Talk about the school of hard knocks! But sounds like the lesson was well learned.
About eight years ago, the electric sunroof on my Ford Expedition stopped working. The motor worked, but it had somehow gotten off the track. It was still in warranty, so I called the dealer and arranged the repair; their shop was really busy, so the date was about three weeks out which was no problem for me. I had a record with the Ford dealer of reporting the failure on that phone call within warranty.
So I took the car in three weeks later and they said “Tough luck, your warranty expired.” It actually expired during that three week interval between my phone call setting the appointment and the appointment date!
I said “That’s just crazy! I reported it to you three weeks ago when it was under warranty. I would have brought it in for repair that day if you had an opening! That phone call date should be the date of record for warranty repairs.”
They replied “Nope, doesn’t matter, it’s when you bring it into the shop for repair.”
I said (getting really pissed now) “YOUR SHOP WAS FULL THEN! This is the first date you gave me!”
They replied “Too bad, $4,000 please! And a $200 ‘diagnostic fee,’ too”
I escalated several levels with Ford and got the same BS answer at every level, all the way to corporate HQ. I finally called the dealer I bought the car from (about 100 miles away) and he said “We’ll take care of it.” They are a high volume dealer and, in just one call, they got Ford to see the error of their ways. I got it fixed under warranty. What a great dealer — I was just a one-off customer, not a repeat or fleet customer of them.
Lots of lessons learned there. Perhaps the most important is check your warranty dates and mileages if you are near the end of your warranty. And be very wary of stinking car companies screwing you.
Glad you got that issue taken care of and I would have been livid with that response and just out of warranty due to their scheduling you 3 weeks later. The one mechanical warranty issue I had was when the driver side wheel bearing needed to be replaced, I asked if they would do the passenger side and they said no. So far so good that was 50k miles ago now, and I’m officially out of the 10 year / 100k mile drivetrain warranty.
I think many of these auto dealerships are unstable. There has been a lot of turnover in the industry since the financial crisis of 08/09 and covid made it worse. I own a low volume car that was discontinued in 2015. My local dealer was bought out a few years later and service went completely down hill. During a routine inspection I was told I needed a new clutch. I had the clutch replaced under warranty repair about 10K miles before that clutch diagnosis. I told them to get lost and am still driving with the same clutch 40K miles later. I had my brakes replaced a couple of years later. After 10K miles with after market brakes, the dealership said I needed new brakes. I am still driving with those brakes 20K miles later. I get my car serviced in a different city when I visit my parents..