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Thu 1 Apr, 2004 10:59 am
something i read today made me write this. a letter saying bad service is everywhere..sadly true
as consumers we have a responsibility to push to get good service. Although it is hard for any business to deal with complaints the car industry appears to be one of the most lacking in customer care.
i have delt with a couple now Dodge and Volks wagon. The biggest problem i see is the inability of these corperations to resolve problems.
in both cases when i had a performance issue i had no recourse after endless conversations and discussions with service managers and so called customer relation people but to become an thorn in the dealership
owners side to get the problem fixed. So i write this hoping that someone who cares will make a differrence.
I am wonderring also if companies like saturn and kia are doing what they say as far as treating thir customers with respect or if they also patronise and disrespect their customers as volks wagon and dodge do.
maybe they all are the same?
if so we as customers are shooting ourselves in the foot if we keep buying there garbage..
my thoughs...
I've owned two Saturns in the last eight years. The service has consistently impressed me.
My best story is about the time the car wouldn't start. I'd had it less than a year, and no longer lived in the city where I'd purchased it.
I called Roadside Assistance. They sent a towtruck - he arrived in about 30 minutes. He towed it to the local dealer. In less than an hour, they replaced the battery and the alternator. I was given a box of chocolates and a formal apology. I later received a written apology for my inconvenience. No charge for the tow or the service of course because of the warranty.
By the way, welcome to A2K, rory.
I had good luck with the one Saturn dealer I worked with on my daughter's car too. But I've had good luck with dealers for other brands so I'm not sure if that means much.
One thing to keep in mind though - The car makers don't own the dealerships. A car dealership is a franchise operation so it's really owned by the dealer him/herself. The makers have some influence but they don't have complete control. I think that's why you got results when you went to the owners of the dealerships. The buck pretty much does stop at their desk when it comes to service. Once you are out of warranty it's 100% between you and the dealer.
I had an incidence where the car dealer treated me like crap too. It was a GM car. I was having car trouble and brought my car to my mechanic. He said my car blew its head gasket. He said he could fix it, but it would be very expensive. He suggested I bring it to the dealer, as the gasket must be defective since my car had low miles and was just days beyond its warranty. Well the dealer said they would not cover it and couldn't do anything about it. My mechanic suggested I contact GM customer service as they can override this. I followed up as he suggested and GM did say to bring it to any dealer I would like. Next visit to the dealer and they were as nice as could be.
I wish these places would realise.That it's the salesman who sells the first car to the customer,but it's the service department that sells the next.
ie; if the service dept screw up or treats a customer bad then they will probably never come back.
There's a Ford dealer near me and I will never buy from them. simply because of the way the service dept dealt with a problem with my wifes new car.
I'm a little mad at Ford about their service department. During my cars warranty, the power lock on the driver door stopped working. I took it in and got it fixed under warranty. About a week after my warranty expired, it stopped working again. I took it in shortly after that thinking a respectable service deptartment would fix it since they did not do the job right the first time (my opinion).
They told me that the part they replace last time was under warranty and if that was again the defective part, they would fix it free. But in order to determine if that was the part, they wanted me to pay for a $100 test. I disputed, they wouldn't give in. I will take my chances with other car makers in the the future. As much as I love the Mustangs, screw Ford. BTW, my car is a 2000 ZX2.
Bucyrus wrote:I'm a little mad at Ford about their service department.
This is an older thread but I'll reiterate the point again - You didn't take your car to the Ford service department because Ford doesn't have one.
You may have gone to a Ford Dealer's service department but that is run by the dealer - not by Ford MoCo.
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