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cellioThem: (10:30, phone) Your car is ready.
Me: (11:15, in person): You were so wrong.
I shouldn't have been at the dealer more than ten minutes. It should have been: show up, get some paperwork, give them the key for the rental car, get my car, leave. Things were on track until we actually walked out to my car about ten minutes after I arrived.
It was covered with... something. Small specks, which I initially thought were something weird like tree pollen or dust. On closer inspection, though, those specks were (1) stuck to the car in a way that dust doesn't, and (2) evenly distributed. Very evenly distributed. Like, say, what you would get from a paint sprayer at some range.
Yes, that's right: the lot where they keep cars waiting for service is surrounded by a fence, which someone painted this weekend. Without moving the cars. Watching the light dawn on the face of the guy who thought he only had to clean my car was fascinating.
At first they tried to make this my problem -- we washed your car, they said, so this must have been on it when it came in. I firmly and politely explained that this was not the case, and that I would not accept this damage to my car. They took it back to clean it again and asked me to wait in the waiting room. (Later they told me about the painted fence.)
After ten minutes in the waiting room I concluded that people in the waiting room are too-easily forgotten, so I went up front to wait. I decided to stand in the shared entrance to the service area and showroom. I explained to the three people who asked (at various times) why I was there that I was waiting for the car that was supposed to have been ready an hour ago. I didn't go out of my way to be invasive, but I also didn't worry about being overheard.
The service guy told me they were working on the car now and it should be ready in a couple minutes. Five minutes later (no progress) I decided that this would be a fine time to have a conversation with their general manager, but I was thwarted. He failed to answer three different pages, and when I walked over to the sales department to ask for him they were also unable to locate him.
Meanwhile, they brought the car up and "just needed to dry it off". This turned into about 15 minutes of hand-scrubbing, becuase they still hadn't gotten all the paint off. (I wonder how dilligent they would have been had I not been standing there.) To their credit, they at one point had four guys there with cleaning solution and rags, and when another person came by and said "hey, why are there four of you doing that when we have work to do?" the one who seemed to be in charge said "the customer is waiting and I don't care if it takes five guys" -- at which point the objector made a hasty exit. Definite points for the guy in charge of the cleaning crew.
So around 12:10 I finally got my car -- paint-free this time -- and I was on my way. When I got in I found the AC at full blast and the gas tank (which only had 9 miles on it when the fuel pump died) was at 3/4. I don't know how much was fuel-pump lossage and how much was them running the AC recklessly, but they really ought to have filled the tank back up. I wasn't going to wait even longer to get them to do that, though; I'll just mention it in the letter of complaint I send.
Me: (11:15, in person): You were so wrong.
I shouldn't have been at the dealer more than ten minutes. It should have been: show up, get some paperwork, give them the key for the rental car, get my car, leave. Things were on track until we actually walked out to my car about ten minutes after I arrived.
It was covered with... something. Small specks, which I initially thought were something weird like tree pollen or dust. On closer inspection, though, those specks were (1) stuck to the car in a way that dust doesn't, and (2) evenly distributed. Very evenly distributed. Like, say, what you would get from a paint sprayer at some range.
Yes, that's right: the lot where they keep cars waiting for service is surrounded by a fence, which someone painted this weekend. Without moving the cars. Watching the light dawn on the face of the guy who thought he only had to clean my car was fascinating.
At first they tried to make this my problem -- we washed your car, they said, so this must have been on it when it came in. I firmly and politely explained that this was not the case, and that I would not accept this damage to my car. They took it back to clean it again and asked me to wait in the waiting room. (Later they told me about the painted fence.)
After ten minutes in the waiting room I concluded that people in the waiting room are too-easily forgotten, so I went up front to wait. I decided to stand in the shared entrance to the service area and showroom. I explained to the three people who asked (at various times) why I was there that I was waiting for the car that was supposed to have been ready an hour ago. I didn't go out of my way to be invasive, but I also didn't worry about being overheard.
The service guy told me they were working on the car now and it should be ready in a couple minutes. Five minutes later (no progress) I decided that this would be a fine time to have a conversation with their general manager, but I was thwarted. He failed to answer three different pages, and when I walked over to the sales department to ask for him they were also unable to locate him.
Meanwhile, they brought the car up and "just needed to dry it off". This turned into about 15 minutes of hand-scrubbing, becuase they still hadn't gotten all the paint off. (I wonder how dilligent they would have been had I not been standing there.) To their credit, they at one point had four guys there with cleaning solution and rags, and when another person came by and said "hey, why are there four of you doing that when we have work to do?" the one who seemed to be in charge said "the customer is waiting and I don't care if it takes five guys" -- at which point the objector made a hasty exit. Definite points for the guy in charge of the cleaning crew.
So around 12:10 I finally got my car -- paint-free this time -- and I was on my way. When I got in I found the AC at full blast and the gas tank (which only had 9 miles on it when the fuel pump died) was at 3/4. I don't know how much was fuel-pump lossage and how much was them running the AC recklessly, but they really ought to have filled the tank back up. I wasn't going to wait even longer to get them to do that, though; I'll just mention it in the letter of complaint I send.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 10:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 10:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 11:02 am (UTC)I'm trying to decide: should I merely mention my weblog in passing, or should I include URLs?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 11:05 am (UTC)Perhaps ironically, Mazda is on my automatic short list of manufacturers to consider, because I really liked my 323. So when I buy my next car, even if I decide against VW there was a chance they could have had my business. That's a lot less likely now.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 11:16 am (UTC)can you switch dealerships?
I noticed a huge difference in service between the dealership I bought my saturn at (in MA) and here. sadly, it was way better in MA.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 11:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 11:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 03:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-07 06:59 pm (UTC)What a good question! I never thought to ask; I just sort of assumed that if you take it anywhere other than where you bought it, you'll get second-tier service. But it's worth calling a different one and asking.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 04:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 08:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-10 12:28 pm (UTC)(Which is a damned good thing, because we are *never* going back to the idiots who sold