OK, here is the other side of the story. What most people don't know is that technicians work on flat rate. For example, gets paid 4 hours to R&R starter. If it takes them 2 good for the tech, if it takes them 6 bad for the tech.
So here is the scenario, you don't know anything about cars, but you have your truck towed in with starting issues, dealer is nice and decided to save you some money and R&R starter contacts. You save $200 on the job but next week your wife is stranded again due to the truck not starting. You are all pissed off and this time you insist the dealer tows in it on their expense and fix the mess they made last time. Catch is this time it is the solenoid that went bad due to the 150k miles on the truck. You don't know anything about cars, but you do know the dealer worked on the starter last so it must be their fault..
So what does the shop do, eat the cost, make the tech swap the starter on his own time, all this to make an irate customer happy because you threaten to tell everyone on your myspace friends list that this dealer sucks. This is not fiction, this does happen.
So, how do the dealer fix this problem. They replaced the starter with a reman from Toyota, because if that fails, they can turn to Toyota and ask them to cover the work to R&R it again.
Now replace starter with throttle body and you have Noah's case. Customer might perceive it as screwing them, dealer looks at it like good business practices. I am not defending them, just illustrating the other side of the coin. Now if all customers understood their trucks and were reasonable, we would not have this situation.
But if you knew your truck, then you would do the work yourself. That is why the dealer has a parts counter. So you can choose to save money and rebuild parts. If it works, great saved money, if it does not, you are out of your own time.
So the knowledgeable diy'er never goes to the service dept, making the problem even worse since the majority of people that visit the service dept are uninformed. They are the ones that shout, "You worked on it last, you fix it"
Case and point at the shop yesterday. Existing customer calls with truck with powersteering that makes noise. We get the truck, diagnose it and determine new pump and high pressure hose are needed. Quote the job, customer states he wants to save money and get a used pump or rebuild it.
Well, we won't guarantee either as a full solution. Used pump is obvious, reseal the pump will ensure it does not leak, but if the internals are worn they are still worn afterwards.
So customer now has diagnoses, then calls back in the afternoon that he can get the work done cheaper somewhere else for $200 less. Did ask what he owed for diagnosing the problem. We refused payment and told him his truck is ready to be picked up.
Could our estimate be considered "we are screwing the customer" because we wanted to replace with new parts and not install a $30 rebuilt kit and send the hose to a local shop to be repaired? Sure, by the customer.
Off soapbox.
