Who do you think is paying for the IAM? And who is paying the technician to install it?

$185 is fair. Labor for software is one hour. Plus whatever the software costs.

 

Who fried the IAM? They did. So who SHOULD pay the technician to install it? They should. But they're lucky, Volvo NA is going to pay for it. If you're suggesting I should have to pay for that, I'd humbly suggest you stop smoking crack. It's bad for you.

I have copies of invoices from people on other forums showing the update costss less than $100. That word, fair, I do not think it means what you think it means. I will be showing them the other invoices and asking them why they are charging me so much more for it.

At the end of the day, I'm seeing that Volvo is not the brand it used to be and servicing one is best left to indie shops, not dealerships.

I'll know better in the future for sure.

 

I'm not saying they should charge you for the IAM, but if the car is out of warranty, they have no obligation to replace the IAM for free. But they are and they are providing a car in the meantime. Some folks are just never happy though.

And $185 is fair. I know everyone thinks we should work for free, but we don't. An hour of labor is pretty standard for a software download. If a dealer wants to charge less, great. But if someone came to the dealer I work for and said they have copies of invoices from the internet for a lower price, we would probably tell them they are free to go to that dealership for the work. Under $100 is very cheap, since the software alone is likely around $50.

I figured you were one of the anti-dealer guys who just want to complain about how evil we are.

 

They are providing me with a car because I had arranged to have one prior to any of this. I doubt very much they'd provide me with anything otherwise. Their Yelp reviews are littered with stories about people not getting loaners.

I'm a software engineer and I've worked extensively with milspec embedded systems much more complicated than the toy stuff that goes into a Volvo. I'm lucky if I get paid $100/hr to WRITE the damn software for them. So a guy sitting there watching a progress bar should make $100? Wow. I should change jobs.

EDIT: I'm not saying all Volvo dealers are crap. But the one I found surely is. I regret not checking Yelp beforehand. That IS my fault.

 

Yelp is a joke. People go there to complain. Often times, people complain without knowing the full situation, much like this post.

We don't make what the dealer charges for labor. Not anywhere close.

 

Ah, I see. Yelp is a joke. Ok buddy. Lucky we let you use our internet. Check this out:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/swedish-impo...wedish+imports

Yelp reviews that are all favorable? Why aren't people complaining? Something must be wrong?

Maybe the world is different than you describe or observe.

 

People want to go on the internet to complain. If 10 out of 100 people are mad and the rest are satisfied, how many are likely to complain and how many of the satisfied people will leave a positive review? Yelp is great to read from people who are mad. It isn't very good at indicating how many are happy.

Wow, an indy shop with 12 positive reviews. Often times, people go to the indy shops because they have this notion that the dealer is evil. And the small indy shop usually has a more personal relationship with the customer than the dealer (like your case- you said you called and spoke to the tech... that wasn't the tech, it was the service advisor. At a small indy shop, customers often can talk directly to the person working on the car).

Anyway, it's very easy for a small indy shop to simply ask a satisfied customer to leave a review because it will really help them out. Or they have friends and family leave reviews. I don't put all my faith in yelp reviews (positive or negative)

 

Have you studied much about the socio-economic effects of online reviews? Are you aware that the newer generation loves to write positive things? They love to LIKE things online. It's mainly our, older generation that gets pissed.

There are plenty of places in hundreds of industries with excellent, five star Yelp reviews. You're just plain wrong about Yelp. Sorry if you've had a bad experience with them.

 

I haven't had a bad experience with them, I just don't put all my faith into them, one way or another.

In my industry, especially at a dealer where there are middle men (the service advisors), a lot is lost in communication. Customers often do not fully understand what is going on. I've seen it plenty of times where I explain something to the advisor, who then calls the customer to relay it and totally botches it. Most of the time, it doesn't matter. But if there is a case where the customer actually looks into things, the advisor looks dumb. Blame this on training or whatever and I won't argue. It bugs me a lot. But I have seen customers who fill out the CSI surveys for the work we do. I know the situation because I may have worked on the car or I know what happened with it. And it is clear from their comments that they customer simply does not know the full situation. If they were to leave those same comments as a review, and some do, another person might get the wrong idea. That is why I don't put much faith in them.

