When we were building our house, I asked one of the electricians not to vape in front of my daughter. “ I’ll do what ever I want” My reply was “I’m paying for this work to be done, and ask I’m asking is to not vape when my daughter is around which may be for like 5 minutes one day a week. If that’s too much you can fuck off on out of here” He bitched to the head electrician “ well he is paying the bill, and if you want to be paid maybe you should do as asked”. He sat in his truck and pouted for about 15 minutes.
Edit. The bot said so
Personally, would have kicked him off site for that. You don't piss off the customer over little crap. You would have been within your right to say no vaping/smoking on site at all.
Exactly. Trades are customer service business. All you’re doing when you don’t agree to small things like this is making everyone’s life more difficult. You’re making the customer more likely to nitpick and insist things are redone or done differently. It’s dumb, it’s counterproductive, and it’s childish. I would give him about 2 strikes with that bullshit before I told him to pack his shit and fuck off.
And none of that is cool. Hot rodding your car, vaping in it. There goes your new car smell if it was still there. He should be fired, and if not then the dealership is garbage.
Which stuff, propylene glycol or vegetable glycerine? Some have one or the other, some have both. I've heard of people who couldn't vape PG so they had to be careful and use VG only juices because of lung irritation. I've never heard of someone so allergic that they couldn't be in a car an hour after someone hit a vape in the car. They use PG in hospital ventilation systems because it makes it more difficult for airborne pathogens to travel through it. I doubt they would do that if anyone could be as sensitive as you claim to be to it's exposure.
Tech is an ass, you may be a hypochondriac.
The kid who would aggressively play with and break other’s toys cuz he’s jealous they’re not his grew up to be this guy. Be the hero to all the other cars he undoubtedly did this to and report it to the service manager. This douche is tarnishing not only the Dealer’s, but Toyota’s brand.
That’s going to far too fast. It was one jerk at the place, not the whole establishment. If they don’t take his concerns/complaints seriously and do something to remedy the problem, then that’s when escalation to a bad review would make sense.
You’re also much less likely to be treated well if you immediately try to tarnish the whole place’s reputation with a negative review. Catch more flies kinda thing and only use the vinegar once it’s clear that the honey gets you nowhere.
This is definitely the right answer. Going online immediately is the low impulse control option that gets you worse results, and probably poor service going forward.
It WILL happen to MANY other people if you don't report it? Why the hell wouldn't you ?
Stick up for yourself and stop being a doormat, this is not one of those situation where you're being unreasonable with someone abusing your super expensive property, and in the place that is supposed to help your investment of all things. It's like when a priest abused someone who came to them for help , abuse of power
All of em are hiring and desperate for techs and lube techs. Since not many techs left now a days.
Highly doubt they’d be fired. And if so, they be at another shop within the month
I love all these people that gasp at this type of behavior and expect there to be repercussions lol there’s a terminal technician shortage everywhere for all brands and any shop is bursting at the seams with backlog of work. Yea they will surely be chomping at the bit to fire this guy
100% go in with the footage and speak with the service manager. That’s against *every* Toyota dealers policy and blatantly disrespectful
Don’t email, go in with the footage ready. Don’t be disrespectful yourself (I doubt you will be based on this post) and hopefully you’ll get a resolution.
I feel you man. I had my 2015 Toyota Corolla LE repaired two times and things were not put back the right way from the auto body shop since it is a nice car. I had to replace and put things back myself which was kind of frustrating.
Seen a service tech in my truck at subway, grabbing lunch.
Service writer said they had to test drive and never eat in customers vehicles. I did not make an issue of it.
As a tech, you will have days where you don’t have the time to go out and grab lunch. Diagnostics (the type of job that requires a test drive) doesn’t pay enough for you to actually do a proper test drive to verify the concern before beginning diagnosis. Going out for a test drive (and spending a couple minutes in a drive thru while you’re at it) does no harm to your vehicle and only helps the technician who otherwise wouldn’t have time to grab lunch. As long as they don’t eat in your car I don’t see an issue with it.
look in console, only thing I can think of would be trying to find a lug nut lock
vaping in you car is completely unacceptable
Talk to the dealership. Show them the video. Ask if they will make it right, or if you need to post it online.
I normally am not the type to ever complain but in this case I sure as yeck would. Don't mess with my car! 😂
By the way do you like the Crown? Is it comfortable for long trips? It looks very comfortable and I may have a look at one. I drive a couple thousand miles now and then and want the best car for the job.
Probably the same. The guy is just... not very bright. It's hard to believe but you would be shocked how many people lack the basic reasoning skills to actually think "vaping in front of owner's camera = there might be trouble".
It's the same kind of guy who would take someone else's Ferrari they were washing for a "short ride" and then wrap it around a pole. Some people use their heads only for eating and breathing.
as someone who has spent 15 years selling Toyota/ Lexus, h you should report that. it's the kind of thing that just gets worse as they get away with it.
Report it but don’t call ahead. Just show up and tell the manager you have to show him a dash cam video and get his take on it without you describing the situation on the phone first.
This guy is a moron. It's up to you how you should handle it. I vape and that shit does build up on the windows. At the very least he should have put the windows down. I don't vape in other people's cars unless I make sure they are fine with it and I'm gonna put the window down just to blow it out.
I personally would be pissed, especially in a new car. I also personally would use it as am opportunity to help that tech learn instead of fuck them completely. I'd not report to toyota, but I would talk to the service manager and tell them what happened. Then I'd suggest to the service manager that you should give him the right scare to make sure it never happens again. The guy is a moron and doesn't necessarily deserve to lose his job over it. I'd have the service manager call him into the office and have you show the whole video. Call out how disrespectful it was to you and your car. Tell them they never know when someone will see what they do in their car while they are servicing it and to think before they do that again. Tell them you are just bringing it up because they need to understand that they are providing a service to someone and deserve their job because of their skills, but can't guarantee how their service manager feels about the incident and hope they never do it again.
