I swear the Mazda dealership is ripping me off...so hear is the story...tell me what to do!

So last week, my rx8 refused to even turn over. I figure my brother (who was using the car last) kept the light on or something, so I called roadside to get them to jump it. The tow truck comes and hooks up the cables, but before he could try the jump, the panic alarm goes off in the car. The tow truck guy doesn't know wut the hell is going on. He disconnects the alarm from the car and tries to start the car, but it doens't even turn over. so he tows to the dealership

The dealership calls me the next day. Says that whoever tried to jump the car switched the cables (put positive on the negative terminal and the negative on the positive terminal) and because of that, a fuse is blown in the car and the battery needs to be replaced. He says its not under warranty, so its gonna cost me $250!! He said on top of that, its going to cost another $400 to deflood if the engine is flooded!! WTF I didn't do anything to the car, the tow truck guy tried to jump it!! Why should I have to pay for this? And $400 if it is flooded?!? Anyone ever heard of that?

I filed a complaint with mazda roadside assistance...and hopefully they will reimburse me, but it takes 10 days to process the complaint, so I have to pay for it myself right now. Anyone got any suggestions to deal with this??

 

Wow, that's some bad luck you got... without any hard evidence to support your case, you may end up SOL. I'd say, gather all the facts about what happened and that might better help support your case. As for those dealer costs for repair, $400 seems kind of steep for deflooding. If I can remember correctly, I think the owner's manual has some suggestions on troubleshooting that... you should check there first, and also do a search in these forums about the flooding.

 

The dude Who *jump* your car was an idiot and dont even know wtf he is doing

How the fuxk he can just *disable* the alarm and expect it to work ? The hell

If its me, I will not pay a penny

 

I understand that the warantee isn't going to cover this, so I dont blame the dealership for trying to charge me. They figure they're gonna get money out of me easier than the towing company, and let me deal with the towing company. But how can they charge $400 to deflood?? The dealership's gotta think that I'm stupid. If I have to pay for this out of pocket, I think I'll let them replace the fuse and battery, then just go down the the dealership and do the deflood myself.

 

They probably want to charge you for new spark plugs and labor to put them in, as well as the deflooding itself.

My uncle flooded my car bad and I ended up having to pay 400$some canadian dollars for the whole shennanigan... oil change, spark plugs, diagnostic for the cat, labor, taxes

 

250 bucks for a battery seems absurd, and fuses are nothing

I noticed you said if the engine is flooded, which sounds like it isn't and the guy is setting you up for a big charge for no work

 

you should've tow the car back to your home.

4 NGK plugs, 90 bucks shipped.
New Optima battery, about 200 bucks. (and this battery will be ALOT stronger than stock, its a bit heavy tho)
Do it yourself install everything. about 1 hour

the things you'll learn during the process, priceless.

my car didnt flood, I still changed my own plugs. at first I thought its going to be a bitch, but hey, its not hard at ALL. Just make sure that you put your car on a stable jackstand. with the right size tool. took me maybe 30 - 45 minutes. that was my first time. if u want me to do it again, I will say it shouldnt take me more than 15 minutes. (since I know what to look for)

400 is a freaking rip off. Thats all I have to say.

 

I hate to break it to the dealer but if he accidentally switched the cables you'd have more problems than a popped fuse. Stuff like that is what makes batteries blow up not quietly fizzle out. Besides even an idiot can tell you to match colors when hooking up jumper cables.

 

So I got a call from mazda roadside today. They are having one of their representatives go to the mazda dealership to look at the car. They want to see what the damage is themselves and see if it is the towing company's fault. If they decide it was, then Mazda roadside will pay for it. If they decide it wasn't the towing company's fault, the bill comes back on me. I don't get it. Whatever, happened, Mazda NA should take care of it...they are just trying to dump the blame on different departments...

next time, i'll jump the car myself. the only reason i called roadside was because I didn't have cables and another car.

 

Next time you should've call some car service company, tell them what happen, they're more than happy to come and make a quick 10-15 bucks