Why They Suck
In April of 2005 I bought a 2005 Toyota Tundra SR5 double cab from Dick Poe Toyota, or rather I bought the truck for my assistant, Leticia. For the next two years she took the vehicle to Dick Poe Toyota's service department for scheduled maintenance. Without fail, on each trip they would try and sell her useless or overpriced services, such as cleaning her battery for $49.95.
The Dick Poe service employees also lied to her on many occasions, like telling her that the $22.95 oil change included Mobil 1 synthetic oil, and that it wasn't necessary for her to bring Mobil 1 each time she needed an oil change. I knew that was a lie, Mobil 1 costs around $8 per quart depending on where you buy it, and the 4.7L Toyota V8 takes 6.5 quarts. I know damn well Dick Poe Toyota isn't giving away Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil with their $22.95 oil change. I don't think that Dick Poe Toyota used the Mobil 1 oil I sent with the truck at each oil change, I think they kept my good synthetic oil and put in their cheap crap oil. I see on the bill I'm looking at where they charged me $13.37 for their cheap crap oil even though I provided 7 quarts of Mobil 1 synthetic oil for each oil change.
As a result, the standing rule was that if it wasn't required maintenance and Dick Poe Toyota suggested it, then the answer would always be no. I've got better things to do with my money than waste it on overpriced and unnecessary services sold by deceptive Dick Poe employees. The only reason we took the Tundra there for oil changes and tire rotations was to maintain the factory warranty in the event there was a major issue down the road. Besides, the Dick Poe Toyota service advisors had lied to her many other times regarding the truck's service. That's not exactly the best way to engender trust.
To top things off, Dick Poe would 'wash' my black truck after servicing. Apparently whoever works the washrack was blind, because the truck looked like someone smeared the dirt around in circles and used a dirty rag which left hundreds of little scratches all over my black paint job. You would think a dealership would make an effort to perform vehicle service according to some reliable standard, but Dick Poe Toyota apparently could care less. Leticia told them to stop washing the truck because they were doing more harm than good, but they ignored her request and 'washed' it anyway on subsequent occasions. They told her it was 'company policy' to wash the vehicles after servicing.
It was clear to me that Dick Poe employees thought it was just fine to rip off women at every opportunity, but then that's pretty much a given at any Toyota dealership. At only 35,000 miles, Dick Poe's service department recommended new brakes, a tune up and an 'emission service' for $439.80. When Dick Poe sold us the truck they claimed it would not need a tune up until 100,000 miles. And paying for any 'emission service' at a dealership is a direct rip off. Emissions components are covered under warranty by federal law for 5 years or 50,000 miles.
Also, Toyota had recently issued a recall on over 500,000 trucks and SUV's regarding ball joint failures. Leticia went to Dick Poe Toyota to schedule the recall repair, who told her that she would have to wait until Toyota sent her a recall letter, that they did not have the recall parts in stock, and it would be at least 6 weeks before they received any of the parts related to the recall.
Since Dick Poe Toyota had consistently tried to rip Leticia off at every opportunity, we decided we would have Hoy Fox Toyota look at the Tundra and see what they said it needed as far as maintenance.
Leticia took the truck in to Hoy Fox a week or so after Dick Poe had recommended $439.80 worth of work. Hoy Fox Toyota only recommended a front brake job for $166.60, and we had the work performed there as a reward for their honesty. Leticia also had Hoy Fox schedule the recall repair. They didn't give her any excuses about having to wait for a letter from Toyota, and said they could get the parts within a few weeks.
From that point forward we decided that we would only have Dick Poe Toyota perform oil changes and tire rotations as required for the factory warranty. Anything else would be performed at Hoy Fox Toyota.
Before the recall parts arrived at Hoy Fox it was again time to change the oil as specified in the owner's manual. Leticia scheduled an oil change at Dick Poe Toyota just as she had done many times over the past two years. Her appointment was for May 1, 2007.
