Ray Brandt Toyota - Kenner, LA

[navylife59]

Bought, outright and at the same time, 3 vehicles from Ray Brandt Toyota in the New Orleans metro area. We even purchased extended warranties for the '07 Tundra Crewmax TSS, '07 Camry SE, and '07 Scion tC RS3.0 that were bought at a midnight madness sale. We made the sales staff work for it. I have to give kudos for the sales staff. They were very honest and helpful. My problem has strictly been with the Service Department, the GM, and the Customer Service Rep. We had been lied to several times about some paint problems, alignment problems, and a leaking tail lense on the Camry.

The 1st month we owned the Car, it was at the Dealership getting "Serviced" for most of the month. The alignment was never checked properly and was told that there was no TSB issued on the hard right pull on the highway, but there was one. The paint problems never were resolved. The tail lense was "Replaced" but in fact had not. My GF had marked it with a marker. No fewer than 6 times did we drive the 25minutes to the Dealership. For this we were promised free tank of gas for the car and the truck. All they eventually got was barely half a tank for the truck. They also killed the battery on the car which I doubt they replaced.

Moral of the story is check out not just the cars and sales staff of a dealership, but that of the service department as well.


Texas Toyota of Grapevine Texas may not have the sharpest sales staff around, but their Service Department is excellent.

[KTeevan]

if i was you, i would have driven that new tundra right into their showroom .. and then gotten out, and been like theres a scratch on my bumper.

[navylife59]

But I love my truck. I will drive the Camry into it instead

[Speedstar]

If I were you...got to the Better Business Bureau, and report to them what is going on. Trust me when the BBB goes to them with what you have said, they will change their tune real quick.

[KTeevan]

thats a good idea actually. i never even thought about that. good call speedstar

[Ahriman]

certain dealership service departments are just **** like that. ALOT of the redline guys have had TONS of trouble with the saturn dealers.

Unfortunatly it usually takes ALOT to get the BBB involved. even if you contact the BBB chances are the dealer will never know.

look into the lemon laws in your state, if your car has X amount of problems or spends X amount of time in the service department in a given time frame, by law the manufacturer is intitled to buy the car back from you.

[Speedstar]

Well the chances of the dealership buy the car back is not very likely...But it is still a chance. Mostly what they will do is fix the problem.

Now onto the BBB, I had a problem with 1999 Chevy S-10, and the dealship was being a-holes about fixing it. So I contacted the BBB, and I got my truck fixed, and got 3 free oil changes. Granted it took about a month, but it got fixed.

[Ahriman]

Well the chances of the dealership buy the car back is not very likely...But it is still a chance. Mostly what they will do is fix the problem.

Now onto the BBB, I had a problem with 1999 Chevy S-10, and the dealship was being a-holes about fixing it. So I contacted the BBB, and I got my truck fixed, and got 3 free oil changes. Granted it took about a month, but it got fixed.

the dealer wouldnt be buying it back, the manufacturer would. and from what hes saying, if its spent as much time in the service bay has it has and hes only had it so long, i would check the laws, it may warrant a factory buyback.

my ion was a factory buyback due to a problem the origional owner had with the cruise control. they couldnt fix it after X amount of attempts and Saturn had no choice but to buy the car back. So, i got a killer deal, and replaced the steering wheel controls for the cc, and have never had a problem since!

origional owner - 0
me -1

[navylife59]

They tried to persuade us into trading for a different Camry, but it did not have the upgraded JBL Audio system. A trade at the same cost would have put me at a loss with the upgrade. The Camry has that weird center dash so we went with the JBL system. Glad I did cause it cranks and has a clean sound.

I have dealt with the BBB before. All they did was act like mediators passing complaint letter to rebutal letters back and forth. They have no real power unless you call for a rating on that company. Even then, I found out that they can get an exlcusion that would effectively render my complaint to nothing but a tiny spec. It was useless. What I needed was a stick of TNT up that guys backside.

After my Baby is born, I am taking the car back to the dealership, with TSB in hand, and demand that the car be aligned correctly and a new set of front tires be installed. It seems the '07 Camrys were built wrong in Kentucky.