Fun at the car dealership

I got to work about 5 minutes late after fully expecting to be about an hour early because I just got back from the car dealership. Let me say this now, service departments everywhere just suck.

Last week I was getting into my car after lunch one day and something out of the corner of my eye just didn't look right. Glancing over to the dashboard on the passenger side, I see this 8 inch long slice along the top. It was perfectly straight and basically looked someone took a razorblade to it. My first thought was that when I get home, I was going to figure out which kid used my dashboard as a table when using an X-Acto knife to cut a school project. This was still a pretty darn new car and the responsible child would not reach their next birthday.

On the way back to my office I was just pissed. And I kept looking at the cut. But about halfway home, I realized that slice looked like it was right over where the passenger airbag would be. I remember thinking "that's strange." So I held off on my plans to kill one of my children and instead pulled into the car dealership about a block away. I get into the service department and when they ask me what's wrong, I said I may have a new one for you. My dashboard cracked. He said "over the passenger airbag area?" I said "Yes! So you've seen this before?" (More relieved that he didn't think I did it than bothered by the fact that cracking dashboards is a common thing.) He said "Not often - this is our 3rd one in about 2 years but it happens." He went on to say that it's fully covered by warranty but they'll need to order the replacement dash.

Then last Friday they called to tell me it was in so I made an appointment to come in first thing Monday morning. When I got there, I knew I needed an oil change and a tire rotation so I looked at their price sheet. Dealer prices are higher, but the car was already there and it would save me a trip. But then while I was looking at the sheets I realized the car was almost due for its 30K service. It was a bunch more money, but I plan to keep the car for a while so I had them do it since it included the oil change and rotation anyway. So I sucked it up and signed the order.

Anyway, 4pm Monday rolls around and I get a call from the dealer that the replacement dash had come in damaged and so they couldn't finish the car. They assured me they would have a new one in their hands the next day and they would get me a rental car to drive home. Once I said OK, they said they would call Enterprise Rent-A-Car to come pick me up at my office at 4:45 to get me my car. Well at 5:15 nobody showed up so I called Enterprise. They said there was some mistake. They said they told the dealership that they were out of cars and didn't have anything for me.

Thankfully I was able to bum a ride over to the dealer. I was greeted by one of the service guys who apologized for the inconvenience then walked away. I was like... "Umm, how am I going to get home now?" He told me they were trying to find other rentals but nobody seemed to have any cars left. I asked how come the dealer didn't have any loaners. He said "Oh, we do. But those are only for people who bought their cars from our dealership." (I had bought my car from a different dealership even though this place was closer because I had gotten a great deal from a friend.) Anyway, I was pissed and made him get me the manager, who after a bit of negotiation acted like he was doing me a huge favor. He said "Well, you're lucky - we don't normally do this, but I have one loaner left." It was a smaller car than I drive, but it would get me home. So whatever.

Then the next day I get a call from them that the dash came in late and they wouldn't have it done in time. Could I just come back this morning. Again, whatever. I had plenty of errands to run and I would just get them all done using their gas.

So this morning I get to the dealer and they pull my car around. I immediately notice the dashboard seam wasn't sealed. They didn't attach the trim in between the dash and the metal frame. Not only was it obviously very loose and saggy, but without it in proper position the parts would rub together and rattle. I dragged the service manager back out and pointed out their shoddy work.

So they pulled the car back in and spent 20 minutes fixing that. Then when they came back out, he said "Oh, one more thing. We accidentally broke your Stability Control Sensor and the light is staying on. We don't have a replacement in stock so we ordered you a new one and it will be here next week. But the good news is we have confirmed your stability control is still working though." I pointed out to him that since the Stability Control is turned on and off via a button on the dash, yet the light remains on all the time, how am I supposed to know if it's on or off even if it is working. He couldn't answer me. Fun, huh?

I said nevermind. Just call me when the part gets here. Then we went inside to pay for the other service and they wanted to do was to charge me full price for maintenance I had done. I said forget it, they owed me some sort of discount since it took them 3 days to do a job that should only have taken several hours and I have to come back again to fix the sensor. The manager said he couldn't offer a discount because "We didn't charge you for the loaner, and you weren't supposed to get one."

I was pissed again. "So that's supposed to make it OK, you aren't charging me for using a smaller car than my own? One that I would not have needed if you guys would had inspected the parts last week when they came in instead of waiting until you were going to put them on before you noticed they were damaged?" He said they never inspect the parts until they go to use them. And so I told him that's why they have these problems. So he talked to his manager and they knocked off 10%. Not much, but something. It just wasn't worth arguing for more...