Catman

I don't know if anyone else has received a call from Acura or not but a gentleman called me who was on the TSX Project team, I think, that may be inacurate but he was Acura headquarters in SoCal and he had something to do with the TSX and he was asking me all kinds of questions about the car, my likes, dislikes, if I had any questions about how to use any of the Tech features. I told him about this site and about the EPS issue which he said that he was unaware of and would check this site to see how many owners had complaints.

Maybe this is status quo for Acura to do this but he told me because it was an all new model they were looking for feedback from owners. He is also driving an 09 TSX w/Tech. I know other manufacturers will have a third party call to check on the dealer and if you received good treatment but I've never had a call like this before.

Just curious if anyone else received this call? He tried me several times at home and finally after my wife said he could call me at work he finally did.

MrTee12

Yea, I got a call too. A few weeks after if purchased the car. They asked the normal customer services questions. My feelings on the car, any issues, etc.

MMsTSX

well it's not just the new '09's.

I've received a few such calls from Acura on my '08.

First call was like yours, to see about features, feedback, likes, dislikes, experience,
etc.

Then I brought it in for service and got another call.
How was the service? Problem fixed? blah, blah.

09TSX

A car manufacturer that cares?! Imagine that, and then people wonder why Honda/Acura have such good reliabilty and quality

snakecharmer

It happens only in the US ... never heard of it in Canada,

09TSX

snakecharmer...I hear ya...being a Canadian, I think we often get overlooked....like paying extra for an auto transmission...no where else do they have to pay extra for that...

TS_eXpeed

I never got a call.

jsalaita

I've had my 2009 TSX Tech for almost two months now and I haven't received any phone calls regarding the car.

wackura

Maybe I'm cynical but I wonder if they ask these questions to figure out how to sell the car better rather than make actual improvements, afterall it's not like you see much difference between an '04 and an '05 for example.

ill45

i got a call today on my work line from someone from Acura. They asked me basic questions about my experience with the dealership and my satisfaction level with my TSX. I was told to rate everything on a scale of 1 to 5 being the highest. It took less than 5 minutes of my time.

Mokos23

acura always calls me whenever i service the TSX at the Acura dealer.

wackura

The guy who sold me the TSX said anything less than a 5 rating was a fail and asked that I please give all 5's.

Mokos23

so what did you give him?

wackura

I never received a survey call or mailing, just a call from the same salesmen a week or so later asking me how I liked my car, presumably to give me the impression that he's a caring person so I'd recommend him to my friends.

davidspalding

wackura

It's quite true, I'll be more specific if that helps you.

After he was done showing me how to use the bluetooth feature he asked "Have you enjoyed your buying experience with us and have I done a good job of familiarizing you with the features of the TSX?" I said "Yeah you've been great", he said "OK, you might receive a call from Acura making sure you have a good experiance and they will ask you to rate your experience on a scale of one to five, but they consider anything less than five a failure and if we get too many ratings below a five then our dealership can get in trouble so if you're happy with everything just tell them it was a five."

I honestly thought he did a great job, good enough that I would overlook the shady one to five thing, and I never received a call anyway.

davidspalding

I wasn't calling on your anecdote, but calling on the salesperson's claim that "anything less than 5 is a failure." I guess if I wanted to get really, really, really good marks, I'd also tell people that anything lower than a 5 would reflect badly on me, but in reality, when a survey asks you to rate something 1 to 5, they're not asking you to "give them a passing 5, or fail them with a disappointing 4." In that case, you're talking about a 1 to 2 scale, "pass or fail."

If a salesperson is so concerned with getting better than "very good," I'd say they're probably not earning "outstanding" purely on performance.

I did receive a call, and I didn't receive any coaching on "how to rate them." Any effort to sway my survey answers would be laughable. I make up my own mind on such matters.

wackura

Well don't roll your eyes at me, your single emoticon response could be read either way.

I suppose if the salesmen were instructed to turn out an exceptional performance and a four is not quite exceptional then in a sense they are failing, and Acura is trying to be a luxury brand and I've heard that Lexus has the best dealership experience around and I know that management can sometimes have unreasonable expectations so it's not implausible, laybe unlikely. And, to his credit, he acted as if he were trying to earn that five.

