dealership perception

felix3302

Member
i work at one of the best mazda dealerships in the nation and i don't understand why it seems like a ton of people have horrible experiences with dealerships...and just for the record i file for warranty reimbusement and we help out customers quite a bit...please discuss, i am interested
 
wth are you located at? lol (nvm I see)

Basically if you have a mazdaspeed protege here and its 'under warranty', well that doesnt mean s***..
 
well they say that they cant do anything about anything on my car since its been altered..

For instance, I have a broken motor mount.. I took it up there and said that I have a broken motor mount.. The service advisor says and I quote, "I bet you do, Would you like to buy one or something?"
I said, "I would like you to fix it since its under warranty."
"Can't do that because your suspension has been altered (its been lowered) which more than likely caused it."
"It only has lowering springs on it, and never in my entire life have I heard about 'lowered' suspension causing a motor mount to break"
*pause* *shrugs shoulders*
"Well, can yall fix it?"
"No."
"Whatever!" and I leave..
 
and whats funny is I work for the same company (Gossett). I just dont work at that dealership..
 
and now, I have a possibly broken shift fork and the car wont come out of reverse.. Im not even about to attempt to take it up there..
 
My engine went on me granted I had a boost controller.

Mazda dealer said regional mazda person personally took my car apart and inspected it. When me and another board member were taking the engine out the only thing they touched was my valve cover. However, they said I needed a new engine, turbo, and my radiator had a hole in it. Cost would be close to $8000 with labor.

There was no hole in the radiator, the turbo was fine, the block and head just had to be machined.

And you wonder why we dont like dealers?????

Maybe things are different where you work.....
 
it was like pulling teeth to get them to even look at my car for the clutch shudder problem at star mazda in glendale. first service writer i talked to told me that "you can't believe everything you read on the internet" when i tried to tell him about my clutch. that still didn't negate the fact that my clutch shuddered like a mofo and was still under warrranty. then i basically had to beg another service manager to keep my car over night to drive it first thing in the morning to replicate the problem.

and it's not just mazda dealerships. when i bought my wrx, i visited a few dealerships. one typical salesman (gold chain, thinning hair, shirt unbottoned halfway down to his belly, and a rolex that he kept shoving in my face so i would notice) kept offering me 72 mo. plans when i explicitly said nothing longer than 60. so when my wife and i walked out, he yelled "oh you'll be back! YOU'LL BE BACK!!!" in front of all the other customers. needless to say, i didn't go back.

i'll end on a good note. mazda of escondido in san diego has always been good to me. i bought my p5 in july 02, i didn't have floor mats for some reason. i couldn't get down there (lived in L.A.) until december and my salesguy pulled them off another p5, no questions asked. i also bought my mazda5 there and have no complaints. but, i've never been to their service department, so i can't comment there.
 
the dealership i work at is weighted highly on our csi(customer satisfactory index)and we are graded only on warranty work...meaning you could get a questionare(survey) asking how your warranty experience was with our dealership and if you were unsatisfied with the most minute detail we are punished...the most minute detail being if you waited to long to speak with an advisor we are punished...the industry is really ****** up...i guess what i am trying to say is that we bend over backwards for customers that are in warranty and for those that are just out of the warranty...some dealers are able to lend assistance, i guess it depends on which dealership you go to
 
Live and die by CSI. I used to work at Sweeney Chev/Mazda, we did CSI and the sending out of surveys and all that good stuff too. I had to do callbacks for awhile which consisted of calling warranty customers back and asking how the service was. Thank god I didn't have to do that for too long because people for the most part, people ******* suck. Sometimes it was our fault though and not all the customers were bad, we would try and help out those customers if they were just barely over warranty and came in needing repairs or something like that (we usually gave them a break on labor and parts costs). It definitly depends on where you go, we were pretty good about doing warranty work on people's cars, even if they were "lightly" modded (intake, exhaust, wheels, stupid stuff like that).
 
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I usually take my car to Jim Ellis mazda in atlanta. Never have any problems with them. I took it in for an oil change and alignment after I lowered it and they broke my windsplitter while trying to get the car off the alignment machine because of how low it was. They ordered a new one before I even got there, washed the car for me and apologized every 30seconds. I expected them to tell me "To bad, shouldnt have lowered it".

