Volvo of Orange County

I left my 2001 S80 at this dealership to have them check why the driver's
seat will move before I start the car but won't move after I've inserted the
key and kicked over the engine. I also asked them to perform the fix for
the faulty AM radio antenna design. At mid-morning the guy on the write-up
desk called me and told me it would cost me $387.00 to have them correct
Volvo's unfortunate antenna design! I was dumbfounded. True, the warranty
had expired, but this was clearly a flaw that needed correction. I had
expected it to be handled on a no-charge basis - or at the very least on a
time and material basis (which I'm certain wouldn't exceed 2 hours labor and
perhaps $10.00 in materials). But they decided to seize the opportunity to
maximize their profitability.

But that wasn't the worst.

The worst came when he told me I needed a new controller for the driver's
seat and that would cost me another $743.00!

Hmmmm. Lemme see, $743.00 plus $387.00 equals $1,130.00. Damn! That's a
lot of money, dude. On the other end of the phone line he said "So, can we
start on your repairs?"

NO! I said.

"What? Well, we've got the car right here and can start on it right away"
he said.

No you can't, I said.

"Well, I've got to tell you then that if you won't let us perform these
repairs I'm going to charge you $100.00 for diagnosis" he said.

DIAGNOSIS? Hell, you knew what the problem was when I dropped off the car,
I said.

"Yeah, well, we gotta make a buck" he said.

Okay, pal. Enjoy your hundred dollars, but understand this...it's the last
nickel you'll ever get out of me or my family, sez I.

So I went and picked up my car - unrepaired - and gave them their C-note.

Be advised - this dealership has underperformed for me since I bought the
car new in '01. I regret ever having dealt with these clowns from the
get-go. Particularly so, when compared to the great service a competing
dealership (other brand) has done over the years with my other car.

No more Volvos for me, and I hope none of you is dumb enough to do business
with these scum.

Pat

 

You should have been given a diagnostic estimate when you signed the repair
order, in this case, $100. If you weren't, they are in violation of the
laws enforced (vigorously, I might add) of the Bureau of Automotive Repair.

So, the diagnostic charge "shouldn't" have been a surprise.

Richard

 

Do you know what the parts cost? e.g. I got a Bosch price for an new
alternator $1800AUS (but an electrician fixed it for $180). They might
indeed be shonky but it's often a long way from something doesn't work to
what's wrong with it, and what do you normally charge for your time? I have
no reason to defend but I have to make a living in my own business - you've
only told half the story.

 

Hmmm. I wonder if the service writer gave you the standard line about the
survey you'll receive from Volvo, and how they (OC Volvo) find nothing less
than "10s" acceptable, and want you to tell them where they fell short.

I confess to having spent many hundreds of dollars there for maintenance and
repair, but have not so far felt "ripped off"--just a "victim" of high Volvo
repair prices. I will say the OC Volvo people have been consistently
courteous.

More than with any other car I've owned, our relationship with our Volvo is
a love/hate thing. Very solid, substantial car, that's never stranded us so
far. But for the money they cost, I don't understand why they can't achieve
quality and reliability at least equal to Honda and Toyota. In some ways
they seem surprisingly fragile. For example, why should front strut tower
caps need replacement twice in 10K miles? I've NEVER had that happen, even
once, on any other car. Why should an engine mount rubber bushing fall apart
after about 50K miles? Again, never before happened in my experience. And
the power driver's seat problem you had just shouldn't happen.
(Incidentally, if you want to see something scary, just look at the stuff
packed in under that seat sometime.)

Even more amazing is the tendency of the faithful to make excuses for EVERY
Volvo fault. And with straight faces! The argument generally comes down to
this: "Japanese cars are made of thin sheet metal, and break down like any
other car. You have a Volvo, and it may save your life." End of discussion.

It's been an interesting ownership experience. We're not ready to dump our
'01 S60 yet, but I'm not sure there will be a second Volvo in our car
history, even given a generally good dealership experience. (If you want to
know how it can be, just walk across the street to the VW dealership, where
my son has had poor experiences with his car bought there, and the one time
I walked in to look, in the market to buy, I was ignored.)

HW

 

I've had 8 Volvos and have hated every one of them.

Wouldn't drive anything else.

 

contact the ca dept of automotive affairs, get the paper work for an
appeal, and notify the
dealer...tell them you want a FULL refund of ALL the $ you spent, or
you will file an appeal...also, cc volvo of north americs outlining
your beef and demmand...kick back a week or two and i would put $ on it
you get your $ back...you can mung the dealers service dept record (ot
threten to do so) and they will do anything to stop it...of course, i
wouldn't take my car back to them///there are pleanty of good ind volvo
shops in so cali...look around, talk to friends, join the local chapter
of the volvo club of n america and find a honest shop...good luck !!

 

I've signed a lot of repair orders over the years and they all had some sort
of "estimate" amount at the bottom of the sheet - this one included - and in
fact is WAS a round $100.00.

So I leave, thinking that the seat and the antenna repairs which I have
clearly delineated to the guy and he has no further need to "diagnose"
because he and I both already KNOW what needs to be done - are going to cost
me around $100.00 plus or minus.

So, when he later calls and says $387.00 for the antenna and $743.00 for the
seat, I was surprised and disappointed.

Then after I declined his offer to repair them for the above price, and he
said he'd have to charge me $100.00 anyway I guess I was a little taken
aback. I asked him straight out - "So let me get this straight, Mike, are
you telling me you're charging me $100.00 to tell me you want to overcharge
me to fix these items?"

