City Toyota

Hi Karl, our customer relations manager Joey has tried to reach you. Please feel free to call him at 415-825-4027. Andre, our Service Manager, is available as well at 415-825-4026. And Chris, our Service Director is available at 415-825-4021. We're here to help resolve the issues noted. Your Friends at City Toyota

Patricia, we appreciate your patronage and apologize for the lengthy wait times. We try our best to get all customers serviced promptly. Toyota Care (1st -5th service) usually takes 1 hour or less. All other minor services are 3 hours or less. We prioritize by appointment time but sometimes we still fall behind. Hopefully, this helps with your expectations moving forward. If you would like to discuss this further please call our Service Manager, Andre, at 415-825-4026. Your Friends at City Toyota

Hi Andre, why do you have an appointment system when you don’t respect the scheduled times? Obviously, this must add up it to the waiting times you are mentioning. If you would respect it, then you might be able to resolve this issue.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We would like to discuss your situation, so if you could contact our Service Manager at 415-825-4026 that would be appreciated. Tracy nor Cheryl work for City Toyota.

We're so happy to hear that you received such great service at City Toyota, Sviatlana. It sounds like Kate made the process seamless for you. Enjoy your new ride! Your Friends at City Toyota

Adam, Thank you for bringing this to our attention. There are many parts to your concern and we will try to address them all the best we can. - Diagnosis is a standalone charge. We advise you of this at the time of write-up and when we present our recommendations. - You were price-shopping used, repaired parts at independent repair shops, not a certified Toyota dealership that provides you with a parts and labor warranty. - Dealerships are independently owned and operated, there are different levels of pricing for retail customers and wholesale customers. The price you found online is a wholesale price typically sold to other repair shops. The other repair shop then marks the price up to sell it for profit to their customers. Retail and wholesale are normal with all industries. - We hear your concern about City Toyota being unethical and want to assure you that we take this very seriously. Michael decided to move forward with text messages because he wanted everything documented based on how the interaction was going. - As for your concern that we attempted to extort or overcharge you, we have called 5 other dealerships, and all 5 dealerships were +/- $270 from the price you quoted for a retail sale customer. You were the one who texted, "Would your manager match the price? If so, let's go ahead and complete the work." Our parts manager agreed to the price to help you as a loyal customer, but we were unable to waive the diagnosis charge as you requested. Our team always tries our best to go above and beyond to assist our customers and provide great value for both parts and labor. We truly want you to be a loyal customer and keep coming back; please reach out to Jim Mueller at (415) 825-4061 if you would like to discuss this further. Hope to see you soon.

Thank for your response, City Toyota. For starters, the customer should not need to be placed in a position to ask for a price match to avoid paying twice as much for a repair. The dealer should have competitive and fair pricing, and not be attempting to extort their customers. That said, the price I found online and shared with your Service Advisor, Michael Zhu, is from Capital Toyota in San Jose, CA. (For those not in our area, this is from a Toyota dealership 52 miles away.) Here is the Capital Toyota parts department link that I shared with him when asking for a price match: https://parts.capitoltoyota.com/oem-parts/toyota-battery-assembly-g951052031 As you can see from our text exchange (the written record), Michael Zhu reviewed the price that the other dealership was offering, which was $2082.18, as compared to the $4600 he said City Toyota charged for the part. As you can see from our text exchange (the written record), Michael Zhu then attempted to match the price, but only if he could charge me an additional $1350 for the core charge, which made the part $3432.18. He then explained to me how all dealerships charge and keep the core charge, and that City Toyota would not be refunding the $1350 core charge to me. That is not how core charges work, and you know it! (Core charges are charges that are returned to the customer once the used part is retuned to Toyota.) They are not a profit mechanism for City Toyota to steal from their customers. So, before labor and tax, City Toyota attempted to charge me $4600 for a part that I can buy new from a dealership 50 miles away for $2082.18. That is more than twice the price for the same Toyota part purchased directly from a Toyota dealership. Also, this is retail pricing not wholesale pricing. In the end, it is clear that City Toyota is simply attempting to change as much as they can for parts and service to repair the vehicle, with absolutely no market-competitive or cost-of-doing-business rational. Keeping the core charge for the dealership is a scam! Charging twice as much (more than $2000 more) for the same Toyota part as another local Toyota dealer is a scam! Attempting to justify these actions as normal business practices, with normal margin, is fraudulent.

