Why does it take 3 hours to get an alignment and oil change?

davesl708 · Dec 15, 2015

I used to work in service stations back when they were full service and you took your car/truck there to get your snow tires put on.
Oil changes and grease jobs took 30 minutes. You started the drain and the greased/inspected the vehicle to let the oil drain for 10-15 minutes then filled, ran and rechecked the oil level.

Tire rotate and balance took 25 minutes.

Last time I took my vehicle in for the "free" rotate and balance with the shop empty and six employees I was told it would take an hour. As my practice I stand and watch the work being done. One time I did go to a nearby store to pass the time I came back in an hour and my car was still sitting in the same spot. A guy was walking up to it an I asked if it was ready. He said no just getting to it. 10 minutes later he pulled it around to the front and said it was ready. A quick test drive showed he just rotated the tires and did not balance them. The shop supervisor told me my tires usually don't need to be balanced.:confused2: I told him the reason I brought it in was because they were out of balance.
He said he would have them rechecked. As I watched the guy had to adjust the weight on two tires. They did not even do the test properly.

I no longer buy tires from them.

teg · Dec 15, 2015

It isn't "free" if it's taking you that long to get it done, time is money. Maybe the dealer doesn't want you to come back by making it such a pain in the arse to get the "free" maintenance.

truckdiagnostics · Dec 15, 2015

Me thinks there is a problem in bow tie land in your area. You can't be the only one having issues with the local GM dealers. Now it has been a while since I have looked at a GM franchise agreement, but there is this thing called customer satisfaction index(CSI). Corporate GM takes this very seriously, so you might want to consider sending a clear fact based e mail to the regional GM service manager. May not fix your particular situation, and you may not see any changes directly, but enough complaints add up. Now if I was doing things as the district service manager I would forward the e mail to the local service manager with a note telling him to make it right. Then as district service manager i would follow up with you in a couple days. My point here is have an answer on, what YOU want to make it right.
Also, do not come off like you will never due business there again, other wise they will not spend the time and money, just to have you go else where. "your a faithful customer that is just miffed at the whole situation and want to use GM service, bla, bla, bla.....
Good luck let me know how it turns out.

SRMN8R · Dec 18, 2015

Send them an official looking invoice for 2 hours of your time.

I did that with my physician once. I haven't had to wait for an appointment again...

YMMV.

ModMech · Dec 19, 2015

Gary Fowler said:
Dealerships get paid for warranty work based on the book rate for optimum conditions and rarely can do the work in the allotted time frame so they loose money of warranty work even if they get reimbursed by the corporation.

Actually, the franchise laws in most, if not all states, REQUIRE the Standard Repair times (SRTs) to be fair and achievable. The problem is that is doing so means no checking faceb00k, smoking a cancer stick, or chatting up the hottie at the parts counter; all of which are FAR TOO COMMON in the service department.

SRTs are, for the most part, perfectly achievable times, I ought to know because I do it. It requires focus and following the process, slothdom and wild goose chases will not provide good results. The WORK ETHIC in this country is broken, any hard working motivated tech can make a VERY good living at a good honest dealership.

MinnesotaEric · Dec 19, 2015

RollingsFarms said:
Hate taking my truck to the dealership but with these "free maintenance" services it's almost money wasted if you don't. It took these morons over 3 hours to do an oil change and a tire rotation and alignment. THREE HOURS. It didn't take that long to build the **** truck on the assembly line I bet. Most dealers won't even give you a car/truck to drive anymore, they all have this stupid shuttle thing where they will take you anywhere you want to go. If it weren't for these free oil changed and such the dealership would never see me. I think these people sit around and think of ways to piss us off.

As an auto tech, typically it took me ten-to fifteen minutes to set up the alignment rack but I used old ANCO gauges and mirrors and lasers then made adjustments. New Hunter alignment racks literally show on screen what to turn when the auto is typed in and the meters are set up. Anyway, an alignment took me about and hour or more if I was replacing parts.

Oil changes take 20 minutes if I let the oil drip and 30 minutes if I cleaned the inside and outside of all the windows.

Copperhead · Dec 23, 2015

Guess this is the main reason I do not go back to a dealer shop after buying a new vehicle except in extreme cases, recall, or warranty issue. Once my new vehicle leaves the dealership and comes home for the first time, It has a vey high chance of never seeing a dealer again. I go get shop work done, when needed, by folks I have known for decades, they offer good quality at a reasonable price, and they have no grief about doing something they might have missed... free of charge. Which means, they hardly miss anything I want done. Even body work or repairs, very infrequent, I go to third party shops.