I have been a Jag owner a very short period of time. In that time I have paid my dealership to do a number of things. One thing was.... Changing the Engine Air Filter. Imagine my surprise when I did a little late night tooling in the garage and pulled this Birds Nest out of my Air Filter compartment,,,

Seriously, I mean really....... This is disgusting. I am surprised moths didnt come fluttering out when I opened the casing. It literally has bird feathers in it.

I am a little miffed to say the least.

Please tell me your thoughts?

 

If that dealership supposively changed that within the last 6 months I would be up there throwing a fit. There is no way that has been changed even within the last year. I would find the receipt and go up there not only demanding money back but a new filter installed for free and some other free stuff and then I would tell them my business will be going elsewhere.

 

How long and how many miles since the filter change?

Wonder if the filter that was charged out by the mechanic made it onto ebay.

 

Thats tough to do since the only other Jag Dealers are at 80 miles in either direction. I try to keep a good relationship with the guys here in Webster NY. Even after a month in the shop and alot of bickering I still bought a case of beer for the garage twice now. But thats a different story.

And within the last year. Ha... this thing is original OEM brotha. I am pretty sure this is the one that came in the car. Doing the math it must gone through hurricane Katrina and all that BS since it was in South Florida since purchase. My guy has the whole dealer history for me.
Send me a Private Message if you want to know more. Its a crazy story!!! I have been through the ringer with this ride. Seriously. Its too embarrassing to post.

 

I have to dig through all my invoices and receipts. I have a folder thick as a small town phone book with all the BS I haver gone through with Jaguar. Still love em tho. Cant help it. Maybe when I can finally afford a Maserati things will change.

Check my previous reply.
Thanks

 

Actually, when this sort of thing happens, I feel a bit sorry for Jaguar, the maker. No matter how careful one is as a maker, there's very little control over what goes on "out there" in the field which may be in another country. One can only hope that Jaguar, the maker does something about this when it's reported. Sadly, so often this is ignored.
Making cars is only part of a very much larger business strategy, as well-proved by Ford now by their attention to marketing over many years. Over here in UK, Ford had without doubt the best brand-loyalty factor of any manufacturer.
Still, when you're just the end-user, there's not much can be done, except perhaps expensive litigation. If I were you, I'd try this on with your so-called dealer as a kind of bluff or threat -- everything to gain, nothing to lose. If you're not an aggressive person, maybe you have a friend who can 'act for you' over getting your money back who is capable of getting nasty with said dealer.
I find full exposure (you already have pix.) of rip-offs one of the best ways of getting redress. Nowadays, before dealing with anyone, I just Google their name plus "problems" and see what comes up. There is a massive national car dealer in Leeds I've done this with, and I was abs. astonished at what came up -- entry after entry by the shedload of complaints about shoddy service, neglected service, ignorance, failed promises ad infinitum.
If in doubt, GOOGLE it!
Leedsman.

 

I would take the pictures you posted and make an appointment with the service manager. I understand with only one local dealer you want to try to keep the relationship.... As a manager myself, sometimes it isn't the business that is screwing up but a person. If the manager doesn't get feedback, they can't fix the problem. Also, just playing devils advocate here, if that filter change was part of a big work order, the service tech may have simply forgot. I would definitely go over other things that they serviced and make sure those were done right. Offer up the solution for the service department that you get back any replaced parts for inspection before you pay for repairs. That way they can't "forget" to replace the air filter since they have to give you the old one with the bill. I certainly hope that when you talk to them, it was an honest mistake and they take care of it. That said, this is one reason that I learned early on to do most of my own work.

 

You story is why I do my own oil and filter changes.