Leticia took the truck in on May 1 at lunch time expecting the truck to be there for 30 - 45 minutes. She walked to a small restaurant near the dealership and had lunch. When she returned the truck was not yet finished, and the service advisor told her it might be another hour. Leticia walked to a store across the street from the dealer to kill another hour of waiting.
After an hour she returned to Dick Poe Toyota and asked about the truck. At this time she was told that the truck would not be finished for another two hours. She asked why an oil change was taking so long, and was informed that they were also performing a recall repair on the front end ball joints. Leticia told them she didn't have 4 hours to spend waiting at their dealership and asked why no one requested permission before performing the additional repair. No one had any answer. She told them that she had already scheduled the recall repair to be performed at Hoy Fox Toyota.
When Dick Poe Toyota finally returned the truck to Leticia just before 5:00 P.M., Leticia noticed that the truck now pulled to the right while driving. She immediately called them after arriving home to schedule a repair for the unauthorized recall repair.
Dick Poe Toyota told her that they were very busy and could not schedule an appointment, but that she could drop the truck off for a few days and they would see what they could do. That was a ridiculous response from a dealer who had hijacked the truck while it was in for an oil change and screwed it up. They didn't ask for permission to perform the recall repair or if Leticia had 4.5 hours to wait while they performed the repair. It's not at all uncommon for dealers to perform unauthorized warranty repairs while they have the vehicle in for maintenance.
Over the next 5 weeks Dick Poe Toyota was too busy to fix the problem they introduced by performing the unauthorized recall repair. Finally, almost 6 weeks after screwing the truck up they scheduled an appointment in early June 2007. Leticia took the truck in and waited for over 4 hours. When they returned the truck there was absolutely no difference in the way it drove, the truck still pulled to the right while driving. They had done nothing at all to the vehicle, simply making Leticia wait more than four hours for no reason other than to inconvenience her.
On June 14, 2007 I decided that enough was enough. Up to that point we had been patiently trying to simply get the truck fixed. It became obvious to me that Dick Poe Toyota either wasn't going to fix the truck or that they couldn't fix the truck.
I went to the Dick Poe service department and asked to speak with the General Manager. For some reason they decided to have the Sales Manager talk to me, and he was an extremely obnoxious prick who was not about to discuss anything until I had agreed that they performed the unauthorized repair solely for the safety and welfare of Leticia. I wasn't about to agree with anything that obnoxious prick had to say. He had gathered about 7 employees in a semi-circle around me and Leticia right there in the middle of the Dick Poe service drive.
It became apparent to me that the truck wasn't going to get fixed, no one was gong to apologize to Leticia for how they had treated her, and that further discussion with Dick Poe Toyota would be useless.
Immediately after arriving home I called Toyota to file a complaint. Toyota was completely useless, basically telling me that they would have Dick Poe Toyota call me about the problem. I told them I had just left the dealership and that they had simply insulted me and Leticia rather than even attempt any resolution.
I decided at that moment that neither Toyota nor Dick Poe Toyota was going to be any help. I decided to build a website and registered the domain toyotadealerfrauds.com. Toyota Dealer Frauds would be my response to Dick Poe Toyota's unauthorized repair, their screwing up my truck, and for their hateful treatment. It would also serve as my response to Toyota's complete lack of help regarding the matter.
I built a simple website that same day and sent the link to Dick Poe Toyota and Toyota North America.
Leticia then took the truck to Hoy Fox Toyota who fixed it in one hour by aligning the front end. It cost me $70.
A couple of weeks after I put up the Toyota Dealer Frauds web site I received a voicemail from the same obnoxious prick who had insulted me the day I went to the dealer to find out what was the problem fixing the Tundra. The message was, of course, obnoxious and insulting. I immediately put it on YouTube so people could see how Dick Poe treats his customers. I named the message Some Butthole from Toyota.
The very next day, the same obnoxious prick left another message about me posting the first message. I posted that message online as well, naming it Same Butthole Different Day.