Responses to each of City Toyotas inaccurate claims are found below. "1. Regarding the diagnosis fee: The diagnosis is a separate charge, and was communicated during the write up process, as well as when our advisor presented our recommendations." The $235 diagnostic fee charged by City Toyota is used to lock unsuspecting and trusting customers into doing business with City Toyota, at which point City Toyota presents the customer with parts and repair charges more than twice as expensive as other Toyota dealerships in an effort to extort their customers. If the customer were to go to another dealer for reasonable prices (prices that are market-competitive for dealerships) the customer then loses (or wasted) the $235 diagnostic fee. This is how City Toyota's hybrid battery replacement scam works. "2. Concerning pricing: You compared prices of used, repaired parts from independent shops, not from our certified Toyota dealership, which includes parts and labor warranties." This is a direct falsehood. At no point did I seek out quotes from independent repair shops. At no point did I reference or present prices or quotes to City Toyota from independent repair shops. As is clear from our text exchange, the only price that I presented City Toyota with fro comparison was from Capital Toyota in San Jose, CA, a Toyota dealership approximately 50 miles away, who sold the genuine original Toyota part. Here is the Capital Toyota parts department link that I shared with him when asking for a price match: https://parts.capitoltoyota.com/oem-parts/toyota-battery-assembly-g951052031 As is further clear from the text exchange (the written record), Michael Zhu, City Toyota Service Advisor, reviewed the price that the other dealership was offering, which was $2082.18, as compared to the $4600 he said City Toyota charged for the part. "3. Online vs. retail pricing: Dealerships, as independent entities, offer different pricing levels for retail and wholesale customers. Online prices often reflect wholesale rates intended for repair shops, which then mark them up for retail. This practice is standard across most industries." Capital Toyota's above linked pricing is not wholesale pricing as City Toyota suggests, but instead it is online retail pricing from our local area. The price discrepancy is also clear evidence of the profit margin City Toyota is seeking to achieve by attempting to charge their customers $4600 for a part that is available locally from another dealership for $2082.18. "4. Regarding your concern of City Toyota being unethical: Michael chose to communicate through text messages to ensure that there was clear documentation based on our interactions." As is clear from our text exchange (the written record), Michael Zhu with City Toyota then attempted to match the price Capital Toyota offered the part at, but only if he could charge me an additional $1350 for the core charge, which made the part $3432.18. He then explained to me how all dealerships charge and keep the core charge, and that City Toyota would NOT be refunding the $1350 core charge to me. Of course, that is not how core charges work, and City Toyota knows that! (Core charges are charges that are returned to the customer once the used part is retuned to Toyota.) Core charges are not a profit mechanism for City Toyota to steal from their customers. City Toyota's practice of not refunding core charges is an unethical practice. Lying to me, their customer, about how hybrid battery core charges work, and telling me that they are not refundable by City Toyota or other dealerships, is fraud. "5. Addressing your comment regarding extortion: We strive to stay priced competitively with other local dealerships and have contacted five other dealerships, all of which quoted prices within $270 of your initial quote for the same repair." Again, based on the evidence above, which is easily verifiable through our text thread, City Toyota attempted to charge me, their customer, thousands of dollars more than the other local dealership from which I checked parts prices. City Toyota priced the part at $4600 and Capital Toyota priced the part at $2082.18, pricing that can be verified online. City Toyota charges a $235 hybrid battery diagnostic fee as part of their practice of leveraging diagnostic fees as they engage in an extortion scheme involving inflated pricing (twice their competitors) and misrepresentation of how core charges work, both resulting in extraordinary profits for the City Toyota dealership, whether or not the customer continues with the repair. City Toyota either keeps the $235 diagnostic fee (requiring little work on their part) or charges thousands of dollars more for the repair, all profit, from unsuspecting or trusting customers.