Colin

Actually, you're only partially correct. Up until last year we were only scored on 5's. Everything between 1-4 were counted as fail scores. Sucks I know. The survey guys mislead you by making you think that a 4 is a good score when in reality it's a 1. This is known in the industry as "top box" scoring and is apparently quite common. The surveys were scored like this for years. YEARS!

Finally, last year the started scoring 4's as 80% so you now get partial credit for things less than a perfect 5.

wackura

Ah, very interesting. So this tale comes full circle. Thanks for that insider info.

gyozaman

Picked up 2009 TSX with Premium Package today. Both sales and finance guy said someone will call, email, or mail our survey in the next few weeks. They will ask a few questions with 1 to 5 rating. They need a 5 to get credit or bonus. I am in Canada.

Catman

I started this thread to relay the information that this was not a survey on either my salesman or the car. I had about a 45 minute conversation with this guy at Acura not a 3rd party survey taker. He called me several times before he finally got a hold of me and gave me his name and ext at Acura. He was interested to know my likes and dislikes and if I had any problems or questions about anything. Not once did he ask me a question concerning the dealership or the salesman who sold me the car. He was a member of the design team and was very interested in what I had to say. He also explained some things that I was fuzzy about from the manual. In all of the cars that I have purchased over the years I never received a call like this before. Maybe I got the call becasue the car is geared toward the 30 year old guy and I'm 54 but then again he never asked a question about why I made the purchase what other vehicles I was looking to buy. His sole purpose for the call was answer any questions I might have about the car itself and the design and features. I was very impressed especially when he gave me his direct ext and told me to call him with any questions or problems that may occur.

wackura

Oh yeah, I have a friend that works for a company that does precisely what you described for GM cars. He even mentioned that their research goes towards improving the car's manuals. Generaly those people don't work for the actual auto maker, they work for a company which is under contract to obtain feedback from recent customers. The worst part is those guys are more or less on the same level as a telemarketer and they don't get paid crap. It's a good job for a teenager but horrible for anyone else.

The script he read you about being a member of the design team and then spending fourty five minutes on the phone with you greatly stresses my suspension of disbelief. Members of the actual design team have engineering degrees and pay to suit, and a single customer's opinion of the car isn't substantive enough to warrant fourty five minutes of such a person's time.

On the bright side my friend says he love's getting a customer on the phone who talks for two hours because he can kick back and relax and shoot the breeze with someone about their car and leave the crappier office tasks to the people who's phone calls didn't last as long.

davidspalding

Well, then I guess I'm calling on the survey tactic of asking the respondent to gauge something, "1 being awful, 2 being poor, 3 being satisfactory, 4 being good, and 5 being excellent" (not a quote, just an example), and then turning around and (as you pointed out, Colin), FAILING the service organization on not getting 5's. I.e., the respondent believes a 4 to be a good, positive report, but then the survey results are spun around to indicate that something was "bad" since it was not a 5. That violates very basic, Survey 101 rules in which the results must realistically portray the respondent answers.

E.g. "Crest polled dentists, asking if they felt regular use of Crest toothpaste positively helped patients' general dental hygiene over other brands. 4 out of 5 said yes. Results of survey,... 1 dentist out of 5 surveyed says, 'Crest sucks!' " See my point?

So Wackura's salesman wasnt bs'ing him. Nolo contendere.

Could be, but usually if you take everything personally, which admittedly I do from time to time.

Not everything's directed right at you, so stop acting like it is.

wackura

Put the BS emoticon down and slowly walk away.

Colin

Oh you'll get no argument from me! I had no qualms about telling folks how the system is scored. I feel they were being unfair, and although we're not supposed to coach anyone, I don't think informing someone is the same as 'asking' for 5's.

wackura

It puts you in a tough spot though. A lot of buyers might not believe that could be true and assume you're trying to deceive them into giving you a 5 when you might deserve a 3 or 4 so you can get that big bonus. I wasn't sure what to make of it because it sounded funny and deceptive but the salesman wasn't slimy in any regard so a sucker play like that at the very end would have been uncharacteristic.