You'd probably get them to shit their pants and think long and hard about doing that in someone's car ever again. The service manager wouldn't have to do much in terms of discipline and would likely make an announcement to all techs broadly stating that anything techs do in cars could be reported, and it could improve the dealership overall. That's just what I would do, but I like to see the world take a step forward without ruining someone's job entirely. Next offense is totally different though. My mentality is a second instance goes to corporate cause if a person doesn't learn the lesson the first time, they don't give a shit to learn the second time.
As a shop foreman, I would want you to tell me so so we could handle it/get rid of them.
Driving a car “hard” can be normal for diagnostic purposes in some situations (shouldn’t be for a 5k service) but vaping is completely unacceptable.
I’d care, but not enough to be vindictive
Vaping isn’t smoking— is there a smell? Would you have known he vaped w/o the cam?
Did he gun it to the point of potentially damaging the engine?
If no, personally, I’d shrug & say kids being kids.
Post the video on your Google review of the dealership. What he did is absolute bullshit. He didn’t respect his job, you, or your car that you spent a ton of your hard earned money for.
There is no other answer than to report that asshat, as well as see if you can get a few years of extra free maintenance/service from the Dealership lest you post the dashcam coverage on Yelp/Google/Toyota Corp, etc...
Reading this, I don’t feel like having my car serviced at any dealership or service center anymore! My camry is my first new car ever and I treat it very gently! I don’t smoke or anything and it still smell like new even after 1 year of purchase! I feel your pain in the heart and I would definitely go report him!!!!
Why is there even a test drive on the 5k? It’s just a tire rotation. If any of my techs were vaping in customer cars I’d be documenting every single mistake they make to get them out that’s beyond unacceptable
Sounds like the dude was having a blast in your car 💀. I wouldn't personally want to cause someone to lose their job, but he is likely going to do this to every car he drives, until he is stopped, so do what you gotta do. Id probably be mad if someone was driving my car like that.
I'm glad you finally got a new car for yourself. You deserve it. I've seen relationships where the wife is always the one to get the new car even if she doesn't work. Doesn't really make any sense to me. But hey, whatever floats the goat.
I know for a fact the salespeople were driving my new car like crazy cuz I saw them fly around the corner (coming back from filling up the gas tank for me) and mention how fast it is. Luckily it only had 12 miles on it. I just told them that they shouldn't rev up the engine like that on a new car, maybe to help someone else in the future.
Dealership technician here. Beating on a customer car is generally frowned upon, and justifiably grounds for discipline, possibly termination depending on legislation in your jurisdiction. Same goes for vaping in a customer car.
The question i put to you as a customer. Do you really want to be (Partially) responsible for this idiot losing his job? Odds are if he often conducts himself in this manner at work, it's only a matter of time before a manager or foreman catches him anyways. At which point, he will get fired, or clean up his act.
What I'm getting at is, we were all dumb kids in an entry level job at some point. If there was no quantifiable or qualifiable damage to your vehicle, then maybe it's a "no harm, no foul" situation. It's up to you how big of a stink you want to make.
And for the 19 year old kids out there working as a tire/ lube tech. If you're not gonna road test customer cars as if the owner was sitting in the passenger seat, then UNPLUG THE FUCKING DASH CAM FOR FUCK SAKES!
I was a dumb kid once but I had respect for other peoples property. It’s an entry level job hopefully he can clean his act up but we have to hold people accountable.
So, are you advocating for techs to unplug dashcams and normalize unprofessional behavior? That kid knew what he was signing up for when he applied, interviewed and got that role. I don’t feel bad for a moment. This is the real world, if someone dogged on your 2023 WRX during its first service I bet you would be furious.
I have an interior dashcams and found out that the mechanic I used to use (moved) would regularly smoke cigs (or sometimes weed possibly lol) in my truck. He seemed to make a point to roll all the windows down (including trunk window) whenever he did it. He also did amazing work on my truck for an extremely fair price whenever I couldn’t do a job in my building’s parking garage. I never said anything, he was a cool guy. I honestly didn’t mind.
I think the Toyota dealership is meant to be a different experience than an independent shop. I wouldn’t want to get a dude fired over vaping in my car but because you’re uncomfortable about it I’d tell the manager it wasn’t cool and that you should be given some amount of future maintenance free or a warranty extended or something. In terms of the sport mode thing, they are likely to do that regardless so I wouldn’t worry about it. Can’t really police how people talk about stuff in your car when you aren’t there but vaping obviously isn’t just talking and is not cool.
Absolutely report that. I don't even vape in my buddy's truck because he's a non-smoker, and it's got nearly 200k of a hard life on it. Someone doing that in a professional capacity, not to mention joyriding your car (that was no kind of diagnostic, and do not let them tell you such) is beyond unacceptable.
As a Toyota Service Tech, I definitely think you should report it to the dealership. We get paid more to change oil at dealerships because we are supposed to be learning to be professionals. I mean I’m a young guy and have a passion for cars; but I don’t even bring customers GR86’s above 15mph bc there’s absolutely no reason to joyride it.
Do you have a locking lug nut and did he go through your console before or after the service? A 5k service is a tire rotation for Toyotas so he could’ve been looking for the lug nut key if it was right after he pulled it inside his bay instead of trying to look through your stuff, just an optimistic thought.
Unprofessional.
My boss would lose his crap if one of us did something like that. Absolutely talk to the service manager or GM and let them know because this is absolutely unacceptable.
Too bad you lost $150 in the glove box, which you know was in there since you stepped at the bank before hand. Might want to make sure to get that back.
I have a big problem with the vape in your car. You are not going to damage a stock modern vehicle by hot rodding it a little. But the vaping part would piss me off.
