NJRonbo

I posted this in another thread but thought it
was sort of a fun point to start a new subject on...

What sort of refreshments are available to you
when you bring you car in to be serviced?

Last time I had my car serviced at the New Brunswick
N.J. location I met a lady who also owned a Lexus. She
went on and on about how much better they treated
their customers over Honda, citing that the dealer had
a huge refrigerator filled with sanwiches and other oddities.

At my dealer in New Brunswick? There's coffee service
and a tray of cookies. If you arrive after 10am the cookies
are sure to be gone and not refilled for hours. Very
underwhelming, but a slight step up from my old Ford
dealer that offered nothing more than a pot of coffee.

Sure, this sort of thing is sort of trivial, but I am very
interested to see how well a dealer that sells $50K cars
takes care of their customers waiting for their car to be
serviced.

Treblig

Coffee, tea , hot chocolate, soft drinks, cookies and a waiting area with a television and magazines.

taitando

Bottled water and doughnuts. The doughnuts are always stale. Reading material includes their brochures and the local paper. This is Niello in Sacramento. It's funny because the salesmen make it seem like such a luxury when they offer water to the customers.

stingerbtry

Umm, a water cooler with cone shaped paper cups

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Cerritos Acura in SoCal offered coffee, water, juice, soda, cookies, bought us lunch from the Olive Garden nearby, and has cable TV.

South Bay Acura in SoCal has coffee, water, reading materials, and a TV. They ocassionally have cookies, though I haven't seen that lately.

Radley Acura in NoVA has water, tea, hot chocolate, granola/breakfast bars, chips, cookies, TV, reading materials (magazines of all sorts + a number of different papers) and wireless internet access.

Of course, Cerritos always treats my family well since we've gotten 6 Acuras from them.

Rob L

Mine offers good looking ladies ready to orally service you if you're interested...

AcuraRLBlue

Coffee only at the Aucra dealership.

My Lexus dealership: coffee, bottled water, juice, cookies, doughnuts, and bagels served by a lady.

SpringsAcura

Pikes Peak Acura serves Starbucks coffee, Starbucks hot chocolate and offers complimentary soft drinks and water. No food or snacks. Also have 25 service loaner cars RSX. TSX, TL and MDX. The customer lounge has satellite TV and WiFi internet service.

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

Bottled water, OJ, Soda, really comfortable leather couch, Muffins, snacks, and really cheap coffee in starbucks cups.

Professor

At Bradshad Acura in Greenville, SC it depends. Here lately with my pothole damage, they have been bringing out a quart of Hennessy and a jar of vaseline.

sbasaria

Camco Acura in Ottawa, Canada serves coffee and provides on-site councilors to deal with post-tranny-stress disorder

gbriank

Starbucks coffee, soda pop, bottled water, iced tea, hot tea, doughnuts (in the morning), trail mix (after lunch)....leather sofas with tv, wireless internet and 2 pc surfing stations

AcuraJim

New Dealership here in San Antonio.

Coffie (Starbucks), water, soft drinks,juice and Crispy Cream if you get there early Two 42 inch plazma's in the waiting room

vp911

Coffee (crap) bottled water, pop cans. If you get there early enough you will get some pre-packaged muffins from Sam's Club. They also have about 4 chairs - the rest of the people have to stand.

Magomboman

Manicures on Wednesday for the ladies; an area for children to play (7 and younger); Coffee, tea, donuts and T.V. but all other refreshments are in the vending machines.

Ken1997TL

Coffee and donuts. Acura of Salem

shepsan

Hummmmmmm, and here all of the time I thought that a restaurant was where one dined on food, a brothel was a place where one’s erotic senses were served with forbidden delicacies and an automobile dealership sold cars and provided maintenance service.


I am amazed to ponder what people expect to get for their money when they buy a car.


The dealership where I bought my car is clean, well lighted, and pleasantly appointed with comfortable furniture. The service lounge has writing tables, telephones, magazines and a self-service coffee mess with cookies and donuts. Most importantly, the dealership gives fast, courteous and competent service.

If during the short wait I am hungry, I know where to go. If also during the short wait I need another kind of service, I also know where to go.

Rob L

hehe exactly my thoughts. That's why I put in my dealership gives out BJs because some people think because they bought a 50K car they should be bowed down to and given whatver they want.

All I can say is I hope those same people never go buy boats. You get less "perks" when buying stuff many times the price.

AZRL

Mine is Acura of Tempe, AZ

While car is being serviced in spotless service bay, the customer waiting area has Starbucks coffee, fresh donuts, big screen TV, separate play area for kids (separate soundproof room..I think), refrigerated bottled water and Tazo tea.

Been reading the boards for a couple months.. just joined yesterday! This is fun!

