In August we took our recently aquired 1995 Jaguar XJ-6 to their service department for repairs on a power drivers seat. On the way there the Alternator stopped working, and it ate the battery.
They offered to "diagnose" the problems, then told us it would be $195.00 to replace the battery plus labor (at $100.00 an hour shop rate) to put it in. I had my wife stop at Car Quest and bring a new battery ($95.00) but since the car was DOA at their dealer we ended up having to pay them for diagnostic work and installation of the battery. They also diagnosed the alternator as being bad and quoted a price of $580.32 to replace it. This seemed high, but remanufactured ones locally were 369.00 and didn't have the warranty they offered. They charged $150.00 labor to install it.
They diagnosed the power seat as having a bad control module (503.69 part and charged $150.00 to install it). I asked them to please inspect the wiring harness because I noticed it had a loose wire and was concerned it might be the culprit in the problem. They said the harness was fine. Plus we ordered a single spare key (which they charged $69.95 for).
On top of all the regular charges they charged us $21.95 for an "EPA" fee. Apparently this charge is based on your total bill, even though there weren't any disposables in the work we had done. Plus, they kept our old battery core so we weren't able to get the core fee back from Car Quest. So our total bill for one alternator and one power seat module installed - $1566.45.
I since learned from other shops that Scottsdale Jaguar charges a surcharge above MSRP on their parts, parts that are already extremely overpriced. Several of the local shops that do work on Jaguars buy their parts from the dealer in Tucson for this very reason, even though it makes for an extra day or two in turn around time. I recently priced the Alternator at 420.00 new and the Computer module for 369.00 new - manufacturer refurbished are 369.00 for the alternator and 200.00 for the seat module.
June - the Driver's seat stopped working, again. We called Scottsdale Jaguar and they said we had until August to get the part replaced under warranty. We took the car in on June 30th and they told us that it would be 273.00 to replace this part because there were some "frayed wires" on the harness that they felt caused this, and this charge covered their diagnostic work and the repair. I pointed out that the wiring harness was in the exact condition it was in when they did the work last August, and I felt that 273.00 for a warranty replacement was not right.
I asked the service advisor Melissa if I could speak to the manager Steve about it. She said she'd have him call me. The day rolled on at at 5pm Melissa called to say she'd talked to the manager and the only way they'd do the warranty replacement now was if we replaced the whole seat bottom (1400.00), that was our only option, otherwise they couldn't help us. We never got to talk to the service manager.
We went to pick the car up the next day when my wife got off work, 5:30pm. They had a bill for $130.00 waiting for us for "diagnostic work". Melissa dropped it to $60.00 after my wife had a fit about it.
I waited around for 30 minutes while she paid, wondering what else would go wrong. My wife came out and got in the car and the seat was in the FULL rear position, her feet didn't even reach the pedals. She said something to the service advisor, and the response was "sorry our mechanics have gone home". I had to drive the car home (I'm 5'11") and it was still uncomfortable for me.
My wife is so livid about this that she won't take the car back to them even to have the seat moved so she can drive it.
So now we have a driver's seat with over $700.00 invested in it that not only does not work, but is in a position that my wife can't even drive the car.
I immediately filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. We're still waiting for the results of that.
Bottom line & These guys charge way too much, then don't honor their warranties, the managers won't even discuss it with you, its "their way or no way" — BEWARE find someone else to work on your Jaguar / Porsche / Ferrari / or Aston Martin.
We have since found a few reputable shops in the area with management staff that actually talk to you and discuss your work and options and don't gouge on their parts prices.
Victor
Chandler, Arizona
U.S.A.
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