The salesman was so not slimy he didn't even try to show me the TL-S, I wish I had atleast looked at it in hind sight.

wstagner@yahoo.com

We were told we'd be surveyed when we recently purchased our 08s.....didn't get a call on either car.
I was eventually told that not everyone gets a survey phone call.
It's a 3rd party service hired by Acura.

Catman

From my conversation this guy is at Acura in SoCal and was provided with an 09TSX as his company vehicle. He may have not said he was a member of the design team but he definitely was not a telemarketer or on the same level. I'm sure he is calling a vast cross section of owners.

LaZyPiGgY

Yeah the survey scoring is very odd...earlier this year the Acura tech guy offered to fix my warped rotors for free, as long as I gave him all 5's on the survey. Strange, but no problem for me, the rotors were pissing me off and I didn't want to pay for something that seemed commonplace for TSX's.

Colin

Yes, about 70% of new car buyers get surveyed.

mgm

Hi, first post here!

Looking at getting a 6 speed non-tech package car in about 4 months. Really like the 6 speed coupe Accord as well but because of fuel prices thinking the TSX will be best. Anyway........

When I read things like this it's all the reason for me to get out of GM cars (my current leased car) and get something Honda. I've had some problems with my car and all they can tell me is that it's normal (it's a very long story). My fun weekend car is my second Honda a '02 S2000 which I love more each day purchased last year. I even just purchased a new HRX Honda mower which is about as amazing a lawnmower can get. Next is a daily driver that's a Honda as well......the engineering and quality of each and everyone of their products just speaks for themselves.

JoeC1982

iTrader: (1)

in my experience acura service is top notch, they gave me loaner cars just when i dropped my car off for an oil change. you won't see that at any honda dealers i know of.

mcflyguy24

I took my car in for a warranty headlight ballast replacement (02 TL) and the service guy flat out told me to "think of us when you get your survey. We need fives in order to pass." I just thought to myself, well then why don't you just provide outstanding service in the first place and not ask for survey scores? I gave them 5's cos they deserved it, but it bothered me that the guy asked in the first place.

davidspalding

Hence the problem with improperly weighted survey interpretations. You probably would've given 5s, maybe a 4 or two, but since 4s were a "failing score," the dealers were encouraged to make every effort to get 5s from customers. So.... Someone who was managing these surveys needed to go back to school for a good intellectual beating.

CL6

If your sales guy got less than fives he'd probably get pounded and have money taken out of his check by the dealership. If I thought a customer was going to be unfair on a survey I'd kink 'em and they'd never get a call. The ones who say "I don't like to haggle" always love to and they always pound you on the survey. Sales people are held to an unfair standard but fight fire with fire.

wackura

It's obvious from the number of people with the same story that the ultimate result of the survey is that car dealership employees are being pushed across the line of propriety to ask customers to undermine the company they represent by giving false survey feedback. Is that the effect they were hoping for or is this blowing back in their faces?

davidspalding

Well said, my man. The improperly skewed results/interpretations not only invalidated the survey, but also rendered the ability to ever actually gauge how customers are feeling post-sale impossible. And an "upscale/luxury" auto sales force is encouraged to cheapen the experience by "asking" for certain satisfaction feedback.

I shouldn't even have to be asked. They ought to all be outstanding, period, end quote.

CL6

Every brand does this crap. If it ain't 100 it's a 0. The sales guy is just the ultimate victim of this because even if he does everything 'right' the customer can still kill him on the survey and he might lose big $$ because of it. If you're selling a car and making a $200 commission on it and one bad survey can cost you $1,000 then obviously it's clear what you have to do. And some people, not matter how well you treat them, think that a '5' is a score nobody can every get and a '4' is good enough. For Acura, even if you get a few 60% during the year you may not win the COSE (Council of Sales Excellence) award even though you did nothing wrong.

Blame the manufacturer not the sales guy... they get beat up enough.

godfather2

for most manufacturers, when a sales associate receives the highest marks on the initial survey, he will get anywhere from $50-$200! when i sold caddys, i got an extra $100 from every new car sale i ever made!