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Welcome

shepsan

Greetings AZRL

I bought my RL from Bell Acura last January. Since then, I have not seen another 2005 RL in the NW valley or in the service area of the dealership.

Perhaps, you and I will pass on the road one day and honk at each other, happy to see another fine RL in motion.

Maurice

Fatalvenom

Beer, Pot, and Hookers.......J/K =)

medrxman

Starbucks coffee, cookies, candy, refrigerator full of water,soda,milk and fruit drinks,krispy creme donoughts.

Best of all is the topless shoe shine girls

Kickbucket1

Starbucks coffee, tea and hot chocolate. Water, donuts, leather sofas, cable TV, newspapers and magazines. Stevens Creek Acura

TacoBellSauce

mines got wireless internet and PCs, starbucks coffee, bagels, sandwiches, soda(many kinds), juice and my personal favorite...

access to many different Acura models

Dr. E in TN

It is all about service for me. My service department at Jerry Damson Acura in Huntsville, Alabama was an integral part of my decision to buy. Absolutely no hassles. They always know what they are doing, and they are always professional and respectful of my time. THIS IS SO RARE THESE DAYS NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO! They have an automated cool coffee/tea/hot choco machine and cold drinks as well with food vending machines. I also discovered the other day that they have open access wireless internet which now has put them in a new stratosphere of satisfaction. I know this sounds weird, but I actually look forward to going there for service because they do their jobs so well. As I get older and see so many businesses giving crappy horrible customer service, it is so refreshing to me as an educated consumer to see such great customer service. If I cannot find this anywhere else, I will most likely always have an Acura. I have a little experience with Lexus who do a good job as well, but they don't respect my time as much and are much busier. With my Acura, I feel like I am in on a great secret that few people know about, and I would like to keep it that way in a bit of a selfish way. Hope this helps and that my answer didn't bore you.

NJRonbo

Guys,

Some of your answers had me rolling on the floor!

Great stuff!

I didn't mean to strike the wrong chord with a
few of you in giving out the impression that buying
an expensive car means that the customer needs to
be pampered with expensive food when they bring
their car in for service.

This post was based on a conversation I had with
a Lexus owner. I just found it downright funny that
she was telling me about all the great food her Lexus
dealer was offering while I was eyeing the now empty
plate that once held a minimal assortment of cookies.

I think dealerships should go out of their way to make
their customers feel as comfortable as possible when
waiting for service that sometimes takes hours. I was
just curious as to whether the more "upscale" dealers
offered anything above and beyond the common ones.

It has been a fun thread to read!

Gator33

My dealer has absolutely no frills like free coffee, doughnuts, cookies, etc., but on their website they do advertise a Starbucks in the shopping strip next door.

Oh, they do hand out some bottled water with a cool Acura label on it, but only after the car is ready and you're on your way out the door.

Quite frankly, my Acura service center totally sucks. I can write pages about the lousy job done on my car the time I brought it in for the three TSB fixes (which should have been done BEFORE I even bought the car).

It took three days to perform the TSBs, but what really got me were the footprints in the back seat, my radio preset to some rap station, and the trunk liner and rear carpet wasn't replaced under the moldings. One of the kids (service techs) even forgot his safety goggles in my trunk, which I immediately thew out on the pavement and crushed under my foot when I discovered them with the disassembled trunk area a few days later.

johnhayd

Gator 33,

Would you mind telling us WHICH bay area dealer you go to?

I'm planning to purchase an '06 RL with tech package in March and I'd like to hear people's impressions of their Bay Area Acura Dealer's service department: Great service to me means that you bring the car in and it's fixed the first time. refreshments are a bonus.

Thanks.

Gator33

Los Gatos Acura.

The sales department is OK. Very friendly and respectful bunch. I got the car for 40,800 when they were giving them away last quarter, '05. But the only way I was able to get this price was by waving a quote in front of their faces from Downey Acura in LA area for 39,500.

But as good as the sales force is, the service department is ... not. The mechanics are just kids who really are not familiar with RLs yet. I had to show one of them how to access the audio screen where I was getting the "Check Antenna" message after the first try at getting the TSBs done.

In an effort to understand the poor creatures, I have theorized that they just have a difficult time making the mental transition from "OK I'm changing the oil in a 15-year-old integra", to "OK, now I'm working on the cutting-edge technology of a brand-new 50K flagship sedan". The level of service should change appropriately, but it doesn't and in their defense, I have to say I don't know how they could do this effectively several times a day, every day.

That is my theory as to why Acura service is not as good as Lexus, btw. The service will continue to suffer as long as Acura has low-end cars in the product line.

Oh, who am I kidding? This still doesn't justify why they had a party in the back seat and didn't even put the car back together right. They just suck.