Not to put down PAA or anything, but just had to share my recent experience.

Maybe 'cuz it was Friday morning or something...

called early last week to schedule to have some warranty stuff done at PAA on last friday.

Drove 2 hours to drop off my car and got a loaner.

Explained that I had the sunroof visor "booming" that there's a service bulletin for that i didnt' get fixed yet. I told the guy that if you drive with the sunroof open and the windows up, you'll definitely notice it.

I also had a creaking drivers seat (it creaked like a rocking chair and i know it's NOT the leather sound).

And I had a broken trunk rod bracket (the one right in the center that holds the rods in place to the top of the inside of the trunk...it broke off of the inside of the trunk and rested on the nav. unit until I tied it up with twisty ties to keep it from scratching up the nav unit and rattling like a bitch).

I get a call later telling me that the leather sound is normal and there's no sound from the sunroof. so i again explain that it's not a rattle or squeak in the sunroof...it's the black visor piece that pops up and vibrates due to the airflow and to drive with the windows up and sunroof open. he tells me that he knows what i mean and whoever worked on it has a lot of experience and didnt' find anything. and i tell him that i'm not complaining about the leather squeaking...it's a CREAKING noise under the seat. he tells me that armorall on the leather will do this. I DON'T HAVE ANY ARMORALL AND NEVER HAD since owning this car. and it's not the leather!

as for the trunk, i'm told i have to go to a body shop and schedule with them to have the bracket re-welded on.

now this is an incovenience to me 'cuz i'm going to brazil like tomorrow (wednesday) and could be there over 6mo before returning.

so i drive my ass 2 hours there before they close and explain to peter (who was very helpful). i explained that it is the SUNROOF VISOR IE BLACK STRIP THAT RISES WHEN YOU OPEN THE SUNROOF THAT VIBRATES.

so i guess he has jens drive it and put those inserts in in like 5 minutes. as for the seat creaking, it stopped probably because it was a warm day. unfortunately it started again taht sunday 'cuz it was cold. it still pisses me off that the guy i originally spoke to kept on insisting i had armorall on the leather even after i told him like 3 times that i don't have armorall and only use leather conditioner! and it wasn't even the leather that i was copmlaining about, it was a CREAKING sound.


and as for my trunk rods bracket, i'll have to wait until i can return or have time, but it's filed so even if my warranty is out, i should still be covered.

 

Sorry about your experience with Park Avenue Acura, i hope it is an isolated incident. Good luck with your trip to South America.

 

hmmm wow, that's odd. Who did you speak with the first time? PAA is usually pretty good.

 

The person i think he spoke with is tom in service. he was fucking nasty when i brought my car there last week for service.

 

The only thing that I can offer is that if you referred to a service bulletin on the sunroof I think there is only one for squeaking, not booming. the booming issue is standard fare and a common complaint that there was no resolution to. No, if you are talking about an issue with the windscreen, then that is something else again. As you can see, there are several issues with wind noice and the moonroof so confusion is quite possible.

As for the squeaking seat - no argument.

And the welded bar - that's wierd. I would have thought that maybe PAA would have taken that out to be fixed. Sometimes, I think the mechanics don't review the entire work order at the beginning and even if you have left the car for the whole day, they wait until the last minute to "triage" the problems.

 

Dean,

Why didn’t you go visit your buddies up at Lehigh Valley Acura ???

Shawn S

 

Hmm...it happens to all of us.

What are you going to Brazil for? Seems like fun...

 

Tom schou?? Dang, he was pretty cool when i delt with him.

 

When you're in Brazil, ask that Brazilian webcam girl to get her site back up. Thank you.

 

Mine started squeaking when you make a left turn and tried to straighten up the car....Anyways, I took the car to dealer a total of three times. First, they couldn't find the problems....at least they replaced the whole seat.....except the leather covering

so keep on bitching

 

You know about that too?

 

In the voice of Sergeant Schultz:
“I KNOW NOTHING” about what you speak of.

