I hate to be a little trite, but when you take a vehicle in for service a person should know ahead of time what the recommended intervals are for maintenance items and be ready to just say "no" if it's not time yet.
Dealership service facilities have higher overheads than independent shops and generally upselling is encouraged at the service writer (advisor) level. Pressure to do this may increase in times of slow volume.
As for dealerships, the national tire and muffler shops are even worse, in my opinion. If you think upsell pressure is high at a auto dealership, there's an inter-store competition for them that forces major upselling.
In New York the law requires the customer receive old non-core value parts back if the customer requests. After I helped a friends son with repairs on a car, he took it to a well known muffler chain where they replaced the lower ball joints on both sides. I knew they were good, so we went back and asked for the old parts. They said they were trashed and couldn't find them. So, I called the DMV and they dispatched a state trooper. To avoid having to prove the old parts were bad, they just refunded the kid the price of the parts and labor.
There's another nasty trick. A tire chain store took my daughters car in for state inspection. There were twelve days left on the inspection sticker. As soon as they got the car the very first thing the tech. did was remove the sticker. Now the vehicle cannot legally be driven if it fails inspection and the customer is now completely at the mercy of whatever upsell they have in mind. This is a violation of the state law and the manager had no suspicion I knew this. Needless to say we even got a better price on the tires.
Regards,
Dusty
2019 Ram 1500 Billet Silver Laramie Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 8HP75, 3.21 axle, 33-gallon fuel tank, 18” wheels. Build Date: 3 June 2018. Now at 105115 miles.
