. If you are social network savvy you might also tweet your experience. Sometimes making a little polite noise might get a partial refund or a discount for the future.

 

[bd68]

Update and resolution: The bill for the second visit that resulted in the battery being changed was $150. The truck has been running fine for a month so it seems that the issue was the battery. Went to talk with the service manager at the dealer last week. Explained that I thought the original diagnosis was not a thoughtful diagnosis and resulted in unnecessary work. Service manager still took position that battery dieing 2 weeks later was random and unrelated...but he did listen to me...asked what I was looking for. I identified approx $600 parts and labor that I thought they should not have done. He was willing to refund $480 in labor that was on the bill but did not want to refund the parts because they were "on the vehicle". I thought his offer was close enough and decided to take it, declare myself satisfied, and move on.

Thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences.

 

[REWahoo]

Congratulations. You are $480 ahead of where the majority of us would have ended up.