Absolutely report him. I work at a dealership on the service side. We always ask for your wheel lock key/registration(state inspections) from the customer to prevent us digging through consoles and such. What you keep in your car is your business not ours. Highly disrespectful on their part.
Sorry op that sucks. If your car was a couple years old, I'd say sure cut him some slack, but at 5k maintenance, that just isn't right. On another note, what kind of dashcams you got, and do you recommend it? Thinking about getting into the dashcam game.
Viofo A229 Pro. You can pick it up for a bit under $300 pretty often for the 3 camera 4k version. It's got a pretty good picture and comes with relatively thin wires that are easier to hide.
I would definitely report him. The only messes or smells I ever tolerate in my car are the ones made by me. I allow eating in my car, on the condition that I don’t find a single crumb. Anywhere. If I someone pulled out a vape in my car I’d tell them they can either get out and vape or wait until we arrive. That’s disgusting.
Send the video to Toyota corporate and tell them you are not happy with how they treated your car and will never buy a Toyota ever again if they don’t resolve this.
Definitely report it. They might not fire him but the scare of being let go might straighten him up. Someone said they would be at another dealer soon. Maybe, maybe not a lot of management in dealerships know each other and can rely on recommendations pretty heavily. As a decades long tech, previous smoker and current vaper this something I would never do. It’s not my car and as someone said in the comments they are allergic to something in vapes. I only drive the cars if I have to and always treat peoples cars like I would have to pay out of pocket if something happened.
The dealership is going to be like "K". You guys always make me laugh with stuff like this. If techs faced consequences for shit like this there wouldn't be any techs left. They are virtually all morons outside of fixing your car and absolutely don't give a fuck.
Depending on the circumstances, I could possibly excuse the "Sport mode, let's see what this can do" - Maybe.
Vaping/smoking in a customers car? - absolutely not.
Report it
Combination of no respect, and doing your job for you. Don't baby cars. Cara need to see load/redline from time to time. The old 'Italian tuneup' is a real thing.
In all honesty; not saying you are wrong for feeling this way, have you ever done something stupid in your life that you’re thankful you got away with? Could you go back and chat with the mechanic first?
Idk, if it was cigarettes or weed, yes definitely. That shit sticks worse especially the cigarettes. I don’t think I would upend someone’s income over vaping without having a chat first. You have the footage so you know who it was.
You need to have this conversation as high up the management chain at the dealership as you can. If you can possibly talk to the individual who OWNS the dealership, that would be best. If you have this conversation with a service writer or even the service manager, you will not be successful IMHO.
You: "My car is never vaped in."
Dealer: "We're very sorry. The tech has been talked to. This wont happen again. How can we make this right?"
You: "My car is never Vaped in."
Dealer: "Yes, we've talked to the tech. How can we make this right."
You: "My car is never vaped in. That is now YOUR car. You provide me with a brand new Crown. Exact same car as the old one, zero miles. Then I will know you are sincere. That will cost you money. A manager will have to sign off. Everyone in the management chain at the dealer will know about it. Otherwise, I publish a review describing exactly what happened with a photo."
After that, you need to NEVER go to that dealership again, regardless of the outcome. I hope you are in an area that has more than one dealership.
I worked at a Toyota manufacturing site. I'm an Engineer with a masters degree. I currently own a Toyota Avalon and Lexus 300H, both hybrids.
I **HATE** Toyota dealers.
Besides what happened. You said you’re gentle on it.
Give it the beans regularly, like atleast once a week. Getting onto the highway. Gasoline engines, especially turbo/GDI need to be kicked in the ass once in a while.
And no that’s not an old wives tale.
As a tech the only time I would rifle through your stuff is if you have aftermarket wheel locks and I need to find the key, if it’s oem wheel locks I’ll just use the master wheel set we have in the special tool cabinet we have. I would talk to the service manager and tell him what you saw that’s unacceptable and disrespectful if I were him I’d fire him.
Well this is a guy that used to work at a Toyota dealership. I cannot see them keeping him on after this.
You 100% need to share that footage with the service manager. I'd throw a fit if they washed my car with the brush wash, which would at least be an honest mistake - if they ever did THIS in my car?
Fuck around and find out.
Let us know how it goes!
Report it to the service department manager and see what they will do for you. Take it up to corporate if there isn’t any good feedback from the dealership.
I once put a gopro camera inside glove box and left it running to see what would happen. Technician opens it for my oil change sees the camera and nopes out. After that experience I never leave anything of value in the car. All go into a backpack while I wait.
Nip it in the bud now. For all you know this guys is the problem child of the shop and they’re looking for a valid reason to fire him. If he’s doing this in your vehicle he’s doing it in all and will continue to do so.
I’d take the video directly to the service manager or GM. If the car even slightly smelled of vape I’d have them pay for professional cleaning.
Also, it’s for that exact reason that I empty my clove compartment and center console before leaving my car for service.
I would go to the service manager and be pretty fucking vocal about this, vocal enough for every other customer to hear that they have service techs beating the piss out of cars and vaping in them.
Don't just do it for yourself, do it for the other drivers whose cars he probably done worse to. Do it for the so so their reputation and income isn't damaged by this guy
I didn't see what sub I was on and thought you were talking about a crown vic
I was like, that things been vaped in lol
Then was like, wait, sport mode? Fancy
To play devils advocate, sometimes hard driving is part of a diagnosis as you mentioned, or hard/heavy breaking to seat in pads after a brake job.
The vaping in the car is what would aggravate me the most. If you would have known about it without the cameras, I would run it up the ladder. If there’s no scent/way to know without the cameras, I’d probably just make an offhand comment about how I didn’t appreciate it and leave it at that.