He said "Yes".

But let's not kid each other. There was no "diagnosis" involved. He knew
full well when I left the dealership after agreeing to the $100.00 that he
wasn't going to fix my car for $100.00. And he certainly didn't take the
time to explain to me that the $100.00 was NOT the repair cost, but only an
agreement on my part to pay him to call me later and let him tell me the
REAL repair cost was going to be more than 11 times the cost on the estimate
sheet. No - he didn't define it that way!

So yes - I was and continue to be miffed.

And I have no further patience for this dealer, who has more than once
attempted to use predatory pricing policies on me, and, frankly - not always
been entirely honest with me either (desite whether or not they were
"courteous").

For example: On one of my first trips in for normal servicing a couple of
years ago when the car was still pretty new, I got a phone call about
mid-morning from the service writer who stated "Mr Durkin our service
technician has reported to me that your right front tire has a nail in the
sidewall and we recommend you change that tire right now to avoid
unnecessary risk to yourself and others. Do you want us to change the tire
for you?" I asked how much. "$390.00" he replied.

$390.00? I said. Are you kidding me? No. Absolutely not. Fill it with
air and I'll be careful getting it home and I'll go buy a tire on my own.

"We don't recommend that you do that sir. You may have a blowout on the way
home."

I'll worry about that, thank you very much.

Fortunately I have a friend in the tire biz and I called him immediately and
told him I needed a 225/50R17 Michelin MXM4, and did he have one in stock?
He didn't but told me he'd have one for me in the morning, so the next
morning I dropped the car by his shop and watched while his guys jacked my
car up, removed the wheel and tire, broke the tire off the wheel and mounted
the brand new tire. In the meantime, after the "old" tire came off, we
looked at it closely and the nail was NOT in the sidewall at all, but rather
on the flat part of the tread carcass and could have been repaired if need
be --- but lo and behold --- it didn't even go through! It could have been
pulled out and no air would have leaked! I now have that unmounted tire
with 85% of its original tread left in my storage shed at home. It could
have safely been remounted and re-used, but I didn't want to "stick" my
friend with a single oddball tire to stick in his inventory because of this
unexpected outcome. A testimony to a service tech who wanted a commission
for selling a tire.

And BOY! What a MARKUP Volvo of Orange County had in that $390.00 price!
I admit, I am pretty friendly with the dealer who sold me the replacement,
but he showed me his invoice from the tire warehouse he got it from and I
just paid him what he paid. I saved $185.00. I'm sure Volvo of OC could
buy the tire from the same wholesaler that my friend did, and I'm sure
they'd get the same price he got, and they marked it up 90%!

Geez. Everybody's got to make money. There's nothing wrong with that. I
do it myself and I'm not ashamed of a modest margin. But NINETY PERCENT!?
On a tire that didn't need replacing in the FIRST place?

Uh, maybe not.

But Volvo of OC probably gets by with that kind of thing with most of its
customers. In this particular situation I happened to have resources and
discovered what they were doing. I wound up spending $205.00 that I didn't
need to spend - but at least I had the satisfaction of knowing none of it
went into their pocket.

So why did I go back on this antenna thing?

Well, because I knew it was a common problem and that Volvo Corporate issued
a Service Bulletin to its dealers quite a while ago outlining the simple
cure for the problem --- essentially an admission by Volvo that it had a
problematic design. I naively assumed that since it was such a simple fix
that shouldn't take more than a couple of hours - tops - that even if it
wasn't paid for under warranty or on a policy basis, at least I could get it
done inexpensively. $387.00? That's predatory.

$743.00 for the seat controller? That's predatory.

These guys are scum.

Pat

 

the volvo dealers are always trying to cover their high overhead....i
used to, but now i hardly ever
go to a dealer for anything....except to test drive the latest "R" mdl
of course....they have to pay
for the shop somehow.....but...find a good independent...i used to live
is so cali and i thought there
were some good shops around costa mesa.....anyway...good luck
!!!...shop the net for volvo parts
and the dealers will someday get the mssg.......as their parts sales
drop off.....

richard
colorado

 

I don't think so. If that were true, it would have happened long ago.

I'm being careful not to include ALL Volvo dealers in a blanket
condemnation. I'm sure there are some that are awful but I'm equally sure
there are some that do a better overall job with farer pricing policies than
Volvo of OC. I just think V of OC has had its business model in place long
enough to know what they can get away with the majority of the time, and
they are quite prepared to accept the loss of a few more descriminating
service customers, as long as they can continue to get away with hosing the
majority of them.

And all the while, they are "courteous".

But let's not confuse that with being honest.

Pat

PS - Just so that none of the dyed-in-the-wool Volvo loyalists feel the need
to defend the marque - don't. I'm not attacking Volvo. My S80 is adequate.
It's not a terrible car even if I AM bit disappointed in certain things now
that I've had it three years.

ps/ps --- I also own a '98 Mercedes C230 sedan that we bought new at Calibre
Motors --- up the 55 Freeway a few miles from Volvo of OC. In the 8 years
I've owned that car I have had a few mostly small problems too - nothing's
perfect - but my satisfaction levelwith THAT dealer is 100% higher overall
than it is with Volvo of OC. Hell, among other things, Calibre Motors will
even WASH MY CAR EVERYDAY FOR FREE! No questions asked.