 

I suspect they charged you at least 100 plus labor for the filter. Dealers just don't get it; with the power of the internet these days, reputations can bedamaged within hours. A friend of mine in the Northern California area with anXK took his car in for service at a Jag dealership and they advised him he needed a cowl and engine air filter. He went slightly ballistic and accusedthem of lying, until they took him out to the vehicle and showed him the filters; they approximated the condition of yours. Long story short...three months earlier he had the oil and both filters changed at another dealership in the same area. That dealershipalso advised him a brake system flush was due; however he didn't have the time and decided to do this later. He took a number of photosat the second dealership, kept the filters and went on his way.About a week later, he took his car back to the first dealership for a brake system flush, AFTER he put a small dab of silver paint on eachof the caliper bleed covers. If the brakes were really bled, the coverswould have to be removed and the small line of silver paint would have been 'broken'. Can ya see where this is going?? He drovethe vehicle home, jacked up each wheel and found the paint lines to be unbroken on every wheel. More photos. He had help from a neighbor who is an airframe and powerplant mechanic with a majorairline...a very credible witness. This guy is quite high up on the foodchain and is discussing options with his attorney. Life is soon going to become very interesting for a certain dealer.He feels it's one thing to stiff him for the filters; mess with his brakesand it's going to get costly. I'm sure the dealer took a look at this guy..he dresses well, looks well off..and figured what the hell; whatdoes he know, and he sure doesn't look like the type that would gethis hands dirty. Well he does (has)...used to race stock cars yearsago when he was in college, and yes, he does know which end of thecar the motor is in.The sad thing is, he'll never again buy another Jag and I'm sure hewill convince others in his social circle to do likewise. His attitude now is, "if Jag doesn't police its dealers and allows/overlooks thesekinds of practices, then the hell with 'em". He and his mechanic friend believe that all the dealership did (if that) was to suck the old fluid out of the reservoir and replace with new; now they wish they had put a 'witness' mark on the reservoir cap.

 

I am almost sure that filter isn't Jaguar OEM.. It looks like a elcheapo Fram filter.

I would throw it away grap you a K&N filter and a recharge kit you'll be good for life.

Amazon.com has the filters under $40

 

Whats a recharge kit?

 

Good remarks.

My decision as to using or not using this dealership again would depend very much on the reaction and response with the service manager. You can tell a lot about an outfit by how well they handle problems like this.

No responsible service manager would tolerate intentional, outright cheating and dishonesty. The consequences are far too serious and far-reaching. I myself have terminated more than a few techs who got caught.

It's hard to know what crooks, cheaters, and thieves are thinking at times. I'm hard pressed to imagine a tech SO desperate that he'd jeopardize his job over something as simple as an air filter so the notion of it being a simple oversight is certainly plausible....but you certainly can't rule anything out.

The problem with these situations is that, even if it WAS an honest mistake, it's almost impossible to convince the customer and repair the damage done....which includes not only the damage to the relationship with that customer but the damage to your reputation....as bad news spreads much more quickly than good news. An unhappy customer will tell 7 people about his bad experience while happy customer generally tells 2 people about a good experience.

Cheers
DD

 

Not that I know about Jaguar policies specifically but, broadly speaking, my experience is that manufacturers seldom investigate or get involved with what might be called "individual consumer disputes" at dealerships unless it involves a warranty/product/lemon law issue OR the complaints reach a point where they simply cannot be ignored. The reasoning, I think, is that dealers are private businesses subject to prevailing local laws and the wrath of the BBB, attorney general, etc.

In other words they don't want to mediate in private business disputes. In fact, there might be aspects of the franchise agreements preventing it or limiting their involvement. I dunno.

However, the manufacturer does have a very real interest in overall product reputation... which obviously includes the business practices of their dealers. If the situation becomes serious enough they can and will start squeezing some toes.

In this air filter situation, for example, corporate Jaguar, if the customer called them to complain, would probably advise the customer that, at the corporate level, they cannot mediate complaints involving fraud. They'd offer to call the dealership...which they'd almost certainly do....to review the matter and ask the dealership to "make every effort" to solve the matter to the customer's satisfaction.

That would probably be the end of their involvement.

If such complaints became a regular occurence they'd certainly take more action.

Cheers
DD

 

It's a cleaning and oil kit that enables you to clean and reuse the K&N filter for a million miles.

 

Just feel compelled to note.. While many use them with no issue...If they are not properly oiled; the oil residue can damage the throttle body... Just saying Be Careful!