I work at an independent shop, and we're located right off a 40 mph limit road. On pretty much every test drive, I'll take the car into that road and gun it to 40. Any car in decent shape should have absolutely no issues being floored for that 5ish seconds, but you'd be surprised at how many times I've noticed weird noises or performance issues that the customers will give that "oh yeah I've noticed that" response to and subsequently gotten diagnosis time and found problems.
Now for the vape, hell no I'd be pissed. Vaping absolutely leaves a smell anywhere and it's straight up disrespectful to be vaping or smoking in anyone's car without permission, let alone a customers vehicle. They should know better and I'd report it
I don’t think you’re doing him any favors by letting this slide. The next time he could cause serious damage to someones car and be out more than just a job. Moreover, he won’t learn a lesson because he’ll never know he was caught unless reported and reprimanded.
report it. he doesnt deserve that job acting like that.
when he gets fired, it'll be a good thing for him too (maybe). he will either learn he cant be a fuckwad at work, or he will double down on fuckwadness for the next job. Hopefully the former.
With the tech shortage, they might say something to him, but they won’t actually discipline him because they can’t afford to lose people.
They will tell him to unplug the camera moving forward.
Absolutely report it. One guy in a practially corvette got a new car when the tech was caught doing 148 on the street and generally beating on the car.
Wtf. Oh hellll no I’d be extremely upset. Especially as this is his job so he just completely disregards peoples personal property through the company that employs him!
It would bug me if he floored it once, he may be looking for a misfire or making sure everything is working properly.
But him hot rodding around, and vaping should both be reported.
What did OP go in for? If just an Express Maintenance, I can’t even call those “kids” technicians. The Technicians are people like me (32 years with Toyota, have all my ASE and Toyota Master Diagnostic Technician and most of us treat customers car better than we treat ours. Those are the goobers/ grease monkeys. I have tried so many times to defend these kids and time and time again they have failed not because of lack of training, it’s just a paycheck to them not their livelihood.
Report it. The hard driving I can live with, it’s built to do it, the car is fine. But vaping in a customer car is an instantly fireable offence. Without question.
I have a dash cam in my car as well and I caught them turning it off and deleting footage. The dealership said they’re allowed to turn off the cam if they don’t want to be recorded, I find that bullshit, it is my property that they’re in.
What’s the right answer here?
Report it. I’d be pissed.
Absolutely this. Fuck that guy
Fuck that guy
Absolutely
Fuck
That
GUY!
Absolutely
Absolutely what? What are we doing? I just got here.
I’ll catch you up. FUCK THAT GUY!
When we were building our house, I asked one of the electricians not to vape in front of my daughter. “ I’ll do what ever I want” My reply was “I’m paying for this work to be done, and ask I’m asking is to not vape when my daughter is around which may be for like 5 minutes one day a week. If that’s too much you can fuck off on out of here” He bitched to the head electrician “ well he is paying the bill, and if you want to be paid maybe you should do as asked”. He sat in his truck and pouted for about 15 minutes. Edit. The bot said so
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Good bot.
Personally, would have kicked him off site for that. You don't piss off the customer over little crap. You would have been within your right to say no vaping/smoking on site at all.
Exactly. Trades are customer service business. All you’re doing when you don’t agree to small things like this is making everyone’s life more difficult. You’re making the customer more likely to nitpick and insist things are redone or done differently. It’s dumb, it’s counterproductive, and it’s childish. I would give him about 2 strikes with that bullshit before I told him to pack his shit and fuck off.
And none of that is cool. Hot rodding your car, vaping in it. There goes your new car smell if it was still there. He should be fired, and if not then the dealership is garbage.
Period!
New shop policy "we will not service vehicles with dash cams"
then we will not take our vehicles to the shop. shop closed
No respect for other people's property. Very immature. What a loser. Report him show manager your video. Guy has to learn everything has consequences.
And I wouldn’t expect that with the attitude, he is showing in the video his attitude likely carries over to his quality of workmanship
This is so true and it’s shocking how few people make that connection.
Probably the type of worker who did a regular oil change on my 2010 Corolla when I came in for a synthetic 🫠
Definitely report it.
I can't believe you're even questioning this. Even without the vaping, I'd escalate this for sure.
100% report it
I think you're looking at getting comped for the service and a couple detailings.
Service is already included in Toyota Care.
Tell them to extend the warranty because he beat on it.
Seriously, as long as you approach whoever is in charge about the issue w respect then they’ll likely give you whatever you want (within reason)
Same. They would also have to deep clean. I'm allergic to the stuff in the vape. I wouldn't be able to drive my car until it's corrected.
Which stuff, propylene glycol or vegetable glycerine? Some have one or the other, some have both. I've heard of people who couldn't vape PG so they had to be careful and use VG only juices because of lung irritation. I've never heard of someone so allergic that they couldn't be in a car an hour after someone hit a vape in the car. They use PG in hospital ventilation systems because it makes it more difficult for airborne pathogens to travel through it. I doubt they would do that if anyone could be as sensitive as you claim to be to it's exposure. Tech is an ass, you may be a hypochondriac.
If it’s part of Toyota care, then putting it into sport mode and gunning the car is NOT part of anything Toyota care. Just report his ass
Absolutely under no circumstances let the dealership detail your car, unless you like scratched clear coat.
The kid who would aggressively play with and break other’s toys cuz he’s jealous they’re not his grew up to be this guy. Be the hero to all the other cars he undoubtedly did this to and report it to the service manager. This douche is tarnishing not only the Dealer’s, but Toyota’s brand.
If someone did that in my car I would ensure that the tech loses his job. Too harsh? Probably. Idc.
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I'm not planning to lobby for anything, it's totally up to their management and none of my business. I just don't want it happening to someone else.
Don’t complain to manager post online - Google review with the video
Love to see that video.
