It turned out to be a wee bit of an eventful morning. My wife phoned Toyota service dept at 08.30 am to enquire when her lovely husband (yours truly ) could bring his Vigo truck in for a 40,000 kms service.
The reply she received was ok to bring today, what time you want?
Ok, as the service dept closes at 12 o'clock for lunch my wife asked how long to complete the service. Reply - 1 hour
Ok, Can we have an appointment for 10.30 am? Reply - 10.30 am ok, what are your vehicle details, number plate etc? Duly passed to service desk operator.
I travel 30 kms without my wife and arrive at 10.20 am. At 10.30 am i speak to a service manager and explain that an appointment had been arranged to have my truck serviced. His grasp of the english language is limited as is my Thai.
He appears flustered and makes a few phone calls. He then points to his computor monitor and types a message in Thai and translates the message into english and says 'Please sir'. I look at the monitor screen which reads 'Can you charge a ring?'
An amused look appears on my face.
A female who speaks some english appears and asks me if i can come back this afternoon.I inform her that an appointment had been made for 10.30 am and that i had further appointments to meet throughout the day.
'Can i speak with your wife?' My reply was that speaking with my wife is not going to alter the appointment time but go ahead. My wife confirms the conversation between herself and Toyota and that i had other committments during the day.
The female then writes down 12 o'clock finish on a piece of paper and i say ok. She then writes out an invoice for the servicing costs and attaches a figure of 7,500. I ask what this figure relates to and she replies 40,000 kms service - 7,500 baht
Not wishing to leave my mouth agape for an extended period i enquire how they arrived at that figure. The male service manager steps in and explains that the labour charge is 1,200 baht, ok i say, what is the other 6,300 baht for? He replies oil. My mouth falls open once more. He then explains that the cost includes gear oil, automatic transmission oil. My expression remains fixed.
I reply that my truck is still under warranty and that my friend was charged 3,500 baht for the same service last year. Not possible was there reply. I phone my friend to confirm. I then ask the manager to reconsider. He writes 4000 baht on the invoice. Ok, we have deal.
Whilst keeping an eye on the 4 'mechanics' carrying out the said service i phone my wife and ask her to contact Toyota Khon Kaen to enquire the servicing costs at 40,000 kms. She phones me back a few minutes later to confirm that Toyota KK are quoting 10,000 baht for the same service. At 4000 baht it would seem to the layman that i had got a good deal but why the huge difference in price for exactly the same end product?
Has anyone else had a similar experience? Do you feel that your vehicle servicing costs are reasonable?
I have owned 2 top of the range Vigo's from new for the past 5 years and can't recall a servcing problem before so in order to get to the heart of the matter i may e-mail Toyota, Thailand, to enquire if servicing prices are fixed or at the discretion of the franchise.