Toyota Aircon Service Scam

[casava]

I took my Vigo into Toyota Hua Hin on 27^th October for a routine service. After they had the car for about an hour, they told me the aircon needed servicing at an additional cost of B2,023.00. The price for the whole 100,000 km service had already been quoted at B2,800.00. I told them the aircon was working well and I did not want it serviced. They then said my tires needed replacing. I know they have 3 mm of tread and are therefore okay. They then said I need new windscreen wipers. I don't.

So they came back to the story that the aircon needed servicing and showed me a brochure with photos of extremely dirty and corroded radiators inside an ENGINE BAY and told me mine was like that.

I asked them to show me this on my car. It was obvious they did not want to do this but I insisted on being taken to see my car in the workshop. Here they pointed out the blower unit under the dash board inside THE CAB, (nothing remotely like the brochure I had been shown in the office), and said it needed a new filter.

Foolishly I gave in and said okay. I stood and watched for half an hour as one man removed the fan unit, which was slightly dusty. He squirted some detergent like solution into the blower box for a few minutes. He spent thirty seconds blowing air through the fan unit and then re-installed it. He then installed a single layer paper concertina type filter, less than 300 mm square. There was no filter in the original installation and the new filter was not a correct fit. Toyota told me this item cost B450.00 but it looked like it was worth B50.00 maximum. Job done in 30 minutes.

I complained to a senior member of staff that the B2,023.00 price was ridiculous but she was joined by several other staff who assured me this was the standard Toyota charge and even a Thai would be charged the same.

Having paid and left, I phoned a friend who owns a Toyota and, last time he took it in to Toyota Hua Hin for a service, he had also been told that his aircon needed servicing when he knew it didn't.

I ALSO KNOW MY AIRCON DID NOT NEED SERVICING.

[harrry]

I guess your car was 3 years old as this was the 100000km service. THai tyres harden with age and it is probably a lot safer to replace them after 3 years work, Whether you should buy them at Toyota is another matter.

[katabeachbum]

I just had 20k km/12 months service done on my 2010 Vigo. I chose to pay 2k baht extra to have aircon unit cleaned and serviced. Huge improvement in cooling capacity, and all fungi and bugs cleaned out and desinfected. The present owner of my 2006 Vigo/100k km just did the same thing, and called me and said "hey its cooling again".

As for tyres, if 100k km and +3 years, braking distance is increased with approx 30% and traction significantly reduced. 3mm tread may be able to drain some water, but only a fraction of a 6mm tyre.

[casava]

I just had 20k km/12 months service done on my 2010 Vigo. I chose to pay 2k baht extra to have aircon unit cleaned and serviced. Huge improvement in cooling capacity, and all fungi and bugs cleaned out and desinfected. The present owner of my 2006 Vigo/100k km just did the same thing, and called me and said "hey its cooling again".

As for tyres, if 100k km and +3 years, braking distance is increased with approx 30% and traction significantly reduced. 3mm tread may be able to drain some water, but only a fraction of a 6mm tyre.

This was posted about an hour after Toyota had phoned a second time to offer me 20% discount and I had refused yet again. Read into that what you like.

But before they did the "service" on my aircon it was working well. Minimum fan and minimum cooling setting was as cold as I needed it under most conditions.

[harrry]

If you look at your vigo manual you will find under the warantee section that the airconditioner services are specifically excluded as are spark plugs and a limited warantee on tyres.

[Flatouthruthefog]

If you look at your vigo manual you will find under the warantee section that the airconditioner services are specifically excluded as are spark plugs and a limited warantee on tyres.

Looks as if everything can be excluded from a Toyota guarantee in Thailand.

The main dealer in Khon Kaen refused to honour the guarantee on a Yaris - after trying all the other excuses in the book and a few new ones - simply because the car had been sold by the Toyota dealer in Chiang Mai.

Unbelievable? See www.mychiangmai.com

Unethical? Of course.

Untenable? Yes. How to lose a good customer - and everyone else who reads this - over an utterly unjust charge of 10,500b. No wonder the mighty are falling!

[katabeachbum]

I just had 20k km/12 months service done on my 2010 Vigo. I chose to pay 2k baht extra to have aircon unit cleaned and serviced. Huge improvement in cooling capacity, and all fungi and bugs cleaned out and desinfected. The present owner of my 2006 Vigo/100k km just did the same thing, and called me and said "hey its cooling again".

As for tyres, if 100k km and +3 years, braking distance is increased with approx 30% and traction significantly reduced. 3mm tread may be able to drain some water, but only a fraction of a 6mm tyre.

This was posted about an hour after Toyota had phoned a second time to offer me 20% discount and I had refused yet again. Read into that what you like.

But before they did the "service" on my aircon it was working well. Minimum fan and minimum cooling setting was as cold as I needed it under most conditions.

aftr 100k km no aircon works 100%. Compressor works hard, but unable to get rid of cooling inside cars register. Waste of fuel to run compressor full to obtain half cooling, and through a register loaded with germs and funghi.

But it should always be owners choise to do unscheduled services, and the reason for Toyota to not schedule this service is to make look vehicle have low maintaincosts.

[mdechgan]

Just because the tires have tread left doesn't mean they aren't worn or need to be replaced. I've seen tires 5 years old, 80,000km with the treads still there.

For a/c service a cleaning usually costs about 1,000 baht at an a/c shop. 2,000 at the dealer isn't expensive.

It is very difficult to remove the fan to get to the evaporator unit. Sometimes to really clean the a/c unit the coil has to be removed and vacuum and recharge the freon. No car that I know of has a filter for the blower.