Monday, July 6, 2020

[Not] Great Customer Service

When I bought my car last year the dealership threw in a free oil change. In the real world I don't drive a whole lot of miles, and in the COVID world has been even less. The dashboard has an Oil Life indicator that counts down the time until the oil needs to be changed. It took 14 months, but when I saw that the indicator was at 10% I called the dealer and made an appointment to bring the car in.

This dealer is not as convenient now that I've moved, and I didn't want to make two trips to drop the car off and pick it up. For that reason I chose an 8 AM appointment (thinking they would be more likely to be running on time first thing in the morning), and told the scheduler I would wait for the work to be done. Last Thursday was Oil Day. I moved much faster than I'm used to, and left the house with a book to read, the things I needed to run several errands, and my lunch.

I pulled into the dealer lot right on time. The service department has a system where you pull into a covered area to drop off the car, then check in at one of the desks that line the side. The service advisor told me I would get my oil change, they would also rotate the tires for no charge, and do a "multi-point inspection". He said the whole thing would take about an hour.

There was no problem keeping a social distance in the almost-empty waiting area. After 70 minutes I started wondering when my car would be done. I waited another ten minutes, then packed up my things and walked outside. My advisor was at his desk talking to another advisor, but they broke up the conversation as I approached. I asked about my car, and learned that it was "five minutes away from being ready". Rather than go back inside, I decided to stand by the advisor's desk. He printed out my paperwork, told me all the systems were in good shape, then told me where I could find the car.

I was less than five miles away, headed towards my first errand, when the tire pressure light came on. I suspected that the technician hadn't reset it after rotating the tires, but I didn't have time to go back to the dealer and complain. I made all my stops, and when I got home I called the advisor. He didn't answer the phone, so I left a message. He never called me back, but Hubby Tony said he received a missed call from the dealer's number. The person didn't leave a message.

The next day I got a survey email from the dealer. In part, it said they were "dedicated to the overall satisfaction of our customers and their experience". I was very interested in telling them how they did, so I clicked the link.
It was broken, giving me nothing but a blank page. So I laid the whole thing out via email and sent it back. I'm still waiting for an answer.

Five years ago today: (Kind Of A) Pain In The Butt

15 comments:

  1. So sorry you had this terrible service, frustrating! And it's not close by.

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    1. Yes, it's only an extra five miles, but on the very busy street that can take an additional 15 minutes.

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  2. Is this service department part of the dealership? I used our Subaru service department for years until they sold the dealership to an outside agency that gave terrible service and lied to me about what needed to be done. Going to our old standby mechanic, I learned that most dealerships pay their mechanics on a commission. The more things they can find wrong (or make wrong), the better they get paid. I no longer go to the dealership.

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    1. That's a good question, but I don't know the answer. I have a trusted independent mechanic we've used for many years, and they will get my business from now on. I guess the moral of the story is that you get what you pay for.

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  3. We had a problem when we bought my car too. Although frustrating, they took my car in without my calling ahead and took care of the issue immediately. I've had a lot of really bad experiences with dealers, it was great to have a good one for a change. Hope getting it off your chest helped.

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  4. Their lack of response would completely change my opinion.

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    1. If I ever have need of an authorized service center I will take a look at the other Honda dealers in town.

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  5. Ooo that stinks, there's nothing more frustrating than awful customer service. Sorry you had to go through that.

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  6. Replies
    1. Ashok, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!

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