Are the people here taking advantage of me?

[Anonymous]

For the past few weeks I’ve been having an issue with my car. The battery light keeps coming on. I’ll admit the first time it came on, I waited too long to fix it and then it completely wouldn’t start on me. I found out a way to boost it and my uncle helped us so I was able to eventually drive it to the dealership.
I had an appointment to be there by the way but when I got there they helped me and said it might take some time. My service manager was this nice woman who kept coming back and helping me and updating me. I figured I would need a new battery since I went to an auto shop and that’s what the guy told me and my battery light was on.
So they said it would take an hour to charge my battery. Then they had to test it after that.
So I waited an hour and then she came back and said the battery was bad and I would need a new one. Since the warranty on my battery wasn’t up I got it for free snd didn’t have to pay the service fee which I appreciated it. The whole thing took 4 hours though and I am a college student who has class. The lady also gave me her card. She’s really not the issue here.

After that my light came back on again and I just ignored it because I assumed it was fixed but it wasn’t. My car eventually broke down again and wouldn’t start, causing me to miss class again. I had to call someone to jump start it and take it back to the dealership where I had a different service manager. He asked if I could wait an hour and a half and I told him yes so I waited. He didn’t update me about anything and my mom came at the end to ask for an update. Turns out my car was already done and had been sitting on the side of the building and no one told me. The guy explained to my mom what he did and fixed which had nothing to do with the battery.

Now after that the light is still on lol and I’m afraid it will break down again. I’m a 21 year old black college student and my dad wants to talk to them.
Are they taking advantage of me?

[Anonymous]

Thing about cars sometimes when we think it is a simple as a car battery being the problem and needing fixing its not until they get in there and start looking under the bonnet and do test that sometimes they do truly find other faults and issues with people's cars and this in return leads to people feeling like they have been taken advantage of or being ripped off when really they aren't, it's just the car itself has more issue than anybody was actually aware of until work on it started to happen.

Every year my dad gets his car services at a professional dealership where he brought the car from, never missed a service once but one year 2 years ago during the service they discovered not only did the car need a new wheel alignment which we knew prior but it turned out the break pads oh my goodness how we managed to not have an accident is beyond me because it turned out the break pads were in bad condition

While it is possible they could be ripping you off there is a possibility they could have found something else wrong with your car

[Opinion Owner]

I forgot to mention we had no idea about the break pads or how bad they were until they showed my dad. The dealership didn't even know until they started working on my dad car.

If you do feel they are taking advantage maybe if you are able to take it to another place and get someone else to look at it but be sure to take a guy with you because if there is a possibility they are screwing you over they very likely won't do it if there is a guy with you

[Guy13]

Is that your battery light or a sensor light. You should find you an old school mechanic who can look both your electrical and mechanical systems over. Does the light stay on or does it go on/off sometimes. Make sure it is not a sensor. Some sensor lights are not important but some are.

[MrCommodore]

A new battery should last 6-10 years, your problem sounds like an Alternator issue, which continuously charges the car battery while you drive.

Surely after the 2nd battery had issues, someone thought "Shit 💡, maybe this isn't the battery".

[OddBeMe]

I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion. People make mistakes. But it sounds like the battery wasn’t the only thing wrong. Perhaps try a different dealership. Especially the same brand as the car if possible.

[AngryCarl2]

As long as the work is being done under warranty they're not taking advantage of you. They just sound really incompetent.

[Anonymous]

I say go to a different mechanic.