Shawn S

 

They were always nice too me also, but this time i went there and, I DIDN'T MENTION THAT I WAS A MEMBER OF ACURA-CL.COM and they were nasty on the phone and also nasty in person. I imean come on this board does nothing but praise them. this board also brought them tons of business. they probably laugh at us.

 

i spoke with vincent.

i told him exactly what part was the part that needed to get fixed because the sunroof rattle/squeak was laready taken care of bythe teflon tape. there's a fix for the booming sound way back several months after the car came out in '00. i even told him what the fix was...that there were inserts to lower the visor about 3/8". yet he continued to insist that there is nothing wrong and his tech couldn't find anything wrong (this was over the phone before i got there).

they weren't rude or anything, it's just that they didnt' seem to listen to waht i was saying...several times, especially concerning the armorall issue after i told him several times already that i don't use armorall (he told me they saw some on the seats...that's possible only if the armorall fairy decided to visit my car overnight).

 

Unbelievable. I'm really suprised. I'll be sure to mention that we are looking forward to the PAA meet in may when i go to drop my car off on friday.

 

Ho-GAN!

 

i second that. Not nasty to me, but definatly not extrememly nice, as everybody has been saying. Its only logical, that if you mention that your from this bored your going to get treated better, because this bored brings them thousands, no tens of thousands of dollars in business. If you dont mention it, you will get treated and get the service that any other dealer will give you.

 

Ok, I've read the posts it's time for my .02

First off, I would like to remind everyone here that the person complaining about the issue in this thread has said numerous times that it was more a lack of understanding then bad or rude treatment. Secondly, I am not going to let this thread turn into a pile-on Park Ave Acura simply because of one isolated incident.

MrDeeno,
I know what you mean when you feel that people are not listening to what you are saying. Sounds like you had a less than perfect visit I hope you share your comments with Park Ave Acura directly. Wayne, Jens, Tom, Pete, Vincent, etc. they're all great guys and strive to ensure things go right. I encourage you to call and speak to Wayne Gruen the service manager and see what they can do for you.

BigPoppa21,
If you were not compelled to mention this to the board when it happened why mention it now? I would hope you spoke to Wayne about this. Tom Schou has to be one of the nicest guys in that shop I'm surprised you called him downright nasty. I have stood and waited (and so has my G/F) for lengths of time at PAA either waiting for work or waiting in line and I have seen nothing but total respect for the customer. I've never been to a service center where they sit you down and discuss your needs in a consulting manner. My last car was a Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX and the service center reminded me of your local DMV. Being a board member or not there is no discrimination. Once again I hope you took this up with them because if you just came here to bitch about it without doing anything about it then I consider your claims unfounded.

I think everyone on this board has to remember that every service organization has good and bad days and not everything goes perfect. Our pleasure with PAA and all the positive responses here has obviously built them up to be near flawless. I would hope that everyone who visits PAA gives them a fair chance and don't walk in there with rose colored glasses on.

 

ok, this has gotton WAY out of hand...first of all, y is this a pile on PAA???

BigPop, im really shocked for a few reasons...how come u didn't say anything to anyone??? Wayne & Pete would NO DOUBT take care of this kind of issue...if u don't believe me, that's fine, u're entitled to your opinion, but i'm pretty confident they would help as much as possible...doesn't matter if u're spending $20 or $2,000.

next, to eighteight...y would they laugh at us??? b/c we spend so much money on mods??? lemme tell ya, and i'm 100% right on this since i've talked to everyone in service bout it...each one of them is a car enthusiast, just like we are...we're all wrench-heads...Wayne used to drag cars years ago at Englishtown even...don't u find it coincidental that PAA is like the only place/one of the only places where they guarantee and warranty Comptech performance parts?? don't u find it coincidental that they dish out a lot of money for the BIG meet and raffle off Comptech parts??? so again, y would they laugh at us???

finally, how exactly was Tom nasty to u, BigPop??? this i don't understand at all...it's not that i don't believe u, it's just confusing that u'd make comments like "they'll treat u like every other Acura service shop if u don't say u're on the boards," b/c u'll never know...i've waited there to have my service done for HOURS, and every customer who's come in was treated no differently from me...again, more clarity would b helpful

now maybe i'm misunderstanding some/most/all of what u're saying, which is possible since im just reading words and can't fully appreciate the meaning behind the words...since we're meeting up Friday, i would b more than happy to discuss this further with u so that i can understand better...im sorry u were treated so poorly, and i hope this doesn't prevent u from future service at PAA b/c their service is top notch...if u can find anyone better than Jens to work on your car, more power to ya!!