My friend gets ****** analy by Subaru of Gwinnett though all the time. He went in for a new clutch and the told him 400 bucks. They called him the next day and said his car would be done that afternoon and that the final price was 1600. They ordered parts and installed them without even calling him first. He didnt even have that kind of money, had to get his dad to loan it to him.
 
baconbitz said:
My friend gets ****** analy by Subaru of Gwinnett though all the time. He went in for a new clutch and the told him 400 bucks. They called him the next day and said his car would be done that afternoon and that the final price was 1600. They ordered parts and installed them without even calling him first. He didnt even have that kind of money, had to get his dad to loan it to him.

Them ordering and installing parts without his consent is illegal.. If I were him, Id be looking for a lawyer, not money for it to be fixed..
 
felix3302 said:
i work at one of the best mazda dealerships in the nation and i don't understand why it seems like a ton of people have horrible experiences with dealerships...and just for the record i file for warranty reimbusement and we help out customers quite a bit...please discuss, i am interested

my point of view :

problem with dealers is that there dealers... if you have 3 or 4 around they cant go on doing stupid all the time or they will lose customers to the others..

i bought my msp from a honda dealer and he treated the car like a normal prot.. there all there to make and save a buck.. they put cheap s*** for brakes on it and i have to re do the whole thing my self... but thats nothing...


you wanna see real s*** from a dealer?

heres a good story for ya

back in 2003, my gf bought a 2002 subaru impreza with 10000 miles on it.

black, awd and fully loaded... sadly not a wrx but nice winter car.

the dealer which is ALONE in the region of the province is where we would obiously go... the dealer also has volvo and mercedez

3 months after owning the car, it started to have that dreaded piston slap that 66% of 2.5 liter boxers have.. 33% are made by fuki heavy insdustries and the other 66% from another plant hich had a terrible porblem with block cylinder alignement and other problems...

at 6 months, the car was knocking badly.. after owning 25 cars, i had a good ear for those things and took it to the dealer.. they said its a "normal"sound for a boxer subaru engine.. my response was "funny, i never heard a WRX with that sound before" so i started to google it and foun it was pston slap.. not lifters, not crack walk.. piston slap due to a very NOT present piston skirt.

over the follwing weeks i went and went to the dealer at every oil chnage i would show them.. even left it there on a cold - 30 night so they would start it up REAl cold and see how much noise it was making.. by then, it was so noiy that my old 150 000 corolla with original engine would idle beside and i wouldnt even hear it.. it sounded a like a 1986 turbo dielsel jetta with 2 blown glow plugs at start up.

back up later on that.


the next summer the AC froze.. litteraly.. there was a recall about a sensor under the dash and they had to replace it.. left the car there for 3 days.. they had to remove the dash and all... no cars available for customers.. and when they had some.. it was an old chevy lumina that you had to put in neutral at every stop light as it would die on you.. and made 8 MPG

3 days later i go get the car, takes the keys and get in.. he dash looked like they stepped on it and danced on it.. the pillars were both cracked, the plastic behind the steering wheel were cacked and the dash was scratched too.. i was furious, i went back in and dragged the guy out and showed him.. his response was "it was like that before you got here" i was ready to kill him by then... then he went back in and came out..he said he would fix this and he was sorry... 2 days later i go get the car, everyhting seems "almost new" they had a 2001 impreza and swapped the dash and pillars from it.. i made one hell of a scene as the dash didnt have the same connectors for the PRNDL viewer they have beside the speedo..the rest was tolerable.. it has scratches never the less and it didn't have any before.. i was starting to hate them and grew weary of them... i called subaru canada.. they didnt have a 1 800 number, i had to call them long distance during the day to explain my problem. which was a complete waste of time.

next came a window motor on the driver side.. couldnt even go to a drive through... took 4 months to get the part as they order the WRONG part 4 times.. when they finally got to install it, i had to drop the car at the dealer and they would drop me off to work... in a mercedes.. im like wtf... so i ask the guy which to be new there.. "whos car is this ?" he answers " someobody who had a alignement problem" im like "what?? it's a customers car ?!?!?!" he nods.. they would spend MY GAS and drive around in MY CAR to drop of other customers to their job and houses.. again i was ouraged

then they finally admitted they had a problem with engines.. by then a few had blown beofre 60 000 miles and ours was startying to show his time was coming.. i was mistreating it on purpose as it was the only way i would get an new engine..

finally after months of saying it was normal or it's cold outside they took the VIN and they would rebuild the motor.. this is where i drew the line...the car had now a 42 000 km that rougly 25 000 miles.. the problem would be piston 2 and 4.. on an boxer type engine, 1 and 3 are on one side and 2 and 4 are on the other... they simp;ly put "corrective" pistons on 2 and 4 and put the head back.. again i was in rage... they would rebuld andyting.. they would fucikng patch it up..... i call the subaru canada again while there were doing it and explain that this was not normal.. they said "yes it is" they were putting 60 microns bigger pistons with no honing, no new journals or bearings.. if i had had a neon, they would have put a new engine in it...

i took pics of the pistons..