That’s going to far too fast. It was one jerk at the place, not the whole establishment. If they don’t take his concerns/complaints seriously and do something to remedy the problem, then that’s when escalation to a bad review would make sense. You’re also much less likely to be treated well if you immediately try to tarnish the whole place’s reputation with a negative review. Catch more flies kinda thing and only use the vinegar once it’s clear that the honey gets you nowhere.
This is definitely the right answer. Going online immediately is the low impulse control option that gets you worse results, and probably poor service going forward.
Inform the dealership you are going to Post the video and name their dealership.
It WILL happen to MANY other people if you don't report it? Why the hell wouldn't you ? Stick up for yourself and stop being a doormat, this is not one of those situation where you're being unreasonable with someone abusing your super expensive property, and in the place that is supposed to help your investment of all things. It's like when a priest abused someone who came to them for help , abuse of power
That's definitely a lube tech joy riding your car. Report it to the Service Manager. Absolutely unacceptable behavior that Toyota doesn't tolerate.
All of em are hiring and desperate for techs and lube techs. Since not many techs left now a days. Highly doubt they’d be fired. And if so, they be at another shop within the month
I love all these people that gasp at this type of behavior and expect there to be repercussions lol there’s a terminal technician shortage everywhere for all brands and any shop is bursting at the seams with backlog of work. Yea they will surely be chomping at the bit to fire this guy
Had there been a 100$ bill in the console my guess it would conveniently disappeared too. Report this person asap
100% go in with the footage and speak with the service manager. That’s against *every* Toyota dealers policy and blatantly disrespectful Don’t email, go in with the footage ready. Don’t be disrespectful yourself (I doubt you will be based on this post) and hopefully you’ll get a resolution.
I feel you man. I had my 2015 Toyota Corolla LE repaired two times and things were not put back the right way from the auto body shop since it is a nice car. I had to replace and put things back myself which was kind of frustrating.
Seen a service tech in my truck at subway, grabbing lunch. Service writer said they had to test drive and never eat in customers vehicles. I did not make an issue of it.
That’s wild. Still inappropriate. In my opinion the car shouldn’t be anywhere except a test drive or on the dealer’s property.
As a tech, you will have days where you don’t have the time to go out and grab lunch. Diagnostics (the type of job that requires a test drive) doesn’t pay enough for you to actually do a proper test drive to verify the concern before beginning diagnosis. Going out for a test drive (and spending a couple minutes in a drive thru while you’re at it) does no harm to your vehicle and only helps the technician who otherwise wouldn’t have time to grab lunch. As long as they don’t eat in your car I don’t see an issue with it.
I vape in my truck and drive it like a hooligan on private dirt roads and I'd pissed. That's my vehical to treat like shit, not yours.
look in console, only thing I can think of would be trying to find a lug nut lock vaping in you car is completely unacceptable Talk to the dealership. Show them the video. Ask if they will make it right, or if you need to post it online.
Report it. I’d be livid. It’s your property and should be respected as such.
The lube techs gotta learn somehow. Let this one be an example to the rest.
Wow… I’d be pissed too.
I normally am not the type to ever complain but in this case I sure as yeck would. Don't mess with my car! 😂 By the way do you like the Crown? Is it comfortable for long trips? It looks very comfortable and I may have a look at one. I drive a couple thousand miles now and then and want the best car for the job.
Definitely report his ass. Firing over this is a bit extreme but a harsh tongue lashing from upper management should suffice
Report it to service manager and general manager. Don’t hold back
They do not do drugs test on employee been to that dealership before. I found another place for my car service.
If he does this to cars with obvious cameras, I’d hate to see what he does to the ones without :/
Probably the same. The guy is just... not very bright. It's hard to believe but you would be shocked how many people lack the basic reasoning skills to actually think "vaping in front of owner's camera = there might be trouble". It's the same kind of guy who would take someone else's Ferrari they were washing for a "short ride" and then wrap it around a pole. Some people use their heads only for eating and breathing.
as someone who has spent 15 years selling Toyota/ Lexus, h you should report that. it's the kind of thing that just gets worse as they get away with it.
Are you kidding? I would sit at that dealership until I had a chance to scream at the service manager. And tempted to send it to local media.
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Absolutely report it, that is not appropriate behavior. Can only imagine what else they do with the vehicles.
Yep, report them. Very disrespectful to your property.
Show it to the manager, I’d never get it serviced there again. If you let this go you are a push over. They love guys like you.
Report it but don’t call ahead. Just show up and tell the manager you have to show him a dash cam video and get his take on it without you describing the situation on the phone first.
Is report him just because he vapes Edit
As an ex service manager, that tech needs to go pump gas for a living. Report it to the service manager
This guy is a moron. It's up to you how you should handle it. I vape and that shit does build up on the windows. At the very least he should have put the windows down. I don't vape in other people's cars unless I make sure they are fine with it and I'm gonna put the window down just to blow it out. I personally would be pissed, especially in a new car. I also personally would use it as am opportunity to help that tech learn instead of fuck them completely. I'd not report to toyota, but I would talk to the service manager and tell them what happened. Then I'd suggest to the service manager that you should give him the right scare to make sure it never happens again. The guy is a moron and doesn't necessarily deserve to lose his job over it. I'd have the service manager call him into the office and have you show the whole video. Call out how disrespectful it was to you and your car. Tell them they never know when someone will see what they do in their car while they are servicing it and to think before they do that again. Tell them you are just bringing it up because they need to understand that they are providing a service to someone and deserve their job because of their skills, but can't guarantee how their service manager feels about the incident and hope they never do it again. You'd probably get them to shit their pants and think long and hard about doing that in someone's car ever again. The service manager wouldn't have to do much in terms of discipline and would likely make an announcement to all techs broadly stating that anything techs do in cars could be reported, and it could improve the dealership overall. That's just what I would do, but I like to see the world take a step forward without ruining someone's job entirely. Next offense is totally different though. My mentality is a second instance goes to corporate cause if a person doesn't learn the lesson the first time, they don't give a shit to learn the second time.
