The following is an email communication that took place this morning. I thought I’d share to see if you guys thought it was appropriate to elevate it to the level I did.
I got a phone call about ten minutes later, from the assistant manager (my original point of contact), asking when I was going to bring my car in to fix the dash lights. I told him I was going to take it to Albuquerque. He was blaming the problem on CarMax, even though it had nothing to do with them (I bought it in April).
In retrospect, the last line of the first email I sent was pretty snarky.
I think you were incredibly diplomatic, and your emails are fine. And no, I don’t think the last line of your initial email was too snarky, I thought it was fine also.
I’ve been in situations like this where a business has simply dropped the ball in a certain area. Oftentimes (and it seems like the case here), the clusterfuck that causes the situation is beyond fixing with the current personnel there, and the best you can do is bring it to their attention and maybe someday someone will have the balls enough to make an effective change; in other words, there’s really no hope that you will get any personal satisfaction or resolution, you just tell them about it and be on your way and never patronize them again. You’ve told them why and it’s not your problem anymore.
I’m not a big believer in ranting and raving and getting all upset about a business that handles things as effectively as a brick wall – that’s wasted energy in my book. Tell them why and move on.
Elevate it to what level? You’ve asked for nothing and the highest person you’ve dealt with is an assistant manager. Near as I can tell, they’re not helping you because you’re not actually doing anything or asking for anything.
Sorry, Santo my private mailbox was getting full and I had to purge it. If you still have it feel free to post it.
Drive it around to see if the lights will go out? Uhmm, how about scaning for fault codes in the relevant systems instead?
Then just maybe your employee might consider consulting the fault tracing path published by the car maker for those faults, and if they were really on the ball, see if there are any Technical Service Bulletins (TSB) for these problems.
Or you could just drive the damn thing around. Which one of these two courses of action do you think will have a greater chance of success?
But hey WTF do I know, I have only been in this business for 40 years.
If you are feeling really snarky feel free to cut and paste the above into an e mail to the service manager and tell him it is from an ASE master techncian, who just retired as a Technical Training instructor for a car maker.
I had to elevate service problems with a dealership once.
I took my 1yr old car in for routine inspection and learned it needed new tires. I was surprised, but had been warned that the stock tires weren’t great.
The next day I left it there to get new tires. When I got the phone call to pick the car up, the service person asked me why I hadn’t told her that the air conditioner was broken.
I explained that it wasn’t broken when I left it with them.
I had to make another appointment to get the AC fixed, but it was under warranty. Somehow, in the process of putting tires on my car, the fittings for the AC compressor were stripped.
When I picked the car up after that service, the windsheild wipers weren’t working.
That was an easy fix with another visit to the dealership.
I expressed my displeasure to the manager of the store, who bought me off with a free oil change.
Fortunately I got a “how was your service” call from higher up at Nissan about a week later, so I politely told them about what happened, how it baffled me, and how I’d never return there again.
They lost their Nissan franchise that year.
I don’t think you were being snarky at all. You deserve adequate service at the very least. If you can’t get satisfaction, escalate.
I considered the email to the assistant manager’s boss (the service center manager) to be elevating the situation. I did ask for something. I asked for my sunroof to be fixed in October, and it still hasn’t been fixed. They’ve never called to tell me when the parts have come in.
My sentiments exactly! That’s why I’m taking it to Albuquerque tomorrow. The best part is, the guy in Albuquerque sounded baffled that I was trying to set up an appointment. The dealer in Santa Fe usually makes me wait at least a week, minimum, to be scheduled!
Wow, Solfy, even them “finding out” that the AC was broken sounds fishy. Why the heck would they even need to turn it on to change the tires? :o