Thought for the day: Customer 'overservice'
Driving up to see my parents yesterday a warning light appeared on my car. The manual said I had to visit a dealer where a diagnostic would be run to determine the problem.
A bit of investigation on the web determined that a diagnostic would involve connecting a computer to an output hidden under the drivers seat and letting the computer work out the issue. So I took the car in and left them my telephone number.
An hour later they called;
"Hello Gary. We've had a look at your car and it appears you need new front disk pads and windscreen wipers"
I thought to myself "That's a petty good diagnostic tool. It can work out whether the wiper blades need replacing!"
Obviously what happened was that they did a once over on the car to determine the general state of things from a visual inspection. And I had to ask myself "Why?"
Primarily it was, of course, to provide an excellent service to me as a customer by letting me know what coud possibly go wrong and remedying it before it happened. But in reality it was a way of trying to increase their profits by pushing forward additional repairs.
This annoyed me a little. Under the guise of helping me they were pushing forward additional work (and therefore additional cost for me).
Is this a case of customer 'overservice'? Have they pushed their ethos of providing customer service so far that it will then come back and bite them at a later date?
Or am I being a little to sensitive about this?
(Incidentally the diagnostic revealed low engine oil. A tin of Castrol GTX solved the problem).