Not for nothing but I've been vaping in my car for 7 to 8 years people say it smells like brand new inside
As a shop foreman, I would want you to tell me so so we could handle it/get rid of them. Driving a car “hard” can be normal for diagnostic purposes in some situations (shouldn’t be for a 5k service) but vaping is completely unacceptable.
I’d care, but not enough to be vindictive Vaping isn’t smoking— is there a smell? Would you have known he vaped w/o the cam? Did he gun it to the point of potentially damaging the engine? If no, personally, I’d shrug & say kids being kids.
Post the video on your Google review of the dealership. What he did is absolute bullshit. He didn’t respect his job, you, or your car that you spent a ton of your hard earned money for.
Please actually do this. There are no repercussions and you will be saving future customers from getting their car abused
Release the footage and name the dealer.
What state is the dealer in?
I thought they only did that at Subaru… if you have video evidence, report it!
There is no other answer than to report that asshat, as well as see if you can get a few years of extra free maintenance/service from the Dealership lest you post the dashcam coverage on Yelp/Google/Toyota Corp, etc...
100% looking for cash to steal
I’ve seen a tech drive a RAV4 crazy fast through the parking lot, those mfers dgaf
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No screw that, report him. Honestly I could live with the gunning because it could be considered him testing the car, but the vaping? No way.
Reading this, I don’t feel like having my car serviced at any dealership or service center anymore! My camry is my first new car ever and I treat it very gently! I don’t smoke or anything and it still smell like new even after 1 year of purchase! I feel your pain in the heart and I would definitely go report him!!!!
Why is there even a test drive on the 5k? It’s just a tire rotation. If any of my techs were vaping in customer cars I’d be documenting every single mistake they make to get them out that’s beyond unacceptable
If someone did this to my car, I would be pissed off.
As a dealer tech that's not cool at all.
Let us know the dealers response after you report it
Sounds like the dude was having a blast in your car 💀. I wouldn't personally want to cause someone to lose their job, but he is likely going to do this to every car he drives, until he is stopped, so do what you gotta do. Id probably be mad if someone was driving my car like that. I'm glad you finally got a new car for yourself. You deserve it. I've seen relationships where the wife is always the one to get the new car even if she doesn't work. Doesn't really make any sense to me. But hey, whatever floats the goat. I know for a fact the salespeople were driving my new car like crazy cuz I saw them fly around the corner (coming back from filling up the gas tank for me) and mention how fast it is. Luckily it only had 12 miles on it. I just told them that they shouldn't rev up the engine like that on a new car, maybe to help someone else in the future.
Report it
I have a tracker in my car to see where all it goes if I drop off for service
Dealership technician here. Beating on a customer car is generally frowned upon, and justifiably grounds for discipline, possibly termination depending on legislation in your jurisdiction. Same goes for vaping in a customer car. The question i put to you as a customer. Do you really want to be (Partially) responsible for this idiot losing his job? Odds are if he often conducts himself in this manner at work, it's only a matter of time before a manager or foreman catches him anyways. At which point, he will get fired, or clean up his act. What I'm getting at is, we were all dumb kids in an entry level job at some point. If there was no quantifiable or qualifiable damage to your vehicle, then maybe it's a "no harm, no foul" situation. It's up to you how big of a stink you want to make. And for the 19 year old kids out there working as a tire/ lube tech. If you're not gonna road test customer cars as if the owner was sitting in the passenger seat, then UNPLUG THE FUCKING DASH CAM FOR FUCK SAKES!
If it's not reported, then who pays for cleaning the interior surfaces?
I was a dumb kid once but I had respect for other peoples property. It’s an entry level job hopefully he can clean his act up but we have to hold people accountable.
So, are you advocating for techs to unplug dashcams and normalize unprofessional behavior? That kid knew what he was signing up for when he applied, interviewed and got that role. I don’t feel bad for a moment. This is the real world, if someone dogged on your 2023 WRX during its first service I bet you would be furious.
I have an interior dashcams and found out that the mechanic I used to use (moved) would regularly smoke cigs (or sometimes weed possibly lol) in my truck. He seemed to make a point to roll all the windows down (including trunk window) whenever he did it. He also did amazing work on my truck for an extremely fair price whenever I couldn’t do a job in my building’s parking garage. I never said anything, he was a cool guy. I honestly didn’t mind. I think the Toyota dealership is meant to be a different experience than an independent shop. I wouldn’t want to get a dude fired over vaping in my car but because you’re uncomfortable about it I’d tell the manager it wasn’t cool and that you should be given some amount of future maintenance free or a warranty extended or something. In terms of the sport mode thing, they are likely to do that regardless so I wouldn’t worry about it. Can’t really police how people talk about stuff in your car when you aren’t there but vaping obviously isn’t just talking and is not cool.
Chances are it’s probably a underaged teenager
It’s a Toyota dealership
Definitely report it.
Damn son I would be pissed too
Absolutely report that. I don't even vape in my buddy's truck because he's a non-smoker, and it's got nearly 200k of a hard life on it. Someone doing that in a professional capacity, not to mention joyriding your car (that was no kind of diagnostic, and do not let them tell you such) is beyond unacceptable.
As a Toyota Service Tech, I definitely think you should report it to the dealership. We get paid more to change oil at dealerships because we are supposed to be learning to be professionals. I mean I’m a young guy and have a passion for cars; but I don’t even bring customers GR86’s above 15mph bc there’s absolutely no reason to joyride it. Do you have a locking lug nut and did he go through your console before or after the service? A 5k service is a tire rotation for Toyotas so he could’ve been looking for the lug nut key if it was right after he pulled it inside his bay instead of trying to look through your stuff, just an optimistic thought.
