Villages Golf Car Store Policy
 

I have an older Yamaha golf cart and I needed to purchase a couple of new tires. I called the Brownwood store to talk to the service department to get a price and then asked when they could do the service. I was asked "did you buy the cart from us?" I said, it is a older cart and I am not the original buyer so I do not know. I was then told "we do not make appointments except for carts that were purchased here. You will have to come and wait to see when we can do it as a first come, first serve situation." So, no tires on my cart from them and no more service or repairs or gas from The Villages Cart Stores!

And...?

Not unusual. Carts and Clubs will not service a cart that was not purchased from them.

Here is a link to a thread that might be of some help.
There are a number of decent cart service people
that will come to your home and do the work required!
I’ve personally used Todd Casey, and was quite happy with his work and pricing!

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...ervice-265080/

They didn't say they wouldn't service it, they won't make an appointment. First come first serve.
It makes sense that they would first take care of their customers.

I bought a used cart that had a fairly obvious sign that it was purchased from TV Carts because it had the logo affixed to the windshield. However, that wasn't proof in itself because the windshields are interchangeable. I took it up to the Colony location and they very easily took the serial number from the cart and looked it up in their computer and were able to tell me who the original buyer was, the date it was purchased, the equipment and options it was purchased with, and exactly how much it cost new. And, to my surprise, they told me it was still under warranty with them.

A cart is not just any cart - they are all made differently. If they serviced just anything, it would be like taking a Ferrari to a Ford dealership. As stated above, this is not an unusual policy and they aren't the only ones that have it.

All that said, if you have the means to jack it up and take the wheels off, you can get most tire dealers to order some tires and put them on the wheels for you.

The question is.....
 

Since I am the 3rd or 4th owner of the cart, how would I know IF it was bought from The Villages, unless she was telling me, ONLY if you buy it from our store, will we make an appointment. I do not need any advise on who to get to service carts here. I was just trying to give them some of my business but will give it to someone else. Also last time I went there I got an appointment with anyone asking me that so I guess it caught me off guard. No biggie.

I answered this in my previous post. Give them the serial number off the cart and they can look it up in their system.

I bought my cart back in April. It was 4 years old with no service records. But it looked and drove like brand new and only had 140 hours on it. I verified that the cart was purchased from them and was even still under warranty, but I thought it was best to get it serviced ASAP since I had nothing showing when it was last done. Even with the cart purchased from them, I called 1 location and was told I could get an appointment in 2 months. I called a second location and was told 6 weeks, and then I called up to the Spanish Springs store and they were able to get me in in 4 weeks. I was closest to Brownwood at the time and didn't really want to take it that far, and drop it off and then have to go back and get it. But, they gave me a brand new cart as a loaner without my even asking, so I have no complaints. I think their policy is reasonable.

Amusing comparison!

We too bought a cart from the LSL location in 2014. I happily drove their new quiet loaner while mine was being serviced a few months ago :)

Wildwood tire will do golf cart tires, and mounting. As stated above, the wheels are easy to take off and put on. maybe one of your neighbors has a jacK.

We have been hearing this from many new customers. All I can say, is be glad. We are hearing horror stories and seeing many new parts on carts that are not that old. We are finding many cars that are not being serviced properly and adjustments are way off. So it may not be a bad thing after all.

You can probably show up at the crack of dawn for a first-come/first-served appointment and they will give you a loaner. I have showed up to have some sunbrella snaps replaced and they didn't care that I didn't buy the cart there. They also sell me parts.

Call Todd Casey, he comes to your house by appointment and does excellent service at a very fair price and is way more qualified than the hacks working at the Villages Golf Cart store. We bought both our carts from the Villages, but would much rather use Todd to work on our carts.

We bought our 06 from C&C in 2014 would no longer do service due to age.
Villages carts did our yearly service with no problems, on that cart.

VC doesn't like to give you an appointment even on our new cart from them, depending On who answers phone. Should be a better system, on online appointment would work better. But that would be too easy. I have tried to just do drive up at 6am, and still got shut out because of work load from day before.

I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with TV Golf Cars, where I’ve taken mine since 2014. I’ve had annual service performed, as well as additional aftermarket accessories installed. I especially like that the tech calls with any questions or concerns. On one occasion, a sales person installed an accessory on my cart for me after I purchased it.

I have never been questioned whether or not I bought my cart from them. I make my appointments early, taking into consideration the backlog they always have. That way I bypass the stress of them telling me I have to wait 1 or 2 months for an appointment. I go there, they park my cart first to go into the garage and bring a loaner up for me to use. Doesn't get any better than that!:a040::coolsmiley::MOJE_whot::clap2

Wow. IMHO, if you are going to make derogatory comments about a competitor you should back it up with some specific examples. For instance, what have you seen misadjusted or incorrectly serviced? I noticed you used the word "many". That implies a large number. Perhaps you can be more specific.

