Last week I brought my car in to Atlantic Honda to get oil changed and tires rotated. I always expect dealerships to try and get me to do unnecessary service because they think that everyone is a sucker.

True to my expectations, they service guy came in an supposedly showed me one of my rear brake pads. (Evidently they were doing a brake inspection I didn't know about) But, I was polite, asked "how much" and then said No.

Then I watched him take leave the lounge and he walked into their employee lounge with the part and not back to my car. Ok, I thought. But I kept an eye on him to see if he ever brought the part back to my car. NOPE! He came out empty handed!!!

I am planning on writing the dealership about this. Luckily, I am not a sucker, but there are always tons of people who have no clue about cars that will get drawn into this trap.

Any thoughts and opinions on this situation? BTW I encourage everyone NOT to go to this stealership!

Okay, devils advocate here but did you see your car or not? I mean he could have set your part down, forgotten it and gone back for it a few minutes later unbenounced to you. So without eyes on your car you can't really be sure.

That said if you're certain I think Honds Corp would be your better bet to complain to. Think about it, no matter who you talk to at the dealership, they'll eventually close ranks to protect themselves. Problems like that are systemic in that a dealership that has ethical problems like that often has them in other departments, including the upper management/owners.

You gotta nuke them from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

Yeah that's why I was wondering what you all thought before I wrote a letter.
Giving the guy a benefit of doubt, he could have forgotten it. But it seemed fairly obvious that he didn't. He was in and out of the employee lounge very quickly. Like he went in, threw the brake pad down and walked out.

The whole situation is just strange weird.

I don't mean to offend, and I certainly don't defend dealerships, but how do you know he simply wasn't showing what your pads looked like on an example part? seems dumb for a dealer to waste manpower on taking off pads and tires to show a customer if a certain % of them say no. it soon becomes cost inefficient.

I don't mean to offend, and I certainly don't defend dealerships, but how do you know he simply wasn't showing what your pads looked like on an example part? seems dumb for a dealer to waste manpower on taking off pads and tires to show a customer if a certain % of them say no. it soon becomes cost inefficient.
I think that could be true cause dont they have those displays that show what dirty air filter and what dirty oil looks like also? So why waste time taking off ur brakes just to show you when a display saves time and work

Why don't you check your pads (you can usually even see them through the wheel without taking it off) to see if they are around the condition the guy at the dealer showed you? If you have 90% left and he was saying you need to change-I would say that's deceitful; but if he was showing you a demo and your brakes really do need changing- I would say they didn't do anything wrong.

you should take 10 minutes to remove your brake pads and see for yourself to avoid any confusion.

i visually looked at them and they look completely fine and nowhere's near being low.... i guess end of conversation huh?

I can't stand Atlantic Honda. I went there to by my Accord towards the end of last year, the jerked me around to say the least. They kept playing games and the sales manager was real arrogant. I wouldn't trust them, several of my friends have had bad experiences with them also.

yea me to man.. atlantic honda sucks!!!! i got my girls 07 accord there and got a great deal on it, also traded in a tahoe z71 there and they tried to hose me on the trade in value, which i eventually got out of them for the tahoe... when we got the car she also got vouchers for free oil changes there, it was 3 of them for free.... everytime i made an appt to get the oil change.. they jammed me in on a sunday always as an inconvenience... and when i was there they took forever and the one guy out there, was like sorry man the cars been done for an hour and i didnt even realize.. than he said its been one of those days and chukled.... i was infuriated... i said yea and this will be the last day i come here... i do my own oil changes for now, but i figured, what the hell, its free so let them do the dirty work.... ATLANTIC HONDA SUCKS!!

I think if he was showing you YOUR brake pad and how low it was, it really needed to be YOUR brake pad. If he didn't want to take the time to take your own pad off to show it to you, he shouldnt have made the effort at all. Two bolts are required to remove the brake pad (to take off the caliper) once the wheels off, that's hardly effort.