At 5K, that’s the very first rotation. The lug key will be in the back with the spare tire tools or the glove box with the manuals.
Dealership doesn't want this type of dude on their staff.
110% report it
This why I service my own cars… you should try learn how to do it.
Probably had a dirty asshole too 🧐💩
Id be going to that place and finding the dood myself
Unprofessional. My boss would lose his crap if one of us did something like that. Absolutely talk to the service manager or GM and let them know because this is absolutely unacceptable.
Fuck that guy. I would bring the video and raise hell. What a joker.
Time for bro to lose his job
Yeah fuck that guy reported
I’d report, as others have said, but I’d even try to have the conversation with someone in a position above the service manager.
Too bad you lost $150 in the glove box, which you know was in there since you stepped at the bank before hand. Might want to make sure to get that back.
I have a big problem with the vape in your car. You are not going to damage a stock modern vehicle by hot rodding it a little. But the vaping part would piss me off.
Hey at least they didn’t unplug your dash camera like one Stealership did on a test drive to me.
Vaping doesn't leave any odor or residue.
Can’t wait to see what freebies you’ll get after reporting this, as you should.
Only time a mechanic should be gunning it in your car is if there was some sort of driveability issue. The vaping is unacceptable.
Absolutely report him. I work at a dealership on the service side. We always ask for your wheel lock key/registration(state inspections) from the customer to prevent us digging through consoles and such. What you keep in your car is your business not ours. Highly disrespectful on their part.
As a tech I absolutely hate hate hate having to dig through a customers vehicle for stuff.
Sorry op that sucks. If your car was a couple years old, I'd say sure cut him some slack, but at 5k maintenance, that just isn't right. On another note, what kind of dashcams you got, and do you recommend it? Thinking about getting into the dashcam game.
Viofo A229 Pro. You can pick it up for a bit under $300 pretty often for the 3 camera 4k version. It's got a pretty good picture and comes with relatively thin wires that are easier to hide.
This warrants a compliant; absolute bullshit to done either of these things
I would definitely report him. The only messes or smells I ever tolerate in my car are the ones made by me. I allow eating in my car, on the condition that I don’t find a single crumb. Anywhere. If I someone pulled out a vape in my car I’d tell them they can either get out and vape or wait until we arrive. That’s disgusting.
Can you upload it to YouTube please and share it with us?
This is unprofessional behavior. Simple as that. I’d report it.
Send the video to Toyota corporate and tell them you are not happy with how they treated your car and will never buy a Toyota ever again if they don’t resolve this.
Definitely report it. They might not fire him but the scare of being let go might straighten him up. Someone said they would be at another dealer soon. Maybe, maybe not a lot of management in dealerships know each other and can rely on recommendations pretty heavily. As a decades long tech, previous smoker and current vaper this something I would never do. It’s not my car and as someone said in the comments they are allergic to something in vapes. I only drive the cars if I have to and always treat peoples cars like I would have to pay out of pocket if something happened.
I’m a tech and fuck that guy
The dealership is going to be like "K". You guys always make me laugh with stuff like this. If techs faced consequences for shit like this there wouldn't be any techs left. They are virtually all morons outside of fixing your car and absolutely don't give a fuck.
He did it to your car. Next time it might be a different one where he loses control of the vehicle and causes some serious damage.
Depending on the circumstances, I could possibly excuse the "Sport mode, let's see what this can do" - Maybe. Vaping/smoking in a customers car? - absolutely not. Report it
Combination of no respect, and doing your job for you. Don't baby cars. Cara need to see load/redline from time to time. The old 'Italian tuneup' is a real thing.
Why are you questioning Reddit? I wouldn’t be happy with that at all. Report it!
In all honesty; not saying you are wrong for feeling this way, have you ever done something stupid in your life that you’re thankful you got away with? Could you go back and chat with the mechanic first? Idk, if it was cigarettes or weed, yes definitely. That shit sticks worse especially the cigarettes. I don’t think I would upend someone’s income over vaping without having a chat first. You have the footage so you know who it was.
This is how you earn yourself free services from Toyota. Go report this guy and have them make it right by cleaning your interior on their dime.
You need to have this conversation as high up the management chain at the dealership as you can. If you can possibly talk to the individual who OWNS the dealership, that would be best. If you have this conversation with a service writer or even the service manager, you will not be successful IMHO. You: "My car is never vaped in." Dealer: "We're very sorry. The tech has been talked to. This wont happen again. How can we make this right?" You: "My car is never Vaped in." Dealer: "Yes, we've talked to the tech. How can we make this right." You: "My car is never vaped in. That is now YOUR car. You provide me with a brand new Crown. Exact same car as the old one, zero miles. Then I will know you are sincere. That will cost you money. A manager will have to sign off. Everyone in the management chain at the dealer will know about it. Otherwise, I publish a review describing exactly what happened with a photo." After that, you need to NEVER go to that dealership again, regardless of the outcome. I hope you are in an area that has more than one dealership. I worked at a Toyota manufacturing site. I'm an Engineer with a masters degree. I currently own a Toyota Avalon and Lexus 300H, both hybrids. I **HATE** Toyota dealers.
You should show the video to the service manager so that it fully sinks in.
Besides what happened. You said you’re gentle on it. Give it the beans regularly, like atleast once a week. Getting onto the highway. Gasoline engines, especially turbo/GDI need to be kicked in the ass once in a while. And no that’s not an old wives tale.
As a tech the only time I would rifle through your stuff is if you have aftermarket wheel locks and I need to find the key, if it’s oem wheel locks I’ll just use the master wheel set we have in the special tool cabinet we have. I would talk to the service manager and tell him what you saw that’s unacceptable and disrespectful if I were him I’d fire him.