DSCF0024.JPG


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after seeing this while the engine was dismantled from a side...i knew it was not gonna go very far after warranty before the motor gives out again... the mechanic said to me " it's good a new".. i looked at him and said " it looks like 2 cycle pistons from a motocross bike.. its s***.. and no it dosnt look new.. the cylinders look like crap and you just put pistons in this.. now do i need to break in the motor or not?? only HALF of it is new right?? " he looked at me funny and when his way..

started the car after the job was finished and it didn't make a sound... it was like new.. but not new.

took off from there and stop by the lcal new papaer and put an ad in the paper for it.. 3 days later it was sold..

then i called subaru canada again.. told them i sold the car because of the dealer.. if i had had support from them and the dealer i would have kept it..

told them about how the dealer was and what he had done.. spoke atleast a good 30 minutes explaing everything.. the guy told me this : "i can't tell you in which order they(the dealer) are but there in the top 5 of the worst in canada"


so you see, how the **** am i supose ti trust ANY dealer ??? i never leave my cars or other vehicules alone on a shop lift ever. i dont trust any of them and never will.. oh and i will never have another subaru again.. my mother in law bought a legacy a short time after my gf bought hers and she had numerous problems and had to het the engine rebuilt too.. and its noisy again after only one year.. pos...

heres the link to the dealer in question..i fear nothing from them.. they know how i feel about them...



www.fjordvolvo.com
 
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fr0st said:
my point of view :

problem with dealers is that there dealers... if you have 3 or 4 around they cant go on doing stupid all the time or they will lose customers to the others..

i bought my msp from a honda dealer and he treated the car like a normal prot.. there all there to make and save a buck.. they put cheap s*** for brakes on it and i have to re do the whole thing my self... but thats nothing...

then i called subaru canada again.. told them i sold the car because of the dealer.. if i had had support from them and the dealer i would have kept it..

told them about how the dealer was and what he had done.. spoke atleast a good 30 minutes explaing everything.. the guy told me this : "i can't tell you in which order they(the dealer) are but there in the top 5 of the worst in canada"


so you see, how the **** am i supose ti trust ANY dealer ??? i never leave my cars or other vehicules alone on a shop lift ever. i dont trust any of them and never will.. oh and i will never have another subaru again.. my mother in law bought a legacy a short time after my gf bought hers and she had numerous problems and had to het the engine rebuilt too.. and its noisy again after only one year.. pos...

heres the link to the dealer in question..i fear nothing from them.. they know how i feel about them...



www.fjordvolvo.com
damn dude screw them that has to be the worst luck ever..... i would be so pissed omg. i would have killed someone if they did that to my dash. my dad owns a use car lot and we do warrenty work but we allways make it right with the customer. if ANYTHING goes wrong within 30 days we pay for it FULL and if the motor or somthing goes out when the warrenty is up... and they have been good on their payments (buy here pay here lot) we will pay half if not the whole thing if we can see its been serviced properly if not we try and give them a break and pay some but not like we would if they take car of there car. i just see no reason to be a dick about it and i would have been pissed if that happend to me
 
ItsSlow said:
Them ordering and installing parts without his consent is illegal.. If I were him, Id be looking for a lawyer, not money for it to be fixed..
Thats what I told him to do. But he took it in the ass as usual. They **** him over every time he brings his car in. Oh well, his loss. Only thing is that would have been a good chunk of change to get him started on the STI swap that he wants.
 
yea, theres not much you can do with people who just wont listen to the better suggestion..
 
man it sucks that a lot of people have so many problems with their dealerships, maybe all of you guys should go to the one i bought my msp at in appleton wi, that place has helped me out so many times- i go there for every oil change and the people there really know what they are talking about, i

had warentee work done on my radio and they were really helpful. and i asked them if i put any mods on my car if it would void and they said not if it wasent the cause.

good luck with all the rest of you guys
 
Hey Felix, what dealership is this at?
I'm in Austin and would like a nice place to go...seriously.
If you guys do everything you say you do to ensure customer satisfaction, then help me out! :)
 

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