 

thats looks like over 60k of dirt to me, and for all you that THINK youre judged by what you wear and dress and how the tech works on your car, comeon and get real how many techs even see the owner of the car they work on. I had a customer years ago yell at my advisor about maintenance I recommended and said I was trying to rip him off cause he was black! I was up talking to her about another car and said "Excuse me, I didnt know what COLOR you are until I came up here. I recommended that work cause your car NEEDS it,nothing more, nothing less.
And as consciencious as I try to be I have left out a filter on a service by mistake. The cure, I throw all filters up under the hood while I'm changing the oil and checking out the undercar. Then I dont MISS replacing the filter because its under the hood and not sitting on my bench among other parts for other cars Im working on. Last time I checked I am still human and subject to mistakes like everyone here, unless 1 of you happens to be the second coming of Christ and perfect.
I know if something like that happened with me the service manager would know it was an honest oversite and would make it right. Except for those that think acting like a raging subhuman gets you places in life, we want happy customers, not pissed ones. I guess this is why Momentum Jaguar in Houston won "Pride of Jaguar" for 2010. 1 of only a handfull in the entire country.
I even watched our service manager fix a paint issue on a customers preowned Jag bought somewhere else that had obvious paint work on the hood from a wreck, and a paint bubble. You could see the sanding marks under the paint. But rather than argue that its been repainted and not a warranty issue we fixed it at our cost, and hopefully gained a loyal trusting customer.
Just send the pics to the manager and respectfully state that it was probobly just an over site and would he please send you a new filter to install without having to drive the 80 mile trip back. And maybe just follow up with a call if needed.

 

What a good idea!

 

Always a good start. Or at least, "reasonably".

No one likes to be bombarded. A lot of complaints come in. If a person is the only person that day that has been reasonable, he gets the bonus points.

Letting a manager/owner know that you are "trying to help him run a successful business by offering constructive feedback" almost always gets a thank you.

Now .. as for brake flushes that got the sunshine treatment .. that is clearly wrong. When it is the only line on the repair order, and it does not get done, it cannot be an oversight if the mechanic has punched the clock times in and out, charged out the parts, signed off on it, he got paid for it, and the customer got charged. Such as situation is clearly wrong and indefensible. That mechanic *and* his supervisor should be out pounding the pavement. Why the supervisor? Because it would have been impossible not to notice that the car had never made it up onto the hoist. Lucy has a lot of 'splainin' to do on that one.

 

Can't help making a simple observation here:--

If all the dealers did their work competently and at a fair price, WEBSITES LIKE THIS ONE WOULD NOT EXIST.

Quod erat desperandum.
Leedsman.

 

NOT TRUE.... This Web site and others like it are more for people who have a common interest to share knowledge and experience... The random few that use it to bash their service experience are usually short lived....

Sorry to shorten your post in a quote, Brutal....

You pretty much summed up what I was saying as well... I totally get the reason why the OP posted that up... I would be like "WTF" as well..But, also know that missing that in a service is really easy to do, no mater how experienced you are... And you are so right that going in and "raising hell" won't get you anywhere... Honestly, all it will do is "burn the bridge" that you may inevitably need....

When I had the S Type, there were things that took them a couple of tries to fix. I was always understanding. One comment I made, that made them chuckle, was it would have taken me twice as many tries to get it right, so they were still ahead of the game... I honestly felt really bad for the tech that was explaining to me what the issue was. I could tell he was embarrassed in front of the service manager... And this was just getting some moldings to fit right and fix a wind noise...I made it really clear to Mike that in no way should the tech feel that me as a customer didn't think he was doing his job correctly.. As that relationship built, they (the techs even) would come out and take me back to show me stuff without any of the service writers or Mike asking them to... One did ask me once "where's the donuts?" LOL....

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.... 90% of these guys (dealer service) are straight up good people..You just need to build that relationship..and go in with an understanding that they too are running a business..That approach, for me anyway, has led to a good relationship with quite a few service organizations even though I do most of my own service. With the right relationship, they many times will help the DIY enthusiast..