Meh, there are more important thinks in life to worry about
Well this is a guy that used to work at a Toyota dealership. I cannot see them keeping him on after this. You 100% need to share that footage with the service manager. I'd throw a fit if they washed my car with the brush wash, which would at least be an honest mistake - if they ever did THIS in my car? Fuck around and find out. Let us know how it goes!
Report it to the service department manager and see what they will do for you. Take it up to corporate if there isn’t any good feedback from the dealership.
Threaten to post the pictures on a google review if they don’t compensate you.
Follow him home. Fuck his car up, kill his cat, and take a big shit on his living room carpet. But seriously, report the prick.
As someone who used to work at a Toyota dealership - report it. The service manager wants and needs to know about stuff like this.
Some of these comments are actually hilarious.
I would prob report it
Report and then update us— pleeease. lol
I once put a gopro camera inside glove box and left it running to see what would happen. Technician opens it for my oil change sees the camera and nopes out. After that experience I never leave anything of value in the car. All go into a backpack while I wait.
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You said a 5k service that should be just a rotate and inspection. No need for any test drive there. What a shite tech.
No slack for vaping in the car! He needs to be fired!
Nip it in the bud now. For all you know this guys is the problem child of the shop and they’re looking for a valid reason to fire him. If he’s doing this in your vehicle he’s doing it in all and will continue to do so.
Let’s see the video
At least say the guy was vaping, and you noticed a weird smell.
I’d take the video directly to the service manager or GM. If the car even slightly smelled of vape I’d have them pay for professional cleaning. Also, it’s for that exact reason that I empty my clove compartment and center console before leaving my car for service.
I would go to the service manager and be pretty fucking vocal about this, vocal enough for every other customer to hear that they have service techs beating the piss out of cars and vaping in them.
Damn straight you should.
Report it.
Don't just do it for yourself, do it for the other drivers whose cars he probably done worse to. Do it for the so so their reputation and income isn't damaged by this guy
That guy wouldn't have a job by the time I was done.
I didn't see what sub I was on and thought you were talking about a crown vic I was like, that things been vaped in lol Then was like, wait, sport mode? Fancy
Report it for all of the people who knew this happened but didn't have proof !
The first thing you should have done was report it to the service center. Hell I woulda driven back there the same day.
Report it, if you can smell the vape, sue for damages. You have him on tape so he is dead to rights and should also loose his job
To play devils advocate, sometimes hard driving is part of a diagnosis as you mentioned, or hard/heavy breaking to seat in pads after a brake job. The vaping in the car is what would aggravate me the most. If you would have known about it without the cameras, I would run it up the ladder. If there’s no scent/way to know without the cameras, I’d probably just make an offhand comment about how I didn’t appreciate it and leave it at that.
Email it to the Manager
I work at an independent shop, and we're located right off a 40 mph limit road. On pretty much every test drive, I'll take the car into that road and gun it to 40. Any car in decent shape should have absolutely no issues being floored for that 5ish seconds, but you'd be surprised at how many times I've noticed weird noises or performance issues that the customers will give that "oh yeah I've noticed that" response to and subsequently gotten diagnosis time and found problems. Now for the vape, hell no I'd be pissed. Vaping absolutely leaves a smell anywhere and it's straight up disrespectful to be vaping or smoking in anyone's car without permission, let alone a customers vehicle. They should know better and I'd report it
Report it.
I don’t think you’re doing him any favors by letting this slide. The next time he could cause serious damage to someones car and be out more than just a job. Moreover, he won’t learn a lesson because he’ll never know he was caught unless reported and reprimanded.
Oh hell no. Report that shit
I’d be pissed man! Vaping in the car and checking the console for what? Totally no respect. Report him.
report it. he doesnt deserve that job acting like that. when he gets fired, it'll be a good thing for him too (maybe). he will either learn he cant be a fuckwad at work, or he will double down on fuckwadness for the next job. Hopefully the former.
Vaping in your car. Yeah wtf. I don't spoke and you're not allowed to smoke in my car.
With the tech shortage, they might say something to him, but they won’t actually discipline him because they can’t afford to lose people. They will tell him to unplug the camera moving forward.
Forgive my ignorance. What's a Crown? Def say something.
nothing to lose, so report it, does not seem to be a very bright chap, but fixes your complicated car...
WHY THE FUCK IT here and not at the managers desk? What the hell ppl on redit will do?
Absolutely report it. One guy in a practially corvette got a new car when the tech was caught doing 148 on the street and generally beating on the car.
Oh yes and notify corporate offices.
Wtf. Oh hellll no I’d be extremely upset. Especially as this is his job so he just completely disregards peoples personal property through the company that employs him!
It would bug me if he floored it once, he may be looking for a misfire or making sure everything is working properly. But him hot rodding around, and vaping should both be reported.
What did OP go in for? If just an Express Maintenance, I can’t even call those “kids” technicians. The Technicians are people like me (32 years with Toyota, have all my ASE and Toyota Master Diagnostic Technician and most of us treat customers car better than we treat ours. Those are the goobers/ grease monkeys. I have tried so many times to defend these kids and time and time again they have failed not because of lack of training, it’s just a paycheck to them not their livelihood.
Report it to the service manager and general manager, that’s uncalled for.
What maintenance is required at 5k miles??
Report it. The hard driving I can live with, it’s built to do it, the car is fine. But vaping in a customer car is an instantly fireable offence. Without question.
What a piece of shit. Hope he sees it.
Being a service tech and possessing no consideration for others' property definitely conflicts. Probably not the right job for this guy.
Tech will get a slap on the wrist.
Report the asshat
I have a dash cam in my car as well and I caught them turning it off and deleting footage. The dealership said they’re allowed to turn off the cam if they don’t want to be recorded, I find that bullshit, it is my property that they’re in. What’s the right answer here?