Let me guess. You're a competitor?

Horror stories? I guess I'm glad I don't have a golf cart.

Had an issue with The Villages Golf Carts, Brownwood just this morning. Was in line at the door at 6:45 am for the 8 am opening as instructed on the phone yesterday. Service Manager came out about 7:30 to ask what I needed and asked if I had an appointment. I said no, and I needed routine annual servicing. Incidentally, I purchased the cart new from them 4 years ago. I was told they could not do the work as they already have too many appointments. Not sure this is a good way to conduct business. They do advertise drive up service. Appointments are normally 5 weeks out. Some may accept this, I do not. I will now be looking at the "at home servicing" that is advertised by many cart service facilities outside the Villages such as Willies or Todd Casey.

Sounds like a successful business. Perhaps we will see another location opening soon. There are over 120,000 Villagers and over 70,000 golf carts. Doesn't sound mean spirited or rude, just honest. I bet they said, " Sorry we can't take you today, but we will make an appointment".

If you only need routine maintenance then another option is to do it yourself. I know many people don't want to bother but routine maintenance is trivial to do yourself. Check your owners manual for the maintenance schedule.

Funny
 

We had our Golf Cart serviced at the Lake Sumter Garages. Picked it up and after I got home I looked at the bill and noticed it contained charges for Oil and Grease. I am not a mechanic nor have I ever been one but do know enough that you don't "Change the oil and Grease" an electric cart?? Took the bill back and they apologized and adjusted the amount. So much for not checking when you first get the bill. :a040:

I have an older Club Car that needed tires, so I went down to The Villages Golf Cars in Spanish Springs in the morning, and was second in the line that forms in front of the garage door. I was served promptly by a friendly, competent service writer, who said they had my tires in stock and could put them on that day. They immediately gave me a loaner cart. Later in the day I got a call from the mechanic, who told me that my front end bushings were shot, and that they needed replacing. My first thought was, here we go, a big unexpected expense. The bushing parts were $12.00 and it took them a half hour of labor to replace them. Got it all done in one day, with a loaner to boot. How can you do better than that?

Is this anew policy ? I never had a problem and have not purchased any of my carts from them
They have always been most helpfully

The End

I can get more specific.

Adjustments, such as Throttle cables, and brakes. Missed issues on a service, such as loose secondary clutches and rear hubs.

Now you may think of these as minor issues, but when they go to failure, they don't tell you that had they looked at those issues during a service, that they would not have gone to failure. Instead, you get hit with an expense that should not have happened.

I want to stay anonymous, I'd prefer to just help you folks out to prevent issues. At least have the ability to get a second opinion. Don't shoot the messenger, Im trying to help.

I have no ideas who TechGC is. But I have had 3 instances where exactly what he says actually happened. None were mine as I stopped using them several years ago when they couldn't fix what I thought was a simple issue. But had three different folks I know well where they failed to do a repair correctly. They called another service provider and the problem was resolved. And two took the cart back several times with out the correct repair being done.

Based on this limited amount of first hand knowledge and what I have read on here from others, my guess would be that they do not have enough qualified technicians. So they probably hire service folks with less then adequate training and hope they will get better. There are several very qualified cart service folks that will come to your home and do quality work. Biggest issue is they are very busy because they are so good. A couple have already been mentioned above, but there are others. They are really worth waiting for.

Look, I know the Brownwood location of The Villages Carts is doing the best they can, but if they are unable to keep up with the growth in the southern area of The Villages, in my opinion, they are failing. This growth has been going on for several years and will continue.

I bought both my carts from the Villages Golf Cars. Last spring, when I complained that we bought the carts there and could not get a timely appointment they told me they were changing their appointment policy so customers like myself that spent lots of money there would be able to get appointments. Those that did not buy their carts there would be serviced on a first come, first serve basis. I’m hoping the next time I need an appointment I can get something within a reasonable timeframe.

Maybe one of the reasons that there is a delay is the recall that Yamaha sent out early in the year. Read this;

Yamaha Recalls Golf Cars and Personal Transportation Vehicles Due to Crash Hazard | Golf Cart Resource

Actually both recalls were taken care of on a non appointment priority basis. They set up a special service area and you were fixed in matter of minutes.
I was in the dealer auto service business for 25 years and it was the same there. You buy the car from us and you go to the front of the line.