Bidleman Chevrolet GMC — Local services in Town of Albion

My experience at Bidleman Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Albion, NY, in regard to a National Highway, Safety Traffic, Administration recall for the replacement of Silverado pick-up truck tailgate support cables and hinges.---I arrived at 1:50 pm, for a scheduled 2:00pm appointment. I was told that two new tailgate hinges and two new tailgate cables would be installed. I waited at the service counter, for over ten minutes, until Jason Burley went behind the counter and asked me about six questions regarding the scheduled recall repair. Some of his questions were repetitive. One of them he asked me was, “Do we have the parts?” The parts department is around the corner, five feet way from the service desk. They scheduled the time of the repair appointment. Why is he asking me, the customer, if they have the parts? I said, “They told me they had the parts.” I asked him if they would put anti-seizure lubricant on the bolts. He said “certainly”. Jason Burley told to go into the waiting room and take a seat. I had to ask him three times, how long would it be. Three times, he said that he didn't know and he would get me in as soon as he could. I said that I couldn't sit there for two hours and I needed an approximate time estimate. He then said fifteen minutes. This guy is a low I.Q. individual and also a liar. Approximately twenty five minutes later, from the waiting room door window, I saw my vehicle driven into a service bay. I went out to stand in front of the service desk where I could see the unnamed mechanic working on the tailgate of my pick-up truck. At this time Wayne Miller was behind the service desk. Wayne Miller then said that, per the 12 page GM repair memo, because only the left tailgate hinge was broken off, and not the right side one, that they would not be replacing any part of the hinges. I then saw that the mechanic was about to bolt the tailgate cables down without any anti-seizure lubricant. I asked him to lubricate the bolts. The mechanic said that he didn't know what I was talking about. He then said that they didn't have any anti-seizure lubricant anyway. I told him to stop and said that I wanted the lubricant. Wayne Miller then handed me the GM twelve page recall repair memo and said, “Where in here does it say that we have to apply anti-seizure lubricant.” I said that where in the memo does it tell them what size wrench, or socket, to use? I said that it is generally accepted protocol for bolts that are subject to corrosion and seizure. I said that as a customer, I was requesting it. They said that they didn't have any any and did I want the new cables bolted down or not. They had already taken the old cables off and I didn't want my tailgate falling off on the road. The mechanic then reamed the bolts down with a pneumatic air wrench. When I had walked twenty feet, to my vehicle, to talk to the mechanic, Sam LaNasa had come to the service desk and asked some questions about the recall repair. He then turned to me and said in an elevated volume, “Do you see that painted yellow line on the floor? Customers are not allowed to step over that line! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?” I was silent and shocked by the way he was berating me. He then shouted at me again, “I NEED SOME INDICATION THAT YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I JUST SAID!” I said, “I understand.” In summation, they would not replace the hinges, although they had said that they would. They also said that, if the right hand hinge is broken, they will only replace one half of each hinge on the tailgate side only, and not the two half hinges on the body of the truck. I have since learned that this crazy policy is enacted because the hinge bolts, especially the ones on the truck body, are so corroded that they will break off when you try to remove them. Probably, because General Motors didn't put any anti-seizure lubricant on them on the assembly line. You have to take the taillights out, lubricate them, and put torch heat on the bolts from the back side to get them out. As of now, I will never do business with those...