 

Oh come on guys, I would totally expect them to treat people from the board a little better - give them free stuff too like shirts and stickers or whatever a couple people here have reported getting. But I don't see a problem with that as long as their regular customers are still treated okay.

Think about it : We are the enthusiasts, we come here and talk about our CLs, so it is only right we should get some inside hookups in one sense or another. I don't see anything wrong with us getting treated special for being into our cars enough to be on this board. And as compensation for our treatment we would obviously post here about it and that helps Wayne and Jens by giving them good feedback. So long as their regular customers are still treated with the respect any average Joe or Jane is due, I don't see a problem.

Wayne and Jens are our fellow enthusiasts and they even host a yearly (we hope!) gathering for East Coast (and anyone else who can make it) Acura owners at their dealer! That is really cool of them. It's not like they're a couple sheisters hanging around here bribing us and screwing other people. I see them as good people and willing to hook up fellow Acura enthusiasts in small ways. I don't even know them but I've seen them be nothing but helpful and friendly here and I don't see a problem with them treating us a little better than the average car owner... once again... as long as their regular customers are still treated normally.

 

Hey, even I know PAA has nothing but the best service and respect for the customer. After all, I drove all the way there from Kansas just to.....well, there was a meet going on, too.

 

alright thats my fault, i didnt mean to agree with the "laugh at us" part, i dont see them laughing at us, was just saying that if you dont mention your from this bored you dont get treated like a million bucks like everybody says. Granted i wasnt treated bad, i dont mean to make it sound like i was complaining, but i was treated exactly how any other dealer treated me.

 

fair enough...my response to what u're saying is look at it from the flip side...let's say u weren't an ACL.com member and weren't a wrench-head...would u b looking to hang out with Wayne, Pete, Tom, and Vinny in the shop??? would u b looking to hang out with Jens and watch him work on your car?? prob not...they're businessmen, just like u and me, and they treat the customer professionally just like at any other service shop...believe me, i've tried at my local Acura service shop to b more than friendly, and i really didn't get a response, but that's prob b/c we don't have the kind of bond that the people at PAA have with their ACL customers

i understand where u're coming from tho...i view the treatment PAA has for me as being special b/c here we have a bunch of people who are willing to give u a little extra, put forth more effort to make sure u're satisfied b/c we all know wrench-heads are very meticulous when it comes to their cars, myself included

 

OK... I am going to close this. While it looks like it's calmed down, eclipse is right... this turned into a nit-picking of PAA. Even the best dealerships will have their isolated incidents... it just happens. It also looks like it was more of a misunderstanding then bad service... there's a big difference there.

PAA has been nothing but great to and for this board. They had the big meet last year which I'm sure was not cheap, and this years looks like it's going to be even bigger. Not only that, but they raffle off Comptech parts, and install them while you're at the meet!! They've also modified countless cars from here and atl.com, not to mention people who have driven across several states to buy a car. Obviously they're doing something right.

We have a habit on this board of chasing away vendors who are here to help us, give us heads up on products, and try to meet our needs. Do a search on the board... tell me if you've seen Comptech post here in the last year. Nope, we drove them away a long time ago. How about Rick Case Acura, nothing. We drove them away too, at least for the time being, b/c no one understands R&D. Weapon-R (LEO), nope, haven't seen him in a while either. I think you get the picture. I personally (and I'm sure over 95% of the rest of the people on here) do NOT want to see this happen to PAA. It's a relationship that has proved invaluble over the years. Because of that, this topic is closed.