 

Believe me, I understand what you mean about Yelp. I used to run a 3d printing business online that was completely review oriented on 3dhubs. I know how people can be. But that doesn't make the process bad. There are plenty of places with good Yelp reviews that actually deserve them. There are also plenty of places with bad reviews that deserve them too.

But in this case, I think 99% of my grief could have been avoided if they just provided me with reasonable updates. I mean, the guy lied to my face on Thursday evening when I asked him if the car was still driveable. Mind you, this was at 5pm. He never even called to touch base over the course of an 8 hour work day. I've never had that happen in my life at any service shop and I've been driving and owning cars for more than 30 years. Maybe I've been lucky.

But by not communicating, it raises suspicion. Once that happens, it's virtually game over imho. Yes, the advisor needs much more training ... or another job.

 

I'm sure there are plenty of good reviews out there for places that are legit, as well as bad ones that are deserved. I'm just saying I don't put a whole lot of stock into that because they don't always show the full picture.

And I totally agree about the communication problem there. Shouldn't have happened that way and that's an issue with them apparently. Good advisors are hard to find. If I had my way, I would deal with the customers directly and eliminate the advisor position. A lot of problems would be avoided.

 

Here is an update.

At this point, after almost a week, I'm now dealing directly with the service manager at Don Beyer Volvo in Falls Church, VA, Debrah Stack. To her credit, she has at least been giving me updates. Like yesterday, when she told me the part (IAM) was in but that they hadn't installed it yet and that she hoped to have the car done by around 1pm today. Note, it's about 3pm now.

She just called me to say that "someone" had accidentally shut the car off in the work bay during the update. So they need to start over, but they hope to have the car done by the end of the day. I asked her if she just lets random people walk around the work bays with free access to customer's cars. She didn't answer.

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. I'm not that good a writer.

 

Well if that is the case, that means the IAM is installed and functioning at least. Just the maps have not been fully loaded yet. So end of the day should certainly be possible. Unless some idiot turns off a car they aren't working on again.

 

The question I have to ask is ... did something like this happen originally on Thursday of last week? I mean, really? They let random people walk around the work bay area? When I asked her who turned the car off she said she didn't know.

All the work bays I've ever worked in had security cameras for insurance purposes. If a guy (or lady) fell or got hurt they always needed documentation.

This is like a (really bad) comedy.

 

It doesn't mean it was a random person. It could have been another tech or a porter. We have all kinds of co workers going through the shop. Luckily mine know not to touch anything. We have no cameras in the shop.

 

So is it fixed?

 

I did get my car back yesterday, at around 7pm. There was good news and bad news. As an aside, I initially took the car in for three things: backup cam glitching, transmission fluid flush, and the software update.

The good news was that they did fix the IAM and install the software + latest map updates. They also did not charge me anything (for the map software update only) to compensate for my inconvenience. So in the end, I'd give them two out of five stars. They did of course charge me for everything else.

The bad news is that my car was filthy. Normally I wouldn't care but the service manager mentioned in our last two conversations (as a reason for the last final delay) that the car was getting cleaned up and washed. That was a complete lie. There was even a big sign at the cashier's counter that their car washer was out of service.

More concerning was that my Kuda phone mount was left dangling by its mounting screw, not even close to being properly reinstalled. The metal mount tab had been bent pretty hard too. I have pictures. It's almost as if they just yanked it out rather than unscrewing it in order to get to the IAM.

But perhaps most annoying is that I'm pretty sure the camera still glitches. I have to wait on that to know for sure as it was only happening during very hot 90+ days. But I did see it glitch a couple of times when I tested it before leaving.

I mentioned all this to the service manager on duty. He asked me if I wanted to leave the car another day. I told him that I didn't want them to ever touch my car again.

 

Confirmed, the backup camera is not fixed at all. It's doing the exact same thing it did when I took it in. They charged me around $500 to replace it, my warranty company paid about 1/2 that. Looks like Lucy is gonna have some splainin' to do, to me, to Volvo NA, and to the warranty company.

So in the end I wouldn't give them two out of five stars, I'd give them one or maybe half of one.

 

They replaced the camera? There is a bulletin for an equalizer that gets installed for a flickering camera. I've installed many and never had one where that didn't fix it.

 

So they BRICK his Car and they are under no Obligation,you must be smoking something-else if not CRACK.