I bought my truck in April of 2022 (it is now February 2023), and I was going to completely disregard ever writing a review. But since tax time rolled around, I was taking another look at my documents to grab the registration fee. Relatively disappointing to find hidden fees I was unaware of at the time. I agreed to pay full asking price for my used car (who even does that), only to see now I was also charged a $699 "aftermarket" fee. For what was this even for? Seven hundred dollars? I'm in utter disbelief that I allowed myself to sign this. I've bought several used cars in the past - I've never paid anything like this for "extra fees." I was so rushed during the whole buying process and paperwork signing, I didn't even see this fee. I wouldn't have agreed to pay it had I seen it or was even told about it. Walked away, end of story. It's a tiny little "$699" add-on that was never verbally communicated. I was not going to write a review at all - even given the fact that my car STARTED ON FIRE the day after I brought it home. Sitting in my driveway it just ignited. I really was willing to let it go after a very rough start and not tell anybody about it. Mistakes happen, cars break. Strike one - everyone there seemed willing to make it right. Everyone treated me with kindness. The leaking radiator an outside mechanic found several weeks later that the service department here did not - I thought, strike-two, whatever, they fixed it for free, and they fixed it well, same as the fire issue. I'll just shut up about it. But this hidden fee I'm seeing ten months later put me over the edge. This fee is strike-three. My advice is two-fold, number one, ask them to let an outside mechanic look over the car before you buy. If they say no, walk away. Second, don't let them rush you through signing you so aren't able to catch hidden fees. Don't pay $700 for nothing at all. This is even worse than the $100 "car wash" fee Auction Direct charged me. And I thought THAT was a rip-off. Another aspect I disliked, while I'm taking the time to write this, was that I had my salesman try to tell me that a trade-in value on KBB was "what they could turn around and sell it for," or something like that, so I really took a hard hit there. A $7,000 value from KBB turned into $4,000 real quick. And they started with a $2,500 trade-in value. That whole game. A trade-in value is a trade-in value. It means what a dealer will pay you. Not a "what we can sell it at auction for" value. Please don't tell your clients this. So, I do truly feel I was short-changed in several ways: The trade, this extra fee that has come to my attention, plus dealing with the fire and radiator, come on now. I've never had any of these experiences at another dealer. The sales department and service department can do better. I got taken for a ride and I got burned. No pun intended. And anyone can say, "Well you signed the paperwork for the full price plus the $699 - and it says it all right there!" Yes, I did sign it. I'm the true idiot for throwing $700 in the trash. I signed it, I owed it, and I paid it. My issue was being rushed, signing paper after paper without being walked through the documents, plus no verbal "We are charging you $699 for whatever." That document could not possibly have been written in a smaller font. You need to tell your clients you are charging it. And to explain what it’s for – because I can’t possibly think of what I handed you $700 for.

TLDR: 3 Stars for a willingness to help fix my car's issues for free (I think free is a given anyway up to 90 days or something), no rude employees, etc. Service department seemed to fix everything efficiently, no further issues as of today. They let me look underneath the car and explained the fixes. Everyone was nice. I do think the issues should have been caught before I took it home. Despite what I went through, I appreciate that my car does seem to be running fine these days. I dinged one star for the mechanical issues and another for the $700. That's being generous. Can't recommend, can't...

My husband bought his 2021 Silverado from here in May with 19,800 miles on it for $50k. He was told there was over 50% brakes and tire tread remaining. Fast forward to a few weeks ago (late November) he had noticed a squeak when turning to the right that was intermittent so he took it to hoselton in Rochester and was told that the vehicle needed all around brakes (this was most likely the culprit to the noise) and tires. Mind you he has only put 4,500 miles on the vehicle and drives very conservatively. He spoke with the manager Mike Stanley at Bidleman and got a second opinion closer to where we live, to corroborate the claim as agreed upon by Mike and pending that we would bring the vehicle out to Albion if the second inspection found similar issues so that they could look at it and decide course of action. After having this conversation with Mike, my husband arranged a second inspection of the vehicle with our mechanic. He took the vehicle for a second opinion to our mechanic, whom we trust and have dealt with for years and certainly never tries up-charging us just to make a buck. Matter-of-fact when He brought it to our mechanic he looked at the front brakes and said those are in good shape, but the back brakes have 25% left and only recommended rear brakes and stated that the tires were at the wear line and needed replacement. My husband called again to let Mike at Bidleman know of the findings. All in all, my husband spent $170 just having two locations inspect the vehicle to confirm that the vehicle needs new tires and rear brakes in hopes and confidence that BIdleman would work with my husband in covering the cost of at least the tires,. Instead my husband had a 20 minute debate with Mike on the phone to no avail. Mike couldn’t fathom that his mechanic that did the inspection might have made an error in the tire measurements and instead chose to say that he doesn’t know how my husband drives the truck and couldn’t be sure that the wear in the tires wasn’t due to his driving habits. Mind you my husband uses this as a commuter vehicle and hasn’t used this to carry any heavy equipment or trailers, and he drives very conservatively. Mike chalked up the conversation to well the vehicle left the dealership with a purchase tread of 8/32, which is well over 50% tread and refused to cover any cost of the tires and denied any mistake on behalf of the dealership or mechanic, even if it was an honest mistake, which we are accepting of and understand that people make mistakes. We simply would have liked more reciprocating from the dealership, especially since the vehicle was pretty new and not cheap and one would expect more than 4,500 miles on the tires before needing to be replaced. By the way, Mike also states he spoke with the owner about the situation and he states that the owner felt the same way Mike did about the situation about and failed to waiver from their standpoint. My husband also asked our mechanic how probable it is to go through 50% or more tread-life on tires in 4,500 miles and he admits that’s very, very unlikely to be the culprit, which was also explained to Mike. At the end of the day, we would not recommend this place of business for the reasons above; we will be pursuing the Better Business Bureau for further recourse as we do not feel this was dealt...